Molly’s Bistro and Missouri Beverage will be hosting a Beer Dinner on Thursday, December 3rd starting at 7:30 that has the theme of “Tastes from the French Countryside”.

This six course meal pairs unique beer selections with a French-country inspired meal designed by Chef Eric Brenner.  The cost of the meal, which includes six different beers, is $50 per person (excluding tax and gratuity).

Reservations are required and can be made by calling 314-241-5100 or by emailing info@mollysinsoulard.com.  The full menu including pairings is available after the break.

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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.

I’m pleased to announce that the four winners for the tickets to the MoBev 2009 Bowling for Beer Tour are Chris Van Gels, Bryan Clauser, Patricia Thomas and Hunter Lanier! Congrats to all of them and thanks everyone for entering. If you didn’t win, don’t be too upset, once again I have some cool stuff to give away soon (like today).

I once again want to thank Derek Bean from Missouri beverage for donating the four tickets to the tasting. It sounds like a lot of fun and I hope you all roll strikes.

Each summer the fellows that work at Missouri Beverage take the show on the road visiting Kansas City, Columbia and St. Louis to give their restaurant and retail accounts a chance to meet with brewery & importer reps from the breweries they represent and sell.

You may be thinking to yourself, “This sounds all well and good, but how does it do me any good?  I don’t work for a retailer or restaurant.”  Well, Derek Bean has been kind enough to provide 4 tickets to this event which includes not only the ability to taste over 100 different beers but also bowling!  And who doesn’t love bowling?

The MoBev 2009 Bowling for Beer Tour will take place on Thursday, June 25th from 2PM-6PM.  If you’re interested in winning a ticket to this event all you need to do is email contest@stlhops.com with a subject of “Bowling for Beer Tour” and let me know what your highest bowling score has been.

This contest will end on June 24th at 9AM CDT when I will pick four winners at random. If you don’t win this one, don’t worry I will be holding more contests like this in the future, so you’ll have another chance then. Good luck!

So it took a bit longer than originally expected, but beers from Moylan’s Brewery out of Novato, California are now available in St. Louis. Previously only available to us in Illinois, Moylan’s is the latest brewery addition from the guys at Missouri Beverage. Here’s a list of what you’ll see in stores:

• Moylan’s Hopsickle Imperial IPA
• Moylan’s IPA
• Moylan’s Kilt Lifter Scotch Ale
• Moylan’s Tipperary Pale Ale
• Moylan’s Danny’s Irish Style Red Ale
• Moylan’s Ryan O’Sullivans Imperial Stout
• Moylan’s Dragoons Dry Irish Stout.

Draught selections will be available, but I don’t have word at this time what those will be.

Edit: Here’s the list of current draught beers that MoBev received from Moylan’s:

• Dragoon’s Nitro Irish Stout
• Tipperary Pale Ale
• Kilt Lifter

With the release of Founder’s Brewery beer less than a week away, the air around the STL Hops offices (ha!) has been electric.  Can you feel the excitment?  Well, as part of St. Louis Craft Beer Week, The Wine and Cheese Place and Missouri Beverage will be holding a special, invite only class with Michael Bell of Founders detailing some information about the newest beers in the St. Louis area.

The invite-only class will be taking place on Wednesday, June 3rd from 5:30PM-6:30PM just before the Founder’s Release Party at the Wine and Cheese Place.  Fortunately for you Paul was kind enough to give us 4 tickets to give away for this event.

I’ll be picking two winners on Monday, June 1st at 9AM. If you’re interested in attending, email contest@stlhops.com with the subject line of: “Founders Invite-Only Class” and let me know what your favorite Founder’s beer is.

I mentioned a few weeks ago that it looked like we’d finally see Founders Brewing Company in St. Louis.  Well, I’m happy to report that Founders has found a distributor and will be arriving in St. Louis begining in early May.

Founders has chosen Missouri Beverage as their distributor in St. Louis, which I think is a fantastic choice based on MoBev’s recent commitment to craft beer in St. Louis.

Which beers that will be coming to the area is still up in the air, but I’m sure we’ll see many of the perenial favorites, such as Red’s Rye and Centennial IPA.  Exciting news and I’m so very proud that everyone at STL Hops helped to make it happen.  Thanks to you all.