For the past few years, the Great American Beer Festival has held a Brewery/Homebrewer Pro-Am competition where a brewery works with an award winning homebrewer to produce a beer to send to the GABF competition.

Last year the O’Fallon Brewery worked with Jim Yeager from the Garage Brewers Society to select a beer to send to the Pro-Am comp. In the end, Jim Yeager’s Alright Already American Amber won silver at the GABF Pro-Am competition.

This year O’Fallon Head Brewer Brian Owens caught wind of Jim Leabig’s attempts to perfect his IPA recipe and asked Jim if they wanted to collaborate on a beer to send out to GABF.  The result of that collaboration is the Sweet Nectar IPA and you’ll have your first chance to try it this Thursday at the International Tap House Chesterfield.

Jim describes the beer as such:

Sweet Nectar IPA is a hop bomb. The recipe was designed to let the hops shine as much as possible. We utilized a hop-bursting technique where all of the bitterness is derived from late kettle hop additions to bring forth a smoother bitterness and a ridiculous amount of hop flavor and aroma. We used more hops in this batch, 3.5 lbs per barrel to be exact, than have ever been stuffed into our kettle and fermenters. Don’t let the name fool you though. This is a very dry IPA with just enough crystal malt to accent the malt character and not overpower the hops. We hope you enjoy it as much as we do.

Along with Sweet Nectar you’ll also have the chance to try another O’Fallon Brewery collaboration, the C3. The C3 is a hybrid called an American Mild, it’s got a huge hop flavor all while having a low 3.8% ABV.

This party runs from 6:30PM – ??? this Thursday, September 2nd. Sounds like a great opportunity to try some new local collaborations.

Update: Added new beers from East Side Brewers and A-B Homebrewing Club.

Evan Benn at the Post-Dispatch has a rundown of all of the commercial beers available at this year’s St. Louis Brewers Heritage Festival. Edit: Looks like Evan linked to the list of all these beers.  But think of this as me saving you an extra click. But there are a group of homebrewers from the St. Louis Brews and Garage Brewers Society that put together some great beers for you to sample as well.

It’s important to note that all of the beers listed below will be on at random times during the festival.  There is no set schedule for releasing these beers.  Here’s a list of the homebrew and the brewers that brewed it:

American Wheat

• Bryan Clauser (GBS)
• Scott Hespen (GBS)
• Scott Hespen (GBS)
• Tim Hayes (GBS)
• Tim Hayes – Peach Wheat (GBS)
• Jim Yeager – Raspberry Wheat (GBS)
• Jim Yeager – Centennial Wheat (GBS)
• Adam Greminger – American Honey Wheat (GBS)
• Adam Greminger – Dustin Brown’s Wedding Wheat (GBS)
• Steve Dahl (GBS)
• Steve Dahl (GBS)
• Brad Mock (StLBrews)
• Paul Murphy – Murphy’s American Wheat Ale (StLBrews)
• Paul Murphy – Nat.’l Homebrew Day Amer. Wheat Ale w/Wyeast 1010 (StLBrews)
• Paul Murphy – Nat.’l Homebrew Day Amer. Wheat Ale w/Schlafly’s Yeast (StLBrews)
• Michael McCoy (StLBrews)
• Andrew Bretz (StLBrews)
• Kerth Stocker (StLBrews)

Red/Amber

• Scott Walters – Irish Red (GBS)
• Scott Walters – Irish Red (GBS)
• Jeff Britton (GBS)
• Dave Harnett (GBS)
• Tim Cochran – American Amber (StLBrews)
• Nic Zimmer – Irish Red, 4 gal (StLBrews)

APA

• Ted O’Neil (StLBrews)
• Dan Stauder (StLBrews)
• John Mitchell (StLBrews)
• John Mitchell (StLBrews)
• Mike Walters (StLBrews)
• Gary Burke (StLBrews)
• Gary Burke (StLBrews)
• Christopher Horn – Rye Pale Ale (StLBrews)
• Kally Gehly – Rye Pale Ale (StLBrews/GBS)
• Kally Gehly – Single-Hop Pale Ale w/Sterling (StLBrews/GBS)
• Kally Gehly – Single-Hop Pale Ale w/Sterling (StLBrews/GBS)
• Scott Walters (GBS)
• Kent Critchell (GBS)
• Jim Leabig (GBS)
• Shawn Mitchell (GBS)

