For those of you who didn’t have a chance to try the Sour Cherry Beer that Square One Brewery released to help celebrate St. Louis Craft Beer Week, I’ve got good news for you. According to Augusta Brewing’s Head Brewer Shawn Herrin, some of this beer was bottled and is currently bottle conditioning.

If you don’t remember, this is the description of the beer:

Brewed 3 years ago as a Tripel, then refermented with sour cherries and inoculated with a Belgian lambic blend of yeasts and bacteria. The beer was left on the cherries and pits for 8 months and then racked off into kegs, half on oak, half all stainless.

Prior to carbonating, we blended the two back together and then blended again with a recent batch of tripel. Very tart and has sharp cherry flavors along with a hint of nuttiness (from the pit) in the finish.

I had a chance to try this last week and I was very impressed with the results.  It had a wonderful tartness without every being too acidic.  It was a well crafted blend.

Before you get too excited about this coming out in bottles, I’ve been told that this will was a very limited bottling with only about 25 cases available.   As soon as I have more information about the release date and where it’ll be available, I’ll make sure to let everyone know.

For those of you that need the final push to purchase tickets for the Schlafly Fresh Hop Ale Festival, here’s the list of beers that will be available at the event:

Amalgamated
Harvest Pale Ale—An American-style Pale Ale with a large flavor addition of wet Amarillo hops. The wort was passed through the hop back packed with the wet Amarillo hops to extract and better retain the super-fresh hop character that results from using fresh, wet hops. (5.5 ABV)
Harvest Zoigl—This rare beer is a bready, malty lager with only a delicate hop flavor. Zoigl is a communal beer from the Oberpfalz region in Germany. Using these wet hops was a natural fit for a beer that focuses on the floral nature of the hops. (5% ABV)

Augusta/Square One
Hop Harvest—Our IPA is brewed with 2 Row, Crystal 40 and flaked barley, along with Perle, Golding, Cascade and Amarillo hops. 30lbs of fresh Amarillo hops were added to the fermenter for additional flavor and aroma. 2009 Augusta Bottoms Beer Festival, Favorite Festival Beer

Mattingly
Hop Seeker American Strong Ale—Our Hop Seeker is an American Strong Ale brewed with large doses of Magnum, Chinook, Ahtanum and freshly picked whole leaf Amarillo hops added to our hopback (built just for this beer), and is kept balanced by Pale Ale, Munich, Special B Malts and raw cane sugar. Hopheads, you have found what you seek. (8% ABV, 50 IBUs)

Morgan Street
Morgan Street Fresh Hop Lager—61 IBUs of Cascade hops make this pale lager intensely bitter. 30 pounds of fresh, wet Amarillo hops were added to the whirlpool and give a complex, grassy character. Finished with 8 more pounds of Cascade whole cone hops in the serving tank, this is one beer strictly for the hop lover. (61 IBUs)

O’Fallon
Extra Pale Ale—2-Row 82%, Munich 10L 12%, Caramel 20L 6%, Kolsch Yeast—30 lbs of Amarillo wet hops added at the end of boil in the hop back for that straight off the vine taste.

Schlafly
Tap Room Hop Harvest Ale—Brewed with Centennial and Cascade hops, then wet-hopped with 30 lbs of Amarillo fresh hops. Beer has a fruity, peachy quality and is very refreshing. (6% ABV 45 IBUs)
Bottleworks Fresh Hop Ale—An American Pale Ale style that is dry-hopped and wet-hopped. The wet hops include Amarillo hops and the dry hops include Amarillo, Sorachi Ace, and Cascade hops. These hops combine to give it a very floral hop aroma with touches of many different kinds on citrus. (5.4% ABV 44IBUs)

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.

“You’re dressing up tonight,” were the first words out of Irene’s mouth when I got home. It was probably a good idea, as I soon found myself rubbing elbows with many of St. Louis’ elite. While there were plenty of white tablecloths and mayors to be had, importantly enough this still felt like a beer dinner. Granted it’s difficult for it not to feel like a beer dinner when you’re sitting next to a couple of brewers.

Left: Drew Huerter, Marc Gottfried, and Dave Johnson talk beer before the event.
Right: People mingling around the dinner tables.

Left: The menu from the “Ultimate Beer Dinner”

Left: Stephen and Sara Hale talking before we sit down to Sauce’s Allyson Mace and Catherine Neville.

Right: A close up of the wonderful (and expensive) table setting.

Left: Mayor Slay helps to kick off the Brewers Heritage Festival

Right: Co-host Dave Liberman describes what went into the Ultimate Beer Dinner

Marc Gottfried (Morgan Street) and Dr. John Witte (Square One, Augusta) discuss their beers while Stephen Hale demonstrates the finer points of dry hopping a beer.

Four of the five courses, for some reason I completely dropped the ball and forgot to take a photo of the 5th course.

Also not pictured:

• Me peeing next to Mayor Slay
• Tom Schlafly’s after-party
• The Alstrom Brothers

And after the break, video of Stephen Hale discussing the Biere de Garde en francias.

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Thanks to the wonderful weather we’ll be experiencing this weekend, Augusta Brewery has decided to take advantage of it and open its doors this Sunday.  If you’re never been to Augusta Brewery, you’re in for a real treat.  They have a wonderful patio area and delicious beer to boot.  Here’s their official weekend info:

Due to the break in the weather, Augusta Brewing will be open this Sunday

March 2nd, from 11am to 5pm.

Please make a note of the following ~ the Boone Bridge will be closed Westbound – but eastbound should be fine. You can get to Augusta from 44 through Washington (Hwy 47/Hwy 94) and you can reach Hwy 94 from I-70 or the Page extension! See the article below for all the details

Our Hours this weekend:

Friday & Saturday 11am – 9pm
Sunday 11am – 5pm

It’s supposed to be 60 degrees on Sunday, seems like the perfect time to go out and drink some beer.