Last year was my first time attending the Augusta Bottoms Beer Festival, I called it a “beerventure” which is a pretty accurate description. It’s just a nice time outdoors with beautiful weather in the Missouri Wine Country. This year’s festival is on October 4th from 12PM-5PM, ticket will run you $25. I do ask one thing, as Augusta is about a hour away from St. Louis, please make sure to have a designated driver, it’s the responsible thing to do. Here’s a run down of the breweries in attendance this year:

• Augusta Brewing Company
• St. Louis Brewery ~ Schlafly
• Square One Brewery
• Buckner Brewing Company
• Morgan Street Brewery
• Charleville Vineyard Winery and Brewery
• Griesedieck Brothers Brewing
• Anheuser Busch Michelob Specialty Brews
• O’Fallon Brewery
• Boulevard Brewing Company
• Tin Mill Brewing Company
• Buffalo Brewin

Bring your lawn chairs and your sun screen and be sure to come out. This is my second favorite beer festival in the area and I don’t think you should miss it.

Provisions Gourmet Market is hosting the 100 Brews and BBQ festival on Saturday, September 27, 2008 from 1-4pm on Provision’s patio. Not only will Provisions be offering food from a number of vendors sampling their products, but will also offer 100 different beers to taste. Here’s a list of the beers Provisions will be sampling:

Grey Eagle

• Michelob Dunkel Weiss
• Michelob Pale Ale
• Goose Island Harvest Ale
• Ray Hills American Pilsner
• Jacks Pumpkin Ale
• Hoegarden
• Czechvar
• Budweiser American Ale (draft)

Major Brands Table

• Avery The Reverend
• Avery Hog Heaven
• Avery Salvation
• Avery Red Point Ale
• Avery 14er ESB
• Avery The Beast
• Great Divide Samurai
• Chimay Cinq Cents
• Tooheys New

Schlafly

• Biere de Garde
• Oak-Aged Barleywine
• Bourbon Barrel-aged Imperial Stout
• Pumpkin Ale
• Dry Hopped American Pale Ale
• Oktoberfest

New Belgium

• Abbey
• Blue Paddle
• Mothership Wit

Boulevard Table

• Boulevard Bob’s 47
• Smokestack Long Strange Tripel
• Smokestack Saison
• Smokestack Sixth Sense
• Smokestack Double Wide IPA
• Smokestack Saison Brett
• Smokestack Bourbon Barrel Quad

O’Fallon Table

• 5-Day IPA
• Pumpkin Ale
• Smoked Porter

Missouri Beverage Table

• Left Hand Milk Stout
• Left Hand Polestar Pilsner
• Left Hand Deep Cover Brown
• Southern Tier Imperial Hoppe
• Southern Tier Imperial IPA Un*Earthy
• Southern Tier Oat Imperial Oatmeal Stout
• Mikkeller Stateside IPA
• Nogne #100
• Nogne Imperial Stout
• Haandbryggeriet Dark Force
• St. Bernardus Abt 12
• La Senne Stouterik
• Dieu de Ciel Peche Mortel
• t’Smisje Blonde
• Bear Republic Hop Rod Rye
• Bear Republic Red Rocket
• Jolly Pumpkin E.S. Bam
• Jolly Pumpkin Oro de Calabaza
• Vapeur en Folie
• Harviestoun Ola Dubh 12yr
• BrewDog Paradox Speyside
• Weihenstephaner Kristall Weissbier
• Moosbacher Kellerbier
• Kasteel Rouge
• Unibroue Blanche de Chambly
• St. Ambroise Apricot Wheat
• Schneider Aventinus

Bell’s Brewery - Jim O’Connor

• Hell Hath No Fury (very limited)
• Oberon
• Best Brown
• Amber
• Pale Ale
• Two Hearted
• Kalamazoo Stout
• Porter
• Third Coast Beer

