A press release from the Brewers Association included this quote about Otto:

“Described by a fellow brewer as an artist, a scientist and an inventor, James Ottolini of the St. Louis Brewery, Inc. is the recipient of the 2012 Russell Schehrer Award for Innovation in Craft Brewing. The list of his creative brewing solutions ranges from redesigned milling processes to reduce brewers’ exposure to dust to extensive research on dry-hopping, which has been said to result in “beer with bold floral characteristics, but a soft, inviting quaffability.”

Emailing from the conference, Otto shared with us a bit about his acceptance speech (a video of which may be forthcoming from the Brewers Association).

“I wanted to thank my family, and I went on to explain that my family is first and foremost my wife and kids, then there is my family at Schlafly who really made this award possible. You are the ones I have to thank for the opportunity for such an honor and privilege. The extended family of course is our industry and I am grateful to be a part of such a large, diverse cool family.

Thank you for all your support and congratulations. I am proud of this award and proud of our accomplishments. Truly this award is a recognition of our collective efforts as a company and a family of phenomenal individuals. I am looking forward to Saturday where hopefully we will bring further recognition to our collective efforts and bring home some medals from the World Beer Cup.”

One of Otto’s many inventions, the “Suck-o-matic”, which is used to lift and clean our empty 750 ml bottles at the Tap Room.

Alice B. Toklas is perhaps best remembered for her recipe for marijuana brownies and her autobiography. Interestingly, she wasn’t the author of either. The former (actually for fudge laced with hashish) came from a painter named Brion Gysin and was included in Toklas’s 1954 cookbook without her fully realizing the implications of what it was. The latter, which was published in 1933, was written by her lifelong companion Gertrude Stein and was more about Stein than about Toklas. As for Stein herself, she’s probably best remembered for her immortal line: “A rose is a rose is a rose is a rose.”

While Gertrude Stein has earned lots of critical acclaim over the years, not everyone was or is a great fan of her work. Consider, for example, the anonymous limerick:

There’s a wonderful family named Stein.
There’s Gert and there’s Epp and there’s Ein;
Gert’s poems are bunk,
Epp’s statues are junk,
And no one can understand Ein.

The allusions other than to Gertrude are to Sir Jacob Epstein, an American-born British sculptor with whose work I’m not sufficiently familiar to pass judgment; and to Albert Einstein, whose theory of relativity many of us can quote readily and glibly, but which I, as a liberal arts major, can’t even begin to understand. That said, I do know that according to Einstein’s famous theory nothing with mass can travel faster than the speed of light in a vacuum. That is to say, nothing in the real world travel faster than the speed of light. In the world of poetry, however, anything’s possible:

There once was a lady named Wright
Who traveled much faster than light.
She left home one day
In a relative way
And came back the previous night.

I should add that it was also possible to travel faster than the speed of light in the scientific world of Professor Antonio Ereditato at the European Center for Nuclear Research in Geneva, Switzerland. Last fall Professor Ereditato excitedly announced to the world that he had clocked neutrinos traveling 60 nanoseconds faster than the speed of light. Subsequent investigations revealed that a loose fiber optic cable and a malfunction in the experiments’ master clock had produced erroneous results. Whoops. Einstein was right after all.

Even more impressive than the fact that Einstein’s theory of relativity has withstood the test of time is the young age at which he came up with it. In 1905 (sometimes called Annus Mirabilis) Einstein, who was only 26 years old, published four articles that forever changed the scientific community’s views of space, time and matter. These four articles, one of which gave rise to quantum theory and another to the theory of relativity, formed the foundation for modern physics.
Unlike Einstein, I didn’t get around to doing lots of things until much later in life. For instance, I started playing hockey in 1983 at 35, an age at which most NHL players have retired. I played for a team called the Stingers in the National Novice Hockey League (NNHL). Our team ended up winning the league championship for St. Louis with a minimal contribution on my part. Coincidentally, this was the same year the Blues nearly moved to Saskatoon. One of the local investors who stepped up to keep the team in St. Louis was Bill Love, my first cousin once removed, whose house I ended up buying in 1995 after his widow died. Perhaps my cousin’s ghost is partially responsible for inspiring me to become part of the Blues’ ownership group led by Tom Stillman.

