When the Schlafly Tap Room began the Schlafly Reserve Series back in 2006, they bought a few bourbon barrels to age the Schlafly Reserve Imperial Stout in.  As the beers grew in popularity, so did the number of barrels needing to be purchased.

The problem with using barrels to age beer in is that it’s a one time deal.  When the barrels arrive from the distillery the woods has been exposed to the high-alcohol bourbon so any microorganism, such as wild yeast or bacteria, has pretty much been killed off, leaving the barrel clean and ready to be used.

But once you’ve used the barrel for aging beer, it’s a different story.  The alcohol in the beer isn’t high enough to kill off these micro-pests so they’re forced to buy new barrels.

As you can imagine, being able to use these barrels only a single time is not only wasteful, but expensive.  But what if you could use the wild yeast to your benefit?  I’m proud to announce the debut of the first step in the Schlafly Sour Beer Program.

As part of a half-million dollar upgrade to the Schlafly Tap Room, the very rarely seen boiler room, which is located under the beer garden, will be cleaned up and will be the home of this exciting new program.  New equipment will be purchased, new racks for barrels will be installed, and new draught lines will be put in to accommodate these new beers.

The first step of this new program began back on 03/31/2010 when a special blend of Belgian Single (which had already been fermented out) was added to four different bourbon barrels that underwent a cleaning and a conditioning.  It was at that point that three different strains of Brettanomyces were each added to separate barrels, with one barrel being left alone as a control.

The three different strains of Brett that were added were: Claussenii, Lambicus, and Bruxellensis. It’s important to note that Brettanomyces doesn’t necessarily add sourness to a beer, it usually adds a layer of funk. But, that doesn’t mean that certain lactic acid producing bacteria such as Lactobacillus and Pediococcus couldn’t possibly show up as the beer sits.

As for the release of these beers, that’s going to take some time. “From a brewing standpoint, I really want to give our folks some time to do it right. I want to make sure our guys have the tools to do this the right way,” says Schlafly Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Dan Kopman.

For more information about sour beers in St. Louis, be certain to check out the September issue of Feast Magazine. Feast will be offering up a look at this very interesting beer style along with additional information about Schlafly’s Hop in the City festival beer, the Oud Bruin.

The Mattingly Brewing Company may now be producing full scale productions of beer, but that doesn’t stop them from showing off what’s yet to come. Tonight, Head Brewer Drew Huerter will be offering his Black Past Historical Porter. Drew gives a description of the beer:

Be sure to head out tonight and taste some of Drew’s excellent beer.

Friday the 13th, spooky stuff.  It’s even scarier when Drew Huerter from Mattingly Brewing Company decides to take a beer like his Cardinal Direction Abbey Dubbel and give it some funk.

This new series of sour beers will be released every Friday the 13th at 6PM from now on.  I’ll let Drew fill you in on the details:

St. Louis’ First commercially produced and available Belgian Style Sour Ale. On March Fridy 13th, some of our Cardinal Direction Abbey Dubbel veered off course and met with other travelers from far and wide. The Dubbel found shelter in an oak bourbon barrel. This barrel is made from Missouri grown white oak and worked into a barrel then sent to Kentucky to age bourbon for several years.

Our friends at the Schlafly Taproom then took the wood back to Missouri and aged their Imperial Stout in it. It then took a trip down Jefferson Ave. and met up with our Dubbel. This meeting would have been spectacular enough, but another group joined our wanderers, they are from Belgium.

The Rodenbach brewery is famous the world over for their range of Flanders Style Red Ales, which are funky, sometimes woody, malty and sour. The funk and sour are created by wild yeasts and bacteria, mostly brettanomyces and lactobacillius, but there are others.

These microrganisms joined up with our Dubbel in the barrel that fateful Friday the 13th, and every subsequent Friday the 13th they will emerge in limited quantities. 8% ABV

I don’t know about you, but I’m ready for the funk.

Mmmmm Brettanomyces. It’s the little yeasty beasty that scares vinters and brewers alike.  But some brewers embrace the Brett.  In fact, the not only embrace it, the love it.  One of those brewers is New Belgium Brewery and their newest beer in the Lips of Faith series is the Fall Wild Ale.  I’ll let them describe it for you:

This chestnut hued ale has a deep tawny haze that mimics the colors of fall itself. The brew unfolds with notes of banana, clove and pink bubblegum- quintessential aroma qualities of the Trappist yeast strain used. The rich malt bill brings to mind toffee, caramel, brown sugar and bittersweet chocolate. The twist- what makes this Belgian so special? We spice our Dubbel with Schisandra berries, known as “five flavor fruit, ” because it tantalizes the taste buds with four tastes – sweet, sour, salty and bitter – plus pungency.

Then we finish the brew with our house wild yeast strain of Brettanomyces with yields farmhouse flavors and tropical fruit notes- developing further as this beer ages. Fall Wild Ale is a full-bodied brew that opens sweet & creamy but finishes warm and peppery- asking for another sip. This deceivingly refreshing ale is 8%ABV so imbibe but beware.

If you’re read to get a little Wild, I’m told it’s currently available at these locations:

• Cicero’s
• Dressel’s
• Hair Of The Dog
• Pi
• The Red Lion

Andy Snead from Whole Foods Galleria posted on the STL Hops Forums that the Boulevard Saison-Brett is now available at the Whole Foods Galleria. I had some more of this beer while at the Augusta Bottoms Festival and it was still fantastic. It provides just enough Brett flavor to really make the beer funky without having too much of it overpower the entire palate.

I think this is one of those perfect beers to get people into beers featuring brettanomyces yeast without it being a funk bomb. I really wish this had come out earlier in the summer as I think it’s a wonderfully refreshing beer. Make sure to pick up your numbered bottle as I don’t expect this one to last long. I’d be very curious to see what some age will do on this beer.

Update: Andy informs me that what he thought was Saison-Brett was actually just Saison.  But Paul from Wine and Cheese Place seems to have gotten it in, so I expect Whole Foods to have it soon as well.