Iron Barley is celebrating not only their fifth anniversary, but also is kicking off the beginning of American Craft Beer Week with a party on May 10th. Now you may be saying to yourself, “Hey! That interferes with the Heritage Festival!” But not so fast, Iron Barley is providing a shuttle to the festival at 11AM and will pick you back up at 5PM. Here are some details for this event:

Celebrate Our 5 Year Anniversary

Saturday May 10th
Breakfast Buffet 9-11am
Shuttle Bus to Forest Park
For the Heritage Festival 11-5pm

Come Back to Iron Barley and enjoy Food and Sampling of The Boulevard Smokestack Series. And meet with Ray Hill!

Live Music by:
The Line Men
Melody Den
The Transmitters and More….

Don’t you absolutely adore alliteration? Anyway, Tuesday night was the release of O’Fallon Brewery’s newest beer, Pappy Van Winkle Smoked Porter. Riddle’s Penultimate celebrated the event by purchasing the only keg of the beer. Bill Burge, his lovely wife Ellie, and Mike Leahy joined me for a taste of the draught Pappy Porter on Tuesday evening. I don’t think there was a disappointed one of us, the beer smells of a deep bourbon with a lot of vanilla. In fact, I thought it had so much vanilla nose, that it reminded me a bit of cake batter.

While the price is a bit high ($12 for an 8oz pour?!) this is something to partake while you still have the chance.

Longest title ever? I actually had to shorten it (twice). Anyway, to celebrate the release of O’Fallon Brewery’s newest (and possibly single edition) beer, the Pappy van Winkle Barrel Aged Smoked Porter, Riddle’s Penultimate will be holding a release party on April 22nd starting at 6PM. If you’re not aware of the PvW Smoked Porter, Andy Ayers of Riddle’s explains it better than I ever could:

The crew at O’Fallon Brewery had been experimenting with aging that award-winning Smoked Porter in used bourbon barrels, and they liked the results real well but the latest batch was something else again. That’s why Tony called me.The O’Fallon team didn’t realize what they had until they ran down the federal I.D. numbers on their most recently acquired whiskey barrels. By sheer good fortune, the O’Fallon Smoked Porter was resting in charred, white oak barrels that had, for the previous one score and three, been home to the only 23-year Kentucky Bourbon sold today, Pappy van Winkle’s Family Reserve, something like the Holy Grail to bourbon connoisseurs which, if you can find one of the 3,000 bottles released last year, can cost almost $400.

Pretty neat stuff, eh? Well it gets even cooler. O’Fallon only received four of these barrels which will yield about 75 cases and one half-barrel. Well Riddle’s purchased that half-barrel and will begin serving it during the release party next weekend. As soon as that barrel is gone, that’s probably the last chance you’ll have to try this very special beer.

St. Louis Brewery, makers of Schlafly beer, will be celebrating their 16th anniversary on Wednesday, December 26th. Here’s the info directly from the press release:

St. Louis, MO (November 2007) — Come down to the Schlafly Tap Room and celebrate sixteen years of Schlafly Beer in St. Louis. Beer prices will be rolled back to 1991 prices all day long. Black Trading Company, featuring Michael Prokopf, Blake Travis, Tom Hall and Charlie Pfeffer will play from 6-9pm.

Schlafly Beer will also be discounting renewals and new memberships for the SIP Club for Schlafly regulars and fans. The Schlafly Imperial Pint Club will be offered for $16 on December 26th only (regular price $25). New members will receive a special Schlafly stein, a Schlafly discount card that allows members to receive 20 ounce beers for the price of 16 ounce beers, 10% off in our retail shop and invitation to special tastings and events. Renewing members will receive a special SIP Club gift. Discounted memberships and renewals will be available at Schlafly Bottleworks also.

Not only do you get quality beer for minimal price but a SIP Club membership for 16 bucks? I know I’ll be there. Oh, who am I kidding? I’d be there anyway.

Thanks to Sam for sending this my way.