When Steve Albers was building Center Ice Brewery, he wanted more than just a hockey-themed brewery in downtown St. Louis. In his recent vlog post Wednesday Nov. 22, Albers stated that during construction of the brewery, he thought, “How great would it be if a St. Louis Blue or an NHLer got behind this brand?”. Yesterday that thought became reality with the release of Grim Reaver, a red IPA brewed by none other than NHL star and former Bluenote Ryan Reaves.
Albers got the opportunity to teach Reaves how to homebrew after the Blues reached out to him last year saying he was interested in homebrewing, and along the way Reaves came up with the idea of brewing up a red IPA as he is a craft beer fan and a hophead according to Albers.
“I’m a big fan of Snake Oil from 4Hands, and I wanted to tweak that a little bit” said Reaves in the aforementioned vlog. The initial concept batch was brewed in its entirety by Reaves on Albers’s homebrew system, and the beer was kegged and bottled the day before the grand opening. Reaves loved the end result when he visited with his wife Alanna, and the decision was made to take it to market and scale up to a full production batch
The Grim Reaver is a 7.5% ABV offering with big, juicy grapefruit and citrus notes, and available at the brewery while supplies last.
Scott Kurtz
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- Center Ice Brewery Releases Ryan Reaves’s Grim Reaver Red IPA - November 23, 2017
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