Six Row Cask Vote 2012

Are you tired of beer companies telling you which beers you like to drink? Do you hate hearing about how the coldness of a beer has a direct correlation to how delicious it is?

Who are these ad executives to tell you what qualities you like about a beer? Are our palates not unique? Are we not able to choose for ourselves if we desire a hoppier flavor, rather than one that is maltier? Perhaps we prefer dark and roasty instead of light and crisp. We believe there is no Divine Right when it comes to choosing beer for the people.

In this spirit, Six Row is putting the power of choice back into beer lovers’ hands. Help us elect the best choice for the April Cask Beer of the Month by voting in Six Row’s Cask Vote 2012 election.

We have nominated four strong candidates from which to choose that represent a wide range of qualities that people look for in a great cask beer:

Peppercorn Double IPA

This experienced candidate returns with an insider’s knowledge of what makes a successful cask beer

Raspberry Honey Weizen

This local candidate supports Missouri business through its use of Missouri honey and knows what St. Louis expects from a beer

Ginger Kölsch

It has a light touch, but don’t dismiss the spicy side of this candidate that can bring the heat when it counts

Chocolate Stout

It’s smooth, it’s dark, it’s sweet, but it is a serious candidate that knows what beer lovers want

Voting will begin on our next Cask Night of March 1st. We will open the voting on our web ballot at 4:00pm Central time. We'll also re-post the link on our homepage, on our Facebook page, and via Twitter at that time. Voting will end on Super Tuesday, March 6th at 8:00pm Central time.

In the meantime, those candidates need your help to get elected. If you have a cask beer you REALLY want to see us tap in April, get out and rock the vote! That means doing some heavy duty campaigning!

Spread the word via Twitter & Facebook and convince your friends that your choice is the right choice.

If you submit a slogan, a campaign poster, flyer, or banner, or even a YouTube video, we’ll choose the best one to win a $50 gift certificate good in our St. Louis Brewpub location. You can even create physical posters or banners to display in the brewpub while the campaign goes on.

You can submit material a number of ways:

• Message our Facebook page.
• Tweet us links or photos to @sixrowbrewco with the hashtag #CaskVote2012
• E-mail submissions to timmcginnis (at) sixrowbrewco (dot) com (submitting via e-mail gives us permission to post material on our website or any of our social media outlets)
• Bring a physical poster, banner or flyer to our Old Plant No. 1 Pub (AKA Election HQ) and we'll display it throughout the duration of the campaign

As we receive submissions we'll post them in our Cask Vote 2012 HQ album on our Facebook page as well as give regular unofficial polling numbers after the voting begins.

Submissions for campaign material that is eligible to win the prize will close at 11:59pm on Monday, March 5th. We'll announce the winner of the $50 prize as well as declare a winner of the election shortly after polling closes on March 6th.

So get those creative and persuasive juices flowing!

Every vote counts and we need you to choose which beer is most worthy of a place in Six Row Cask Night history. See you on the campaign trail!

Quench Your Thirst For Knowledge and Beer at Cicero's Six Row Beer School

Throughout the course of time, humanity has strived to increase its knowledge, whether it has been exploring the outer reaches of space or focusing in on subatomic particles, our thirst for knowledge has known no bounds.  And now that thirst for knowledge has translated into actual thirst and we want to know more about beer.

Cicero's in the Loop has tried to meet that need by hosting a series of Beer Schools taught by professionals within the industry.

These experts will teach you everything you ever wanted to know about beer, the brewery, and how they got where they are today. Take notes because there is a review at the end of each class. You could walk away with great beer prizes; t-shirts, glassware, signs, bottle openers and all kinds of other beer collectibles will be given out as prizes. Graduation is based on attendance….and you want to graduate. If you graduate you will receive great discounts on the beer you purchase at Cicero’s until the following graduation.

On Wednesday, February 15th, we are thrilled to participate in the first Six Row Beer School sessions, taught by our head brewer, Evan Hiatt.

There won't actually be any paddling.  However, there WILL be samples of our Whale, Double IPA, Porter, and Pre-Prohibition Pilsner for attendees while Evan lectures about Six Row and our beers.

There are two sessions that last about an hour, one at 5:30 pm and one at 7:00 pm.  Cicero's is located at 6691 Delmar Blvd., University City, MO 63130.  The sessions are free of charge to attend.

Hope to see you there to expand your beer knowledge!

Six Row Goes to Kansas City and Points In Between

We are thrilled to announce that by mid-January of 2012, our craft beers will now be distributed in the Kansas City, Columbia, and Jefferson City areas of Missouri.

We have signed distribution contracts with North Kansas City Beverage Company in the west part of the state, and N. H. Scheppers Distributing Company in central Missouri. Both companies are distributors of Anheuser Busch products in their areas.

Until recently, Six Row products have been available only on-tap at numerous locations in St. Louis and the surrounding area, and at the brewpub in mid-town St. Louis. We began bottling in November, 2011, and several of our craft beers are now available at a growing number of retail outlets in Missouri and Illinois.

Initially, North Kansas City Beverage Company and N. H. Scheppers Distributing Company will carry Six Row’s distinctive “Whale”, Double IPA, and Porter styles in 1/2 barrels, 1/6 barrels, and 22 oz. bottles.

