Ask CITYVIEW
3/6/2024Where and when did green beer start?
With March underway and St. Patrick’s Day celebrations taking shape throughout the month, there is one tradition that has become synonymous with the holiday — green beer.
Green beer was first “invented” in New York in 1914 by Dr. Thomas Hayes Curtin. He added a drop of wash blue to beer, and out came a green beer that’s still a popular trend more than a century later, according to Steam Whistle Brewing.
Today, green food coloring is used instead of “blue wash.”
How many Kwik Star convenience stores are in Iowa?
According to Scrapehero.com, as of January 2024, there are 140 total Kwik Stars in Iowa, which is 16% of all Kwik Stars in operation. Iowa ranks third out of the six states that have Kwik Star locations, trailing behind Wisconsin and Minnesota. To break it down even further, there’s a Kwik Star for every 22,536 people in Iowa. Cedar Rapids and Waterloo are tied for the most locations in the state with nine each.
Will Kum & Go convenience stores have a new name?
The rumor mill has been swirling about changes to the Kum & Go convenience stores since they were acquired by Maverik in August of 2023. CSP Daily News stated that the change from “Kum & Go” to “Maverik” is all but confirmed, at least according to their sources in the industry.
“None of the sources interviewed would agree to be quoted on the record, but multiple people with knowledge of Maverik’s broader strategy said that upon deeper consideration and comprehensive assessment of the two chains, the Maverik brand resonated more impactfully in its markets than Kum & Go did in the heart of its Midwestern terrain.”
When asked about the possible change in branding, Taylor Boland of Kum & Go / Maverik responded, “Maverik has not announced any confirmed plans outside of rebranding stores in existing Maverik markets. These are markets where Kum & Go and Maverik stores both exist and include Utah, Colorado, Wyoming and Idaho.”
When was the latest snow storm to hit Iowa?
We posed this question to the National Weather Service of Des Moines on behalf of one of our readers.
“What defines a ‘snowstorm’ is subjective, but using our Winter Storm Warning criteria (6 inches), the latest Des Moines event on record for a calendar day would be April 29. That occurred in 1907. If you go down to 3 inches, the last date would be May 3 in 2013. We don’t have any big storms in the offing as of yet, but big snows in March are not uncommon,” said Brad Small, lead meteorologist at National Weather Service Des Moines. ♦
