From The Hopostle - Stout Spending

Out of the blue I get an email from a guy in St. Louis asking to write for Show-Me Beer.  How humbling is that?  Not only is someone reading this thing, they want to play in my sandbox too.  So here's The Hopostle, Show-Me Beer's new contributor.  The Hopostle says "I am a converted Bud Acolyte from St. Louis, spreading the good word about good beer."  I can tell you right now there's more to this guy than that, but I'll let his posts speak for him.

I am always on the lookout for good beer that is not going to make my wallet sigh with buyer's remorse when I come home from the beer store.  Blame it on the economy.  Blame it on the fact that my mother bought generic brand groceries when I was a kid.  Whatever.  I'm kinda cheap.  Which really sucks when you are a beer geek.  It is a good thing that my wife supports my habit.  So, perhaps the geekiest thing that I could do is take really a good (meaning expensive, of course) beer and find a cheaper alternative to it.  And so I give you the "Special Release" Schlafly Extra Stout.

Schlafly released this beer in St. Louis a couple weeks ago.  I first had it at the St. Louis Centennial Beer Fest at the end of January, which must have been an early release because the Schlafly website said it wasn't released at their tap room until mid February.  Whatever the case is, it's here now.  And I've got to say, I like it.  I waited until I could get my hands on a full bottle before doing any serious tasting.

The beer pours a nice deep, almost black color.  The head is a light, fluffy tan with decent retention and slight lacing.  I've found that (as with most stouts) the key to this beer is the temperature.  When first poured--straight from the fridge--it felt a little thin and lacked the taste I remembered from the festival.  However, when given just a moment to collect it's thoughts, this beer turns loose.  The flavor is intensified, bringing out the dark roasted chocolate, bittering hops (45 IBU) and slight alcohol tinge from it's substantial 8%.

I tasted this beer parallel to a Founder's Imperial Stout (one of my all time favorites).  For those who are unaware, Founder's is about 9 bucks a four pack and the Schlafly is around 8 bucks a six pack.  Now, I will not attempt to make the case that the Schalfly was better than the Founder's.  It wasn't.  There is no denying it.  Founder's make incredible beer.  But just HOW much better is the Imperial Stout than the Extra Stout?  Literally 2% ABV and 4 bucks a sixer better.  For my money, not enough to just write the Schlafly beer off.  Plus they're local to me.  And local is always better, right?  Now if I could only convince Founder's to move it's operations to Missouri, we wouldn't have this problem.

"True friends stab you in the front."
--Oscar Wilde

So what do you think? I am looking forward to more reports from the east side of the state. I had always wanted Show-Me Beer to cover the entire Show-Me State, but since I'm in KC it's a little hard to be everywhere.

Cheers and Beers!