Now that I’ve finally got the last bit of mud off of my caked shoes, I’m finally able to sit down and pen my thoughts about this year’s festival. Long story short, I had a lot of fun. Yes, it was crowded in the tents because people couldn’t mingle in the mud, but you could still easily get a beer after you shoved your way past the people just standing in front of the servers (something I was even guilty of at times.) I’ve read some other thoughts at BeerAdvocate and even in the comments in this forum and everyone has some very good suggestions. Now here’s a couple of my thoughts:

Grass vs As(phalt)

My biggest complaint, which seems to be the majority opinion, was the complete destruction and mess of the festival field. It made getting around terrible, it made everything and everyone messy and it crowded the tents as people had no place else to go. A few people have suggested that for the sake of festivals to come maybe it should be moved to a parking lot. The argument for the asphalt is that no mess, no fuss and people less likely to trip and fall. The argument against the lot is that it would change the feel of the festival and to a certain extent I agree. I personally enjoy the natural aspect of the festival, but I don’t enjoy being crowded and messy. A better option may be to move the festival to Mid-May rather than early May to avoid some of the late spring rain.

Three Tents Are Better Than Two

I thought the addition of the third beer tent was a welcome addition to the festival as it allowed more beers to be showcased in a large environment. I found that the beers were pretty well spread out and provided a bit more elbow room. I will say I was thrown for a bit when I went into the Ale tent and didn’t see some of the Belgian Style beers, but saw Schlafly’s Imperial Stout and Barleywine in the Ale tent. But I guess “Specialty Beer” is in the eye of the beholder.

From what I’ve been told the homebrewers were supposed to be featured in the third tent as well, but unfortunately got relegated to B-Team status due to the weather. Hopefully next year the weather will let up and people will find out just how amazing some of the homebrewers around this area are.

More Cask Beers!

The best beer of the entire festival was the cask Rye Pale Ale. So floral and wonderful, I had two or three glasses of it. I know it’s a complete pain to bring these firkins out to the festival, but I think it would be nice to showcase more Real Ale at the festival next year. It would be a nice addition to the “Specialty Beer” tent.

New Festival Beer

It’s time for a new beer.  I don’t have the taste memory to remember last year’s Dark Lager so it personally doesn’t make much sense to me to see the same beer year after year.  It’s time to have the breweries try something different and then see just how different the take on the beer is.

More Education

This festival, in my mind, is first and foremost about showing St. Louis’ brewing talent, but one of the first things I heard walking into the festival was “I’m going to get your sister loaded too!” Don’t get me wrong, I’m not some beer drinking prude that doesn’t believe beer should get you drunk. I was feeling just fine after the festival, but that wasn’t why I walked into the festival. I’d like to think there are more people interested in learning about beer and the differences in styles. Maybe included in the Friday Afternoon session (which sounded a bit light) should be a “tour guide” who walks people around talking about beer and sampling them.

Overall it’s a great event and I think it’s only going to get better as adjustments are made after years of tweaking.  I look forward to seeing how different it is in the years to come.

For those of you that didn’t get a chance to make it down to the Brewers Heritage Festival, but still want to try Augie’s Rye Pale Ale, you’re in luck. Dereck Bean from O’Fallon Brewery sent me over a list of restaurants that will have Augie’s beer on draught:

• Riddle’s
• Cicero’s
• Rumple’s Pub (Main Street, St. Charles)
• Bottoms Up Brewhouse (Hwy. K, O’Fallon)
• Syberg’s (Gravois)
• Tin Can Morgan Ford
• Tin Can Downtown

Or should I call it the 2008 Brewers Heritage Messtival? Boy was it muddy. Still a lot of fun seeing everyone down at Forest Park enjoy the best beer St. Louis has to offer.

I hope everyone is ready for a great weekend of drinking, this festival is shaping to be even better than last year’s. Here’s the Round-Up:

Stuff from around the web

• Fox’s Screwballs took a trip over to Anheuser-Busch before the Cubs-Cards series.
• Matt’s Beer Blog reviewed Schlafly’s Export IPA.
• Adam Jadhav of the Post-Dispatch has created a new column called Hip Hops. This is the first in what’s hopefully many columns to come.
• The Slag Pile picks up some beer at Lukas Liquor.

