This was a phenomenal year for STL Hops. Not only did we all get to enjoy the first St. Louis Craft Beer Week, we also celebrated our Second Anniversary and had a few fantastic events like the tasting party at CP Pinball.
Stay tuned for big events coming up in 2010. Happy New Year everyone.
As you may have guessed, the Friday Round-Up is going to be taking a week off. But I’m curious, what is everyone drinking this X-Mas weekend?
News today from Stone Brewing Company that they may be interested in opening a brewery in Europe. I’m warning everyone right now that this is a completely reactionary post.
What the hell Stone? I know, you want to come to Missouri, but the time just isn’t right. You know that we want you, but you can’t support us. But you keep dangling that carrot in front of us, “We’ll be there one day, we promise!”
But then we all hear about this new idea. It feels like a real kick in the gut for those of us that want Stone in St. Louis. You can’t even keep up with demand in the US, but you’re looking at opening a brewery outside of the US? That just doesn’t make sense to me.
I think I’m about tired of chasing that carrot. There are plenty of great breweries that actually made the effort to come to St. Louis and I’ll keep happily drinking them. Have fun in Finland.
It’s amazing how much of a stigma can beer still has. In fact, I’d say that canned beer has more of an image problem than craft beer does. For most people, cans signal that a beer is “low brow.”
But those of us that love canned beers are apostles for preaching the word of the can. Because, as long as you can get all of the oxygen out of the can, it’s about the most perfect vessel for beer.
It’s lightweight and it’s impervious to oxygen and light. It will also get your beer cold faster than a bottle.
So, which one of our local breweries will be first in canning a local craft beer? Let’s be honest, as long as you extoll the virtues and try and dispell some of the myths about canned beer, you could have a real niche beer in our ever growing craft beer scene.
I don’t know if there is a local race to get a craft beer into cans, but I know I’ll be one of the first people to line up to pick up some beer from the winner.
So my wonderful girlfriend Irene was required by her school to visit Denver for a conference this past weekend. What this meant for me was 3 days in the Denver area to try and pack in as much beer stuff as was possible. So, starting today, I’m going to be showing some photos of my trip and provide you with a few highlights as well.
Day 1 – Wynkoop, Great Divide and Falling Rock
A few notes:
I have a feeling this is what an addict feels like. I’m all itchy, nervous and my head is starting to swim with the idea that after I’ve gotten a taste, I’m not going to get another. How can you do this to me Schlafly? How can you finally give us an American IPA and then snatch it away again?
See that image to the right? I don’t know if I can live with the idea that I’ll never see that label up on the board at the Bottleworks again.
Ok, so maybe I’m being overly dramatic, but it’s a really good (insert profanity here) beer. I know that the hops for this year’s batch were a pain in the butt to come by, but it’s hop harvest time, right? Wouldn’t it be easier to obtain them now? I honestly don’t know the answer to that.
What I do know is that this was such a good beer that it would be a real waste if it was only brewed once in a blue moon. I also know that I can’t be the only one who feels the same way. We need to make our voices heard on this, we need to let Schlafly know how much we loved this beer.
One way of doing this is by, drinking the beer. Drew Huerter hopes that the kegs are drained in a month’s time. I’d like to see them drained faster than that. Let’s show them that this is a beer we crave. The second way of letting them know we want this beer full time is to keep (nicely) pestering them.
Let’s try and make this the next full time offering.
Here we go again. Last year at this time I mentioned how STL Hops had grown. For the first year of STL Hops, we had 385 posts and 1400 comments. Over the past two years we’ve now accumulated 881 posts and 4421 comments. That’s some amazing growth.
More importantly, we’ve created a beer community that not only has a voice that’s been heard, but I think we’ve also helped to change the local beer scene for the better. STL Hops added a St. Louis Beer List which allows users and restaurants/bars/retail to add and edit their own lists.
We’ve helped to add new breweries, like Founders, to the area. We’ve attracted the attention of other breweries, like Stone. We also helped to make the St. Louis Craft Beer Week a popular and exciting event.
STL Hops has been featured in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Sauce Magazine, the Riverfront Times and we also won the 2009 Best Local Forum from St. Louis Magazine.
And I know it sounds cliched to say it, but it all couldn’t have been done without people here. But it’s not just because people are visiting the site, it’s because people are visiting the site and are discussing beer in a positive and respectful fashion. You wouldn’t think it would be a huge issue having people act like adults, but, this is the internet and it really is amazing to see people act their age.
I’m really proud of the site and look forward to what the next year will bring. So, I once again thank everyone who has stopped by and added something to this community. Thank you.
And now, for the information I’m sure some of you have been waiting for. We will be holding an STL Hops 2nd Anniversary party sometime in November at the Schlafly Tap Room, the total cost will probably be $20-25 per person with all proceeds being donated to Stray Rescue of St. Louis. I’ll have more information about this event to all of you soon.
Once again, thank you for making this website so successful.
