Still looking for that elusive Schlafly American IPA?  Well, wouldn’t it be nice if you could have it in your own neighborhood? Well, this week is your big break as there will be two casks of this delicious beer available in the metro area.  Here are the details:

O’Leary’s Pub – Thursday, March 11th – 6:30PM
Bigelo’s Bistro – Saturday, March 13th – 12PM

Well, this is it, this is the beer that created quite a sensation at last year’s Hop in the City festival, the Schlafly American IPA.  But Mike, this beer isn’t the beer that was brewed back in September, is it?

No, it’s not.  In order to get a baseline to compare against the 8% version of the AIPA that’s arriving this spring, they needed to brew another batch of the original.

So, not only do you get one of the best IPAs in the St. Louis area served on cask, but you can get it alongside the best place to get Neapolitan Pizza in the St. Louis area, The Good Pie.

This Friday, March 5th, starting a 5PM,  a representative from the St. Louis Brewery will be tapping a cask of the American IPA and will be serving it until the cask runs out or The Good Pie closes.

Sure, you can get cask beer at the Tap Room, but you can’t get American IPA or some Neapolitan Pizza to go along with it!  Head on out there for some great pizza and beer.

We ask and Schlafly delivers.  I’m proud to announce that starting in 2010, the Schlafly American IPA will be available as the Summer Special Release.

The beer that was so popular at this past year’s Hop in the City will become available on June 1st of 2010.  This beer will be available in six-packs at the same price point as the other Special Release beers (Pumpkin, Export IPA, Extra Dry Stout, etc.)

It’s also of note that this beer will get a bit bigger.  Being that this is the beer people want, they’re going to raise the ABV to 8%.  And because that malt gets a little bigger means we get a bit more hoppiness as well.

This is an extra special early Christmas gift for us hopheads.

Well, this is it.  This is the last cask of the Hop in the City festival beer, the Schlafly American IPA. Not only do you get one of the best IPAs in the St. Louis area served on cask, but you can get it alongside the best place to get Neapolitan Pizza in the St. Louis area, The Good Pie.

This Friday, October 2nd, starting a 6PM, f a representative from the St. Louis Brewery will be tapping the last cask of American IPA and will be serving it until the cask runs out or The Good Pie closes.

Sure, you can get cask beer at the Tap Room, but you can’t get Neapolitan Pizza to go along with it! Head on out there for some great pizza and beer.

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.

As you all know, Schlafly Hop in the City is coming up this Saturday and to help kick off the event The Royale will be throwing a party on Thursday, September 17th beginning at 6PM with a cask of the Hop Festival beer, the American IPA.

Not only do you get to enjoy some delicious cask beer, I’ve been told that representatives from Schlafly will be on hand to give out some tickets for Hop in the City.  Cask beer and the possibility for free tickets?  Sounds like a win-win to me.

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 2009 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, brewed for the first time ever at Schlafly, an American IPA. Here are the details for Hop in the City, direct from Schlafly’s website:

HOP IN THE CITY 2008
Saturday, September 19 – Noon-5:00 p.m.
The Schlafly Tap Room

TICKETS $30 adv/$35 doe (see Schlafly Website for Info).
ONLINE ticket sales available HERE.