Beer Releases and News

• Andrew from Bon Vivant Wines informs me to some new beers he has in his stock:
  • DFH 120 Minute (Maybe today, probably next week)
  • Founders Rubaeus
  • DFH Aprihop
  • Schlafly Export IPA
  • Jolly Pumpkin Calbaza lanca, Bam & E.S. Bam
  • Two Brothers Monarch White
  • Sierra Nevada Summerfest
  • Hofbrau Maibock
  • Avery Collaboration
  • Lefthand Chainsaw
• Paul at The Wine and Cheese Place in Clayton alerts me to some new beers he has in stock:
  • Jolly Pumpkin - Bam Bier Batch 280/281
  • Jolly Pumpkin - Calabaza Blanca Batch 285
  • Jolly Pumpkin - ES Bam Batch 288/289
  • Jolly Pumpkin - La Roja Blend 4,2008
  • Jolly Pumpkin - Oro de Calabaza Batch 275
  • Altenmunster Maibock
  • Bison Brewing Reunon 08 Organic Red Rye
  • Lindemans Cuvee Rene
  • Traquair House Ale
• Paul also informed me for those not attending the Heritage Festival, that they’ll be tasting the Jolly Pumpkin beers at the Wine and Cheese Place in Clayton between Noon and 3PM.
• Ric at Sybergs on Gravois alerts me to some new beers he’s carrying for your drinking enjoyment:
  • Augie’s Rye Pale Ale
  • Samuel Smith Oatmeal Stout

Here’s a list of upcoming beer events:

• May 8, 9, 10 - St. Louis Brewers Heritage Festival
• May 10 - Iron Barley’s 5th Anniversary Party
• May 14 - Newstead Tower Schlafly Beer Dinner
• May 15 - Whole Foods IPA Beer Tasting
• May 15 - Mangia Italiano Spring Beer Dinner
• May 29 - Starr’s May Beer Dinner

“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.

Read the rest…

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that the 2nd Annual St. Louis Brewers Heritage Festival takes place this weekend. This festival was started last year to not only honor the longstanding brewing traditions of St. Louis but to also gather together the area’s brewers and showcase all of the talent we have in the area.

• The kick-off to this Festival begins this evening with a 5-course VIP dinner co-hosted by The Food Network celebrity chef Dave Lieberman and festival brewmasters.
• Friday begins with a new session, the “Business Man’s Special” which runs from Noon-4PM. This $50 event will not only allow you first crack at all of the festival beers, but the price also includes food as well.
• The grounds re-open on Friday for a session that runs from 6 - 10 p.m. and again Saturday, May 10, from noon - 4 p.m. and 6 - 10 p.m. Tickets for the Friday evening session and Saturday events cost $30 per person ($35 day of the events, so get your tickets now).
• This year will see a slight change (for the better in my opinion) of three tasting tents, instead of last year’s two. The three tents will be devoted to Ales, Lagers and also Specialty Beers.
• Restaurants participating in this year’s Festival are all from the St. Louis Originals group. Companion Bakery, Harvest, LoRusso’s Cucina, SqWires and Vin de Set have all created dishes designed to compliment the more than 70 beer styles available at the event.
• Not only will you be able to taste beer from 8 local breweries, but this year you’ll also have the chance to sample beers from a number of area homebrewers.
• The Heritage Festival Dark Lager recipe is back again this year, but we’re also privy to try Augie Altenbaumer’s Rye American Pale Ale recipe this year as well. The Suburban Journal recently featured an article on Augie and his beer, be sure to check it out.

The weather is looking wonderful for the weekend (a change over the last few weekends) with clear skies and 70°. It’s seriously looking like this year will be even better than last year. I’ll be attending tonight’s dinner, the Saturday Afternoon Session and maybe be attending part of the Friday Afternoon and Evening Session as well. I promise to provide plenty of pictures and hopefully a few interviews as well.

I’m pleased to announce that the winner for the two tickets to the Saturday afternoon session of the St. Louis Brewers Heritage Festival is Wesley Crawford! Congrats to Wesley and thank you everyone for entering. If you didn’t win, don’t be too upset, I’m going to have a few more things to give away in the next few weeks.

