Now that I’ve finally got the last bit of mud off of my caked shoes, I’m finally able to sit down and pen my thoughts about this year’s festival. Long story short, I had a lot of fun. Yes, it was crowded in the tents because people couldn’t mingle in the mud, but you could still easily get a beer after you shoved your way past the people just standing in front of the servers (something I was even guilty of at times.) I’ve read some other thoughts at BeerAdvocate and even in the comments in this forum and everyone has some very good suggestions. Now here’s a couple of my thoughts:

Grass vs As(phalt)

My biggest complaint, which seems to be the majority opinion, was the complete destruction and mess of the festival field. It made getting around terrible, it made everything and everyone messy and it crowded the tents as people had no place else to go. A few people have suggested that for the sake of festivals to come maybe it should be moved to a parking lot. The argument for the asphalt is that no mess, no fuss and people less likely to trip and fall. The argument against the lot is that it would change the feel of the festival and to a certain extent I agree. I personally enjoy the natural aspect of the festival, but I don’t enjoy being crowded and messy. A better option may be to move the festival to Mid-May rather than early May to avoid some of the late spring rain.

Three Tents Are Better Than Two

I thought the addition of the third beer tent was a welcome addition to the festival as it allowed more beers to be showcased in a large environment. I found that the beers were pretty well spread out and provided a bit more elbow room. I will say I was thrown for a bit when I went into the Ale tent and didn’t see some of the Belgian Style beers, but saw Schlafly’s Imperial Stout and Barleywine in the Ale tent. But I guess “Specialty Beer” is in the eye of the beholder.

From what I’ve been told the homebrewers were supposed to be featured in the third tent as well, but unfortunately got relegated to B-Team status due to the weather. Hopefully next year the weather will let up and people will find out just how amazing some of the homebrewers around this area are.

More Cask Beers!

The best beer of the entire festival was the cask Rye Pale Ale. So floral and wonderful, I had two or three glasses of it. I know it’s a complete pain to bring these firkins out to the festival, but I think it would be nice to showcase more Real Ale at the festival next year. It would be a nice addition to the “Specialty Beer” tent.

New Festival Beer

It’s time for a new beer.  I don’t have the taste memory to remember last year’s Dark Lager so it personally doesn’t make much sense to me to see the same beer year after year.  It’s time to have the breweries try something different and then see just how different the take on the beer is.

More Education

This festival, in my mind, is first and foremost about showing St. Louis’ brewing talent, but one of the first things I heard walking into the festival was “I’m going to get your sister loaded too!” Don’t get me wrong, I’m not some beer drinking prude that doesn’t believe beer should get you drunk. I was feeling just fine after the festival, but that wasn’t why I walked into the festival. I’d like to think there are more people interested in learning about beer and the differences in styles. Maybe included in the Friday Afternoon session (which sounded a bit light) should be a “tour guide” who walks people around talking about beer and sampling them.

Overall it’s a great event and I think it’s only going to get better as adjustments are made after years of tweaking.  I look forward to seeing how different it is in the years to come.

For those of you that didn’t get a chance to make it down to the Brewers Heritage Festival, but still want to try Augie’s Rye Pale Ale, you’re in luck. Dereck Bean from O’Fallon Brewery sent me over a list of restaurants that will have Augie’s beer on draught:

• Riddle’s
• Cicero’s
• Rumple’s Pub (Main Street, St. Charles)
• Bottoms Up Brewhouse (Hwy. K, O’Fallon)
• Syberg’s (Gravois)
• Tin Can Morgan Ford
• Tin Can Downtown

Nick Vickery of Schlafly Beer, sent me over the menu for the Schlafly beer dinner on Wednesday, May 14th at 7PM at the Newstead Tower Public House. Reservations are required and the cost is $40. You can make reservations by calling 314-535-7771.

In the continuing series of beer classes put on by Andy Snead and Ric Syberg from Whole Foods, this month brings us a tasting of some of the best IPAs the world has to offer:

Come in tonight for some devilishly good India Pale Ales, otherwise known as IPA’s. First brewed in England, IPA’s were exported for the British troops in India during the late 1700s. To withstand the voyage, pale ales were “tweaked” to become IPA’s. The resulting brew was much more “malty”, boasted higher alcohol content and was well-hopped, as hops are a natural preservative. Historians believe that the IPA was then watered down for the troops, while officers and the elite would savor the full strength version. To try some brew and learn more, sign up now, this one sells out quick!

These are always extremely fun events with plenty of knowledge along with plenty of great beer. This event will be held on May 15th at Whole Foods in Brentwood from 6:30-8PM. The cost of the event is $20 and tickets can be purchased here.

Or should I call it the 2008 Brewers Heritage Messtival? Boy was it muddy. Still a lot of fun seeing everyone down at Forest Park enjoy the best beer St. Louis has to offer.

