Beer Crazy: Urbandale Hops Shop Offers Hundreds of Brews

If you are a lover of yeasty, brewed beverages, you would be nuts not to check out Beer Crazy.

The Urbandale shop is run entirely by home brewers and sells 700 varieties of craft beers, along with home brewing, wine and cheese supplies.

D.J. Norton, a manager at Beer Crazy, said the store is primarily a beer, wine and cheese-making shop.

“There’s no home brew shop in Des Moines,” Norton said. “So we are the only one that primarily serves to the home brewer and it is a job requirement here to be a home brewer, so we are all knowledgeable in it."

Norton said some well-known brewers in Iowa have stopped in to buy supplies for test batches, including the folks with 515 Brewery of Clive and Boone Valley Brewery.

In addition to the brewing equipment, beer can be bought for anyone who can make a choice from the enormous inventory.

“Right now a lot of summer seasonals are pretty popular,” Norton said. “The most popular beer this year has been Palate Wrecker beer from Green Flash Brewery in San Diego.”

Norton said beer is sold by the bottle, rather than by case.

“You can come in and select one of each beer and assemble your own six- or 12-pack,” Norton said. “That’s especially important for us because of the higher-end beers that cost 20 to 30 dollars a six pack and typically people won’t buy them to try them, but they will buy one.”

Beer Crazy has been open since 2007 and is located at 3908 N.W. Urbandale Drive. 

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Beer Crazy

Hours: Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m.-7 p.m.; Friday, 10 a.m.-8 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m.-7 p.m.; and Sunday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.

Phone: (515) 331-0587

E-mail: Info@BeerCrazy.com

Follow on Facebook or on Twitter @BeerCrazy