5 St. Louis-area beer events to hit this weekend

Beer event season has arrived. There are a plethora of delicious options across the greater St. Louis area this weekend, all showcasing phenomenal beer. Go ahead – drink up!

1. Record Store Day 2018 is Saturday, April 21, and newly opened Firecracker Pizza & Beer in The Grove is celebrating this super trendy national holiday with a gnarly Dogfish Head tap takeover and a raffle to win a Crosley turntable. The beer lineup is killer, but get your taste buds going with Dragons and Yumyums, a super juicy, tropical fruit bomb of an IPA brewed in collaboration with the Flaming Lips – appropriate!

2. St. Charles Craft Beer Week  kicks off this weekend, and Shamrocks Pub n Grill ushers in the festivities Saturday, April 21 from 2 to 5 p.m. with its annual beer fest that supports the MO Better Foundation. For $30, you get unlimited samples from 30 breweries, a tasting glass and the chance to benefit a good cause. While there, try local heavy-hitter Third Wheel Brewing’s Going Once, Going Twice Berliner Weisse and be sure to add the dill flavored syrup to this lemon-tart beauty (trust me!).

3. White Rooster Farmhouse Brewery celebrates its first anniversary this Saturday from noon to 7 p.m., and if there is one thing I’m most excited about across the river, it’s this Sparta, Illinois brewery. Tickets are $30 and include nine 5-ounce tasters, an anniversary glass, the option to buy beer to-go and live music. Search out all available vintages and variants of Push Pull, an acidic and funky farmhouse ale that showcases local microflora and has a gorgeously complex palate.

4. St. Louis Earth Day Festival takes over the Muny grounds at Forest Park again this Saturday and Sunday, April 22. Get your green on, and while you’re there, search out Perennial Artisan Ales On y Va, a dry-hopped farmhouse brewed in collaboration with a bunch of local beer ladies (including yours truly) that boasts notes of grass, mild funk and tropical fruit.

5. Urban Chestnut Brewing Co. hosts its first Lagerfest at The Grove Brewery and Bierhall on Sunday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Lagers are on trend in the beer world, and I’m excited Bierstadt Lagerhaus out of Denver, Colorado will be in attendance. Hands down, this is one of the coolest breweries in that mountainous beer mecca, you should drink anything it has to offer. 

Editor's note: Sauce Magazine is a sponsor of St. Louis Earth Day Festival.

Katie Herrera a longtime contributor to Sauce Magazine, account manager at Craft Republic and STL Barkeep director of beer.