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O'Fallon Brewery News>
ST. LOUIS BREWERS HERITAGE FESTIVAL IS HERE!
May 9, 2008
WHAT A NIGHT! Tony, Brian, Derek, Dave, Charlie, Stu and I
had dinner last night along with about 400 other VIPs (not
sure how we qualified!) at the opening event for this
year's St. Louis Brewers Heritage Festival. It was billed
as the "Ultimate Beer Dinner" and, while I'm not sure about
the "ultimate" part, it was a pretty nice affair.
We gathered outside the Muny Pavilion in Forest Park and
munched fancy appetizers (guess you'd call them hors
d'oeuvres) and sipped one of the three "reception" beers:
O'Fallon Wheach, Morgan Street's Vienna Lager or Square
One's Belgian Spice Beer.
Then we ate five, count them five, gourmet courses,
including smoked white almond "gazpacho" paired with A-B's
American Lager, seared tuna paired with Griesedieck's
Weissbier, gnocchi with Augusta's American IPA, lamb with
Schlafly's Biere de Garde and Chocolate Cake with
Alandale's Porter. The evening was hosted by the Food
Network's Dave Lieberman who had selected the beers and
paired them with the recipes.
As we drove home Tony and I reminisced fondly about the
days in the early 90's when the question we heard most
often from our fellow St. Louisans was "what the heck is a
micro beer?"
Back then Tony spent most of his time educating retailers
and consumers about these great small breweries starting to
pop up on the coasts. Tom Schalfy launched a little
brewpub downtown near Union Station that served no other
beers than the ones brewed right on the premises (unheard
of!). And Marshall Cohen, non-profit entrepreneur and
founder of Lift for Life Gym and Academy, put together one
of the first import and craft beer festivals in town.
Fast forward to 2008 and last night's huge crowd for the
opening event of one of the country's premier beer
festivals which features ONLY beers brewed right here in
America's Beer Capital. We've come a long way in 15 years
and there's more fun ahead!
IT'S NOT TOO LATE TO BUY YOUR HERITAGE FESTIVAL TICKETS for
the Business Day Special (noon - 4 today) or once of the
three general sessions (one tonight and two Saturday). Go
to www.stlbrewfest.com for more information and details on
free admission for your designated driver.
WHILE YOU'RE THERE, BE SURE TO TRY AUGIE'S RYE PALE ALE
which I wrote about last week. Augie is the homebrewer who
won the honor to have his beer brewed professionally and
featured at this year's Brewers Heritage Festival. Anyway,
we brewed up enough of Augie's Rye Pale for the festival
plus a few to sell to local beer retailers. Here's a list
of the fine establishments that are serving Augie's Rye
Pale on tap for as long as it lasts:
Cicero's, University City
Tin Can, South St. Louis on Morganford
Tin Can, Downtown (formerly Panama Reds)
Riddle's Café, University city
Syberg's, South St. Louis on Gravois
Bottoms Up Brewhouse, O'Fallon
Rumple's Pub, Main Street St. Charles
33 Wine Bar on Park.
HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND, enjoy a good beer and let's all try
to make this world a better place one beer at a time.
Cheers!
Fran Caradonna
O'Fallon Brewery
fran@ofallonbrewery.com
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