One of the things I was most excited about when I was invited to join the Schlafly crew at the Great Taste of the Midwest was the opportunity to taste one of my all-time favorite beers in an entirely new way, cask Bell’s Brewery Two Hearted Ale.  But let’s be honest, a little 2 or 3 ounce pour just doesn’t really cut it.  Sure it’s a nice little sample, but cask beer deserves to be in a pint glass.

Well, I’m happy to announce that on Friday, November 21 at 5PM, 33 Wine Shop and Tasting Bar will be cracking into a cask of Bell’s finest beer, Two Hearted Ale.  This will be available until the cask blows, so I wouldn’t dawdle getting down to 33, because I know I’m going to have my fair share of this beer.  I want to thank Jake, Dylan and Jim O’Connor of Bell’s for making this event happen, this is very exciting stuff for the St. Louis beer community.

This year I’ve attended two of the most acclaimed festivals in the United States, the Great Taste of the Midwest in Madison, Wisconsin and this past weekend the Great American Beer Festival in Denver, Colorado. Before leaving for Denver, I had a couple of different people ask me to compare the two festivals and give my thoughts.

Well…I guess the first thing I can say is that I had fun. I got to see some friends, I got to meet some amazing brewers and I had the chance to try a lot of beer that we can’t easily find in St. Louis. But there were a ton of negatives as well. The biggest negative for me was the amount of drunken idiots that populated the show floor. You can’t go two minutes without someone dropping their glass and the entire conference center going, “ohhhhhh!” C’mon people, grow up.

This basically felt like a trade show where you’re surrounded by people that just got let out of the local drunk tank. It’s like if you went to the Home Show or Boat Show but they made sure everyone got blasted before walking around. The second big negative for me was the fact that it was inside. Going into the festival I didn’t really think this would be a detraction for me, but it really was. There is something about sunshine and fresh air that really makes a festival fun.

My only suggestion for this festival, and I’m sure this isn’t an original idea, but there really needs to be an “industry session”. A single session for retailers, distributors, manufacturers, journalists and brewers to be able to talk, show off their wares and get things done. You have 400+ breweries in one spot, wouldn’t this be a great opportunity for a little business to get done?

Would I attend the festival again? Probably not. I’ve had my fill. If I were to go back to Denver during GABF it would be for some of the periphery events going on all week. All week long you’ll find that breweries and brewers visit different area locations and pull out some big guns. That part was amazing. But, I’ll stick to Great Taste next year. I’ve included some photos and after the jump I’ve included a list of just some of the beers I tasted this weekend.

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Read the rest…

While wandering around the Great Taste of the Midwest before the festival opened, I happened upon Arcadia Brewing Company which was situated right next to the O’Fallon Brewery booth. The thing that stuck out to me is that while there were a lot of very nice brewers at the festival, the Arcadia guys seemed very enthusiastic and genuinely appreciative of me stopping by.

So it came to no surprise to me that when Arcadia’s owner/founder Tim Suprise visited The Stable for an Arcadia beer tasting, he was just as enthusiastic and nice as the people I met in Madison.  As for the tasting, we got to enjoy Cocoa Loco, Hopmouth, Cereal Killer, and Witsun.   We were also treated to bacon wrapped dates, chicken satay, mushroom caps, a potato and cabbage dish and white chocolate chip and dried cherry cookies, some of which incorporated different Arcadia beers.  It was a very good time with great conversation, great food and great beer.

You know when you walk into a festival and see an entire tent that’s devoted to “Real Ale” that you’re in for a good time. The Great Taste of the Midwest is held annually in Madison, WI. It’s put on by the Madison Homebrewers and Tasters Guild, the local homebrew club. The festival is the second longest running beer festival in the US and it’s now in it’s 22nd year. Over 100 Brewers attended from all over the Midwest bringing over 400 different beers to sample.

This was by far the most fun beer festival I’ve ever attended. The people, the setting, the brewers, and the weather just added up to be an almost perfect beer experience. I think Drew Huerter put it best when he said to me, “You know those Miller Lite beer heaven commercials? They’ve got it all wrong, this is beer heaven.” I’m posting about 70 photos that will hopefully help to help to explain just how awesome this event is. Also, if you’re interested in the beers available at the event, here’s the PDF of the official program.

I just want to thank Stephen and Sara Hale and the St. Louis Brewery for allowing me to tag a long and expose me to such a fantastic event. Now on to the photos:

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For you lucky people who may be attending the Great Taste of the Midwest this Saturday in Madison, Wisconsin, Sales Manager Derrick Bean has put on an event just for you:

Just wanted to let you all know, for those of you heading up to Madison this weekend for The Great Taste of the Midwest Beer Festival, our local distributor has set up an O’Fallon bar promotion on Friday, August 8 from 6:30-8:30 at The Missouri Tavern in Waunakee, Wisconsin (about a 20 minute drive northwest from the festival site)! We can enjoy $2.75 bottles of Wheach, and possibly other O’Fallon beers as well while we’re there.

And, since this is a 20 minute drive from Madison, please make arrangements for a sober driver if you are attending.

For those of you in Madison this weekend and are interested in attending the address is 7071 Kickaboo Rd. (Hwy. 12) in Waunakee, WI.  Sounds like a lot of fun.