Farnam House Brewing Company

Located in the heart of Omaha’s Midtown, Farnam HouseBrewing Company is one of the newest craft breweries to hit Nebraska. They opened their doors on June 30^th, 2014 and have been serving up hand crafted brews and delicious locally sourced food ever since.

Over the years, their building has housed everything from a fur retail and storage facility to a pizzeria, but, being located next to the infamous Beer Corner USA (home of Crescent Moon, Huber-Haus, Max & Joe’s, and Beertopia), it was only fitting that a craft brewery would find its home at 36^th and Farnam.

Last weekend I had the privilege of taking a tour with brewmaster Phil Doerr to see what goes on behind the scenes at Farnam House. The building’s surprisingly spacious basement is the perfect place to house all the brewing equipment, with plenty of room for potential expansion. Phil, who is a longtime home brewer, took me step by step through the brewing process. In addition to all their state of the art equipment, the basement at Farnam House is also home to a vintage bike, a disco ball, and several jugs of homemade cider. Although the cider won’t be available to the public this year, there is talk of brewing a cider/beer hybrid in the near future.

Upstairs they have 10 beers on tap ranging from the light Graetzer Smoked Polish Wheat to the dark and aptly named Taft American Stout. While I was there I tried the Farnam House Keller, the Oktoberfest, and the Hop Harvest Saison (which I would highly recommend). Although their beers aren’t available in stores, they do have growlers for sale at the bar so you can always take some home with you.

Keller and Pierogi

Farnam House is so much more than beer. Their food selection is unique and inventive, and I couldn’t wait to try some new dishes. Everyone I know who has eaten at Farnam House has raved about the pierogi, so I knew I had to try them. Let me tell you, I was not disappointed. Pierogi are a kind of potato dumpling with white cheddar cheese, creamed leeks, and little chunks of crispy bacon. So tasty. They were devoured in a matter of seconds. They also make giant soft pretzels out of the brewery’s spent grain, so that’s on the list for next time. They have so many tasty looking starters that you could easily fill up on apps and bar snacks, but they also have an impressive selection of entrees. Almost everything on their menu is made in house, from scratch. They frequently roll out specialty items, so keep an eye on their Facebook and Twitter feeds. Farnam House has great beer, delicious food, and is a great addition to the budding Nebraska beer scene.

To read more, check out this awesome review from last week’s Omaha World Herald.

Brew Review: Empyrean Brewing Co.

As a follow up to my last post, here is a quick review of two Empyrean Brewing Company beers available in stores right now. Just in case you’re new to the world of beer, here’s a quick breakdown of a few key terms. ABV is Alcohol By Volume. This tells you how boozy your beer is. Pretty easy. IBU is a little more obscure. It stands for International Bittering Units and a beer’s IBU score helps tell you how bitter/hoppy a beer will be. Generally a low score on the IBU scale (like a 20) means that a beer is more mellow and a high score (like a 60) means that your beer is packing a lot of hops. Now we’re all up to speed. I am by no means a beer expert so I’ve given you the official description in addition to my own impressions for the following Empyrean beers.

Barrel Aged Big Old Red Ale

8% ABV    44 IBU

Their Take:

“Our Big Old Red Ale for 2014 was brewed in February and aged in a mix of rum and bourbon barrels for seven months. The ale is dark amber with ruby highlights. Waves of malt sweetness hit your palate first in this beer, caramel and smoke that twist into fruit flavors of apricot and fresh cherries. The wood and aging flavors finish the beer with a dry-oak character, hints of sherry, leather, rum and bourbon. Go Big Red!”

My Take:

This beer is super flavorful. It takes you off guard a little bit at first, but I’ve grown to appreciate the complexity. It tastes like a barrel in the absolute best way. This beer is from Empyrean’s ongoing “Carpe Brewem” small batch series. I would recommend snatching up the limited release Empyrean four-packs whenever you can. They are always unique, imaginative, and showcase craft brewing at its finest.

Food Pairing: Sharp cheeses and caramel desserts 

Aries Märzen Oktoberfest

5.3% ABV    28 IBU

Their Take:

“Smooth and bready sweet up front, with a clean, dry-herbal hop finish. In the tradition of the Bavarian Märzen beers of Germany, we cellar our fall lager in cool tanks for the length of the summer, producing an exceptionally clean-smooth flavor. With its pronounced malty “Vienna- bread” sweetness and herbal Nobel hop finish, there’s an Oktoberfest in every sip.”

My Take:

This is a pretty classic Oktoberfest beer. Very smooth, very drinkable. It isn’t as caramel heavy as some other Oktoberfest beers, which makes it really versatile when it comes to food. If you’re looking for a solid Oktoberfest that wasn’t made my Sam Adams, Aries is the way to go. Get it before it's gone!

Food Pairings: Pork dishes, slow-grilled meats, and bold cheeses