Create A Perennial Beer Contest Winners

We are excited to announce 2 winners of our "Create A Perennial Beer" contest! The winners are a Mexican Chocolate Stout, submitted by Scott Brazell, and a "Root" Beer submitted by Robert Pesold.

These beers were chosen by a collective vote of the Perennial team, and we admit that it was definitely not easy. There was an abundance of creative entries, and over 100 total to choose from.

We plan to release the Mexican Chocolate Stout in our "In Season" series sometime in the late fall. In Scott's words:

"a Mexican Chocolate stout...faint cinnamon, almond, and chili pepper (more fruity chili, not so much heat)"

Sounds damn good to us, and a great way to welcome the winter.

The Root Beer will likely be a released in the late winter in our "Farmhouse" series. According to Robert:

"A nice ale that involves adding some sassafras root or bark in the brewing process...wouldn't it be nice to have a beer that had hints of sassafras in it? A grown up root beer."

Yes Robert, grown ups need their soda pop too. Everyone loves root beer, but hasn't it always been missing that little something...?

As advertized, we will coordinate with Scott and Robert to come in and brew these beers with us. Congratulations Scott and Robert!

As a special thanks to everyone else who entered the contest, your first beer at the tasting room will be on us. Look for our brewery and tasting room to open in early September.

The Final Stretch

Things have been coming together fast and furious at Perennial, and now that we feel we're about 2 - 3 weeks away from firing up our first brew (and hopefully opening in late August), we figured it was time to show some pics and give some updates. As STL Hops reported a few weeks ago, our brewery is divided into 3 distinct spaces: the brewhouse, the cellar, and the tasting room. The brewhouse area (pictured above) is 3,000 square feet and houses our 10 hectoliter (8.5 barrel) brewhouse and all grain handling processes. Our first brews on this system will include: Hommel Bier (a dry-hopped Belgian Pale Ale), South Side Blonde (a Belgian Blonde Ale), Strawberry Rhubarb Tart (a Witbier with strawberries, rhubarb stalks, and Indian coriander), Saison de Lis (a Saison brewed with chamomile flowers), and Heart of Gold (a big 10% ABV Wheat Wine).



Our cellar (pictured above) is 7 feet lower than the brewhouse space, and is beneath ground level for natural insulation. This room is also climate controlled, so we can keep the temperature consistent for our wild barrel fermentations. We're starting with 3 - 20 barrel fermenters and 1 - 20 barrel packaging tank. The total space in our cellar is 6,500 square feet and will also include a walk in cooler for packaged beer storage, all packaging equipment (750 ml bottler and keg cleaner), and barrel-aging. We plan to bring in about 40 wine barrels and 10 - 15 spirits barrels as soon as possible for future brews.



Our tasting room is 3,400 square feet (not including the beer garden). The final look will be a mix of vintage and industrial materials. The bar will feature 8 draft lines fed by a draft cooler located between the cellar and tasting room. We plan to always have at least 5 of our beers on draft, which means that we'll fill out the other taps with experimental brews and guest drafts from other breweries. We will also be serving a small selection of wines by the glass and a few of our favorite spirits neat (no mixers). And for all the kids and designated drivers who thought we forgot about them, we'll be hand crafting our own gourmet sodas (available by the glass, only in our tasting room). Our food menu will consist mostly of charcuterie items from Salume Beddu (cured meats, pates), artisanal Midwestern cheeses, olives, bread, spreads, and desserts from Bittersweet Bakery. We will also have a bookshelf stocked with brewing (and non-brewing) related books and publications, a mix of board games, and real dart boards.

We'll be sure to provide updates as we charge towards our opening date (now projected for late August).