Blue Jay Brewing (2710 Locust), Jay and Nicole Thompson’s small Midtown brewery that bet everything on lager, has been named “Brewery of the Year” in VinePair’s 2025 Next Wave Awards. The national recognition puts St. Louis back in the craft beer spotlight and proves that precision and patience can still win over hype.
To celebrate, Blue Jay Brewing will host a community event on November 8 from 3–8 p.m. The celebration will feature live music, brewery tours at 4 and 5:30 p.m., and food by Farm Spirit. “This award belongs to St. Louis just as much as it belongs to us,” Nicole says. “We wouldn’t be here without our regulars, our team, and this city. November 8 is about raising a glass together and saying thank you.”
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The Award
For VinePair editor-in-chief Joanna Sciarrino, Blue Jay’s honor embodies what the Next Wave Awards were designed to celebrate: creativity, sustainability, and a refusal to chase trends.
Now in their fifth year, the awards are an internal editorial selection shaped by input from VinePair’s writers, contributors, and professionals across beer, wine, and spirits.
“They’ve been in our orbit for a while,” Sciarrino says. “But what really sealed it this year was the feedback we heard from other brewers and beer professionals. What Jay and Nicole are doing at Blue Jay is exceptional and something different.”
That “something different,” she explains, is their decision to build the brewery around lagers, a choice that stands out in a market still chasing hazy IPAs and novelty styles. “With lagers, it feels decidedly different from a lot of what we’ve been seeing,” she says. “It’s not chasing trends; it’s refining tradition.”
Sciarrino says the selection also reflects VinePair’s effort to highlight makers whose work deserves broader attention. “There’s often an impulse to go for the youngest people,” she says. “But Jay and Nicole are well-established in the industry. Sometimes, we’re drawn to those who haven’t gotten the recognition they deserve yet. This felt long overdue.”
The Menu
Blue Jay’s lineup centers on lagers, anchored by its flagship Little Birds, brewed with Pilsner malt, cassava starch, and hops from Germany’s Hallertau region. The result is a malt-forward, light-bodied beer with a subtle fruit note from the cassava.
“Lagers teach you humility. You can’t hide mistakes under hops; they force you to be precise,” Jay says. “They make you slow down. That’s how we want to run this place, slow, steady, right.”
Nicole adds, “People walk in expecting simple beer, but brewing lagers is actually the hardest thing we do.”
“Brewing for us is about more than beer; it’s about responsibility,” Jay says. “We want to make lagers that taste great today and contribute to a better future tomorrow.”
That curiosity led to a collaboration called New Roots, brewed with 25 percent Kernza, a perennial grain closely related to wheat. “It’s a fairly new sustainable grain,” Jay says. “The Land Institute has the trademark on it. It’s basically perennial wheatgrass.” The beer, developed with the Danforth Plant Science Center, The Land Institute, and local partners including Millpond Brewing, Side Project Brewing, and Switchgrass Spirits, reflects Blue Jay’s interest in connecting beer with agricultural research.
Although the beer has rotated off tap, Jay and Nicole say it captures their spirit of experimentation. “Any time we can change the process a little bit with something new and see what it tastes like,” Jay says, “we’re in.”
That same care extends to the kitchen, where Farm Spirit, the in-house restaurant from chef Ryan McDonald and Ashley Batiste, serves locally sourced dishes that mirror Blue Jay’s thoughtful approach. “Farm Spirit and Blue Jay share the same values,” McDonald says. “They believe in doing things thoughtfully, sustainably, and with care.”
The Backstory
Founded in 2023, Blue Jay set out to build a brewery where classic technique meets quiet confidence. “We built Blue Jay to share our love of lagers and create a space where people feel welcome,” Jay says. “To see our taproom in Midtown celebrated on a national stage is incredible.”
The brewery occupies a modest stretch of Locust Street. Its taproom is filled with reclaimed wood, sunlight, and the steady gleam of stainless steel. “You can see every tank from the bar,” Jay says. “We wanted people to see the process, that beer isn’t magic—it’s practice.”
Nicole adds, “Everything you see in here was touched by our hands at some point. We didn’t have the budget for new gear, so we rebuilt most of it ourselves.”
Opening a lager-focused brewery also came with challenges. Longer fermentation means slower turnover, but the Thompsons embraced the wait. “We never wanted to be the biggest,” Nicole says. “Consistency is how you build trust.”
“If people leave here saying, ‘That was just a really good beer,’ that’s enough for us,” Jay says. “We don’t need them to know how complicated it was to make.”
For now, expansion will come carefully. “We’re not racing to open a second location,” Nicole says. “For us, success still looks like people gathered around a pint of lager, right here in Midtown.”
Although the brewery is not even two years old, regulars have become part of Blue Jay’s rhythm. “Some come in every Friday after work and sit at the same table,” Nicole says. “That’s what we built this for.”
