Mark from Bigelo’s Bistro was kind enough to provide two tickets to their sold out beer dinner celebrating Bigelo’s eighth anniversary. The dinner is on Sunday October 19th at 5 pm and Bigelo’s is located in Edwardsville, Illinois.

If you’re interested in winning tickets that include a five courses being paired with five different Schlafly beers (you will be required to pay the gratuity) email contest@stlhops.com with a subject of “Bigelo’s Beer Dinner” and tell me what your favorite beer is only available in Illinois. 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, October 13th at 9AM. The full menu is available after the break. Read the rest…

Sorry for the delay on this, you can blame AB and InBev, but I’m happy to announce that the winner of the autographed copy of Charles Bamforth’s Grape vs Grain is Eric Burnley!

Once again, if you didn’t win, don’t be too upset, I’ve got some more awesome stuff to give away in the near future. So keep your eyes open for more prizes.

Charles Bamforth, the chairman of the department of food science and technology at University of California, Davis as well as Anheuser-Busch Professor of Malting and Brewing Sciences, recently put out a book called “Grape vs Grain.” The description from the publisher’s website:

Why is wine considered more sophisticated even though the production of beer is much more technologically complex? Why is wine touted for its health benefits when beer has more nutritive value? Why does wine conjure up images of staid dinner parties while beer denotes screaming young partiers? Charles Bamforth explores several paradoxes involving these beverages, paying special attention to the culture surrounding each. He argues that beer can be just as grown-up and worldly as wine and be part of a healthy, mature lifestyle. Both beer and wine have histories spanning thousands of years. This is the first book to compare them from the perspectives of history, technology, nature of the market for each, quality attributes, types and styles, and the effect that they have on human health and nutrition.

If learning more about the battle between wine and beer is up your alley, then send and email with the subject of “Grape vs Grain” to contest@stlhops.com. I’ll choose the random winner from the entries on Monday at 9AM.

I’m pleased to announce that the winner for the two tickets to the Saturday afternoon session of the 2008 St. Louis Microfest is Jim Leabig! Congrats to Jim 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 months.

I once again want to thank Paul Hayden from the Wine and Cheese Place for providing the tickets to this event.

This weekend is fast approaching and you haven’t bought your tickets to the 2008 St. Louis Microfest yet, have you? Well fear not, because thanks to Paul Hayden from the Wine and Cheese Place in Clayton, I’m giving away two free passes for the Saturday session. Now, it would be easy for me just to randomly pick an email out of a hat and hand the prizes to that person, but there’s no fun in that!

So, you have to answer this little trivia question as well. What five categories are beers being judged in for this years Microfest Homebrew competition? Email your answer to contest@stlhops.com, I’ll choose a winner out of the correct entries on Thursday, June 5th at 11AM. Winners must be at least 21 years old to enter this contest.

As I’m sure most of you are aware of the upcoming St. Louis Microfest being held on June 6th and 7th, I’m just going to get straight to the meat and give you the tentative beer list for both nights of the event:

Friday:

Bottles

Belhaven Scottish Ale
Duvel Belgian Beer
Lindeman’s Framboise
Lindeman’s Pomme
Moretti Lager
Newcastle Brown Ale
Orval Trappist
Paulander Hefe-Weizen
Samuel Smith Imperial Stout
Samuel Smith Oatmeal Stout
Singha
Strongbow Cider
Warsteiner Pilsner
Warsteiner Dunkel
Young’s Double Chocolate Stout
Peroni Pilsner
Negra Modelo
Tsing Tao
Sapporo
Estrella Damm
Tooheys
Barons Black Wattle
Sol
Tona

Draught

Stella Artois
Smithwick
Harp
Guinness
Beamish Irish

Read the rest…

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!