Six Row Turns Four Years Old

Six Row is just about to turn 4 years old! This means we're going to celebrate with a slew of brew.

We first opened up on December 5th, 2009, so we will start our pre-party on Thursday December 5th with one of our most popular cask styles, Bacon Porter! We'll tap this dry hogged lovely at 5pm, and keep it flowing over the course of the weekend until we empty two casks of it. As always, special thanks go to Baumann’s Fine Meats for the bacon in these casks.

On Friday the 6th, we'll be expanding upon our usual TGIPA festivities with all sorts of new IPAs, including:

• Red Snout KSHE IPA spiced with Arbol pepper
• Double IPA spiced with white peppercorn
• Sour IPA fresh-hopped with locally grown galena hops
• Double IPA also fresh-hopped with galena hops

In addition, we'll have our Honey Weizen spiced with cinnamon and our last keg of our famous Killer Whale of the year.

As the party reaches Saturday the 7th, we'll be in the home stout stretch, as a matter of fact, we have so much stout we have to open an hour early at 11am.

Our Saturday Sampler will be all stout, all the time, featuring a vertical tasting of 4 versions of our Russian Imperial Stout:

• The standard
• Knob Creek barrel-aged
• Orange Chocolate, with cocoa nibs furnished by Kakao, 
• Vanilla Maple Coffee  

All 10% abv, 100% delicious, and all pouring starting at 11am!

In addition to all the Imperial Stout, we'll also have some of our Export Stout as well.

To top that off, we will tap a cask of "Cascading Whale" at 5pm.  This is our flagship brew fresh-hopped with more locally grown Cascade hops.

Don’t think we forgot about an Anniversary Ale either. For our 4th year we are pleased to present the first offering in our Arch Nemesis Series: Midnight, which is an Imperial Black India Pale Ale. This dark and devouring ale will knock your socks off, and still keep you warm at 9% abv and 80 IBU’s. Deep rich colors compliment the Chinook and Cascade hops which will satisfy your every hoppy desire in a full bodied, potent reminder of the Pacific Northwest while saving on the airfare.

We are partying for three days on our fourth anniversary, come down and share our fun!

Your Guide to Six Row's 2012 American Craft Beer Week

American Craft Beer Week is approaching fast and we've got a full slate of great stuff planned.  It would be a shame if you had to miss any of it, so get your calendars out and start saving the dates!  All events begin at 5pm unless otherwise noted.

Monday, May 14 
Small Batch Release of Fresh Strawberry Honey Weizen

Our Honey Weizen is an easy-drinking wheat beer made with a generous portion of honey from Missouri Honey in Florissant, Missouri! With a combination of white wheat malt, honey malt, and locally produced honey, the unfiltered Honey Weizen is a great example of a traditional wheat beer with a twist. It was delicious on its own, and now we've added fresh strawberries.

Tuesday, May 15
Cask of Peppercorn DIPA

The Peppercorn DIPA lost our Cask Beer Election by one measly vote back in March. It ran such a strong campaign, we had to reward it with a spot during American Craft Beer Week.

Wednesday, May 16
Cask of Liquorice Porter

You've tried our Porter flavored with Vanilla, Bacon, and Whiskey.  Now we have aged a cask with liquorice root to tantalize your taste buds.

Thursday, May 17
Large Batch Release of Bailene & Beer Pairing Special

The Bailene is our signature Whale style fermented with French Saison yeast. We released a small batch of Bailene last year that went over really well, so it is back and there is more for everyone!

We are still solidifying the menu for the Beer Pairing Special, but it will include a sample of four beers: Plant No. 1 Pilsner, Centennial Rye, Bailene, and Killer Whale. Instead of a formal dinner with a specific start time, it will be a special you can order off the menu while supplies last. It will be a more informal tapas style with all the courses coming out at once to be paired with the beers. We will post the menu and pricing as soon as those details are solidified.

Friday, May 18
Cask of Fresh Ginger Centennial Rye

Our Ginger Kolsch went over so well, we decided to similarly spruce up our Centennial Rye using fresh ginger.

--- UPDATE ---

Due to some unforeseen scheduling issues, Our Whale of a Time Festival has been postponed until a later date, which is still TBD.  Please watch for updates as we reschedule the date.

However, we still have lots planned for...

Saturday, May 19 (opening at 10am)
Cellar Saturday & Beer Brunch

After our very popular Anniversary Pancake Breakfast, we realize that beer for breakfast/brunch is a good thing. The brunch menu includes:

• Beer Batter Buttermilk Pancakes (PANCAKES!!!)
• Whale Rarebit over English Muffins
• Beer Biscuits & Gravy

We'll open at 10am and serve our brunch items while supplies last.

Then all day long we'll be bringing out some special holdovers from our reserves and serving them for $3 a pint until we run out. At any given time, we'll have four of our special styles on tap in addition to our normal lineup. Including, but not limited to:

• Vanilla Porter
• Export Stout
• Kolsch
• Belgian Double IPA
• And special surprises!!!

It should be a great capper to a great American Craft Beer Week. Hope to see you all there! Cheers!

Where There's Smoke, There's Good Beer (in this case)

We had a lot of fun this summer during the national and St. Louis versions of Craft Beer Week as we rolled out some small batches where we took some risks with flavors and methods to enhance our growing style portfolio. Some of them, like the Cream Ale and the Black IPA have returned as full batches for even more people to enjoy.

So, will our new Smoke Ale one day join the ranks of our regular rotation? Time will tell, but for now we'll just be releasing a small batch on this Thursday, September 22nd. We'll tap the batch at 4pm.