IPA

• Bryan Clauser (GBS)
• Tim Hayes (GBS)
• Jim Leabig (GBS)
• Dennis Stroup – “Virgin Nectar” IPA (GBS)
• Kevin Tierney (StLBrews)
• Rick Haynes (StLBrews)
• Rick Haynes (StLBrews)

Stout

• Bob Brandt (GBS)
• Doug Howell (GBS)
• Jim Yeager – Oatmeal Stout (GBS)
• Phil “O” – Milk Stout (GBS)
• Jerid Saffell – American Stout, 7.5% ABV, 60 IBUs, Magnum, Ahtanum, & Simcoe hops (GBS)
• Bridget Doherty – Breakfast Stout (StLBrews)
• Nic Zimmer – Sweet Stout, 2.5 gal (StLBrews)

German Hefeweizen

• Rick Haynes (StLBrews)
• Rick Haynes (StLBrews)
• David Roesch – Bavarian Hefeweizen/Heritage Festival Beer (StLBrews)
• David Roesch – Bavarian Hefeweizen/Heritage Festival Beer (StLBrews)
• Joe Orsa – Bavarian Hefeweizen/Heritage Festival Beer (StLBrews)
• Sean Sweeney (StLBrews)
• Gary Reynolds (GBS)
• Jerid Saffell – 5% ABV, 12 IBU, Magnum hops (GBS)

Fruit

• Bob Love – Raspberry Cream Ale (GBS)
• Bob Love – Cherrywood Smoked Wheat (GBS)
• Dave Blue – Lemon Coriander Wheat (GBS)

ESB

• Tim Fahrner (StLBrews)
• Kevin Tierney (StLBrews)
• Kally Gehly – gal (StLBrews/GBS)
• John Sutton (GBS)
• Scott Hespen (GBS)

Blonde Ale

• Scott Hixson (StLBrews)
• Kerth Stocker (StLBrews)
• Christopher Horn (StLBrews)
• Steven May (StLBrews-affiliated)
• John Grady (GBS)
• Jerid Saffell – American Blonde, 4.8% ABV, 25 IBU, Summit & Ahtanun hops (GBS)
• Jerid Saffell – American Blonde, 4.8% ABV, 25 IBU, Summit & Ahtanun hops (GBS)

Kolsch

• Tim Hayes (GBS)
• Kent Robertson – Bonn-Bonn Kolsch (StLBrews)

Porter

• John Grady (GBS)
• Jim Yeager – Coconut Vanilla Porter (GBS)
• Tim Hayes – Chocolate Porter (GBS)

Cider

• Peter MacKercher (StLBrews)
• Paul Murphy – Hard Apple Cider (StLBrews)

Scottish Ales

• Kevin Tierney (StLBrews)
• Nic Zimmer – 80-Shilling, 4 gal (StLBrews)

Cream Ale

• Dan Stauder (StLBrews)
• Dan Stauder (StLBrews)
• Dan Stauder (StLBrews)
• Jeff Britton – Cream Ale (GBS)
• Andrew Wall – Coconut Cream Ale (GBS)

Miscellaneous

• Michael Doherty – Belgian Quad (StLBrews)
• Michael Doherty – Belgian Quad (StLBrews)
• Trish Thomas – Saison w/fruit (StLBrews)
• Trish Thomas – Belgian Triple (StLBrews)
• Chris Rahn – American Brown Ale (StLBrews)
• Jack Baty – Tart Cherry Beer, Aged 9 months (StLBrews)
• Sean Sweeney – Maibock (StLBrews)
• Sean Sweeney – Pennsylvania Swankey (a historic American beer w/star anise) (StLBrews)
• Kally Gehly – “Teddy Grahams” Ale (GBS “Ironman” Comp. Beer; StLBrews)
• David Nitzche – “Mystery Hops and Malts Ale” (StLBrews)
• Gary Burke – Maibock (StLBrews)
• Jerid Saffell – Cerveza-style (GBS)
• Chris Buchanan – Jalepeno Ale (GBS)
• Tim Hayes – California Common (GBS)
• Jerid Saffell – Belgian Pale Ale, 4.8% ABV, 30 IBUs, Kent Golding & Saaz hops (GBS)
• Scott Walters – “Fest Bier” Octoberfest Lager (GBS)
• Scott Walters – “Fest Bier” Octoberfest Lager (GBS)