Glazer’s Table

• Erdinger Hefe Dunkel
• Erdinger Hefe Weissbier
• Fuller’s ESB
• Fuller’s Vintage Ale 2007
• Duvel Belgian Ale
• Maredsous Dubbel “8″
• Maredsous Triple “10″
• Ommegang
• Ommegang Witte
• Ommegang Rare VOS
• Ommegang Three Philosphers
• Strongbow Cider
• Woodchuck Cider Amber
• Woodchuck Dark and Dry
• Woodchuck Pear
• Ayinger Brau-Weisse
• Ayinger Celebrator Doppelbock
• Lindemans Cuvee Renee
• Lindemans Pomme
• Lindemans Kriek
• Samuel Smith Organic Tadcaster Porter
• Samuel Smith IPA
• Spaten Optimator
• Spaten Oktoberfest
• Zatec Bright Lager
• O’Dells 5 Barrel Pale Ale
• O’Dells 90 Shilling
• O’Dells IPA
• Rogue Dead Guy Ale
• Rogue Chocolate Stout
• Rogue Hazelnut Brown
• Rogue Shakespeare Stout
• Sierra Nevada Anniversary

Beer and Cheese Pairing Table

• Murphy Red Beer paired with Cahill’s Farm Vintage Irish Cheddar
• Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier Weizen paired with Carr Valley Cranberry Chipotle Cheddar
• Chimay Cheese paired with Chimay Cinq Cents Ale
• New Belgium 1554 Black Ale paired with Grafton Maple Smoked Cheddar
• Eisenbahn Defumada Smoked Lager paired with Havarti with Caraway
• Schlafly Pale Ale paired with Red Dragon (Cheddar Mustard Seed)
• Warsteiner Dunkel paired with Tilsiter cheese from Germany

I know jack squat about poetry, to the point that I answer every poetry question on Jeopardy with “Robert Frost.” (I usually hit it 20% of the time.) But that’s cool, I realize that some people don’t really know much about beer. It’s just different strokes for different folks. Well, Poetry Scores will hold its 2008 Experiential Auction from 5-8 PM on Sunday, Sept. 21 at Atomic Cowboy. All of the proceeds of this auction will go to benefit Poetry Scores, which apparently is “a St. Louis-based arts organization that translates poetry into other media.” I don’t know exactly what that means, but refer to the first line of this post again to see why.

While I may not know much about poetry, I do know cool beer stuff when I see it and Poetry Scores is auctioning off some really cool beer stuff:

• Award-winning homebrewer Anthony Brescia brews you a case of beer to your specification, with customized labels of your design.
• Attorney and entrepreneur Tom Schlafly has a beer with you at a Schlafly brewpub, answers all your questions and donates a signed copy of his book, A New Religion in Mecca: Memoir of a Renegade Brewer in St. Louis.
• Schlafly Tap Room chief brewer Stephen Hale takes your small group on a tour of a Schlafly brewing works, followed by a private tasting and discussion.
• Public house owner and gadabout Steve Fitzpatrick Smith of The Royale takes you on an escorted afternoon bar tour in the city.

Admission to the event is $10, which apparently will be discounted from your first winning bid. If anyone ends up going and winning something, make sure to give us all a firsthand report of how it was.

Well, the votes were cast and the winner of this month’s STL Hops meet-up location is The Stable. I talked to Jesse Jones of The Stable last night and he said, “bring them down!” So on Tuesday, September 30 at 6:30 PM, we’ll all be meeting down at The Stable for drinks and food. As I guess I’m the Prince of Parties on this one let me just kind of give everyone an idea of what to expect. Basically we’re all meeting up for food, beer and a chance to meet up with people who love beer as much as you.

You’re responsible for your own tab (food and beer) and I believe we can even do some beer tasting toward the end of the evening, we’ll need to have that cleared up by someone from The Stable (Jesse, Jerad?) The last time was a lot of fun and I think these events allow us to visit places in the area that really care about beer.  If you could do me one favor and answer this poll with your intention of coming or not, just to give The Stable a heads up:

Were you aware that St. Louis Brewery brews over 40 different styles of beer? That’s a hell of a lot of styles, in fact I’d guess that Schlafly is one of the few breweries in the nation that tackles that many different styles in a single year. Why do I bring this up? Well, the 2008 Schlafly Hop in the City is upon us again and with it brings the opportunity to taste every single style of beer Schlafly produces.

