Molly’s in Soulard and Boulevard Brewing will be hosting a Beer Dinner on Tuesday, February 16rd starting at 6:30 that is in celebration of Fat Tuesday.

This six course meal pairs unique beer selections with a Louisiana Creole cuisine inspired meal. The cost of the meal, which includes six different beers, is $50 per person (excluding tax and gratuity). I’ve also been informed that Boulevard founder John McDonald will also be in attendance.

Reservations are required and can be made by calling 314-241-5100 or by emailing info@mollysinsoulard.com. The full menu including pairings is available after the break.

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Cicero’s Italian Restaurant continues their fall Beer School semester this Wednesday from 5:30-6:30PM. Cicero’s Beer School provides background about beers and beer styles usually directly from people directly in the beer industry.

It’s a perfect opportunity to learn more about a style you’re unfamiliar with or to just brush up on a style you haven’t enjoyed in a while.

This week’s school is being taught by Laura Dale from Boulevard Brewing. Laura will be on hand to discuss and sample their Pilsner, Double Wide IPA, Tank 7 and Saison Bret. Go out and take advantage of one of the few places where you can drink and learn!

If you can’t make it out to the Beer School, you can check out all of the classes via podcast at Cicerosbeerschool.com.

I know people have been asking about it and looking for it, your wait is almost over.  Starting next week, we should begin seeing Boulevard Brewing’s Boulevard Pilsner hitting the shelves.  Also, if you haven’t read it, visit KC Beer Blog for an awesome review of this beer.

What about the some of the sought after Smokestack beers?  Well, SeeYouLator Dopplebock is now available on store shelves and I’ve been told that 48 cases of  the Limited Release Saison-Brett should be arriving in October.

But the news I was most exciting about getting yesterday was that of a new kid on the Smokestack block.  In November, we should see the release of Harvest Dance Wheat Wine.  If you don’t know what a wheat wine is, think Barleywine, but with wheat.  I’m a big fan of these beers because the wheat adds a wonderful viscosity to the beer.

Maybe it’s just the weather these past two days, but I’m really looking forward to fall.

I’m pleased to announce that the winner for the two tickets to the Newstead Boulevard Dinner is Brian Schrumpf!  Brian’s favorite Smokestack beer is the Double Wide, but he’s a fan of all of them!

Congrats to Brian and thank you everyone for entering. If you didn’t win, don’t be too upset, once again I have some cool stuff to give away soon.

I once again want to thank Laura Dale from Boulevard Brewery for providing one of the tickets for this event. This looks like a great line up of beer and food, there are still spaces available so get your reservation in today!

I’m giving away two tickets to the August Boulevard Smokestack Dinner at Newstead.  The dinner is on August 26th at 7PM.

If you’re interested in winning two tickets that include a four courses being paired with four different Boulevard Smokestack beers (you will be required to pay the gratuity) email contest@stlhops.com with a subject of “Newstead Boulevard Dinner” and tell me what your favorite Smokestack Series Beer is.

If you don’t think you’ll be able to attend, please don’t enter. I’d like to make sure that people available to attend have a chance to win. The winner will be drawn on Monday, August 24th at 9AM.

Newstead Tower Public House is hosting another in their line of monthly beer dinners with this dinner featuring Boulevard Brewery’s Smokestack Series. The date of the dinner is August 26th at 7PM. The cost of this event is $40 and reservations are required. You can make reservations by calling 314-535-7771.

Stay tuned for an opportunity to win one free seat for this dinner later on today.

If you’ve been paying attention to the STL Hops Twitter account, you may remember my drunken tweet of, “Tank 7 from Boulevard was well worth the price of Microfest VIP ticket.”  While the message may have been sullied by a drunken blogger, it was absolutely accurate.  Tank 7 was my favorite beer of the festival and I went back three or four times to keep getting samples.

Hopefully I’m not mistaken on this, but I’m going to relay the message I’ve heard a couple of times now.  The Smokestack series Saison and the Saison-Brett do not actually start off with the same base beer, they’re two slightly different beers.  Tank 7 is actually a hoppier version of the Saison-Brett base, but without the addition of brettanomyces.

As many readers of STL Hops know, I’m not a fan of big hop aroma and flavor and Belgian yeast, the combination just doesn’t work for me.  But somehow Bouelvard found a way to pull it off and make a wonderfully refreshing summertime beer.

But I digress, to kick-off the release of the newest addition to the Smokestack Series, Boulevard will be hosting a part at Newstead Tower Public House on Tuesday, June 23rd at 6:30PM.  Boulevard rep Laura Dale will be on-hand to sample this beer as well as talk about everything that makes this beer great.