ST. LOUIS — Restaurants are temporarily closing their doors and business models are shifting because of dine-in bans and stay-at-home orders.
As St. Louis’ food scene ventures into unknown territory to help stop the spread of COVID-19, one of the city’s iconic beer brands is raising a glass to help those in the hospitality industry hit hardest.
Schlafly Beer has launched its new hazy IPA called Side Work.
Schlafly’s lead brewer Jared Williamson developed the special beer as a labor of love for his wedding. It has a flavor of strawberry jam and passion fruit and a symbolic joining of two different hops coming together as one.
“I brewed this celebration beer in early March for my wedding guests to enjoy, and there is a story behind each aspect of the beer,” the brewer said.
Williamson and his fiancé were supposed to get married in April but made the tough decision to postpone their “I Dos” because of the coronavirus.
Not wanting the beer to go to waste, Williamson and Schlafly decided to can it and use it for something good.
“We wanted it to go back to our industry, as both my fiancé and I have spent numerous years either behind a bar serving patrons or in the brewery producing the beers. We wanted something positive for the greater community,” Williamson said.
Schlafly will donate proceeds from the Side Work beer sales to the Gateway Resilience Fund. The fund is led by the St. Louis Community Foundation. It was set up recently to provide short-term monetary relief to employees and owners of independent bars, restaurants and shops in the St. Louis area affected by the coronavirus outbreak.
“While it was a bummer to postpone our little celebration, there are much greater issues that we are all currently facing, and we will need to help each other as much as we can,” Williamson explained.
Side Work will be $8.99 for a four-pack. It became available April 10.
To order the beer, guests can call Schlafly at 314-241-2337. Side Work — and all of Schlafly’s products — are available for curbside pickup and carryout at both locations.
To donate to Gateway Resilience Fund, go to https://stlgives.org/covid19/gateway-resilience-fund/
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