Nineteen eighty-three was also the year I spent two weeks at Oxford University, ostensibly learning about the English legal system. As I’ve said many times before, I learned more about English beers than English laws. It was this experience that led me to link up with Dan Kopman, who was working for an English brewery at the time. And it was Dan who convinced me that St. Louis was ready for a brewery producing styles of beer different from those offered by mainstream industrial breweries.

Twenty-nine years later our instincts have been vindicated. Whatever Gertrude Stein might have said about roses, a beer is not a beer is not a beer is most definitely not a beer.

Our initial outing with canned Hefe is effectively, a “trial run” of sorts. There are two, 145-barrel batches planned which should yield roughly 3,500-4,000 cases and distribution will be limited exclusively to the St. Louis Metro Area. We’re planning for the second batch to get us through to the 4th of July holiday weekend, but if the Hefe cans are well received, we may pull the trigger on pushing through a 3rd batch this season. At least initially, cans of Schlafly Hefeweizen will only be available during the summer months, just like our Summer lager cans.

Make sure to come out and join us for two very cool Schlafly Hefeweizen Can Release Parties we have planned. There will be specially priced cans of Schalfly Hefeweizen and Summer Lager, as well as cool raffles and door prizes.

Thursday, May 10th, 6:30 - The Crow’s Nest

Friday & Saturday, May 11th & 12th, 6pm - Fairmount Park

“We are pleased to add Hefeweizen to the styles of beer we offer in can during the summer months. This builds on the experience to date with brewing Helles Style Summer Lager for canning at Stevens Point, WI. Both beers are great styles for those summer occasions where great Schlafly craft beer in cans is preferred to bottles.” - Dan Kopman, Schlafly Beer Co-Founder

Vendors and shoppers alike will enjoy a festival atmosphere complete with Schlafly Beer, a live music lineup from Tower Groove Records, and a roast of a 1/2 dozen whole Missouri pigs.

We hammered out the concept by resurrecting an event from 2008 called the “Schlaf-FLEA Market”, which provided a great service to downtown loft dwellers who maybe always wanted to have a yard sale, but did not have a yard. Still, the event was lacking one more element. Since this event replaces our annual Memorial Day BBQ, the World Pork Steak Championships, the lack of a proper BBQ left a hog-shaped hole in our hearts. So, we agreed to salute the swine by slow cooking a small herd of them.

We are accepting vendors through May 7th, so if you would like to set-up shop on The Schlafly Tap Room parking lot and spend the day hanging out, drinking beer, and selling your stuff, then sign up!

Applications are available online, and a $25 donation to Goodwill is all you need to reserve your 10’ x 10’ spot.

Questions? Comments? Feel free to e-mail me at stewart@schlafly.com

The original art for the “Schlaflea Market” by local STL artist, Ryan Frank.

Speaking of smelling things, let’s talk beer, and specifically Schlafly American IPA. Probably the most hop aromatic beer in the Schlafly catalogue, AIPA is an olfactory stimulant unlike many others. On the days we brew AIPA, I can smell the difference as I walk through Maplewood on my way to take over the brewhouse for the night shift. While brewing AIPA, the aromas are intense and pungent, and it’s my favorite beer to brew because of this.

After fermentation is complete, we dry hop AIPA with a complex blend of 3 of the most aromatic US grown hops: Amarillo, Centennial, and Simcoe. Combined together they create a unique bouquet of aromatics that is the stuff of legends. And that is where the “Olfactory Education Series” will come into play. All draft and bottles of AIPA feature this dry hop blend, but we are going to explore each individual hop via dry hopped casks of AIPA.

