Lua Brewing

Lua Brewing, a microbrewery and restaurant in Sherman Hill, Des Moines, was started by Brewer Scott Selix with his wife, Whitney. The brewery functions on a self-service first-come-first-served basis, except for the Harvest Table, for which reservations may be booked. 

Conceptualization of Community Living

Lua Brewing functions as the community’s living room where the greenery and lighting of the front porch directs visitors to the space inside. As you enter, you’ll notice a transition area that has lowered overhead features with a large table, the Harvest Table, serving as a community dining table. It’s 13 feet and made from wood of a barn in North Liberty, IA, where the founders first met. It can seat up to 16 people, and you can mingle with others at this large community table. 

The backdrop of the bar on the west side is a large, hand-painted mural, while the east has penetrations accentuated using glass openings and overhead doors that link the indoor as well as outdoor areas through a garden patio. There are program and circulation pivots surrounding the brewery, which allow for a viewing of the operations from different site positions. 

The construction of the establishment derives inspiration from the existing residential form of a multi-family block that dates back to 1900-1920, with an emphasis on proportion and alignment while allowing for different styles to coexist.

With match day events, beer releases, and keg-tapping events organised frequently, there’s always something to look forward to at Lua Brewing.  

Lua Brewing even undertakes donation/sponsorship of events/organizations. If you’d like for them to make a donation to your organization or event, check out their website under the donation requests section, answer all the questions asked there, and send across your request with all the necessary details. While your request for a donation needn’t necessarily guarantee approval, they will consider it based on the answers to the questions asked. 

Food 

The food at Lua Brewing is made in-house, with ingredients sourced on the basis of quality, season, and freshness. The focus on maintaining quality and freshness in all the food served here means that the menu at Lua Brewing is subject to change based on availability of ingredients. In general, however, there’s a wide range of options to choose from, whether it’s a basic chips and dip with avocado toast which is quite popular, or their Charcuterie, burgers, or sandwiches. 

Beer

As a small brewery, Lua Brewing does not offer customers beer to-go, but they do have a crowler machine to offer crowlers on a limited basis. You can also find their beers in some other Iowa bars like Tin Roost (North Liberty) and St. Burch Tavern (Iowa City) in Eastern Iowa, Rubaiyat in Decorah, Marto Brewing Company in Sioux City, and Bellhop and Hello, Marjorie in DesMoines.

Popular beers from Lua Brewing include: 

• Calm: Double Imperial Stout 13.6% ABV. Brewed using a mix of specialised malts and conditioned on cacao nibs (Ghanian Forestero), house toasted coconut, and Madagascar vanilla beans, which are processed in-house to give a delicious coconut flavor. 

• Baby Blue Sedan: Fruited 7.1% ABV (sour). Brewed using spelt, English barley, and pale wheat (German) and acidified using L. plantarum. It is re-fermented with plum, boysenberry, blueberry, and raspberry. 

• Candy Paint: Fruited 7.6% ABV (sour). Brewed using spelt, English barley, and pale wheat (German) and acidified with L. plantarum; re-fermented on passionfruit, mango, and guava (pink). 

• All Seeing Eye Eyepatch: New England IPA – Double Imperial / 8% ABV. Brewed using malted oats, English barley, wheat, and fermented using Vermont ale strain; hopped using Idaho 7, Citra, and Mosaic. Double-hopped (dry) using Strata and Galaxy. 

• TouchTunes: New England IPA – Double Imperial / 8.5% ABV. Laced with Sabro and HBC 692, using Simcoe Cryo, and hopped (dry) using additional amounts of HBC 692 and Sabro.

• Anxious: American Stout – Double Imperial / 12.7 percent ABV.

• Sermons In Stones: IPA – Imperial / Double New England 8% ABV. Brewed with Citra and Galaxy Double.

• Tunnel of Trees: IPA – New England 7.6% ABV.

• Loud As Hope: Hefeweizen 5.3% ABV. Brewed with pale wheat (65%), Barke Pilsner (30%), and Carahell (5%) with flavors of banana, vanilla, clove, and bubblegum. 

• Slimothy James: Double Imperial IPA with ABV of 7.7%.

• Words Make Less Sense: Fruited 7.2% ABV (sour). Sour beer with flavors of pineapple, blood orange, and tangerine. 

• Honeymoon Suite: Fruited with ABV of 8.4% (sour). Made in collaboration with Bellhop. 

• Gil’s Pils: German Pilsner 5% ABV. Brewed using malt (Barke Pilsner), hops (German Hallertau Mittelfruh), and lager yeast (German). The base wort undergoes fermentation and is lagered for a minimum of three months, resulting in a crisp and clean Pils.

• Lawn Duty: Fruited sour with ABV of 6.6%.

• Swan Duty: Fruit with ABV of 6.6%. Fruit beer with the goodness of mango and tropical punch.

• Pushpop: Happy Thoughts: Sour – Fruited 6.6% ABV. Fruity and juicy sour beer. 

• Call It Dreaming: Style of Hefeweizen 5.3% ABV. German Hefewizen made using house-toasted coconut.

• No Son of Mine: American IPA 7.5% ABV. Hopped using Columbus, Amarillo, Idaho 7, and Simcoe with a barley base (English), this beer has hints of pone, citrus pith, and resin. 

• Poor Oliver: Fruited 4.5% ABV (sour). Smoothie sour beer made with peach and mango. 

• Longboi Gang: Sour with ABV of 6.6%. Has mango, kiwi, and strawberry flavors 

• Dragon: Fruited sour 6.6% ABV. Sour beer made using cherry, passionfruit, and orange. 

• Slurp Janet: Fruited sour.

• Sudz Alert: Fruited sour 5.5% ABV. Sour beer with mango and tangerine. 

• Nighthawk: Fruited sour 6.6% ABV. Sour beer made with strawberry and mango. 

• Short Jorts: Sour with ABV of 5.5%. Sour beer made using raspberry and sour cherry. 

• I Get Really Passionate About Sears: Fruited sour 6.3% ABV. Made with mango and sharkleberry.

• Taco Bed: Fruited sour 6.3% ABV. With plum and grape.

• Tin Juiced: Fruit Beer 5.5% ABV.

• Riot Punch: Sour – Fruited 4.7% ABV. With flavors of mango, orange, and pear.

• Apocalypse Inside of An Orange: Sour – Fruited 6.6% ABV. Made with passionfruit and orange

With such a wide variety of delicious brews, you certainly won’t regret dropping in for a visit at Lua Brewing.  

Lua Brewing is located at 1525 High Street, Des Moines, Iowa.

To know more, you can get in touch with them at 515-630-5311 or write to them at [email protected] 

You can also check out their website and their social media pages on Facebook and Instagram.