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?”