At Bottleworks, we feature a Cask Night the 2nd and 4th Tuesday of each month, tapping the firkin at 6:30pm. For the next several cask nights, we will learn about how each individual AIPA hop smells and the impact it has on AIPA. And you can drink the AIPA too.

First up is AIPA dry hopped with Simcoe, this coming Tuesday the 24th. Keep an eye out in the coming weeks as we roll out a Centennial, then an Amarillo, and finally a cask featuring all 3 hops blended together.

Upcoming Bottleworks Cask Nights:

• April 24th AIPA dry hopped with Simcoe
• May 8th AIPA dry hopped with Centennial
• May 22nd AIPA dry hopped with Amarillo
• June 12th AIPA dry hopped with Amarillo, Centennial and Simcoe

After that, we’ll have a graduation ceremony and diplomas to recognize your olfactory achievements (not really, just kidding).

So join us for the fun, as we yearn to learn about hop aromatics. And remember:

When your nose knows, you win!

Cheers,
Jared

The concept behind the Schlafly April Fool’s commercial is a pretty simple one. Each year, I come up with an idea for a fake Schlafly beer that somehow ties into a current trend or “product” in the beer industry that I think might be a good candidate for some friendly ribbing and then I film a fake “commercial” for it to share online. The other consistent element of this project over the past four years has been that I write, shoot, and edit the commercial entirely on the final day of March. This means that each year I end up glued to my computer trying to piece the video together up until the stroke of midnight (or sometimes even a couple hours past) in order to release it as early on April Fool’s Day as possible. Producing a video from scratch in a day also means that the final result… looks like it was made in a day, which I feel definitely adds to the “charm”.

Enough yapping, let’s check out some videos…

This year’s video introduced the world to Schlafly Titanium, a beer so rare, only one bottle will ever be produced.

Schlafly Titanium Commercial

At the same time that I released this video on YouTube, I also started an eBay auction made to look as if the owner of the bottle of Schlafly Titanium was reselling it online. The fine print of the auction went on to clarify that the auction was in fact, very real. The winner would recieve the actual handmade bottle that I created for the video (autographed by none other than Tom Schlafly), as well as $50 gift certificate good for use at either of our breweries, a VIP brewery tour for 10 people of the Schlafly Tap Room and two tickets to our Repeal of Prohibition Beer Festival. What’s especially cool about this auction is that 100% of the proceeds would go to The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society - Gateway Chapter. I’m happy to announce that as the final hammer fell on this unique auction, the final bid sat at a whopping $500! So somebody got some cool Schlafly swag and we helped out a great cause.

As mentioned, Schlafly Titanium isn’t the first fake beer commercial I’ve created for April Fool’s Day. Let’s take a “scroll down” memory lane with a visit from the Ghost of Schlafly April Fool’s Videos Past…

In 2011, Schlafly Beer introduced the world to their patented SWIRLIE Bottles with G.U.L.P. Technology. You’ve never seen this much science in a beer bottle before.

Schlafly SWIRLIE Bottle With G.U.L.P. Technology Commercial

Schlafly Ultimate 550 took the world by storm in 2010, promising 550 calories and your entire recommended daily allowance of carbs, protein and fat in one incredible new Schlafly Beer.

Schlafly Ultimate 550 Commercial

And finally, the video that started it all, Schlafly Dry-Hopped APA Lime. It’s the great hoppy taste you’ve come to expect from Schlafly’s American Pale Ale combined with a whole mess of lime flavored liquid. It’s Lime Time!

Schlafly Dry-Hopped APA Lime Commercial

Thomas Becket, who was the Archbishop of Canterbury in the 12th century, was one of two English saints named Thomas who were killed by kings named Henry, the other being Sir Thomas More, who was beheaded by Henry VIII in 1535. After Becket was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral in 1170, Henry II became remorseful and commissioned a magnificent tomb for his old friend. Visitors soon began flocking to the tomb and the tradition of the pilgrimage to Canterbury was established.

