Brooke and I went to Cabin Fever at the Schlafly Bottleworks back in January and had an excellent time. The festival features 20+ beers to taste for $20. The beers were pretty malty, and pretty high in alcohol content, but they all tasted great. The weather was shockingly good and they had some fire pits set up, so we had a great time.
Every fall, however, an even larger festival is held at the Schlafly Tap Room called Hop in the City. This one features 40+ beers for the tasting for $30. While Cabin Fever could only hold, maybe a few hundred people…but Hop in the City had a thousand. I met up with some folks this time, as Brooke is not drinking much these days. I took note of all the beers I tried while I was there. The list is 22 types long, so I won’t list them all here (but each “taste” was around 3 oz…add that up and I “only” had 4-5 pints during the 4 hour period I was there)…however this is a list of some of my favorites.
- American IPA – This was their Festival Beer for 2009, described as “exploding with hop flavor and aroma” with “enough of a malt backbone to stand up to the intense bitterness.”
- Spiced Porter – A “robust Porter with orange peel and coriander for a fruity, roasty flavor.”
- English Brown – “A moderately sweet, malty brown ale with low hop bitterness and a gentle nutty character, like its creators.”
- Export IPA – “Light amber in color, this medium-bodied India Pale Ale is highly hopped with English hops in both aroma and bitterness, with the maltiness still quite apparent.”
- Irish Extra Stout – A “full-bodied stout” that “has the bitterness of roasted barley with flaked barley added for a smooth finish.”
Believe you me, if we would still be here next Fall, I’d go again. Sadly, however, it’ll probably be my last Hop in the City for awhile.