Beer Festival, St. Louis
After unpacking our bags from a great 4th of July family vacation in fabulous Hot Springs, Arkansas, I finally found my event guide from the beer festival Jackie and I went to in June. We went on Saturday after running in a 10K that morning at Forest Park. The festival was great but I was recovering from a real struggle at the 10K. We were out late the night before with friends and we partook in Anheuser-Busch products at the Cardinals game. We got to the festival just before it opened and it was filling up quick, but no lines to get in when we arrived. The festival had three of the biggest possible tents set up, two were full, corner to corner, with beer stands, one marked Lagers and one marked Ales. The other tent housed the food vendors and where I preferred to set up in the shade. There had to be 100 portapotties set up and found out later that was just about the right amount. We'd decided there was a crowd of at least several hundred by the time we took a cab home at 3 pm.
The food tent was blessed with five different St. Louis restaurants. We first toured each set up that boasted their menu on a grease board or rack of items offered. The festival cost $35 which included all you could drink but the food was additional. Squires, Harvest, Vin De Set, Companion and Lorusso's were the restaurants represented. Jackie ordered a Brisket sandwich from Lorusso's that featured horseradish on a roll. I will say this was one of the best sandwiches I have had. The horseradish was a nice surprise with the tender beef.
We meandered our way over to the Ales tent, we needed another beer to top off the delicious brisket. The Blonde Ale, Anheuser-Busch, was a smooth blonde beauty that I really liked. The beer tents at this point were filling up with what looked like frat boys sprinkled with overweight blue hairs with facial hair. Not many at the festival looked like Jackie and I, old married people. Next we tried Belgian Siason and the Belgian Dubbel from August Brewing Company. I was a bigger fan of the lighter Saison but Jackie liked the Dubbel. From the Morgan Street Brewery I loved the Vienna Lager, which was my favorite from the Lager tent that was full of these college boys all looking around for some sorority girls. Schlafly Beer had fifteen of their beers on hand, the Biere de Garde and the American Brown Ale were two of my favorites. I must say at this point Jackie is drinking the 8 oz beers and I can only sip since I am still on empty from the strenuous 6 mile morning run.
The beer festival was a fabulous idea for our St. Louis weekend. As we left, the complementary water, pretzel and coffee tent was bare but I enjoyed my pretzels and water in the 95 degree heat. Cabs were lined up in Forest Park and we were delighted to get one with a good air conditioner.
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