This video is kind of old and really has nothing to do with St. Louis (except you can get delicious Allagash products right across the river) but I thought it was pretty cool:

Well, I can sort of answer this question:

I was wondering if you knew of anybody in the St. Louis area that carried Tennants? Lukas Liquors only has it in 1/2 barrel quantities and I haven’t found anybody else that has it. I figured that you are the man that would know where I can turn. Thanks for any info!

I know that the Scottish Arms carries this on draught but anyone else know where you can get it?

Readers of STL Hops probably have figured out by now that I’m pretty obsessed with Three Floyds Brewing out of Munster, IN. If you’ve ever had some of their beers you’ll quickly realize why my obsession took root. Because of my sickness, I decided to attend Dark Lord Day 2008. If you’re unaware of what Dark Lord Day is, once a year Three Floyds brews a Russian Imperial Stout named Dark Lord and it’s only sold on Dark Lord Day. People (like me) travel from miles around to buy the beer.

But what makes the event so much fun is that it’s a huge gather of beer nerds that get together to not only buy the beer, but bring beer to taste and trade. You can’t swing a dead cat without having someone offer you something from around the country to taste that you’ve never had before.

This is the front of the line, people were mingling, sharing some beer and trying to stay warm. It was about a balmy 45 degrees on Saturday morning.

Read the rest…

Are you the procrastinating type? Were you planning on waiting until the last minute to buy your tickets to the St. Louis Brewers Heritage Festival? Well today is your lucky day, I’m giving away two passes to the Saturday Afternoon session of the Heritage Festival. This $60 value will allow you to partake in one of the best beer festivals in the area. All you need to do is email contest@stlhops.com with your favorite St. Louis brewery and your favorite beer from said brewery.

I want to thank Dan Kopman from Schlafly Beers and Jay Cunningham from Anheuser-Busch for providing the tickets to this event. This contest will end on May 5th at 9AM CDT when I will pick a winner at random. If you don’t win this one, don’t worry I will be holding more contests like this in the future, so you’ll have another chance then. Good luck!

Had a couple of packages of beer arrive this week, though I’d share some pictures. The first is from my buddy Scotty who lives in Colorado. Luckily for all of us, we’re seeing more and more Colorado beers available in the local area, but Scotty sent me a few that we can’t get here quite yet. I’m sending him some beer from this area he can’t get there. I know that he wanted some Two Hearted and I have some things in mind, but do you have any suggestions?

• Bristol Brewing Company - Red Rocket Ale
• Bristol Brewing Company - Wet Mountain IPA
• Bristol Brewing Company - Laughing Lab Scottish-Style Ale
• Dillon Dam Brewery - Sweet George’s Brown
• Bristol Brewing Company - Winter Warlock Oatmeal Stout
• Oskar Blues - Ten Fidy
• Oskar Blues - Old Chub

The other two packages I received this week came from San Diego, CA, specifically from The Lost Abbey. A while back someone alerted me to the Sinners and Saints Club. Each club provides special and often sought after beers each month of the year. Here are January and February’s selections:

• The Lost Abbey - Red Poppy
• The Lost Abbey - Carnevale Ale

I’ll let Tomme describe both for you:

Carnevale Ale- Be one of the first consumers to sample our newest seasonal release called Carnevale Ale. Brewed to mark the Lenten Season before Easter, we expect this to be a great addition to our lineup of Specialty Releases. 

Red Poppy 2007- Our first release of this beer. Brewed in 2006 and aged in French Oak barrels for one year on Sour Cherries and wild yeasts. 

Sorry about the lack of content this morning, but I’ve got a pretty busy day ahead of me.  In fact, the entire week may be a bit hectic, but I’ll do my best to provide everyone with new information all week.

Warning: The following is long and a bit rambling. Read at your own caution.

Thursday Night:

OK, well technically this isn’t the weekend, but it’s close enough. Irene and I had a meeting at the Schlafly Tap Room to discuss the upcoming Convivial Pursuit Trivia Night (if you’re a trivia nut, come on out and play some food trivia). After the meeting had ended, Stephen invited us to the Cod and Cask VIP opening night. We were treated to not only cask IPA and Brennan’s Brown Ale, but a smorgasboard of seafood. From cod cakes and scallops to plokkfiskur (a fish and potato casserole) and of course fish and chips. We also got to enjoy music from Pétur Ben, a signer-songwriter from Iceland.

