“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…

• Drew Huerter, who you may remember from my wintry Homebrew With Drew post a while back, has told me that he’s been brought onto the Schlafly Tap Room to help out Stephen Hale and Brennan Greene a few days a week. He’s also informed me that he’ll be taking over the helm for the Mattingly Brewing Company that I mentioned last week. So congrats to him!
• Dave Johnson and Charlie Berger of O’Fallon Brewery were interviewed last week by The Beer Report in anticipation for the 2008 Peoria Beerfest. Listen to the podcast here.
• Jerad Gardner has taken over the position of Bar Manager at the Rotten Apple in Grafton, IL. He’ll also be involved with The Stable as it moves closer to opening. Oh, did I also mention that Rotten Apple currently has some Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout available?
• Derrick Bean and Dave Johnson of O’Fallon also let me know that the Pappy Van Winkle O’Fallon Smoked Porter should be seeing the store shelves as soon as April 21st.
• Schlafly and the Repeal of Prohibition Festival get a small shout-out on CNN.

Granite City Brewery Opens on January 15

Larry Chase, the Brewery manager for Granite City Food and Brewery, informed me that their newest location, which is in Creve Couer, will be opening tomorrow. GCFB has a very unusual method of brewing beer, which Bill Burge touched briefly on a while back. Larry has kindly accepted an offer for a interview in the near future, so if you have anything you’d like me to ask him feel free to leave a comment or post it in the forums.

Scottish Arms Owner Opening New Restaurant

Thanks to Jim for point this one out to me from Sauce’s Scoop. Alistair Nisbet, the owner of the Scottish Arms, will be opening a new restaurant in the Tower Grove area named The Shaved Duck. Besides having what sounds like the most delicious name ever, the Shaved Duck will feature only American craft beers. It will be interesting to see what kind of list they put together, we’ll find out when the restaurant opens in March.

Buffalo Brewing Company Updates

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago about the newest brewpub entering the St. Louis area, the Buffalo Brewing Company. Dave from O’Fallon Brewery has informed us that he’ll be brewing part time for the new brewery and that 2-4 beer wills be on tap when the pub opens in a couple of weeks. A total of 6 beers will be on draught when they get fully up and operational, 4 flagships and 2 seasonals. From Dave, “The proposed beers to start are, Am. Brown Ale, Chili beer, Amber Ale, Golden Ale, Rye IPA, and Bavarian Hefeweisen.”