Updated: Schlafly beer makes the rounds in D.C., St. Louis; Why doesn’t the beer win national awards?
We got an e-mail recently from Dan Kopman, chief operating officer at St. Louis Brewery (better known by its “Schlafly” beer brand.) Dan gave us an update on his itinerary as the traveling ambassador of Schlafly beer.
Dan seemed pretty excited about the round of upcoming beer festivals. And who could blame him? He was headed to Washington, D.C. for the Brewers Association’s SAVOR festival, a big event centered on pairings of beer and food.
“I am pouring our 2008 Bourbon Barrel Aged Imperial Stout and Missouri Oak Aged Barleywine Style Ale,” Dan told Lager Heads. “We ship 56 cases of each year’s vintage to select markets outside of St. Louis. It is fun to showcase these great beers and to tell the folks on the East Coast that if they want to try the many other Schlafly Beers they have to come to St. Louis!”
But the party is apparently just beginning. This upcoming weekend is The Brewers Heritage Festival in St. Louis. So if you see some East Coast visitors coming in search of beer, show them some St. Louis hospitality and tell them Lager Heads says hi.
Update: We talked to Dan just now. He had read some of the comments on Lager Heads about Schlafly lacking national/international awards. The reason is quite simple, he said: The company doesn’t enter big competitions. It’s a matter of priorities.
“The best judge of whether our beers are good or not is the local consumer,” said Dan, who worked at a London brewery called Young’s back in the ’80s. The brewery won a bunch of awards — and still closed down.
Partly because of that memory, Schlafly does not enter the Great American Beer Festival or the World Beer Cup - two of the most prominent competitions in the U.S. The company doesn’t see much of a connection between winning national awards and selling more beer in its region (St. Louis and roughly 300 miles around.)
“It’s not that we’re scared” of entering competitions, said Dan. “It’s just that it costs thousands of dollars and we’re really busy. And what is the best use of our resources?”
(5 votes, average: 3.8 out of 5)
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Jeremiah McWilliams is a native Virginian who came to the Post-Dispatch in early 2007 to cover beer and other consumer products. He previously covered manufacturing for the Virginian-Pilot newspaper in Norfolk, Va. He is a graduate of Washington and Lee University. 
This is great to hear. I’m still puzzled by Schlafly and their lack of national awards. I want to see GABF and WBC golds. Or is Schlafly just not that good? Seems like it would be a marketing jackpot.
Tim - I think it’s because Schlafly beers aren’t that good (just look at BA or Ratebeer). Why do you think this weekend’s festival doesn’t have any awards? It’s because it’s run by the guys who run Schlafly. The Brewers Festival is designed so Schlafly can match the number of beers A-B presents, not so they have to worry about losing out on awards to the other local brewers.
Recently tried the Schlafly’s Pale Ale. Not too bad but still not on the level of Bass, which I will stick with, but better than the AB offering.
Mr. Free- It looks like BA rates Schlafly Beers really high (A=13 beers, B=53 beers, C=4 beers).
Compared to AB’s D’s , F’s and ouch- no A’s.
And this weekend’s festival is sponsored by “Here’s to Beer,” an AB InBev effort.
Free - I agree with you. I’ve never fully understood the uncontested obsession with Schlafly in STL, in my mind they make decent beers but nothing that is award worthy, as is demonstrated by their empty awards case. I enjoy RateBeer but the site feeds the emotions of beer snobs, I don’t consider a ‘B’ average anything to get excited about. GABF has people with true beer knowledge and experience, their lack of respect towards Schlafly, I believe, is a better indication of the quality of craft beer in STL. Don’t get me wrong there are other players. O’Fallon gets it, they make beers that compete on a national level…beating Alaskan Brewing with their Smoked Porter is something that should be celebrated more proudly by STL beerdrinkers.
I’m afraid that I have to agree with the consensus here. Schlafly makes decent, but unremarkable beers (my favorite is the Pale Ale, but it’s not something I’ll go out of my way to buy or drink). O’Fallon has much better beers (at least according to my taste), but the craft brewer I’ve enjoyed the most is the Fort Collins Brewery in Colorado.
Who needs national awards when one can simply try the beer and decide for themself? I don’t need some rubber stamp of approval from someone else to tell me what is good or not. Some of these categories have 50 or more entries. It’s pretty hard to stand out when you don’t distribute your beer outside a 4-5 hour drive from St. Louis. Schlafly certainly doesn’t go ‘uncontested’ in my book, but many of their beers are excellent. O’Fallon Gold, Wheat, Goats Breath Bock, and 5-day IPA are first rate in my book, as well. Schlafly Hefe and Pale Ale are great “intro to craft beer” beers, IMO. They will never win an award against other Pale Ales and Hefeweizen’s. I mean, they do have to market to a population here that is hell bent on drinking nothing but one beer. Schlafly needs something to break the ice with someone who’s at least willing to try something else. There are their less ‘popular’ beers that are absolutely great. Kolsch, Grand Cru, Quadrupel, Dry Hopped APA, Export IPA, their Coffee stout. Their Pumpkin has won taste tests against some of this countries most popular craft brewers. Their Christmas beer is excellent. Then there are more that aren’t bottled at all (only available on tap at the Tap Room or Bottleworks. Hop Harvest, Imperial Stout, IPA… I had a cask coffee vanilla bean stout that was absolutely great.
If you base your opinion of all their brewery based on Pale Ale, or lack of awards, you’re sorely mistaken.
The results of this recent poll shocked me as I think Bell’s and Three Floyd’s are absolutely amazing.
http://thefullpint.com/2009/03/28/best-midwest-craft-brewery
I hear that Founder’s is now being distributed in Missouri which totally rocks!
Now if we could get Stone Brewery to distribute here…
I really like the Pumpkin from Schlafly. I wish they would make it more available. I would say it is an excellent beer. Kolsch is also a nice alternative away from budweiser. Boulevard Wheat is good. New Glarus Brewery up in Wisconsin has some great beers. If you go to a Cards - Brewer game up in Milwaukee, be sure to make a stop at the brewery in New Glarus, WI.
I love Schlafly’s Dry Hopped APA. Also love the O’Fallon 5 day IPA. But I’m a hoppy beer fan. TrailHead also makes some good, but not great, beers. They have basically no selection, though.