I don’t think I’ve seen a shot of this online yet, so here you go:

I hope everyone is ready for a great weekend of drinking, this festival is shaping to be even better than last year’s. Here’s the Round-Up:

Stuff from around the web

• Fox’s Screwballs took a trip over to Anheuser-Busch before the Cubs-Cards series.
• Matt’s Beer Blog reviewed Schlafly’s Export IPA.
• Adam Jadhav of the Post-Dispatch has created a new column called Hip Hops. This is the first in what’s hopefully many columns to come.
• The Slag Pile picks up some beer at Lukas Liquor.

Beer Releases and News

• Andrew from Bon Vivant Wines informs me to some new beers he has in his stock:
  • DFH 120 Minute (Maybe today, probably next week)
  • Founders Rubaeus
  • DFH Aprihop
  • Schlafly Export IPA
  • Jolly Pumpkin Calbaza lanca, Bam & E.S. Bam
  • Two Brothers Monarch White
  • Sierra Nevada Summerfest
  • Hofbrau Maibock
  • Avery Collaboration
  • Lefthand Chainsaw
• Paul at The Wine and Cheese Place in Clayton alerts me to some new beers he has in stock:
  • Jolly Pumpkin - Bam Bier Batch 280/281
  • Jolly Pumpkin - Calabaza Blanca Batch 285
  • Jolly Pumpkin - ES Bam Batch 288/289
  • Jolly Pumpkin - La Roja Blend 4,2008
  • Jolly Pumpkin - Oro de Calabaza Batch 275
  • Altenmunster Maibock
  • Bison Brewing Reunon 08 Organic Red Rye
  • Lindemans Cuvee Rene
  • Traquair House Ale
• Paul also informed me for those not attending the Heritage Festival, that they’ll be tasting the Jolly Pumpkin beers at the Wine and Cheese Place in Clayton between Noon and 3PM.
• Ric at Sybergs on Gravois alerts me to some new beers he’s carrying for your drinking enjoyment:
  • Augie’s Rye Pale Ale
  • Samuel Smith Oatmeal Stout

Here’s a list of upcoming beer events:

• May 8, 9, 10 - St. Louis Brewers Heritage Festival
• May 10 - Iron Barley’s 5th Anniversary Party
• May 14 - Newstead Tower Schlafly Beer Dinner
• May 15 - Whole Foods IPA Beer Tasting
• May 15 - Mangia Italiano Spring Beer Dinner
• May 29 - Starr’s May Beer Dinner

Iron Barley is celebrating not only their fifth anniversary, but also is kicking off the beginning of American Craft Beer Week with a party on May 10th. Now you may be saying to yourself, “Hey! That interferes with the Heritage Festival!” But not so fast, Iron Barley is providing a shuttle to the festival at 11AM and will pick you back up at 5PM. Here are some details for this event:

Celebrate Our 5 Year Anniversary

Saturday May 10th
Breakfast Buffet 9-11am
Shuttle Bus to Forest Park
For the Heritage Festival 11-5pm

Come Back to Iron Barley and enjoy Food and Sampling of The Boulevard Smokestack Series. And meet with Ray Hill!

Live Music by:
The Line Men
Melody Den
The Transmitters and More….

“You’re dressing up tonight,” were the first words out of Irene’s mouth when I got home. It was probably a good idea, as I soon found myself rubbing elbows with many of St. Louis’ elite. While there were plenty of white tablecloths and mayors to be had, importantly enough this still felt like a beer dinner. Granted it’s difficult for it not to feel like a beer dinner when you’re sitting next to a couple of brewers.

Left: Drew Huerter, Marc Gottfried, and Dave Johnson talk beer before the event.
Right: People mingling around the dinner tables.

Left: The menu from the “Ultimate Beer Dinner”

Left: Stephen and Sara Hale talking before we sit down to Sauce’s Allyson Mace and Catherine Neville.

Right: A close up of the wonderful (and expensive) table setting.

Left: Mayor Slay helps to kick off the Brewers Heritage Festival

Right: Co-host Dave Liberman describes what went into the Ultimate Beer Dinner

Marc Gottfried (Morgan Street) and Dr. John Witte (Square One, Augusta) discuss their beers while Stephen Hale demonstrates the finer points of dry hopping a beer.

Four of the five courses, for some reason I completely dropped the ball and forgot to take a photo of the 5th course.

Also not pictured:

• Me peeing next to Mayor Slay
• Tom Schlafly’s after-party
• The Alstrom Brothers

And after the break, video of Stephen Hale discussing the Biere de Garde en francias.

Read the rest…

Charlie Berger, a long time brewer at O’Fallon Brewery, is leaving St. Louis and is moving to Denver. Charlie’s wife is an aspiring doctor and her residency is taking them both to the land of craft beer in Colorado. Charlie is a great brewer and a great guy, I’m sorry to see him going but I have no doubt that he’ll be brewing in Denver in no time. Good luck Charlie!