I once again want to thank Dan Kopman from Schlafly Beers and Jay Cunningham from Anheuser-Busch for providing the tickets to this event. Hope to meet a lot of you at the festival! I’ll be posting a lot of information about it on this blog this weekend!

Well, it looks like we have another cool Saturday in store just in time for another beer event. But that never keeps us beer nerds down, we always persevere. Here’s the Round-Up:

Stuff from around the web

• The Los Angeles Times discusses the high price of beer costs and gets Stephen Hale’s good side in the process.
• Kevin Adams from the blog Spectre’s Sayings provides his thoughts on Schlafly 15.
• Granite City Food & Brewery keeps opening stores and losses keep getting bigger.
• The Beer Evangelists review one of my favorite local beers, the Schlafly APA.

Beer Releases and News

• Andrew from Bon Vivant Wines informs me to some new beers he has in his stock:
  • Founder’s Rubaeus
  • DFH Aprihop
  • Jolly Pumkin Calabaza Blanca
  • Two Brother’s Monarch White
  • Hofbrau Maibock
• Paul at The Wine and Cheese Place in Clayton alerts me to some new beers he has in stock:
  • Boulevard Smokestack Series
  • Bud Light Lime
  • Schlafly Export IPA
  • Mahr’s Weisse
  • Hopback Summer Lightning
  • Wychwood Scarecrow
  • Nethergate Old Growler
• Ric at Sybergs on Gravois alerts me to some new beers he’s carrying for your drinking enjoyment:
  • O’Fallon - Wheach
  • O’Fallon - 5 Day IPA
• Jerad Gardner, of the Rotten Apple lets me know about his most current draught selection. If you haven’t been to the Rotten Apple, take the time to visit:
  • Lagunitas Brewing - IPA
  • Dogfish Head Brewing - 60 min IPA
  • Founders Brewing - Centennial IPA
  • Two Brothers Brewing - Cane and Ebel
• Chris at Randall’s Wine & Spirits alerts me to some new beers sets he has in stock at the Fairview Heights Randall’s:
  • Fort Collins Double Choc.Stout
  • Pyramid Curveball
  • Lost Coast Indica IPA
  • Boulder Sweaty Betty Blonde
  • Left Hand Sawtooth ESB
  • Avery Collabaration Not Litigation
  • Avery Maharaja IPA
  • De Ranke Xx Bitter
  • Schlafly Export IPA
• Chris is also expecting these beers in today at the St. Louis Randall’s:
  • Boulevard Smokestack Series
  • Schlafly Export IPA
  • Southern Tier Un-Earthly IPA
  • Southern Tier Uber Sun
  • Southern Tier Hoppe
  • Wittekerke Beer
  • Fort Collins Mix 12 pk

Here’s a list of upcoming beer events:

• May 3 - National Homebrew Day
• May 8, 9, 10 - St. Louis Brewers Heritage Festival

Are you the procrastinating type? Were you planning on waiting until the last minute to buy your tickets to the St. Louis Brewers Heritage Festival? Well today is your lucky day, I’m giving away two passes to the Saturday Afternoon session of the Heritage Festival. This $60 value will allow you to partake in one of the best beer festivals in the area. All you need to do is email contest@stlhops.com with your favorite St. Louis brewery and your favorite beer from said brewery.

I want to thank Dan Kopman from Schlafly Beers and Jay Cunningham from Anheuser-Busch for providing the tickets to this event. This contest will end on May 5th at 9AM CDT when I will pick a winner at random. If you don’t win this one, don’t worry I will be holding more contests like this in the future, so you’ll have another chance then. Good luck!

If you haven’t already committed yourself to the Starr’s Beer Dinner (like I have) then you have two choices for beer dinners on Wednesday, April 30th.  Newstead Tower Pub is keeping up with it’s commitment of hosting a beer dinner at least once a month and this time it’s to celebrate the upcoming St. Louis Brewers Heritage Festival.  Reservations are required for this event and the cost is $40.  You can make your reservations by calling 314-535-7771.