5ive Cities Brewing, 2255 Falcon Ave, Bettendorf, Iowa 52722 phone: #563-232-6105   website: FiveCitiesBrewing.com/
Hours: Monday – Thursday: 3pm – 11pm | Friday – Saturday: 11am – 12am | Sunday: 11am – 10pm

Experience before you go . . .

Do we have one more in us? Logistically, Dano, who is basically "Mr. Bettendorf", planned the day/night of Hoppin Brewery Tour stops like an event planner who's been doing it for 30 successful years. We basically went in a complete circle stopping at one fabulous brewery after another and splitting 4 - oz samples along the way and low and behold the last stop for the evening is less then 5 minutes from Dano's home.

5ive Cities Brewing, Bettendorf's first and finest! Opened in early 2018, a wide range of brews, full bar with wine and local eats from Crust Pizzeria & Central Standard. Shuffleboard, foosball, darts and everyone's favorite....free popcorn! At 11:15 on a Friday night, "What, it's 11:15", the place was busy. We commandeered a high top with 4 stools right next to the foosball table. A 5ive Cities flight was ordered as we drifted towards the foosball table. Back in the day around 1977/1978 in Madison, Wisconsin, Dan and I were in the bar hopping stage and foosball was our game. Dan was on defense and I was the wrist snapping offensive guy. So Dan & I just out of habit grabbed one side and Brad & Bruce formed the team on the other side. The ball dropped and instantly our competitive spirt kicked in as if we were 20 years old again. Well, I'm not going to go all Harry Caray on ya with a play by play but I will say the old wrist doesn't snap like it use too and I believe, even though it's hard to admit.....Brad & Bruce got the best of us.

Flight arrived starting with Bulldog Blonde - Blonde Ale (5.2%, 18 IBU); next was Wisenheimer Wheat - Hefenweizen (4.7%, 10 IBU); followed by Apricot Avalanche - Saison (5.0%, 20 IBU); then Beauregarde Blue Sour - Sour Ale (3.2%, 1IBU) and finishing with Kombucha Strawberry Rhubarb - Kombucha (1%) from Wild Culture.

Now one very cool thing we discovered about 5ive Cities is that they had a Mead on tap. Mead is thought to be the oldest alcoholic beverage known to man. It was most likely discovered quite by accident when some thirsty hunter-gathers discovered a upturned beehive filled with rainwater. They drank the sweet water completely unaware of what fermentation and alcohol were and experienced the first buzz! The history and stories about Mead are thick but one things for sure, out of 72 Hoppin Brewery Tours, 5ive Cities Brewing is the first to have Mead on tap. So a couple of samples of Mead were passed around and visions of honey bees filled our heads...tasty, unique but sweet!

Well the record setting HBT day was coming to a close as we ate more free popcorn and tried to play a game of Jenga. All and all we toured seven fine brewery establishments in the Quad Cities that day. A record that I don't believe will ever be challenged again. We had four tired guys needing some sleep. We said adios to 5ive Cities and headed for the door.

5ive Cities Brewing has a great foot print and a lot of options.......brand new and doing a lot of things right. Stop in and tell them Brad and Clyde sent you and make sure you try the Mead!

Until next time and remember.........

Go get'cha one!!