Can you believe it’s almost been a year?  As of January 31st, the International Tap House will be a year old.  That’s a huge accomplishment for a new business.

The best part is they’re planning on putting on a ton of parties to celebrate their birthday. Maybe I’m just partial, but I think the best party of all is that they’re putting on an STL Hops Draft Party!

What’s an STL Hops Draft Party you ask?  Well, it’s a thank you from Brad and Sean to STL Hops for helping to make iTAP so successful.  The way they’re thanking us is pretty awesome.

You guys get to pick what beers are going on draft. They’re giving us 35 tap handles to put whatever beer we want on for the party. Basically, it’s your chance to own your own bar for a night.

What would you do if you had 30 different beers to pick for your own bar?  Wait, didn’t I just say 35?  I did, but we’re going to run a contest starting tomorrow which will allow one reader to pick any 5 beers they want. Stay tuned for that.

So, the best way for STL Hops to pick the beers is for each person to list 3 beers they’d like to see in the comment section below.  A couple of rules:

• Obviously you can’t pick beers from breweries that don’t distribute in Missouri. (Stone, Dogfish Head, etc.)
• Some beers aren’t available on draught. (La Fin Du Monde comes immediately to mind.)
• We can’t always get what we want. (They can try to get it in, but no promises.)

This party will be taking place on Saturday, February 6th from 4PM-7PM.  I’ll post more information as I get it.  Start suggesting away and we’ll all own the bar for one night.

First of all, big thanks to Schlafly, Stephen Hale, Andy White and Brennan Greene for helping out with this event. It couldn’t have nearly as successful without their help.

Second, thanks to Clayton for selling raffle tickets, we raised a ton of money because of his help. Third, thanks to Sean Thompson for taking photos of the event, I wish I would have taken some myself, but honestly (and I say this with absolutely no hyperbole) I was having so much fun I forgot.

But if you didn’t attend this is a small gallery of what you missed:

[View with PicLens]

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I once again want to thank all of the breweries and distributors, O’Fallon, Schlafly, Morgan Street, Buffalo Brewing Company, Missouri Beverage, New Belgium Brewing and Boulevard, that participated in donating time and beer.

I also once again want to thank the following places for donating items for raffles and giveaways:

• Bigelo’s Bistro
• Bon Vivant Wines
• Boulevard Brewing
• Cicero’s
• City Gourmet
• DeVine Wines
• Pi Restaurant
• Major Brands
• Missouri Beverage
• New Belgium Brewing
• Randall’s Wines and Spirits
• Riddle’s Penultimate Café & Wine Bar
• Salon 231
• Wine and Cheese Place
• Whole Foods Galleria

After everything has been paid for, we raised an amazing $2141.65 for Stray Rescue of St. Louis. I was flabbergasted by the generosity of everyone involved and this money is going to a great cause. This is a huge gain over last year’s $800.

Thank you all, once again for a fantastic event and a fantastic year of beer in St. Louis. I’m looking forward to planning next year’s event already.

So I’ve teased it in the forums a bit, but I thought I’d let you’d know what to expect tomorrow at the STL Hops Anniversary Party!

While I plan on bringing a few tasting glasses, it would be best if you brought your own tasting glass.  Also as you’re going to see in a second, we’re going to have a lot of beer.  A lot of beer. First thing, be safe.  If you need a ride, let someone know.

Second, bring along an empty, sanitized growler for the end of the night.  Once again, I plan on bringing a few extra growlers, but not a lot.  I can’t promise you’ll fill the growler, but I’m thinking it’s going to be pretty likely.

We received a ton of swag this year, in fact, it’s not all in the photo.  If you see a single beer glass in the photo, you can automatically assume we have multiples. Oh, and I couldn’t even fit everything into the photo.

Some of the items in the photo will be raffles, some will be silent auctions. So bring some money along (a check book wouldn’t hurt for the silent auction) with you as this is for a great cause, Stray Rescue of St. Louis.

