After 2011’s amazing run of new breweries opening in St. Louis, it almost seemed like it would be too good to be true to see another brewery opening this year. Well, I’m happy to announce that 2012 will see another new brewery open in St. Louis: Heavy Riff Brewing Company.

Located at 6413 Clayton Avenue in Dogtown, this new brewery will be owned and operated by brothers Jerid and Justin Saffell. For those of you that may not remember, Jerid brings plenty of professional brewing experience as he was assistant brewer at Mattingly Brewing Company, brewer at Buffalo Brewing Company, and cellerman at Highland/Kirkwood Station Brewing.

Jerid’s current target date is to have Heavy Riff open is August 1st, 2012 and will operate similar to how many new local breweries have: with a small tasting room featuring 8-10 taps of Heavy Riff beers, Missouri wines, and locally made Dogtown Pizzas along with some simple snacks such as artisan cheese/sausage plates. While small-scale distribution is definitely in the future plans, the current focus will be to get the tasting room up and running.

With a name like Heavy Riff, you know that music will be a big part of the atmosphere. Both Justin and Jerid have eclectic tastes in music and will even be featuring a “Bring a Record” allowing people to bring in their own vinyl which will be given a spin. But Jerid knows that while music is important, it’s not going to interfere, “Despite our love for great tunes we do not plan on having live music simply out of respect for the surrounding community and our commitment to keeping the noise level comfortable enough to maintain a civil conversation.”

While the flagship beers are still being decided upon, you can be certain you’ll see classic examples of many of Jerid’s favorite styles including “several Belgian ales and stupidly hopped west coast style beers.” Not surprisingly, we will also see barrel aged, sour, and cask beers as well.

The brewhouse for Heavy Riff will be unique in that it will feature not only a 7bbl brewing system, but also a 1.5bbl pilot system for small batches. “The 1.5 bbl size is much larger than what most breweries use as a pilot system and this was done on purpose. If we do a special beer we wanted to have enough kegs of it around to last more than just 1 evening. This will give everyone an opportunity to come out and see what were up to instead of just those who could make it on the night the beer was released,” according to Jerid.

Be sure to follow their progress on Facebook and on Twitter over the next few months as we all await this exciting new brewery.