We brewed it with peat and apple-wood smoked malt, so it has a nice smoky/malty character. The English noble hops take a bit of a backseat for the malt profile, but our head brewer, Evan, likens it to a smoked English Pale Ale/Amber.

Come let us know what you think of it!

Trippel Your Pleasure, Trippel Your Fun

Rebecca Black likes to sing about Friday, Friday, but when she eventually turns 21 in eight years, she might have to change it to Friday, Friday, Friday after trying our Belgian Trippel.  (That was a long way to go for a weak joke, but it's the end of a busy week.)

The important thing to remember is that we'll be releasing a small batch of our Belgian Trippel style this afternoon at 4pm.  So what exactly is a Trippel?

Many people like the malty goodness of our Belgian Dubbel style, but the funny thing about Belgian Trippels is that it isn't just an intensified Dubbel as the name might suggest.  The Trippel will indeed have a higher ABV than the Dubbel, but it will be more yellow to gold colored and have a more spicy character than the darker malted Dubbel.

Sounds tasty doesn't it?

So in that spirit, today's Hashtag of the Day is #TrippelTasty and the winning tweet today gets a free growler to take home some of your favorite Six Row beer!  Happy Friday, Friday, Friday!

Who Wants $20 Worth of Beer?

First, we'd like to congratulate @TKulasz on winning the growler yesterday as part of the #BIPAflight contest. You may be asking yourself what could be better than winning a t-shirt or a growler? How about $20 worth of Six Row beer?

Today's prize of the day is a $20 gift certificate that you can use during your next visit to Six Row.

So let's not waste any more time and get right to it. As St. Louis Craft Beer Week continues, we'll be releasing a small batch of Vienna Lager today at 4pm:

Akin to a German Oktoberfest/Marzen style, the Vienna Lager is a somewhat "unknown" Austrian amber lager style. It will have lots of nice toasted and biscuit-y notes to complement the clean and refreshing lager. It should also have a hint of noble hop character from the Hallertauer Mittelfrüher hops that we used.

The Hashtag of the Day is #ViennaLager so head on over to Twitter and start winning that gift certificate! (Here is how!)

Good luck!

Your Guide to Six Row's St. Louis Craft Beer Week Events

If you follow us on Twitter or like us on Facebook, chances are you already know about some of the exciting St. Louis Craft Beer Week events that we've been planning. But we wanted to put together a full list of our plans for your convenience.  We try to be helpful.

Saturday, July 30 - Release large batch of our Cream Ale style

You may remember this from such Craft Beer Weeks as American Craft Beer Week, when we released a small batch. Well, folks seemed to really enjoy it so we are going to kick off St. Louis Craft Beer Week in style by bringing it back. Plus, there is more of it. If you didn't have a chance to taste it before, come on down and give the Cream Ale a try:

Brewed in the same manner as an American Lager or a Kölsch, this ale style is light, dry, and perfect for hot summer weather. Our namesake “six row barley” is the primary influence in this brew, giving it the characteristic “grainy” aromas and light straw color. A long, cool, fermentation, followed by cold aging helps to create the clean, dry finish. A small amount of hops at the end of the boil lends slight herbal and grassy notes to finish off this perfect “lawnmower” beer.

(ABV: 4.70%, Bitterness Units: 17 IBUs, Color: 3.3 SRM, Original Gravity: 10.43 degrees Plato)

Monday, August 1 - Release small batch of Sour Mild style

Our head brewer, Evan, likes to describe the Sour Mild as a bit of a wild card. Imagine a traditional Mild Ale (which is kind of like a Brown Ale) that is a malty and mild "session" beer, but with some added sour and tart notes. We brewed it in the traditional manner with Fuggle hops, but with a sour twist.  We're not entirely sure how sour it will be yet, but we are sure it will be different and interesting.  We only did a small batch, so get it while it lasts.

Tuesday, August 2 - Black IPA Flight

The Black IPA is actually based off the beer we made for the Schlafly Fresh Hops Festival last year. We will be releasing a large batch in the Autumn, but Evan has been debating which hops work best. So we are going to let our customers help us decide.

He's brewed three versions: one with Gelena hops, one with Summit hops, and one with Nugget hops.  We'll serve all three in a flight and you can tell us which one you like best to help us decide which version will be available in the Fall. So come on in and make your choice known!

Wednesday, August 3 - Release small batch of Vienna Lager style

Akin to a German Oktoberfest/Marzen style, the Vienna Lager is a somewhat "unknown" Austrian amber lager style. It will have lots of nice toasted and biscuit-y notes to complement the clean and refreshing lager.  It should also have a hint of noble hop character from the Hallertauer Mittelfrüher hops that we used.

Thursday, August 4 - Cask tapping of Peppercorn DIPA

Our August cask tapping will feature our famous Double IPA infused with peppercorns for a unique take on our classic style.

Friday, August 5 - Release small batch of Belgian Trippel

Many people like the malty goodness of our Belgian Dubbel style, but the funny thing about Belgian Trippels is that it isn't just an intensified Dubbel as the name might suggest.  The Trippel will indeed have a higher ABV than the Dubbel, but it will be more yellow to gold colored and have a more spicy character than the darker malted Dubbel.

Saturday, August 6 - Cask tapping of Bacon Porter

We had such a great response to the Bacon infused Porter back in June that we got some more bacon from the good people at Baumann's and did it again to cap off St. Louis Craft Beer Week in style.