This just in: Heritage Festival? More like Heritage BESTival!

Hey gang! I hope everyone's been having a great weekend so far. My weekend has been FULL of beer (and beer accessories). 

Featured: Civil Life Porter

I just got home from this month's OG Workshop, where we welcomed some new members and talked about the usage of fruit in beer. We sampled a variety of fruit-infused beers, including Leinenkugel's Berry Weiss (a very sweet and carbonated elderberry/blackberry delight), and local favorite (as well as my go-to concert beer) Contact High from 4 Hands! This dry-zested citrusy wheat beer just screams summertime, and I plan to pick up a 6-pack for a float trip I'm going on next weekend.
We also discussed recent charity events we've worked on, future collaborations and festivals, and our impending change of venue! Beginning with our July workshop, we will be meeting at Flying Saucer, just steps from Busch Stadium! 
Speaking of great places in downtown Saint Louis to get beer, I was fortunate enough to take a VIP tour of the Schlafly Tap Room, located at 2100 Locust. Myself and a few of my Sabres teammates learned a bit about Schlafly's history as a company as well as the history of the Tap Room. For example, did you know that the Tap Room location makes an appearance in the classic John Carpenter film Escape From New York? Because it does. As a shameless Kurt Russell fangirl, this was probably the most exciting part of the tour. 

Schlafly has even brewed a special saison to honor the appearance- the Plissken Saison, a collab with Right Proper Brewing.

The tour also included a trip into the cellar for a tasting and even some backstory behind the company's logo, as well as the logos used on some of Schlafly's 750ml offerings.

All of the Fleur-de-Lis variations were designed by local tattoo artists!

All in all, it was a very informative tour! Even though all of the ladies had different levels of beer experience (ex-BEER-ience? Eh?), I think we were all able to learn something new about the brewing process, the drinking process, and Schlafly as a company! Special shout-out to our tour guide, Chris, for being such a great tour guide, fielding all of our questions, and making the day amazing (Schlafly higher-ups, if you're reading this, toss the kid a raise).

That, of course, brings us to the other big event of the weekend- Heritage Fest! I was there Friday evening representing The OG and pouring a White IPA and an Oatmeal Porter in Homebrew Village, where we were surrounded by other homebrew clubs such as Garage Brewers and STL Brews. In addition to pouring beer and answering questions about The OG, I got to enjoy some awesome music, nibble on some delicious local nitro ice cream made with Square One Brewery's Maple Brown Ale, and soak up some sunset breezes in Forest Park! I don't think it's an exaggeration to say this was definitely the best beer festival I have ever attended, and I loved getting to try new beers from all of the member breweries, as well as some tasty homebrews. I learned that a coworker of mine is a member of STL Brews, and he brough an English Pale that ended up being one of my favorite beers of the evening.

It's safe to say that beer monopolized my weekend, and that brings me to this week's historical topic- monopoly. Specifically, Monopoly, and the history and scandals behind this classic board game. For example, did you know that Monopoly contains one of the most-printed typos of all time? It's true. Other shocking true facts about Monopoly include the following: it was invented by a woman,  it was originally designed to teach single-tax principles, and it was the subject of a decades-long lawsuit that resulted in over 35,000 copies of a "rival" board game being buried in rural Minnesota. I know, it sounds too crazy to be true- but it is. I read all about it in Mary Pilon's The Monopolists, an award-winning book that is at times infuriating, at times hilarious, but always informative. I was fortunate enough to attend a book signing this week with Pilon, and it was awesome to hear about her research experiences while working on the book! I haven't ever talked about board games, so you might be surprised to know that in addition to reading, board games are a big hobby of mine. As is, apparently, reading about board games. 

I think that does it for this blog post. This week, I'll be taking a math exam and getting all of my schoolwork and work-work done in an impossibly short amount of time to gear up for my weekend float trip vacation! I'll have another post up next Sunday about the tasty canned beers I'll be sipping on the river.