Two St. Louis breweries took home top honors at this year’s Great American Beer Festival (GABF)—proof that local craftsmanship continues to shine on the national stage.
Side Project Brewing in Maplewood earned a gold medal in the “Dessert or Pastry Stout” category for its beer Marble Lions, while Narrow Gauge Brewing Company in Florissant captured silver in the highly competitive “Juicy or Hazy Imperial India Pale Ale” category for King Fallen Flag.
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Side Project’s Marble Lions: A Decadent Gold Winner
Crafted with peanuts, Thai banana nibs, banana chips, Ugandan vanilla beans, and cocoa nibs, Marble Lions is an Imperial Stout inspired by the flavors of Elvis Presley’s favorite sandwich. The name references the marble lions that guard Graceland’s entrance, a nod to the beer’s playful-yet-precise roots.
Head brewer Cory King credits his team’s refinement of technique for the beer’s success. “I had never loved a peanut butter beer until Rich, one of our brewers, taught us how to do it really, really well,” King said in a recent video. “The vanilla is like salt and pepper for us; it softens and ties everything together.”
Built on Side Project’s 2024 Horchata Imperial stout base, the beer undergoes fermentation and lagering before those culinary ingredients are layered in. The result is a dessert stout with balance and depth, bold and indulgent yet precise.
Winning gold in a category known for its intensity underscores Side Project’s continued influence in elevating adjunct brewing, using ingredients such as fruit, nuts, and cocoa to expand flavor while maintaining structure.
Narrow Gauge’s King Fallen Flag: A Legacy in Haze
Florissant-based Narrow Gauge Brewing and brewer Jeff Hardesty earned silver for King Fallen Flag, a beer long admired in St. Louis circles for its precision and consistency. The win marks the brewery’s third GABF medal, following previous awards for Saft and Meersalz.
King Fallen Flag is the imperial version of the brewery’s breakout hazy IPA, Fallen Flag. At 8.6% ABV and double dry-hopped with Citra and Mosaic, it layers flavors of mango, mandarin, and pine—a beer that fans often describe as “Fallen Flag on steroids.”
Hardesty developed the original Fallen Flag through years of fine-tuning: “Correct water profiles, hop timing, and finding the right yeasts make this a hard beer to brew,” he explained. “I wanted it soft, balanced, and consistent every time.”
That precision earned the brewery its nickname from this beer writer as “the Godfather of St. Louis haze.” For Hardesty, this latest medal validates years of technical focus in one of craft beer’s most competitive categories.
Learn more about the craft beer scene on the Arch Eats podcast featuring guest Jordan Palmer.
