A few of the guys from the Forums have decided to get together and do what beer nerds do best, drink beer. So, if you’re itching for trying some interesting beer with some great guys, this is the event for you. Here’s just a sample of a few of the things that may be opened tomorrow:

• Cuvee De Castleton
• Kate The Great
• Beatification Batch 2
• BA Alesmiths (Wee Heavy, Numbskull and Speedway)
• Westy 12 or 8
• Unibroue 400th Anniv.
• Double Wide
• Sixth Glass
• Heavy-Weizen
• Creme Brulee
• Dark Lord 07 or 08
• Abyss
• Mikkeller Black Hole
• New Glarus Belgian Red
• New Glarus Raspberry Tart

Marc Nolan is hosting this even at his house, the address is 5534 Southfield Dr Apt M, Oakville, MO 63129. If you have any questions for Marc, his phone number is 314-471-7889. They’re shooting to start tasting some beer about 7PM. Also, as this is a beer tasting, you should  bring something to sample with the group as well. If you’ve been sitting on something for a special opportunity to break it out, here’s your chance!

After some discussion in the forums about how we’ve done enough gabbing about beer on this website, maybe it’s time to actually sit down and have one as a group. I’m happy to say that we now have a date, time and venue for the first STL Hops event. On Tuesday, June 17 at 6:30PM STL Hops will be hosting a meet-up at Mattingly Brothers Brewery at 3000 S. Jefferson (map it).

I plan on buying the pizza, you guys are on the hook for your own beer. After we get done with eating, drinking and talking we’ll probably move upstairs to Mattingly’s private room to do some beer sampling. So this is your chance to bring some homebrew or maybe some beer you’ve been sitting on waiting for a special day, etc. Mattingly’s new head brewer, Drew Huerter, will also be bringing some beer for you to sample so you can see what’s in store for Mattingly.

Mattingly is being extremely generous opening their doors upand even allowing us to bring some of our own beer. So I’m asking for just three things: first, buy a lot of beer on Tuesday night (and please be responsible about it, I’ll have a DD and so should you). Second, if you could drop me an email or even leave a comment for this post if you’re attending to give me a good idea of how many people are planning to attend it helps Mattingly get idea of how much space and help will be needed. Third, don’t make this your only visit to Mattingly. They’re opening their place up for us, we need to show the love back. Irene and I had dinner last night and found the pizza to be very good and were very happy with our visit.

If you have any comments, questions, requests, ideas please make sure to post a comment. Can’t wait to see you all in two weeks.

Brad Mock suggested this idea over in the forums, so I’m trying to gauge interest in it.  Would anyone here be interested in taking some Saturday in June, renting a bus and doing a beer tour around the St. Louis area?  I’m thinking we could visit a few breweries, a few excellent beer bars, talk and drink beer.

It looks like a few of us are interested, anyone else?  Also, do you have any suggestions for places we could visit?  Feel free to post a comment or email me with ideas or if you’re interested in attending.

Someone suggested this idea a while back and I thought it was a great idea. So thanks to Bill we’ve now got our own forums to discuss beer matters and whatnot in St. Louis. If you have any suggestions or things you’d like to see just give me a heads up. So what are you waiting for? Sign up!

Edit: Let me quickly add that I’m not going to start posting information or news in the forum that I wouldn’t post on the blog.  I realize some people aren’t interested in posting on a forum and are only interested in the news I post.  So that’s not going to change.  I just thought people would like a relaxed atmosphere to discussed beer related stuff going on in St. Louis.  Like I said in the comments here, if the forum doesn’t fly and people aren’t interested that’s not a big deal.  I didn’t put that much time into it.