National Homebrew Day/Missouri Beer Festival

May 7th is National Homebrew Day, and as it turned out, there were a lot of beer-related events going on, all on the same day. I stopped by Phil's, where he was doing a brewing demo with a saison. Phil has a great set up in his garage, plus a nice bar with homebrews always on tap, so it's always a nice place to hang out. He had a rye beer and a pale ale with calypso hops--very refreshing. Alas, I had a beer festival to attend, so I couldn't keep it up.

The first Annual Missouri Beer Festival was sponsored by Missouri Life Magazine.  

Broadway Brewery booth

This was the first year of the Missouri Beer Festival at the Stoney Creek Inn. Unfortunately, it was too gorgeous of a day to be indoors, but with Missouri weather it was a safe choice.  I met Kate there and made our way around the room. Prison Brews was right in the middle, so we started there. They only had two choices: Gone A-Rye Pale Ale and Prison Town Brown. I have eaten lunch there, since I work in Jefferson City, but not had a beer there. I should go there and get the sampler since I wanted to try more. The rye was pretty good, but Phil's tasted like an actual piece of rye bread, so that's hard to beat.

Next was Public House from Rolla. They had a stout and a mild. I admit, mild is not my favorite style, so I'm not the best judge. I like my stouts* a little more robust, too. I really did their tree logo and was tempted to buy a tulip glass from them. But, more power to them for organizing AHA events. I see from their website they are hosting a screening of Beer Wars, which is a cool idea. They aren't a brewpub at this point, just a brewery.

I think my favorite beer of the day was Schlafly's AIPA. Man, this was a delicious beer. Others I sampled were Tallgrass Halcyon Wheat, Tin Mill Amber, Crown Valley Amber, Broadway Brewery's APA, 1839 Taphouse's own Taphouse Ale (and pizza with beer in the crust). Boulevard didn't offer anything different but I still had a Two Jokers and advocated for producing the new hoppy wheat.

There were some stranger elements in the mix, like the Harley Davidson tent with motorcycles and a country whiskey bar that had "Vegas Bombs." As I told everyone, I am way too old to do anything with "bomb" in the title in the middle of the day. Or anytime, actually.

All in all, I'd say it was successful for this first-time event. Hopefully the CBE can work with them next time on having a booth or something.  They could use some help with marketing to the beer geeks. Some suggestions I would make include providing a tasting glass and list of the vendors for note-taking.

 Now off to the final event of the night, a blowout with Hellbender Brewing!

*Update: The Public House guys brought their stout and mild in kegs to Hellbender's party. Getting to take my time and sample the stout again, I really enjoyed it. Hellbender had their Concession Black IPA, pepper beer, cask ale, and Gary from Schlafly brought a sixer of AIPA, and also the Hop Toddy. That was a treat. I think the bottles are limited in the area, but Sycamore has promised a keg waiting in the wings. The honey and lemon really come through. I wanted to let it get warm but I couldn't put it down long enough.

Public House from Rolla