Schlafly Hop In The City Beer Festival Review
The annual Hop in the City beer festival, put on by Schlafly beer (aka The Saint Louis Brewery), was a couple of weeks ago, on September 15. The short review - a fantastic time as usual. The longer review:
For those not familiar with this event, every year Schlafly brews 40 different beers for this festival. They put a couple giant tents up in the parking lot of The Tap Room restaurant/brewery, hire a couple local bands, and charge $25 for each participant. Your $25 gets you a tasting glass to keep, a full menu of all the beers, and unlimited access to all 40 tasty brews from Noon until 5:00pm. Truly a bargain, in this authors opinion.
Every year they brew a new festival beer for this event. This year’s beer was a French style, that, well, I wasn’t a fan of – too fruity. But it was the only beer I tried that I didn’t like!
We headed to the show this year with our pals Craig & DiDi and Mike & Melissa. Melissa was our designated driver, so needless to say we owe her thanks and a Team Player salute!
The weather was perfect, the beer was great, and the 2nd band was good, so it was a stellar experience as per tradition. On a side note, the first band was a punk-ish group, full of angst. Really, it just didn’t fit the Beer Festival vibe. I mean, seriously, how can you be full of angst and angry at the world when you have 40 outstanding beers to try, it’s sunny and 70 degrees outside, and you have 5 hours remaining of this situation?
Great beer, good people, great weather – truly a great way to spend a September Saturday. Now we start planning for next year…
Beer Book Review – Tom Schlafly’s Memoires
I recently read Tom Schlafly’s book, “A New Religion in Mecca – Memoires of a Renegade Brewery in St. Louis” and thought I’d post a review.
This is definetely a good read for the Schlafly fan. Those who know me know my well-documented affection for nearly all things St. Louis Brewery-related (www.schlafly.com), including The Tap Room, The Bottle Works, and nearly all of the 40-odd styles of beer they brew every year (which, incidently, you can sample at the annual Hop In The City festival in September). So I may be biased a bit, but I liked the book. It’s a nice snapshot of the history of The Saint Louis Brewery, Schlafly beer, and an interesting look inside a functioning Microbrewery.
One thing the book does, which Mr. Schlafly points out immediately, is wander from topic to topic. He says this follows the path of The Saint Louis Brewery – they never had a concrete, super-well-developed plan, they really had an outline and then flew by the seat of their pants and learned as they went. The book does the same. Thus all topics are not necessarily in chronological order – they are more in topical order, if you will. It doesn’t really disrupt the flow, it’s really very conversational.
In every chapter it is apparent that Mr. Schlafly has an excellent knowledge of many historical topics, not just beer history. Throught the book there are quick references to historical persons, events, or places that add to the current topic. The guy is incredibly well-rounded – no wonder his beers are so good.
One of the highlights of the book is a 24-page section of photos – sort of a photographical history of The Saint Louis Brewery the company and Tom Schlafly the person. There are some really great photos of both the business and the man. Good stuff.
This book is not long (102 pages) and a quick read – I read it entirely on the flight from STL to NYC this week. Nothing too deep or philisophical, but an enlightening and entertaining look at my favorite brewing company. It definetely gets the Cleezmo Stamp of Approval.
