Hey, I wonder if that Eisele kid in the Harvard story is from the same family that ran Eisele’s Black Forest restaurant on Cherokee and the Bavarian Inn on Arsenal & Gravois. I heard both places were beautiful.

Paul -

I was thrilled with the service of the Wine and Cheese shop and the idea of this event. My dismay lies with the distributor reps and people wearing the brewer’s association shirts. In my mind the people in the business and representing the craft beer industry should take every opportunity to teach others and that begins with a basic knowledge of sytles, I encountered a lack of that time and time again. I did have a great time talking through the tastings with my friends even if there wasn’t a guide there for us. Thanks again for putting this together. It was a highlight of my weekend.

Tim

I must admit I stayed away from those tables as I had tried most of the beers they were offering. There was a boulevard person who admitted to not knowing the malt bill, yeast and fermentation techniques and another gentleman (not appearing to be boulevard) who claimed he had never heard of the Baltic Porter style, among other things. Contrastingly the Charleville and O’Fallon reps went ad nauseum about their grains, spices, yeast, and fermentation when asked…I really enjoyed learning how they actually get the Peach flavor in a Wheach. These are the basics I would expect a beer server to be prepared to discuss at a tasting. Again, I enjoyed the event and I don’t blame the organizers, there are a number of things on which you’ll have to trust the reps.