On Saturday, December 5, homebrewers from around St. Louis met at the Anheuser-Busch Biergarten for the seventh annual A-B Homebrewers Group hop giveaway. This year, homebrewers stocked up on whole cone Cascade hops from Elk Mountain Farm in Bonner’s Ferry, Idaho, the largest contiguous hop farm in the United States.
In addition to collecting hops by the bag full, local homebrewers also had the opportunity to share some of their own homebrewed creations. Greg Bridwell fromEast Side Brewers shared a few bottles of his homemade concoction “Rye of the Tiger”, a brew that gets aged for three months in whisky barrels. He plans to use his new cascade hops in an upcoming porter batch.
Trish from The O.G. St. Louis Women’s Craft Beer Collective is also looking forward to experimenting with the Cascade hops she collected. “Since it’s an American-style hop, I plan to use them in some of my Indian and American pale ales,” she said.
For members of the A-B Homebrewers Group, the hop giveaway is another opportunity to meet with homebrewers, taste each other’s beers and share feedback in real time and brewing techniques and ingredients. Tom Seiff, Manager, Program Manager, Employee Development and Chairman of the A-B Homebrewers Group, has been a part of the hop giveaway since it first started. “I love this event because it celebrates our local homebrewers and our community’s passion for beer,” he said.
And he’s not the only one to share that sentiment.
“I think the hop giveaway is a great way to give back to the St. Louis homebrewers community,” Trish said. “It’s great to see everyone come together for a common passion – beer!”
Cheers to that and all our local homebrewers. Hope to see everyone again next year.
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