If you were paying close attention to yesterday’s story about the Augusta Brewing Sour Cherry Beer, you may have noticed that there was a change in the Head Brewer at Augusta.  That’s because as of last Friday, April 30th, Steve Neukomm sold Augusta Brewing Company to Terry and Jeri Heisler, owners of John G’s Bier Deck.

What does this mean?  Not much really.  The sale gives Steve Neukomm more time to develop and sell the beer and spirits that have become more and more popular at Square One Brewery.  It also gave Shawn Herrin the opportunity to become the Head Brewer at Augusta; Dr. John Witte will remain the head brewer at Square One.

You’ll still see the two locations working together from time to time.  For example, Shawn said that the Sour Cherry Beer should be available for sale in bottles at Square One in the near future.  I think this sale will be the best for both parties as we still have two local breweries looking to make some great beer.  Good luck to both.

For those of you who didn’t have a chance to try the Sour Cherry Beer that Square One Brewery released to help celebrate St. Louis Craft Beer Week, I’ve got good news for you. According to Augusta Brewing’s Head Brewer Shawn Herrin, some of this beer was bottled and is currently bottle conditioning.

If you don’t remember, this is the description of the beer:

Brewed 3 years ago as a Tripel, then refermented with sour cherries and inoculated with a Belgian lambic blend of yeasts and bacteria. The beer was left on the cherries and pits for 8 months and then racked off into kegs, half on oak, half all stainless.

Prior to carbonating, we blended the two back together and then blended again with a recent batch of tripel. Very tart and has sharp cherry flavors along with a hint of nuttiness (from the pit) in the finish.

I had a chance to try this last week and I was very impressed with the results.  It had a wonderful tartness without every being too acidic.  It was a well crafted blend.

Before you get too excited about this coming out in bottles, I’ve been told that this will was a very limited bottling with only about 25 cases available.   As soon as I have more information about the release date and where it’ll be available, I’ll make sure to let everyone know.

Square One Brewery is releasing a very special beer to help celebrate St. Louis Craft Beer Week, they’re calling it their Sour Cherry Beer.  Head brewer Dr. John Witte sent me a description of the beer:

Brewed 3 years ago as a Tripel, then refermented with sour cherries and inoculated with a Belgian lambic blend of yeasts and bacteria.  The beer was left on the cherries and pits for 8 months and then racked off into kegs, half on oak, half all stainless.

Prior to carbonating, we blended the two back together and then blended again with a recent batch of tripel.  Very tart and has sharp cherry flavors along with a hint of nuttiness (from the pit) in the finish.

One of the neatest parts about this beer is that during happy hour, Monday through Friday this week, they’ll be pairing this beer with brie and a stilton cheese to show off the amazing power of pairing beer with cheese.

I’ve been told there isn’t very much of this beer available, so if you’re a big fan of sour beers, I wouldn’t wait to try this beer out.

This time of year can always be a bit too hectic.  Sometimes all we need is to sit down, drink a beer and unwind.  Square One Brewery is here to help.

This week continues their Big Beers of Christmas event. The best part about this event is that every Monday they’ll be selling these Big Beers for the same price as their normal beers.  Here’s a list what’s in store:

• Dec 14th – Imperial IPA
• Dec 21st – Double Pilsner
• Dec 28st – Imperial Stout

If you can’t make it out to Square One over the next few weeks they’ll be offering up these beers at their New Years Eve Big Beer Dinner. Big beers and great prices. Too bad the holidays aren’t year round.

Maybe you’re like me and you missed the Schlafly Fresh Hop Ale Festival, you wanted to try all of those delicious fresh hop beers but you weren’t able to attend. Well, luckily there are second chances in life.

Tonight, Monday, October 19th, Square One Brewery will be holding a release party for their Hop Harvest Ale.  They’ll have $1 off all pints, all day long and then from 5PM-8PM they’ll be raffling off prizes such as logo wear, gift certificates and pint glasses. The final raffle  of the night will be for your choice of three growlers of beer or a bottle of their Spirits of St. Louis spirits.

This is your chance to join the party of the release of the Favorite Beer at the Augusta Bottoms Beer Festival.

For those of you that need the final push to purchase tickets for the Schlafly Fresh Hop Ale Festival, here’s the list of beers that will be available at the event:

Amalgamated
Harvest Pale Ale—An American-style Pale Ale with a large flavor addition of wet Amarillo hops. The wort was passed through the hop back packed with the wet Amarillo hops to extract and better retain the super-fresh hop character that results from using fresh, wet hops. (5.5 ABV)
Harvest Zoigl—This rare beer is a bready, malty lager with only a delicate hop flavor. Zoigl is a communal beer from the Oberpfalz region in Germany. Using these wet hops was a natural fit for a beer that focuses on the floral nature of the hops. (5% ABV)

Augusta/Square One
Hop Harvest—Our IPA is brewed with 2 Row, Crystal 40 and flaked barley, along with Perle, Golding, Cascade and Amarillo hops. 30lbs of fresh Amarillo hops were added to the fermenter for additional flavor and aroma. 2009 Augusta Bottoms Beer Festival, Favorite Festival Beer

Mattingly
Hop Seeker American Strong Ale—Our Hop Seeker is an American Strong Ale brewed with large doses of Magnum, Chinook, Ahtanum and freshly picked whole leaf Amarillo hops added to our hopback (built just for this beer), and is kept balanced by Pale Ale, Munich, Special B Malts and raw cane sugar. Hopheads, you have found what you seek. (8% ABV, 50 IBUs)

Morgan Street
Morgan Street Fresh Hop Lager—61 IBUs of Cascade hops make this pale lager intensely bitter. 30 pounds of fresh, wet Amarillo hops were added to the whirlpool and give a complex, grassy character. Finished with 8 more pounds of Cascade whole cone hops in the serving tank, this is one beer strictly for the hop lover. (61 IBUs)

O’Fallon
Extra Pale Ale—2-Row 82%, Munich 10L 12%, Caramel 20L 6%, Kolsch Yeast—30 lbs of Amarillo wet hops added at the end of boil in the hop back for that straight off the vine taste.

Schlafly
Tap Room Hop Harvest Ale—Brewed with Centennial and Cascade hops, then wet-hopped with 30 lbs of Amarillo fresh hops. Beer has a fruity, peachy quality and is very refreshing. (6% ABV 45 IBUs)
Bottleworks Fresh Hop Ale—An American Pale Ale style that is dry-hopped and wet-hopped. The wet hops include Amarillo hops and the dry hops include Amarillo, Sorachi Ace, and Cascade hops. These hops combine to give it a very floral hop aroma with touches of many different kinds on citrus. (5.4% ABV 44IBUs)

For all of you hop heads out there, you know this is a very special time of the year, it’s hop harvesting time.  It’s the time when breweries begin receiving their 2009 hop crop and begin producing some of the best fresh hop beers available.

To help celebrate that time, Schlafly has decided to put on the first, and I hope  what will become annual, Fresh Hop Ale Festival.  This festival will be occurring on Saturday, October 17th from 12PM-4PM at the Schlafly Bottleworks and tickets will cost $25 in advance ($30, day of.)

The St. Louis Brewery purchased a bulk amount of fresh hops which were then distributed to a number of area brewers who will create their own freshly hopped creation.  Here’s the currently list of participating breweries:

• Amalgamated Brewing Company
• Mattingly Brewing Company
• Square One Brewery
• Morgan Street Brewery
• O’Fallon Brewery

I normally don’t post events this early in advance, but as this will be held in a format similar to Cabin Fever, tickets will be limited and this is sure to sell out fast. You can purchase tickets here, beginning September 25th.