Nothing says love in brewing like a collaboration.  In this case it’s getting awesome brewers like Drew Huerter, Dave Johnson and Jerid Saffell together to brew up a spicy witbier at Buffalo Brewing just in time for the last few days of August.

This four barrel batch of beer, which features fresh grated orange zest, hand toasted coriander, dried chamomile flowers, and Summit and Hallertau hops was fermented using the Belgian yeast culture from the now defunct Mattingly Brewing Company. According to Jerid, this will be on tap today.

Here’s the stats on this beer:
1.052 OG
16 IBUs
5.0% ABV

This sounds like a perfect treat to sit back and drink while enjoying this wonderful weather we’re having in St. Louis.

Who’s ready for a roller coaster of emotion? First we had a cask, then we didn’t.  Now it looks like we’re back on again.

O’Fallon brewer extrordinaire Dave Johnson heard about what happened to the Arcadia cask and offered up their O’Fallon Brown Ale on cask for The Stable’s Firkin Friday.

My guess is that this is the O’Town Brown that many of us had a chance to try at the American Amber Launch Party at iTAP.  But I’m being told that this is a one off cask and this will probably be your only chance to try it.

The date for the event is September 25th, starting at 6PM.

Highland Restaurant and Brewing Company has slowly but steadily making changes to the beers that were previously being brewed at Wm. D. Alandale Brewing Company.  Headbrewer Dave Johnson emailed to inform me about a few news beers coming down the pipe.   The first new beer is one that I’m sure will be a crowd favorite around these parts, a West Coast style IPA.  Dave gives the details:

It is a west coast style IPA made with large additions of Cascade and Chinook hops, 6.2% ABV, 60 IBU’s.

The second beer, sure to quench the summer heat, is a new Bohemian Pilsner.

It’s made with Pilsner and Vienna malt and  large doses of Tettnang and Saaz hops for a crisp bitter finish. 5.2% ABV , 35 IBU’s.

He also let me know we has a Belgian Witte and a Strawberry Blonde in the tanks, so I’m sure we’ll see those hitting the taps soon.

As with a lot of specialty beers brewed at Buffalo Brewing Company Paul Stelmach’s India Brown Ale began its life as a homebrewed beer.  Paul brought a sample of his beer to Buffalo head brewer Dave Johnson who thought the malt profile was perfect, but the hops needed a little tweaking.

So after experimenting a bit, Buffalo now has on an IBA that Paul describes as such:

“This India Brown Ale is a creamy hopped up brown ale with lots of Caramel and Chocolate flavor and is very sessionable. The ABV is 6% with 50 IBUs. It was bittered with CTZ hops but the flavor and aroma came from Cascade and Amarillo and then it was dry hopped with Amarillo and CTZ to balance out the citrus aroma of the Amarillo hops.”

Paul thinks that this beer may go great with a Buffalo burger. Seems like a perfect excuse to visit Buffalo Brewing.

If you were paying attention to the comments over the weekend, you saw that Vancer gave us a huge scoop.  Looks like Wm. D. Alandale Brewing Company has been sold and is now Highland Restaurant and Brewery.  Also turns out that the new Head Brewer at Highland is none other than brewer extraordinaire Dave Johnson.  I emailed Dave to ask him a few questions about Highland, as you can imagine he’s very busy now working at three breweries so I appreciate the quick responses.

When did this happen?
About 2 weeks ago
What are the first changes?
A little remodeling
New Menu? Chef?
New menu
What beers do you see coming?
Right now the Rye APA, and I brewed a Pilsner today. More changes later.
How do you keep this venture separate from O’Fallon and Buffalo?
Pretty tough.
Does this mean we don’t see this new venture at Heritage?
We will be there.

Dave promised more information soon.  As someone who lives about 5 minutes from Alandale, I have to say I’m excited about having the Rye IPA just that much closer to my home.

This past January, the Garage Brewers Society held a Chili and Homebrew Competition and Bryan Clauser won Best of Show with his hopped-up American Amber.  As part of the Best of Show win,  Dave Johnson took Bryan’s recipe and scaled it up to brew at  Buffalo Brewing Company.

The beer is now available to enjoy over at BBC and to celebrate the GBS is having a release party at Buffalo Brewing Company tonight, Thursday April 23rd from 7 – 9. Make sure to stop by and congratulate Bryan for his accomplishment.

Do you love chili? How about beer?  Well the Garage Brewers Society has an event just for you. On Saturday, January 24th at 2PM the GBS will be hosting their Third Annual Chili Cook-Off at O’Fallon Brewery. Come and eat a boatload of great chili and drink some great homebrew. If you fancy yourself the ultimate chili cook, this is your chance to show off your skill.  Bring your chili up to the Cookoff by 1:30 the day of the comp and it’ll be judged by Missouri Chili Champion Sheldon Hartsfield.  (Special note, I found out that this competition is open only to GBS members only.  Sorry for the mix up.)

Not only will there be a Chili competition but there will be a Homebrew competition as well. (Special note, I found out that this competition is open only to GBS members only.  Sorry for the mix up.)  They’ll be judging categories 7A North German Alt, 10B American Amber, and Category 9 Scottish and Irish Ales.  The winner out of those three categories will not only have his name put on a plaque at O’Fallon for eternity, but Dave Johnson of O’Fallon and Buffalo will brew their beer for sale at Buffalo Brewing Company.

More details can be found on the GBS website.