Thanks to The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, the pilgrimage now occupies a special place in English literature. Chaucer’s fictional pilgrimage began in April (probably on Wednesday, April 17, 1387 according to educated guesses by some scholars) at an inn in Southwark, a village south of the Thames River, now part of London. The book, which is regarded as one of the first literary works in English, is a compilation of stories told by the fictional pilgrims to amuse themselves on the trip to Canterbury. Six hundred and twenty-five years later, the tales are still entertaining, with adolescent boys taking particular delight in The Miller’s Tale.

April 10, 1912, 525 years later almost to the day, marked the beginning of another famous trip. It was on this date the Titanic sailed from the port of Southampton, 80 miles southwest of Southwark. As all alert readers (ARs) already know, the Titanic never completed its maiden voyage. Four days later, at 11:40 P.M. on the night of Sunday, April 14th, the ship hit an iceberg in the North Atlantic and plunged to the ocean floor in the early hours of Monday, the 15th. What ARs may not know is that some of my distant relatives (through marriage) were on the ship. In all honesty, very distant.

My cousin Joe Schlafly is married to a delightful woman named Annie, whom I’m happy to claim as a relative any time. Shortly after the movie Titanic came out in 1997 Annie told me that relatives of hers named Ryerson had been on the ship; and that her great great uncle Arthur Ryerson (whose initials were AR) was mentioned in the film as the owner of the jacket that was stolen by the character played by Leonardo DiCaprio.

April isn’t just a time to remember a fictional pilgrimage from 625 years ago or a real shipwreck from 100 years ago. It’s also a time when golf fans from all over the world turn their attention to Augusta, Georgia, the home of the Masters. Among the many distinguishing features of this esteemed tournament is that commercial messages during the television broadcast are limited to four minutes per hour, as opposed to 12 or more for other golf tournaments. In 2003 and 2004 there were no commercials at all in broadcasts in the United States.

While it may theoretically be possible to pay for commercials during the Masters, Schlafly Beer won’t be doing so. We have, however, sponsored a golfer in a tournament on the PGA Tour. Kind of.

Steve Maritz, an AR and a loyal fan of Schlafly Beer, recently played in the AT& T Open at Pebble Beach. His caddie was John Meyer, another AR and fan of Schlafly Beer, who may be best known to patrons of The Tap Room for his annual recitation of Address to a Haggis on Burns Night. Our sponsorship consisted of providing Steve and John with Schlafly hats to wear on the course and a case of beer to help them maintain proper levels of fluids and carbohydrates throughout the tournament. We declined to provide more generous sponsorship for two reasons. First, our budget for sports marketing is rather limited. Second, we didn’t want to jeopardize Steve’s status as an amateur golfer.

Team Schlafly at the AT&T open

April 7th, when the third round of the Masters will be played, is the ninth anniversary of the opening of Schlafly Bottleworks and the 79th anniversary of the repeal of prohibition with respect to beer, our official celebration of which will be on the following Saturday, April 14th. When we opened Bottleworks in 2003 we were worried that we might have way too much capacity. We were seriously concerned about being able to sell enough beer to justify what we had just spent on our new brewery. Nine years later demand has outstripped capacity and we’re finding ourselves scrambling to squeeze more capacity out of Bottleworks and to find supplemental capacity at other breweries.

Our journey has been at least as exhilarating as that of the Canterbury pilgrims; but, unlike them, we’re still not exactly sure where we’re going.

Thomas Becket, who was the Archbishop of Canterbury in the 12th century, was one of two English saints named Thomas who were killed by kings named Henry, the other being Sir Thomas More, who was beheaded by Henry VIII in 1535. After Becket was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral in 1170, Henry II became remorseful and commissioned a magnificent tomb for his old friend. Visitors soon began flocking to the tomb and the tradition of the pilgrimage to Canterbury was established.