Update:  The East Side Brewers and the A-B Homebrew Club will also be serving up some of their beers as well:

East Side Brewers

Greg Bridwell(Imperial Pilsner)

• Greg Campbell( Kolsch )
• Jeff Harbaugh(California Common)
• Toni Yager(TBD)
• Joe Mansker(TBD)
• Ben Cowan(Belgian Double)
• Andrew Sanders(Brown Sugga)
• Gary Burke(TBD)

A-B Homebrewers Club

• Greg Campbell (dual member – East Side Brewers & A-B) (Indian Spiced Ale)
• Steve Schick (Amber Ale)
• Steve Schick (Amber Ale)
• Tom Seiff (Saison)
• Mark Vance (APA)
• Mark Vance (Dunkelweizen)

For the past few years, the Great American Beer Festival has held a Brewery/Homebrewer Pro-Am competition where a brewery works with an award winning homebrewer to produce a beer to send to the GABF competition.

This year the O’Fallon Brewery worked with the Garage Brewers Society to select a beer to send to the Pro-Am comp.  Jim Yeager’s American Amber was chosen as the winner and you’ll have a chance to try it this Saturday at the International Tap House.

Jim describes the beer as such:

In terms of the beer itself, I think of this one as a really good blend of malt complexity and citrusy american hops (I’m a huge fan of amarillo hops, so expect lots of them!). I don’t think we really have anything quite like this available locally so I’m really interested to see how people like it.

You’ll have a chance to not only try the draught version of the beer, but there will be a double dry hopped (Amarillo and Cascade) cask version available as well.

There will also be some other O’Fallon goodies available as well, including the O’Fallon O’Town Brown Ale (which according to MoBev’s Derek Bean is another beer brewed this year just for a special competition at the GABF) and, one keg of the O’Fallon St. Louis Brewers Heritage Festival Fest Beer Dry Irish Stout.

This party runs from 2PM – 5PM this Saturday, August 22nd.  Sounds like a great opportunity to try some new beers from O’Fallon.

If you’re one of those people who’s always wanted to get their homebrew on, but never knew where to start tomorrow is your best opportunity to learn how to turn grains and hops into beer. May 7rd marked the 30th anniversary of National Homebrew Day and to celebrate homebrewers are going to do what the do best, brew beer!

Each year on the first Saturday in May, homebrewers unite non-brewing and brewing friends and family to celebrate National Homebrew Day, joining with thousands of homebrewers from around the world in brewing the same recipes and sharing a simultaneous toast at noon Central Time.

You may be asking yourself, “Hey Mike, we’ve already passed the first weekend of May!”  And you’re right, but with Microfest going on last weekend, the St. Louis homebrewing clubs decided that they were going to hold off a week to make sure there wasn’t competing events on the same weekend.  So, National Homebrewing Day will take place this Saturday, May 9th in St. Louis.

Locally the two biggest homebrew clubs will be celebrating in two different locations. The Garage Brewers Society will be celebrating the event at O’Fallon Brewery while the St. Louis Brews will be brewing up a storm at Worm’s Way. Both locations will be offering up great food, great discussion and of course plenty of homebrew.

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.

If you’re one of those people who’s always wanted to get their homebrew on, but never knew where to start tomorrow is your best opportunity to learn how to turn grains and hops into beer. May 3rd marks the 29th anniversary of National Homebrew Day and to celebrate homebrewers are going to do what the do best, brew beer!

Each year on the first Saturday in May, homebrewers unite non-brewing and brewing friends and family to celebrate National Homebrew Day, joining with thousands of homebrewers from around the world in brewing the same recipes and sharing a simultaneous toast at noon Central Time.

Locally the two biggest homebrew clubs will be celebrating in two different locations. The Garage Brewers Society will be celebrating the event at O’Fallon Brewery while the St. Louis Brews will be brewing up a storm at Worm’s Way. Both locations will be offering up great food, great discussion and of course plenty of homebrew.