Beer Exchange: St. Louis Preview

Last month, my friend Stacy at Every Little Thing (and writer of the recent Steak with Stout Pan Sauce recipe) and I worked out my first beer exchange.  For those who missed the announcement, the beer exchanges function as a way for me and a blogger in a different city to exchange local beers that the other wouldn’t normally have access to (read more here).  Even though I sent mine out late, I was happy with what I sent from Philly area, and I was also happy with what I received from St. Louis in return—except the Budweiser, even though I did laugh when I pulled it out of the box.  Here is a list of the serious beers I received, which I hope to be able to try soon.  With a wedding a little over two weeks away, though, I don’t forsee myself having much time for beer tastings.

The beers will be listed in the following format:

Brewery Name Beer, Beer Advocate Rating (Rate Beer Overall/Style)
Beers marked with an asterisk are in bombers, the rest are in regular bottles.

O’Fallon Brewery 5 Day IPA, B+ (81/67)
Schlafly Kolsch, B+ (58/88)
Schlafly Pale Ale, B (44/50)
Schlafly Bavarian Style Weissbier, B+ (84/97)
Schlafly A IPA, A- (98/98)
Schlafly Helles Style Summer Lager, B (44/87)
Schlafly Dry-Hopped APA, B+ (93/96)
*Charleville Vineyards & Microbrewery Hoptimistic IPA, B (77/43)
*Cathedral Square Brewery Hail Mary Belgian IPA, B- (64/31)
*Cathedral Square Brewery Iglesia Agave Ale, C- (35/39)

As you can see, there are some pretty solid beers here—especially the Schlafly A IPA (and she sent two bottles!).

It may seem like there isn’t a lot of variety here, but Stacy mentioned that there are a lot of up-and-coming breweries popping up in St. Louis that haven’t started bottling yet.  But I definitely don’t mind—as I’ve said before, I like to have an expansive view of a brewery through multiple beers from there so I can see what quality they are.  If I only had the Schlafly A IPA and it blew me away, I would think they were amazing.  This will give me the opportunity to view a wider spectrum of the brewery and let me know if the IPA is a fluke, or if they really are a brewery worth tracking down.

I’m also excited about the others, as they don’t seem like breweries that will be easily accessible here.  Now that I’ve seen the logo, I have noticed a few big bottles of Schlafly around town (though I’ve never bough any), so I think if I tried hard enough I could get more, but the others seem like they would be more of a challenge, which is really what I was looking for.  Despite their low ratings on BA and RB, I’m still looking forward to them.  The object of the exchange isn’t to send all the very best beers, but to send beers that would otherwise be impossible to get.

Now this just leaves me with the question of how do I drink all this beer?  Perhaps a tasting night is in order—stay tuned and you just might be invited.  Until then, have you had any of these beers?  What did you think?