STL brewers are jonesing to release these beers in 2016

Raise your hand if you think 2015 was a good year for St. Louis craft beer?

Okay, you can put them down now. We agree, 2015 was a very good year for beer in St Louis. But that beer has been drunk and now it’s time to look forward. The wizards who make the beer we love have been planning for 2016 for months, so we went to them to find out what they have planned and what they are most excited about releasing this year.

Main & Mill

Right now I would say our Oak-Aged Imperial Breakfast Stout. It’ll be a 9.5% Imperial Stout that has spent a time on oak, cacao nibs, vanilla bean before being blended with maple and Mississippi Mud Yellow Bourbon Brazilian coffee. We are considering bottling this and making it our first beer packaged for sale outside of growlers. We are hoping to have this ready by around Valentine’s Day but with this being our first bottling, we may not be ready and may wait until a Fall release. – Denny Foster

Earthbound

We are most excited to releasing our distribution lineup. We are projecting a February 2016 launch for distribution which includes our Mahlab ESB, Belgian Pale Ale, Open Source Brown, and a red ale we are in the process of renaming. — Rebecca M. Schranz

Deslogetown Brewery

We are most looking to releasing our our 1st anniversary beer called “Shotgun Wee Heavy.” It has lots of malt at the front of this beer, with very little bitterness – plus a higher ABV (7.0%) for a little winter warmth. This will be part of our 1st anniversary celebration on January 16th at the Ale House, which also will include some other surprises and giveaways! — Greg Camp

Recess Brewing

We are excited about several things in 2016! We will be coming out with some new releases including a cream ale, black ipa, double ipa, saison (two versions). We are also excited about is getting into distribution and having 2 to 3 bottles on hand in the taproom. Right now we have our anniversary beer in bottles but will be looking to expand that this year.

But if there was one thing we are most excited about it’s releasing our Belgian style dubbel, Clown Assassin, in bottles. It will be coming out in early February. — Matt Recess

Schlafly

While we have multiple releases this year, both brand new and returning beers, we believe that the introduction of our new Grapefruit IPA has to be our most anticipated release of 2016. Grapefruit IPA launched at the start of 2016 and will be available year round. This beer is a drinkable 5% ABV IPA brewed using fresh grapefruit puree. The unique aspect of this brew comes from the puree actually being fermented with the beer. This adds a true juicy grapefruit flavor that plays well alongside the Pacific Northwest hops. This beer is great for the hop lover and for the new-to-craft drinker.

Right after Grapefruit IPA comes another brand new beer, our Double Bean Blonde Ale. Double Bean Blonde Ale will launch in mid-March and will fall into our Special Release line of beers. Double Bean Blonde is special because it features ingredients of both coffee and chocolate, however what sets it apart is its blonde color. These flavors are usually associated with darker beers like stouts and porters, but this beer has a much lighter body than those styles, and of course a much brighter color. — Schlafly Brewing

Charleville Brewing Company

We will kick off 2016 with the release of Box of Chocolate, just in time for Valentines Day. It’s Difficult to express Love’s nuances, much like the complexity of this Belgian style Chocolate Quad. You Might use a Box of Chocolate to express your love, we use it to demonstrate our passion for great beer. (IBU: 15 / ABV: 10.5%).

In March, we’ll release Ale Mucho Hoppo DIPA. Hop Headed and heavy handed with 100 IBU. This Luchador is not known for subtleness. In fact, it’s Ale Mucho. Aggressively Hopped with Chinook, Columbus, Tomahawk and Zeus. 9% abv

Also in March we will release a 4 vintage 4 pack of Barleywine Vintages 2013, 2014, 2015, 2106 — Tait Russell