St. Louis is one of the major beer hubs in the world with microbrewers like Shlafly to the Anheuser-Busch empire collectively
preserving the rich history of brewing. Beer Connoisseur’s Ale Sharpton
got a chance to get a firsthand look at how “The Lou” spreads sud love
during its third annual Brewers Heritage Festival.

2009 St. Louis Brewers Heritage Festival www.stlbrewfest.com

I just got back from the 2009 St. Louis Brewers Heritage
Festival and it was delectable. Held on the weekend of June 5th, the
third annual Heritage Fest was sold out for the third year in a row and
for good reason. The Festival included:

• a commemorative glass branded with the Brewers Heritage Festival logo
• unlimited sampling of more than 60 different beer styles
• live music
• appearances and lectures from St. Louis’
• brewmasters
• vittles from some of St. Louis’ top eateries
• two colossal tents - one labeled Ales and the other for Lagers
• a third tent for regional home brewers to share their concoctions
• a V.I.P. tent for the connoissuers
• and maybe the most important, lots of port-a-potties with separate handwashing stations. Yes!

Prior to 2009, I heard the first two Heritage Festivals were quite memorable.
In fact, the 2008 installment had so much rain that people reenacted
the mudsliding Woodstock of ’69! Taking precautions this year (although
I heard last year was still a blast), the 7,000 sq. ft. of beer
paradise in Forest Park had massive Ale and Lager tents to ensure the
rain or shine option. In fast-moving lines, everything from Munich
Helles to Southern English Brown Ale was generously poured by
knowledgeable volunteers equipped with cheat sheets that listed useful
info including the gravity, alcohol by volume, bitterness in IBUs and
origins of the hops.

The
Heritage dutifully showed loyalty to St. Louis’ local microbreweries
like Shlafly, Buffalo Brewing Company, Amalgamated and Square One
Brewery; even the home brewers in the region including the Garage
Brewers Society (GBS) got their own tent and provided hundreds of
sippers with their limited edition concoctions. By the way, one of the
most tear-jerking things about the Festival (in a good way) was how a
local home brewer named Ted O’Neill garnered so much praise for his
2008 award-winning Dry Stout that various participating breweries got
his recipe and made their own versions for attendees to sample. Now how
cool is that?!!!

Of course, the Busch Family was in the house,
but they certainly didn’t play the bully role and monopolize the Ale
and Lager tents. It was all love and, along with the picturesque day,
everyone got a chance to shine. Ultimately, me and my comrades, All
About Beer Magazine’s
Gregg Glaser and travel journalist Beverly Hogg, blissfully visited
station after station to please our palates and had a blast in the
process!

Beer lovers should definitely consider making it up to
St. Louis for next year’s Heritage Festival and explore the city while
you are at it. There’s so much to see, do and, well, drink!

Please read my blog for the unedited version of this festival review.

Cheers!

Ale Sharpton

asharpton@beerconnoisseur.com