4 Hands Brewing Co. collaborates with Clownvis Presley on strawberry blonde ale
You can meet Clownvis Presley at 2 events in St. Louis this week
For a second time now, St. Louis multi-media performer Clownvis Presley has found his image on a can of strawberry beer, the type of unique honor that somehow comes naturally to The King of Clowns. In 2023, the debut offering came from a Davis, CA brewery, Sudwerk, which enjoys distribution in Missouri. Baheega Strawberry Lager (4.5% ABV) was the result of their collaboration.
“They had an idea for this beer and thought Clownvis would look good on the label,” Clownvis (aka Michael Leahy) said, “and so we worked out the details. I didn’t know if it would actually go through, or if I was wasting my time with people who I didn’t know. But it came through! All the local bars in St. Louis carried it and it had a good run. It sold so quickly that they made two batches. Overall, it was a good experience, with the only rub being that the company wasn’t centralized to St. Louis, to see what all we could do with it promotionally.”
Fast forwarding a year, Clownvis was approached by a closer-to-home company with whom he’d worked in the past, 4 Hands Brewing Co. The St. Louis brand is now offering up the eponymous Clownvis a 4% strawberry blonde ale. Over time, they’ve been known to work on other such personally named projects, creating Pilsners for both musician Pokey LaFarge and soccer player Tim Parker.
“They were admittedly jealous of how Sudwerk went,” Clownvis said, “and we knew that if we’d missed anything at all, it was all the celebrating that we could do in St. Louis. They’ve got their finger on the pulse of the hipsters, the movers and shakers; they’re at all the right events at the right bars. We started talking and sat down for a meeting. They had an idea to do a similar thing as the first one, to move some fruited beer.”
Clownvis, whose career blew up during Covid with his web show “Clownvis to the Rescue,” used to travel 100 days a year, barnstorming the country as a live act. These days, he’s satisfied to hang closer to home, near family and friends, gigging around half that much. Food and beverage tie-ins are some of the offers have appeared locally, such as a Steve’s Hot Dogs namesake dog, along with the strawberry beers. Plus, he sells self-branded Banana Beans and Cotton Candy Body Spray on his website. And he’s got more of these notions bubbling under that signature coiffure.
He jokes that he’s now in “a Spuds McKenzie” role to support his beer, “standing around, shaking hands, being that real, live promo guy.” It’s that in guise that he’ll be bowling at the Pin-Up Bowl at 6191 Delmar Blvd. in the Loop on Thursday, Aug. 29; and at the Silver Ballroom at 4701 Morganford Road on Friday, Aug. 30, where free pinball’s an extra inducement.
