Brew Hub Taproom is celebrating St. Louis Craft Beer Week with the launch of two limited-edition brews inspired by iconic St. Louis snacks: gooey butter cake and Old Vienna Red Hot Riplets.

On July 31, Brew Hub tapped its 5.5 percent ABV Gooey Butter Beer. Today, it's turning up the heat with the release of the Red Hot Riplet Blonde Ale, which comes in at 5.1 percent ABV.

Like the dessert itself, you want to limit your intake of Gooey Butter Beer, as it is indeed very sweet, but pleasant to drink on a summer evening. It tastes like an alcohol-infused cream soda, with a slightly toasted, biscuity aftertaste.

Jim Ottolini, chief of brewing operations, recalls how the idea for the Red Hot Riplet Blonde came about, during a discussion between himself, executive chef/general manager Andy White, and marketing vice president Diane Schoen. “Andy said he had made some chicken wings using crushed-up Red Hot Riplets for the breading, and Diane wanted to know what kind of beer would pair with that," Ottolini recalls. "I said, ‘Well, why don’t we take those spices that you would use on a chip like that, and we’ll put them in a beer, and we could call it ‘Red Hot Siplet’? And we laughed.”

“Then, the next thing Diane was saying, ‘I really want to do that.’ When the boss lady says she wants to do it, you figure out a way to make it happen. It probably takes 100 bad ideas before a good one sticks. We were just kind of saying, ‘Could we do that?’ So we started asking, ‘What goes into a Red Hot Riplet? What goes into gooey butter cake?’”

Brew Hub only has one keg of each brew available at present, and it hasn’t committed to brewing more as yet, so hurry to the taproom (located next to the Hampton Inn on the south side of Forest Park) before stocks run dry.

Supplemental Editor's Note: The Red Hot Riplet Ale sold out within 12 hours of its release.

Even if you don’t make it in time, Brew Hub has plenty to keep you happy, with more than 20 craft beers on tap from around the United States. In addition to Brew Hub’s own beers, there are brews from the likes of High Heel (of Lakeland, Florida), East Island (of Charleston, South Carolina), Big Bend (of Alpine, Texas) and Toppling Goliath (of Decorah, Iowa). The latter has been ranked as one of the world’s best craft breweries, and it's had a fruitful partnership with Brew Hub for several years. Brew Hub will be tapping the results of the pair’s latest collaboration this Friday. All proceeds go toward the Missouri Coalition for the Environment and Mississippi River Collaborative.

Brew Hub joins a proud tradition of local venues that have riffed on the flavors of either gooey butter cake or Red Hot Riplets. Last summer, Earthbound Beer teamed up with Old Vienna and Saint Louis Hop Shop to create the Riplet Gose beer. Byrd & Barrel crumbles Red Hot Riplets on top of its Mac ‘n’ cheese and places whole chips straight into its “Mother Clucker” chicken sandwich. Sugarfire Smoke House did the same with its infamous St. Lunatic Burger last year, while Mac’s Local Eats uses Red Hot Riplets seasoning on its Rip Fries. Even Old Vienna lists a recipe for Red Hot Riplet Cheeseburgers on its website.

We couldn’t find any proof of a precedent for gooey butter cake beer, which seems surprising, given the dozens of breweries in the St. Louis metro area. But the dessert has inspired plenty of other spinoffs. The Ritz-Carlton St. Louis paid tribute in cocktail form a few years ago with the Gooey Butter Cake Martini. In December 2015, Excel Bottling Company released a Gooey Butter Cake Soda, and Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams has occasionally whipped up a gooey butter cake ice cream. At Clementine's, Gooey Butter Cake is the creamery's biggest seller. And, just last month, Anna Beck shared her recipe for Gooey Butter Cookies here at SLM.

Iain Shaw is a freelance writer, now living in St. Louis after almost 15 years in Beijing, China. Find more of Iain’s writing about food, drink, and travel here.