"I'm sitting on 10 gallons of beer that I brewed for this, so this news is pretty disappointing," says Chip Stone, a Maplewood resident and St. Louis Brews member. "I'm hoping we don't have to get laws changed just to pour our beer at festivals."

But Kopman says that may be the case.

"The good things is, we now have clarity from the Excise Division that homebrewed beers from unlicensed brewers are not legal at paid beer festivals," he told the Post-Dispatch on Monday night. "The bad news, of course, is that this was a very cool part of Heritage Festival, and we may have to introduce a bill in the state legislature or else find another solution."

Although no homebrewed beer will be served at this year's Heritage Festival, Kopman says organizers will honor their agreement to give a free ticket to any homebrewer who had committed to donate at least 5 gallons of beer to the festival.