Thanks to The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, the pilgrimage now occupies a special place in English literature. Chaucer’s fictional pilgrimage began in April (probably on Wednesday, April 17, 1387 according to educated guesses by some scholars) at an inn in Southwark, a village south of the Thames River, now part of London. The book, which is regarded as one of the first literary works in English, is a compilation of stories told by the fictional pilgrims to amuse themselves on the trip to Canterbury. Six hundred and twenty-five years later, the tales are still entertaining, with adolescent boys taking particular delight in The Miller’s Tale.

April 10, 1912, 525 years later almost to the day, marked the beginning of another famous trip. It was on this date the Titanic sailed from the port of Southampton, 80 miles southwest of Southwark. As all alert readers (ARs) already know, the Titanic never completed its maiden voyage. Four days later, at 11:40 P.M. on the night of Sunday, April 14th, the ship hit an iceberg in the North Atlantic and plunged to the ocean floor in the early hours of Monday, the 15th. What ARs may not know is that some of my distant relatives (through marriage) were on the ship. In all honesty, very distant.

My cousin Joe Schlafly is married to a delightful woman named Annie, whom I’m happy to claim as a relative any time. Shortly after the movie Titanic came out in 1997 Annie told me that relatives of hers named Ryerson had been on the ship; and that her great great uncle Arthur Ryerson (whose initials were AR) was mentioned in the film as the owner of the jacket that was stolen by the character played by Leonardo DiCaprio.

April isn’t just a time to remember a fictional pilgrimage from 625 years ago or a real shipwreck from 100 years ago. It’s also a time when golf fans from all over the world turn their attention to Augusta, Georgia, the home of the Masters. Among the many distinguishing features of this esteemed tournament is that commercial messages during the television broadcast are limited to four minutes per hour, as opposed to 12 or more for other golf tournaments. In 2003 and 2004 there were no commercials at all in broadcasts in the United States.

While it may theoretically be possible to pay for commercials during the Masters, Schlafly Beer won’t be doing so. We have, however, sponsored a golfer in a tournament on the PGA Tour. Kind of.

Steve Maritz, an AR and a loyal fan of Schlafly Beer, recently played in the AT& T Open at Pebble Beach. His caddie was John Meyer, another AR and fan of Schlafly Beer, who may be best known to patrons of The Tap Room for his annual recitation of Address to a Haggis on Burns Night. Our sponsorship consisted of providing Steve and John with Schlafly hats to wear on the course and a case of beer to help them maintain proper levels of fluids and carbohydrates throughout the tournament. We declined to provide more generous sponsorship for two reasons. First, our budget for sports marketing is rather limited. Second, we didn’t want to jeopardize Steve’s status as an amateur golfer.

Team Schlafly at the AT&T open

April 7th, when the third round of the Masters will be played, is the ninth anniversary of the opening of Schlafly Bottleworks and the 79th anniversary of the repeal of prohibition with respect to beer, our official celebration of which will be on the following Saturday, April 14th. When we opened Bottleworks in 2003 we were worried that we might have way too much capacity. We were seriously concerned about being able to sell enough beer to justify what we had just spent on our new brewery. Nine years later demand has outstripped capacity and we’re finding ourselves scrambling to squeeze more capacity out of Bottleworks and to find supplemental capacity at other breweries.

Our journey has been at least as exhilarating as that of the Canterbury pilgrims; but, unlike them, we’re still not exactly sure where we’re going.

The 2012 season marks the market’s ninth season at the Bottleworks and the market – previously the Maplewood Farmers Market – is being re-branded as the Schlafly Farmers Market. Since the market is part of Schlafly’s Sustainability Program and has been hosted at the Bottleworks since its inception, we decided the name should reflect its close connection with Schlafly Beer. Schlafly is proud not only to produce great local products, but to support farmers and other businesses doing the same. Schlafly is one of only two breweries in the United States to host a farmers market (that we know of, anyway).

