Were you aware that St. Louis Brewery brews over 40 different styles of beer? That’s a hell of a lot of styles, in fact I’d guess that Schlafly is one of the few breweries in the nation that tackles that many different styles in a single year. Why do I bring this up? Well, the 2010 Schlafly Hop in the City is upon us again and with it brings the opportunity to taste every single style of beer Schlafly produces.

This year’s festival not only offers live music and food, but also this year’s special festival beer, brewed for the first time ever at Schlafly, an Oud Bruin. Here are the details for Hop in the City, direct from Schlafly’s website:

HOP IN THE CITY 2010
Saturday, September 18 – Noon-5:00 p.m.
The Schlafly Tap Room

TICKETS are $25 in August, $30 in September and $35 day of the event (see Schlafly Website for Info).
ONLINE ticket sales available HERE.

Well, this is it, this is the beer that created quite a sensation at last year’s Hop in the City festival, the Schlafly American IPA.  But Mike, this beer isn’t the beer that was brewed back in September, is it?

No, it’s not.  In order to get a baseline to compare against the 8% version of the AIPA that’s arriving this spring, they needed to brew another batch of the original.

So, not only do you get one of the best IPAs in the St. Louis area served on cask, but you can get it alongside the best place to get Neapolitan Pizza in the St. Louis area, The Good Pie.

This Friday, March 5th, starting a 5PM,  a representative from the St. Louis Brewery will be tapping a cask of the American IPA and will be serving it until the cask runs out or The Good Pie closes.

Sure, you can get cask beer at the Tap Room, but you can’t get American IPA or some Neapolitan Pizza to go along with it!  Head on out there for some great pizza and beer.

We ask and Schlafly delivers.  I’m proud to announce that starting in 2010, the Schlafly American IPA will be available as the Summer Special Release.

The beer that was so popular at this past year’s Hop in the City will become available on June 1st of 2010.  This beer will be available in six-packs at the same price point as the other Special Release beers (Pumpkin, Export IPA, Extra Dry Stout, etc.)

It’s also of note that this beer will get a bit bigger.  Being that this is the beer people want, they’re going to raise the ABV to 8%.  And because that malt gets a little bigger means we get a bit more hoppiness as well.

This is an extra special early Christmas gift for us hopheads.

Well, this is it.  This is the last cask of the Hop in the City festival beer, the Schlafly American IPA. Not only do you get one of the best IPAs in the St. Louis area served on cask, but you can get it alongside the best place to get Neapolitan Pizza in the St. Louis area, The Good Pie.

This Friday, October 2nd, starting a 6PM, f a representative from the St. Louis Brewery will be tapping the last cask of American IPA and will be serving it until the cask runs out or The Good Pie closes.

Sure, you can get cask beer at the Tap Room, but you can’t get Neapolitan Pizza to go along with it! Head on out there for some great pizza and beer.

I said something similar last year, but I’ll say it again. If beer drinking was a sport, than to me Schlafly’s Hop in the City always feels like the beginning of a new season. It feels like the kick-off to a new year of beer and beer festivals and this kick-off never seems to disappoint.

I’m sure we can all see how much I loved the festival beer.  A few suggestions for next year are that I would look at different pouring configuration in the large tent.  As we all know, too many people congregate near the pouring areas and there wasn’t a lot of room on the east side of the large tent.  Also, maybe some signage about, “Get you beer, then move your rear.”

If you were unable to attend, here are a few photos of the festival which will hopefully tide you over until next year:

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I’m pleased to announce that the winner for the two tickets to the Saturday afternoon’s Schlafly Hop in the City beer festival is Matt Burgdorf! Congrats to Matt and thank you everyone for entering. If you didn’t win, don’t be too upset, I’m going to have a few more things to give away in the next few weeks.

I once again want to thank Dan Kopman from The St. Louis Brewery and for providing the tickets to this event. Hope to meet a lot of you at the festival!

As you all know, Schlafly Hop in the City is coming up this Saturday and to help kick off the event The Royale will be throwing a party on Thursday, September 17th beginning at 6PM with a cask of the Hop Festival beer, the American IPA.

Not only do you get to enjoy some delicious cask beer, I’ve been told that representatives from Schlafly will be on hand to give out some tickets for Hop in the City.  Cask beer and the possibility for free tickets?  Sounds like a win-win to me.