Bonfire & Botanicals 2018 (Updated with Beer List)

We are excited to announce details on this year's Bonfire and Botanicals festival on Saturday, January 13th from noon to 6pm! Tickets will be $35, available at the door, and include a Scratch glass, samples of eight beers, and an order of homemade gumbo in a bread bowl. If you don't want to keep your glass, you may receive $5 back when you leave the festival. You can also buy tickets for more samples as you go!

This year, like last, the Serpent Room will be open and we will be featuring beers brewed with botanicals from our garden and from the woods, as well as bonfires around the patio to keep you warm in the cold of January. NEW this year, we decided to brew a variety of stein beers. In order to make a stein beer, we build a fire early in the morning with granite rocks from Missouri wedged between the flames. When the large fire burns down, the rocks are then hot enough to boil beer in wooden barrels without any additional heat. We add a rock to the boil every few minutes to ensure that the liquid stays hot enough throughout the entire boil. These beers nod to traditional German methods of bringing liquid to a boil and speak to our place in southern Illinois, utilizing local materials and landscape as our heating mechanisms with foraged, farmed, or fermented ingredients as a major contribution to the flavors of different beers. The stein beers showcase fermented acorns, paw paws, wild oregano, and mint, among other ingredients from the woods and garden.

Other botanical beers will be available in the main tasting room, along with unlimited soda. Designated Driver and non-alcoholic tickets are also available ($5 for a mason jar and unlimited soda; $15 for the jar, soda, and soup). Our soup this year is gumbo, made with garden-grown okra, andouille sausage from Lick Creek, and foraged file' spice, served in a hearth-baked bread bowl. A vegetarian/vegan option is also available.

Here is the full beer list! 1. Foeder-Aged Fennel Sweet Clover

2. Turmeric Oak Leaf Gruit 3. Bark 4. Sahti 5. Ginger Rhubarb Saison 6. Ginger Sour 7. Dark Dark Bark 8. Chili and Green Tomatoes 9. Leaves 10. Paw Paw Stein Beer Hefeweizen 11. Fermented Acorn Stein Beer 12. Wild Oregano Stein Beer Porter 13. Mint Stein Beer Stout 14. Hen of the Woods Stein Beer 15. Barrel-Aged Paw Paw Other beers may be poured if we run out of something! Bottles Available To-Go on Saturday: Botanical 4-Pack (Bark, Leaves, Roots, Flowers) Mumm Blackberry and Lavender Basil IPA Freestone Sumac Chambourcin