N. H. Scheppers Distributing Company serves Boone, Cole, Osage, Moniteau, Callaway, Montgomery, Gasconade, Warren, Franklin, Crawford, and Washington counties in Missouri. North Kansas City Beverage Company distributes to Jackson, Clay, Platte, Ray, and Cass counties.

Six Row President, Mike Rami, said, “Our new relationship with these two distributors is a very big step for our company. We are now working with five prominent distributors in Illinois and Missouri, and our reach will soon stretch from Effingham, Illinois to Kansas City, Missouri. It’s exciting to see the enthusiasm craft beer lovers are showing for our products. We will continue brewing quality beers that will help us stand out in today’s competitive craft beer market.”

Now Dogs Can Like Six Row Too

After we brew a batch of delicious Double IPA or Porter or any of our other styles, we always have spent grain left over in the mash-kettle that we need to get rid of.

Soon after we opened for business, we partnered with a local farmer who comes and picks up the grain and uses it as a supplement to feed his livestock as the grains are high in protein and vitamins for animals. But since we've expanded and we are brewing a lot more than we have in the past, we have more spent grain than the farmer needs, so we needed another solution that would ideally be environmentally friendly.

Our head brewer, Evan, had an idea that maybe we could make the grain into dog biscuits for our pooches.  So our Special Events Manager, Julie Rami, took a shot at it.  Her concoction is basically the grain plus flour, peanut butter, and eggs.  She baked them for a few hours to dry them up and then they were ready for our very discerning food critic, Buddy, to try out.

"The flavor profiles were spot-on."

He. Loved. Them.

He may have even liked them more than when someone spills gravy on the floor.  On a scale of one to ten Tail Wags, Buddy gave the Beer Biscuits a 47, which is very high praise.  Seeing a squirrel usually only rates a 35 on the Tail Wag scale.

The problem is that we don't want Buddy to explode from eating so many Beer Biscuits, so we've decided to make these tasty treats available to our customers and their four-legged best friends.

We now have them on sale at the brewpub for the bargain price of 60 cents each.

So as you are enjoying your Six Row brew, think about spreading some cheer to your pooch.  They should be able to enjoy Six Row too.

Where You Can Buy Bottles of Six Row Beer

As you may have heard, we are bottling now and some local establishments are carrying our bottles on their shelves. Most of the distributed bottles are Whale, but we also have Double IPA and Porter available.

We'll update the list as we add accounts:

The Wine and Cheese Place
7435 Forsyth Blvd.
Clayton MO, 63105
314.727.8788

The Wine and Cheese Place
14748 Clayton Rd.
Ballwin, MO 63011
636.227.9001

Schnucks - Dorsett

2030 Dorsett Rd
St. Louis, MO 63043
314.434.3147

Friar Tuck -Fenton, MO
792 Gravois Buffs Boulevard
Fenton, MO 63026
636.326.2359

Friar Tuck - Crestwood, MO
9053 Watson Road
St. Louis, MO 63126
314.918.9230

Friar Tuck - O'Fallon, MO
4635 Highway K
O'Fallon, MO 63366
636.300.4300

Lucas Liquor Superstore

15921 Manchester Rd.

Ellisville, MO 63011

636.227.4543

Fred's Cheapo Depot

4334 Telegraph Road
St. Louis, MO 63129
314.845.7777

FarmHaus

3257 Ivanhoe Avenue
St. Louis, MO 63139
314.647.3800

Randall's - South City

1910 S. Jefferson

St. Louis, MO 63104
314.865.0199

Six Row to be Available in Bottles

Up until now, customers who wanted to enjoy our beer were limited to purchasing it on tap or in a growler for home consumption. Now we can an add a third option for those who would like to take our beer home.

Beginning tomorrow, Friday, November 12th, we will be bottling a limited amount of our Whale style beer in 22 oz. bombers for the first time.

At this point, the process is more manual than we would like it, so quantities will be limited at first, but the bottles of Whale will be sold at the Old Plant No. 1 Pub for $5 each as take-out only. We expect the first bottles to be available as soon as Friday evening.

The plans to bottle more quantity and more styles is going forward and we hope to start making styles like our Double IPA and Porter available in the near future.

We are very excited about this new step we are taking and we hope you enjoy taking a Whale home to enjoy on your own time. Cheers!

Semi-New Style Release: Vanilla Porter

Remember when you tasted the Vanilla Porter from one of our cask nights and wished that it was available more often? Well, you're in luck.

Or remember when you would get to Six Row to try the Vanilla Porter cask that everyone on Twitter was raving about, but you found it was gone already and you wished we had more of it? You are also in luck.

Or remember when you tasted the Vanilla Porter and you thought it was just OK, but you really preferred to go with a Double IPA or a Whale? Well, then this doesn't matter that much to you, but the good news is that we still have lots of DIPA and Whale for you!

We can't make EVERYONE happy with a single style release, but we think the large batch of our Vanilla Porter will please a lot of you, so that's exactly what we will be doing on Thursday, November 10th at 4pm.

After much success with adding vanilla beans to casks of our original Porter, we've produced a full tank of this wonderful beer. It's the Porter you already know and love, with a healthy dose of whole vanilla beans added to the fermenter. It's as simple and delicious as that, and starts pouring at 4PM.

This is just one of a number of releases we have coming up soon, so stay tuned here (or our Facebook page or on Twitter or on our homepage). Cheers!