They say for any business, the first year is the hardest. So a huge congratulations to the Old Bakery Brewing Company for making it to the big 1 YEAR Anniversary. And what brewery wouldn’t mark such an occasion without a PARTY!
To mark their anniversary, Old Bakery is hosting the “Black & Blues Festival” Sunday, March 13th from 1 to 5 p.m.
25 local breweries will help them celebrate the milestone by bringing their best “black” beer styles, but that won’t be the only beers available.
“Funky Brew will be playing old school Blues and Soul all day, and we will have several BBQ specials available,” said owner Lauren Pattan.
Old Bakery will be releasing their new Double Stout and a 1st Anniversary Barleywine. “It’s a an American-style Barleywine partially bourbon barrel aged and partially aged on cinnamon, cocoa nibs, and oak,” said Pattan.
Tickets are $30 in advance or $35 day of, and will include a commemorative glass and samples from all of the participating breweries. Tickets are available now at the brewery or online at www.blackandblues.
Proud History
Founded in 1818, Alton remains a postcard of the dream of ‘main street’ America, with 19th century buildings lining the streets, inviting strollers to enjoy a bit of river life. One such building started its life as a bakery in the late 1800’s. After a fire in 1929 and a series of remodels, additions, and changes in ownership, the building remained a bakery until the early 1980’s when it shut down.
“The Old Bakery Beer Company was born in early 2015 after we were introduced to the beautiful old Colonial Bakery building in downtown Alton, IL,” said James Rogalsky, brewer and co-owner. “We have tried our best to keep the building’s history alive and our name is just a small piece of that endeavor.”
Old Bakery Beer Moving West
For their first year, Old Bakery’s brew was only available on the Illinois side of the Mississippi River. To have their beer available across the St. Louis, Missouri market took a lot of diligence and patience.
“We started approaching distributors over the summer and held several meetings to decide what would be the best fit for our brand, ” said Pattan. They decided to go with Summit Distributing. The rest of the process required the brewery get more organized with a brewing schedule to ensure that they had enough of our core styles to meet the demands of entering a new market.
“We also had to wait on Missouri Label Approvals before being able to send our beer across state lines,” said Pattan.
In February, 2016 the hard work paid off. Old Bakery currently has released two beers in Missouri: North End IPA – a West Coast style IPA dry-hopped with Citra, Cascade, and Crystal; and Porter – a classic English-style porter brewed with American ingredients.
“We feel like these two beers really represent our brand well. We are primarily focused on brewing classic styles while using exclusively organic, American malts and hops. These two styles have been received very well on this side of the river and they are just our favorites to drink as well! We are also looking forward to getting some of our lighter styles across the river, but thought that these would pair better with winter weather for now,” said Pattan.
On Tap In The STL
You will also find Citrus Wheat and Golden Oat to St. Louis soon as well as on-tap at Itap Soulard, Itap Chesterfield, Itap CWE, Everything Wine & Cigars, Shamrocks Pub & Grill, Exit 6, Union Loafers, PW Pizza, Quincy Street Bistro, St. Louis Hop Shop, Flying Saucer, Hair of the Dog, Llywellyns CWE, and Olive and Oak. The list is ever-growing!
What’s Next?
Old Bakery will continue to focus on increasing their presence in the St. Louis area by working with more and more bars and restaurants and introducing additional styles into the market. “We will also begin canning at the end of this March starting with our Citrus Wheat and Porter and begin selling cans to St. Louis in early to mid March.”