New vendors this season include Art House Coffees, MOFU Soy Beanery and Windy Lake Farm. Many favorite vendors like Biver Farm, Claverach, Farrar Out Farm, Live Springs Farm and Three Rivers Community Farm also will be returning. Great local produce is just one reason that the Schlafly Farmers Market remains one of the best in the St. Louis area. The market also features live music on the patio, local Schlafly beer, and tours of the Gardenworks – the Bottleworks restaurant garden.


Deidre Pujols (DP) and I have something in common. Both of us have access to important media outlets over which we’re able to exercise some degree of control. In my case, my position with the brewery allows me to express my opinions every month in this column. Because DP’s husband Albert (AP) provided major funding for the radio station now known as Joy FM, she’s able to share her wisdom and insights on the air.

Alert readers (ARs) may recall a radio station known as Classic 99 that used to play music by composers such as Beethoven, Mozart and Scarlatti, and periodically did live broadcasts from The Tap Room. AP and DP were supporters of the group that bought this station, eliminated classical music and replaced it with the formula: music + faith = Joy. Noting that Beethoven’s Ode to Joy (which incorporates the poetry of Friedrich Schiller) has been praised as one of the greatest combinations of music and faith ever written, one wonders whether it survived the purge of classical music at AP and DP’s station.

Ode to Joy FM?

Back in December, when AP announced his decision to forsake the St. Louis Cardinals for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, DP took to the airwaves of Joy FM because, as she put it, “The devil has overplayed his hand.” Given that all other media outlets had gotten the facts wrong, DP needed to “share the truth.” Having initially said she was “mad at God,” DP softened up a bit and said, “It’s just like God to put us on a team called the Angels.” I’m sure ARs and others will be relieved to know that it was divine intervention and not Mammon that led AP and DP to the Promised Land in the City of Angels.

Anyone who finds DP’s theology less than profound may want to look for meaning in the world of poetry, specifically in Ernest Lawrence Thayer’s 1888 epic about a fictional slugger named Casey. In order to make this classic more relevant to the contemporary world of baseball, one may also want to imagine a revised final stanza:

Oh, somewhere in this favoured land the sun is shining bright;
The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light,
And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout;
And in Mudville there is Joy-FM‚—Albert Pujols has sold out.

Speaking of selling out, ARs who get their news from other media in addition to The Growler are probably aware by now that we have signed a purchase agreement to transfer approximately 60% of the brewery to a group of investors based in St. Louis. This represents the near culmination of a process that began in June of 2010, when I had discussions with senior staff about a succession plan for the business. From the very beginning I wanted to be responsive to the needs and concerns of three very important constituencies.

The first is our employees. I’ve often said that I sign paychecks for 170 employees and don’t know how to do any of their jobs. Now, with direct deposit, I don’t even sign any paychecks. The role of the employees in the success of Schlafly Beer cannot be overstated.

The second is our customers. Twenty years ago the conventional wisdom in St. Louis was that there was no place for another local brewery. Our loyal customers have proved how wrong the conventional wisdom was and have enabled us to grow beyond our wildest imaginations.

The third is the communities that have embraced us. In 1991 the western edge of Downtown St. Louis was pretty desolate. Ten years later the eastern edge of Maplewood also left a lot to be desired. Not only were the properties we bought in these overlooked neighborhoods affordable; the surrounding neighbors welcomed us with an enthusiasm that has allowed both locations to thrive.

We decided at the outset that we would only entertain offers from local investors committed to keeping the business in St. Louis. Dan Kopman and I intend to maintain significant ownership in the business going forward; and a significant portion will be reserved for ownership by employees who want to invest in the company. Dan and I were fully cognizant we were probably leaving money on the table by eliminating out of town investors from consideration and by imposing such conditions on any sale. We didn’t care.

St. Louis has been very good to Schlafly Beer and we don’t want to turn our back on our home town. My hope is that the brewery will continue to be an integral part of the community long after Dan and I have gone to the great beer hall in the sky. We both believe the Beatles were correct in saying, “Money can’t buy me love,” even though it could buy Joy for DP and AP.