Iowa Distilling Company schedules Sourdough 101 class in Cumming, Iowa

Iowa Distilling Company put a Sourdough 101 class on the calendar at 4349 Cumming Avenue in Cumming, Iowa, for July 16 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., and the draw was practical from the start. At $30 per person, the workshop was aimed at the most familiar sourdough problem in home kitchens: the jar that never quite takes off, or the starter that has been forgotten on the counter for too long.

The distillery’s own class description pitched the session to people who had wondered how to make sourdough, could not get a starter to thrive, or needed to bring a neglected starter back to life. Participants were set to learn how to start the process, feed and care for starter, and take home recipe ideas, which makes the class more useful than a single bread demo. That is the part many beginners need most, because the hard step is often not mixing dough but keeping a starter alive long enough to bake with it.

Catch Des Moines’ listing said the admission package included sourdough starter, samples of sourdough pretzels and pizza, and recipes. Earlier Iowa Distilling Company listings for the same workshop also included a drink, a starter to take home, and recipes, pointing to a format built around tasting and use, not just theory. For bakers who already know the basics of flour and water, that kind of setup can be a better reset than another recipe card stuffed in a drawer.

The setting adds to the appeal. Iowa Distilling Company says it opened in 2017 as one of the first micro-distilleries in Iowa and produces seven spirits, with a business story rooted in the farm and in distilling as an extension of farming. BIKEIOWA describes the distillery as being in a 100-year-old brick building across from the Cumming Tap along the Great Western Trail, which gives the class a small-town destination feel rather than a lecture-hall one.

Cumming itself is tiny, with a population of 436 in the 2020 Census, but it sits in Warren County and in the Des Moines-West Des Moines metropolitan area. That helps explain why a sourdough class in a $30 slot could pull interest well beyond the town limits. For anyone staring at a sluggish starter and wondering whether it is worth saving, this was the kind of low-stakes, hands-on class built to turn a jar back into bread.