It’s St. Louis Craft Beer Week, May 30-June 6. That means a week of beer tastings, beer history, and other fun beer things.

If you have the means/time, I recommend checking it out. Especially the beer tasting for wine lovers you can find in events. I’ll be trying to find the time/means, but with St. Louis a mere 5 hours away, there’s really no reason not to check it out.

So, wandering through a Knoxville grocery store, I came across Sweetwater Blue.This brew hails from Hot-lanta, Georgia, and is one of the more interesting combinations I’ve seen, beer and blueberries. The attempt is far better than the execution. The nose is definitely blueberries, and you can detect a hint of that in the finish of what is otherwise a disappointing light ale. Still, this may be a good brew for the summer, especially for fans of Leinenkugel’s many flavor-enhanced beers.

I bought this in Knoxville in an attempt to connect with the south a bit. It isn’t a bad concept, but needs some refining. I don’t like my beer with “natural flavors” added after the fact, but if I have to, this is how I’d want it done.

I never got a chance to pour it, so I don’t know much about the head, color, etc., but hopefully you can forgive me a truncated review.

1) Don’t assume the biggest culdron you have is the required 12-quart minimum to start brewing wort. I found out mine is only 8-quarts, and what was going to be a fun night of brewing has turned into a sad night of staring at my brewing equiptment until the Brew and Grow opens tomorrow.

Assumptions make an ass out of you and me.

2) Bottle washing can be a pain in the ass. I’ve been trying to get the labels off several different types of bottle with varying degrees of success.

My first attempt was with soapy water, soaking for 2.5 hours, this gave good results getting off some labels, but left a lot of glue on the bottles and some of the wrappers refused to budge. I’ve read Ocy-Clean and bleach work.  Many people pitch the “difficult-to-remove-the-label” bottles, but I’d rather salvage a bottle, even with effort, than pitch it. (Reuse is better than recycling.)

If you’ve got any thoughts or tips for this intro stuff, be sure to leave a comment.

The brewery itself is small, but mighty:

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.Click on a photo to view the captions.

When I arrived, Doug and volunteer Dave Bleitner were working on transferring wort from the brewing kettle to the fermentation tank to start fermenting. While they were doing that, I was free to wander around the small industrial building they call home.

After I snapped some pictures, I spoke with Doug and Tracy about their operation. Doug has been interested in brewing since 1989, when he brewed his first batch of beer as a project for an Intro to Botany class in college.

“I was given the opportunity to write a paper or do a project… I wasn’t going to pass up not writing a term paper, so I chose brewing beer,” Doug told me.

In 2002, Doug decided to try to become a professional brewer. He earned a degree from the Siebel Institute in Chicago. During the program’s 6-week training program in Munich, Doug had a revelation:

During my time in Munich, I realized that lager beer that we sometimes get here is much better over there. The reason for that is freshness. Beer just doesn’t hold up in long journeys in hot containers on the sea. (laughs) I thought the best way to find that sort of freshness would be to make it ourselves.

Doug knew he would need a partner to help run the business, and he asked Tracy, a self-described “Jane of All Trades” who at that time ran a portrait studio, to help manage the books and financial.

So, after several years and several names (“Alchemy brewing” was an early front runner), Tracy and Doug put the company together in early 2007. They took several months finding the perfect little patch of concrete on Ravenswood to call their own, then opened their doors this winter.

“We pretty much work as per our skills,” Tracy explained. “He brews, I assistant brew. We do sales together. I do all the bookkeeping, cash flow forecasting… the economics.”

While both Doug and Tracy seem pleased with their progress now, they aren’t ready to rest yet.

“We’d like to grow. I mean, we need to grow. We can’t break even with what we have here,” Tracy said.

Metropolitan Brewing beer can be found in many liquor stores and restaurants throughout Chicagoland. The Metro Brewing Blog has more details.

I’m a bit shocked that they so easily dismissed the brewpubs in the Chicago area. A lot of these breweries, like Flossmoor Restaurant/Brewery, sell to regional distributors as well as their own pubs. These people are just as influential in spreading craft beer culture as their production focused counterparts.

Kudos to WTTW for getting the word out, though.

Just a man and his tank.

Cutler’s been the brewer at Piece since they opened in 2001 and lost no time in creating great beer, winning bronze and silver medals at the World Beer Cup in 2002.

As Cutler explains, his path to becoming a pub brewer began when he and his college friends began brewing during “my 5th year of a 7 year undergrad.” It was shortly after he began to think his future could be in brewing:

Cutler speaks about his move from regular college to beer college.

Being the first brewer at a new pub has some unique challenges, including figuring out what the house beers should be.  Cutler learned to give the people what they want:

Cutler talks about the house beers.

Finally for all of us starting down the path to home brewing, I asked him if he had any advice:

Cutler gives advice on home brewing.

Piece itself is definitely worth a look. Imagine trendy-pizzeria meets tiny (by beer-hall standards) beer-hall and you get an idea. Between 7-9 of Cutler’s creations are on tap at any point during the year, so chances are you’ll find a style you like.

This month, CBS is testing “off-flavor” (aka, crappy) beers. Seems strange, but trying something not-quite-award-winning might just help your palate and improve your judgment.

So go and enjoy some off-flavor, followed by an on flavor like the Bourbon County Stout or 312.

The group’s getting together at 8pm Thursday at the Clyborn Goose Island.

Finally, I can start making delicious beer

So it begins. Thanks to the crew at Brew & Grow for helping me find the equipment. I should be pumping out Weizenbier (as the label calls it) sometime this week.

Baume’ is Half Acre Beer’s first brew in their new digs at 4257 N Lincoln Ave. They moved in last October, but were finally set up to produce beer earlier this year. According to Half Acre’s blog, they tapped the Baume chocolate rye stout on April 22. We’ll, let’s do it:

Smell (1.6): This has a good chocolate smell to it, though compared to the Goose Island stout I sampled last week, it’s a bit lighter on the nose. There’s not much complexity behind the chocolate and roasted smell, but sometimes simplicity is also enjoyable.

Color(1.8): Another good black stout. The head is a also thin, but can leave rings.

Drinks (3.8): This stout feels light when drinking and thinly coats the mouth. Their is a rough flavor of roasted grains that tastes somewhat like Guinness. Still, this beer is more drinkable and would pair well with heavier foods.

Incidentals (1): I like the bottle design, and as the first beer from a new brewery, you feel like your sipping history.

Notes on rating: I use a 10 point system. 5 points for drink, 2 for smell and color, and 1 for “incidentals” which include  cost, packaging and my general mood after drinking it.

Daley has made a friendly wager with whoever the heck runs the city of Vancouver on the upcoming Blackhawks/Canucks series for the second round of the NHL playoffs.

Both teams are putting up big packages, but Daley is risking a case of Goose Island’s Red Felt beer, with Chicago taking home three different types of Canadian beer if/when they defeat the Canucks.

It seems like a good deal for Chicago… but who would want to drink Canadian beer?