This year’s festival not only offers live music and food, but also this year’s special festival beer Kellerbier, and unfiltered, cloudy lager. Here are the details for Hop in the City, direct from Schlafly’s website:

HOP IN THE CITY 2008
Saturday, September 13 - Noon-5:00 p.m.
The Schlafly Tap Room

TICKETS $30 adv/$35 doe/$25 adv for SIP Club Members (see Schlafly Website for Info).
ONLINE ticket sales available HERE until Monday, September 8th.

Andy Sneed continues his monthly beer tastings at the Whole Foods Galleria in September with an emphasis on Oktoberfest:

The Oktoberfest is a sixteen-day festival held each year in Munich, Germany during late September (and running to early October). Following this tradition, join us for an informative and delicious evening of brews, brats and banter. The focus will consist of both authentic and domestic interpretations of this classic style. Prost!

This tasting will cost $20. The date is Thursday, September 25 and it runs from 6:30 - 8:00 pm. You can buy tickets online here.

On Tuesday, September 9th at 6:30PM, The Stable will be hosting a tasting party featuring Arcadia beers. I’ll let Jerad Gardner, Bar Manager of The Stable’s sister location The Rotten Apple, tell you more about it:

Arcadia’s owner/founder Tim Surprise is going to in attendance at this event. We’ll be offering a variety of food pairings to match up with Witsun, Coco Loco, Cereal Killer, and Hopmouth.

Jerad also informed me that all of the beers will be draught offerings. The cost of the event is $25. If you need directions or more information you can call (314)-771-8500.

On Thursday, August 28th, Neruda in Edwardsville, IL is having a beer dinner, hosted again by Joe Billhartz of Specialty Import Distributing Company. Joe chose three of his favorite Midwestern breweries for Chef Rick Counts to pair his meals with. Here’s what they came up with:

Course 1
Salad of Frisee with fennel and mandarin orange and a citrus vinaigrette
Founder’s - Dry Hopped Ale

Course 2
Grilled Jumbo Shrimp on a snow pea and walnut salad stir-fry
Two Brother’s - Monarch Whit

Course 3
Grilled Pork Tenderloin topped with a peanut-honey glaze served with apple-raisin chutney
Two Brother’s - Domaine de Page

Course 4
Thinly Sliced Seared Yellowfin Tuna, served on grilled homegrown tomatoes and yellow squash
Founder’s - Red Rye

Course 5
French Vanilla Ice Cream on puff pastry drizzled with a sweet stout reduction
Oscar’s - Stout

The cost of this event is $55 per person plus tax and gratuity. A reception begins at 6:30 p.m. and dinner begins at 7:00 p.m. A reservation is required and can be made by calling Kurt or Libby at 618-659-9866.

While flipping through some of my email I came across a post from Confluence City about Steve Green, one of the finest beer nerds in St. Louis, and an event coming up at The Stable. Turns out that on Tuesday, September 9th, a number of St. Louis restaurants will be participating in Tastes for Tunes, a event benefiting KDHX.

You may be wondering, “What this has to do with beer?” Well, a number of brewpubs and restaurants with great beer lists are participating in this event:

• Blueberry Hill
• Cicero’s
• Duff’s Restaurant
• Harvest
• Iron Barley
• Llewelyn’s Pub
• Mangia Italiano
• Riddles Penultimate Cafe & Wine Bar
• Schlafly Bottleworks
• Schlafly Tap Room
• The Scottish Arms
• Square One Brewery
• The Royale
• The Stable
• Tin Can Tavern & Grille

I hope I didn’t leave anyone off of the list, but that’s a great line up of places where you can not only get a good meal, but a great meal as well. Not only that, you’re helping a good cause.

A lot of news recently about Buffalo Brewing, hopefully this is pleasant news for everyone involved. Sean Sweeney (no relation) one of the award winning homebrewers from the St. Louis Brews was invited to brew his Dubbel recipe at Buffalo Brewing about a month ago. Well, it’s ready to drink and to celebrate the occasion Buffalo is putting together a small get together on Wednesday, August 20th from 7PM to 9PM.

You can see photos of Sean brewing the Dubbel on the St. Louis Brews forum.