Now, here’s a list of the beers/breweries that I know are confirmed for the party at this point:

• Schlafly Cask (Not sure what cask yet, but I think we can assume something hoppy.)
• Founders Old Curmudgeon courtesy of Missouri Beverage
• Boulevard Single Wide IPA
• Bell’s Two Hearted 1/2 bbl, courtesy of Bell’s.
• A case of each, La Folie and Transatlantique Kriek courtesy of New Belgium Brewery
• Morgan Street Brewing
• Buffalo Brewing
• Highlands Brewery
• Maybe More?

Here’s a list of the places that have provided prizes for tomorrow night’s event:

• Bigelo’s Bistro
• Bon Vivant Wines
• Boulevard Brewing
• Cicero’s
• City Gourmet
• DeVine Wines
• Pi Restaurant
• Major Brands
• Missouri Beverage
• New Belgium Brewing
• Niche
• Randall’s Wines and Spirits
• Riddle’s Penultimate Café & Wine Bar
• Salon 231
• Wine and Cheese Place
• Whole Foods Galleria

If you have any questions, feel free to drop me an email (my email address is in the Contact page), I’ll try and answer it when I free up some time. Can’t wait to see everyone tomorrow night.

Sorry about the delay on this, I’ve been literally driving around all afternoon to pick up beer and prizes for tomorrow night’s party.

So, I’m pleased to announce that the winner for the two tickets to the STL Hops 2nd Anniversary Party is Jill Koehler! Congrats to Jill and thank you everyone for entering.

I once again want to thank everyone for selling out this event. It’s very exciting to see how passionate people are about beer in St. Louis and this event is proof that people care not only about beer, but also about helping stray animals. Thank you all once again.

Coming later today, I’m going to list all of the prizes we’ll have to offer for the raffles and silent auctions for the party.

As you may have found out if you’ve gone to buy tickets over the weekend, the STL Hops Second Anniversary Party is now SOLD OUT. If you weren’t able to get your tickets in time, here’s your last chance to attend the party. I’m going to be giving away two tickets to this Friday’s Anniversary Party.

If you’re interested in winning two tickets send an email to contest@stlhops.com with the subject of “Anniversary Party Tickets”. I’ll pick the winner on Thursday, November 19th at 2PM. If you’ve already got tickets I’d ask that you’d be kind enough to let those who didn’t get tickets have a chance of winning. A couple of quick notes:

• If you’ve won something from STL Hops in the past 6 months, please be cool and let someone else enter.
• You much be 21 or older to enter.
• No multiple entries.
• If you don’t think you’ll be able to attend, please don’t enter. I’d like to make sure that people available to attend have a chance to win.

Later this week I’ll be showing off some of the prizes that are going to be up for raffle and silent auction. So stay tuned.

I know people have been asking about it, but it’s time to let the cat out of the bag. On November 20th at 6:00PM, STL Hops will be having its Second Anniversary Party in the Schlafly Tap Room Cellar. I don’t think there is a better place to have a beer nerd party than surrounded by brewing equipment.

Tickets can be purchased through Brown Paper Tickets and the cost is $20.01. Why the extra penny? Because with the BPT service fee, the exact cost of the ticket is $21.50. All of the proceeds for this event will be donated to Stray Rescue of St. Louis. Your ticket will include beer and snacks. Right now I have confirmations from the following brewers/distributors on beer:

• Schlafly
• MoBev
• Boulevard
• Buffalo Brewing
• New Belgium
• Morgan Street

Keep checking back on this post because I’m working on not only getting a bunch of brewers but also a bunch of swag as well. Also, only 65 tickets are being made available, so get them while you can.

Purchase tickets HERE.

I need to get this out into the open, just for full disclosure.  I’m now officially a part-time employee of the St. Louis Brewery.  What does this mean for STL Hops?  Nothing really.

The content of STL Hops won’t change.  I’m not being asked to say or not say anything. Let’s be honest, Schlafly has the same goal as we do, to get people drinking more craft beer and to work together to get it done.

And frankly, as much as I love my new job, (I mean, I love talking about beer and now I get paid to do it) it’s a part-time tour guide position.  It’s not exactly life-changing money.

So, if you have any comments, questions or concerns, feel free to leave them in the comments sections or email me directly:  mike@stlhops.com.