The event also allowed me to see some people I haven’t seen in quite some, like Ryan Beach from New Belgium. It also gave me a chance to bounce my ideas for a Randal the Enamel Animal off of James “Otto” Ottolini, the Chief Brewer/Chief Engineer for Schlafly Bottleworks. And to top it off I got the opportunity to meet Tom Schlafly, the owner of St. Louis Brewery. Cask beers flowed, fish was eaten and good times were had. Now you know why I was complaining in Friday morning’s Round-Up.

Friday Night:

I wish I had some exciting beer adventure for you, but I don’t. We hit up Rich and Charlie’s for a birthday dinner, where I had AB’s new Shock Top (that came from what I suspect to be an infected draught line) and Amber Bock. We all then headed back to my house for some Friday night drunken Rock Band hijinks. If it makes you feel better, I did enjoy some Two Hearted Ale and Bourbon County Stout while singing Sweet’s Ballroom Blitz.

Read the rest…

Unless you’re a duck, it’s pretty miserable outside.  I’m pretty busy right now, so I’ll put a few pictures up that I think you’ll enjoy.

You may remember the package of pure pleasure I received a few weeks ago thanks to my lovely girlfriend.  Never one to leave well enough alone or to even be satisfied with what I have, I went ahead and bought some more beer shipped in from California.  What you see there is:

• Firestone Walker - Double Barrel Ale
• Stone - Ruination IPA
• Alesmith - Decadence Anniversary Ale
• Lost Abbey - Red Barn Ale
• Lost Abbey - Lost & Found
• Alesmith - Horny Devil

I’m also supposed to be receiving another very special package from Lost Abbey in this week, two 375ml bottles of Red Poppy.   You may be asking yourself, “Mike, what the hell do you do with all of this beer?”  Let me show you:

Well, I drink what I can and I cellar a lot of it for special and not so special occasions.  Bill and Ellie saw this a couple of weeks ago and Bill proclaimed that I was becoming one of those “crazy beer guys.”  The ones that will never be able to finish all of the beer they collect.  He may be very well right about that, because I sometimes I have a hard time bringing myself to drink some of this.  I especially don’t enjoy drinking it by myself, these are the kind of things you enjoy with friends that will really appreciate it.

I finally made it and this is already in full swing. More pictures after I meet up with Bill and Ellie and get a beer.

3:10 In an attempt to be more timely than the last liveblog, I’ve probably already failed. But I’ve brought plenty of pictures this time!

One of the most interesting beers so far has been the “milk” stout. It’s a oatmeal stout that was aged in one of the former bourbon barrels for 16 months and was finally opened on Thursday. It has this wonderful creamy mouthfeel and slight milky flavor. It’s quite a pleasant mistake.

3:48 It’s a wonderful 18 degrees out. A full degree above the forecasted temperature. If you’re willing to brave the cold (me) you can always rely on the comfort of being around the firepit. If you’re not willing to stand outside (Bill and Ellie) at least you can enjoy some bluegrass from the Cumberland Gap.

4:48 The party is starting to wind down and the wind is starting to pick up. The beer is beginning to freeze to the serving tables and the servers are having to scrape the head off of beers as they pour them into pitchers. Sure it’s cold, but a nice Imperial Stout goes a long way to warming you up. Plus, if it’s too cold for you, you can talk to Dan Kopman (the VP of Schlafly) and Drew Huerter (the cellarman for Morgan Street Brewery) inside. And if you’re really lucky, while you’re inside you’ll come across a couple of 06 Barleywines.

5:15 - Like almost any good party, it needs to end with a party-foul. In this case it was Andrew from Whole Foods dropping his complementary tasting glass. Sure he may blame it on the cold, but my guess is that it had more to do with the Dopplebock. If you love the cold, this was the kind of event you can’t miss. If you hate the cold, you were at home reading this blog. Next year, put on a couple of extra layers and come out and join our frostbite. You’ll come out into the cold and you’ll stave off cabin fever for a while.

For those of you that don’t want to face the bitter cold tomorrow, I’ll be doing it for you. I’ll be live blogging the Schlafly Cabin Fever event tomorrow at the Schlafly Bottleworks. I’ll try and take as many pictures as possible and try to give you a feel for the experience if you can’t make it out yourself. Should be a hell of a time.

I love alliteration, though this title sounds slightly erotic. It sounds like the kind of package that arrives in a nondescript box from the ABC Company. That being said, this picture is nothing more than beer porn.  Besides a minor shipping mishap, Irene did real good.

• Stone Brewing - Double Bastard
• Alaskan Brewing - Smoked Porter
• Stone Brewing - Ruination IPA
• Lost Abbey - 10 Commandments
• Alesmith - Yulesmith