The last year that I lived in Philadelphia, the city was
really starting to gain a reputation as a great beer city. We have a good
friend who is a brewer at Yards, and he had gotten my husband Dan a part time gig
there. Dan did some quality control, worked the bottling line, made those
variety cases (they pack up cases of single types of beer, then swap them to
create the variety packs - high tech stuff), and sat down with the boss at the
end of every day to taste the current production. It was was his dream job.
Breweries were cropping up all over the Philadelphia area, Philly Beer Week was
starting to be an actual important event for the city, restaurants started to
have these intense tap lists. It was exciting. And then we moved to St.
Louis.
I only knew of St. Louis as the home of Anheuser Busch. As a
lifelong horse girl, I do love those Clydesdales, but even at my low points I
didn't drink Bud. We were bummed, to say the least. All of these wonderful
things were happening in our city, and although our reasons for leaving (grad
school for Dan at a top university with a more-than-decent chunk of scholarship
money) were great, we still felt like we were going to be missing out on
something important.
Before we left, our friends, including the brewer at Yards,
gave us a gift card for the Schlafly Brewery here in St. Louis. Schlafly is the
largest independent brewery here, and is actually known to people outside the
area, mostly because it was the first to boldly step up and challenge AB, and
the notion that this was a one-brewery town. I hadn't heard of them, but that
isn't unusual, I'm not really dialed into the craft brewers news, and with
limited distribution outside of the state, we hadn't had a chance to try
any.
So, after we lumbered into town and unceremoniously dumped
the contents of a sixteen foot moving van into our new apartment, we headed to
the Schlafly Bottleworks to use our gift card for dinner.
They have a good restaurant with an outdoor patio, and my brother still says
the pulled pork sandwich he had there was one of the best sandwiches of his
life. It was a nice way to end a long drive, and to get acquainted with the
neighborhood and the city. Our waiter had a shirt on that said "Bier
trinkt man nicht nur zum Frühstück" which my dad, a fierce German,
adored and bought immediately. Beer is not just for breakfast anymore.
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| Schafly Bottleworks |
The Bottleworks, which is where Schlafly does the majority
of their brewing and packaging, is only a few minutes down the road from us.
According to their website, they brew over twenty different styles in this
brewhouse, and fill over 1600 cases and 240 kegs a day. They apparently built
this facility to meet demand and keep the production local. Later I learned
that there is a second Schlafly restaurant and brewery located more downtown.
The Schlafly Tap Room brews the smaller batches, Belgian-styles, oak-aged
reserve beers, and fills the larger, 750ml bottles. The menu in the restaurant
here is more traditional pub-fare, and, according to my husband, the beer on
tap is better. I tend to find something I enjoy drinking at either location
because, while their beers don't really ever blow your mind, they are
consistently good. Also, not a Bud clone in the bunch.
Once we got tuned into the local news, we realized that St.
Louis was in the middle of a craft brewing renaissance just as Philadelphia had
been. Small breweries were popping up everywhere, and within the first year
we'd discovered Urban Chestnut, O'Fallon, Augusta, and 2nd Shift. To date, that
list has swelled to include: Civil Life, Perennial, 4 Hands, Six Row, Square
One, Morgan Street, Trailhead, Exit 6, and Charleville. Anheuser who?
Allow me to take you on a tour of some of my
favorites:
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| Urban Chestnut Brewing Comany |
Perennial
Artisan Ales - Possibly one of my favorites. These would be at the
opposite end of the traditional spectrum from UCBC. They're unusual, creative,
very good, and you are likely to find something for everyone. They have very
few beers that remain consistently available, most are seasonal or small batch.
They focus on using locally sourced ingredients, such as the Black Walnut
Dunkel from Missouri Black Walnuts, or the special run (and insanely hard to
get) Sump Coffee Stout, brewed in collaboration with Sump Coffee, a local
coffee house and roaster. These guys manage to create a massive amount of hype
on some of these limited releases, with people lining up for hours, and paying
people to stand in line and buy bottles for them when there is a bottle limit
on the sale. Don't know how I feel about that. Anyway, the co-owner and brewer
is a Missouri native who previously worked as a brewer at Goose Island. The
building is an old converted factory in South City and is, unfortunately, quite
a hike from just about any place else you might want to go. The menu, though,
is worth it. It's simple, changes frequently, is locally sourced, and
compliments the beer nicely. They have an outdoor patio with a fire pit for
cold days. This brewery bottles (the label design is fantastic) and kegs, but
the bottles are all the larger size and are, unfortunately, on the pricey side.
Better to stop by the brewery for a taste.
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| Perennial Artisan Ales |
Civil Life Brewery - This is more fun than your
average brewery. The space is interesting in that it's one large warehouse, but
has a tasting room built into one side. The tasting room has been designed to
look like an old-world pub, including the outside, which is brick and has faux
gas lamps. There is also an upstairs portion where you can look down into the
brewhouse, or into the pub.
They also have a garden outside to sit and sip, and a window to order from without going back inside.
I know this isn't making sense - it's hard to describe. You'll just have to visit to see what I mean. Now, for the fun stuff: The pub has an assortment of games available for you to play while you drink, including a wooden version of Connect Four for you to verse your bother in and relive your childhood (I did). Then, in the space between the pub and the brewhouse there is a wall with two dart boards, and a bulls head.
What's the deal with the bull, you ask? Well, there is a ring
hanging above it from a string, and there is just enough length of string to
get the ring over the bull's horn. So you swing the ring and hope for the best.
It might be the greatest parlor game I've ever seen. When my brother was in
town, we spent an hour on it at least (he's a guy who loves to throw things).
When my brother came back to visit a year later with my mom, we even got her to
play. I desperately want to show you the photos, but I think she'd be mad at
me.
But back to the beer. These are all leaning more toward the traditional side, 4-6% alcohol range, and are solid and consistently good. Not too many knock-outs, but better than Schlafly in my opinion. They actually have a pretty big selection, and the cool thing is that they sell them in 8-ounce sizes for a mere $2.50, which allows you to try them all. They have a good, simple menu with decent sandwiches. As a Philadelphian, I'm not often impressed with the sandwiches here, but these get the job done. Civil Life's Brown Ale is on tap all over town, and is one of my favorites, hands down. They currently don't bottle, so the distribution is limited.
They also have a garden outside to sit and sip, and a window to order from without going back inside.
I know this isn't making sense - it's hard to describe. You'll just have to visit to see what I mean. Now, for the fun stuff: The pub has an assortment of games available for you to play while you drink, including a wooden version of Connect Four for you to verse your bother in and relive your childhood (I did). Then, in the space between the pub and the brewhouse there is a wall with two dart boards, and a bulls head.
But back to the beer. These are all leaning more toward the traditional side, 4-6% alcohol range, and are solid and consistently good. Not too many knock-outs, but better than Schlafly in my opinion. They actually have a pretty big selection, and the cool thing is that they sell them in 8-ounce sizes for a mere $2.50, which allows you to try them all. They have a good, simple menu with decent sandwiches. As a Philadelphian, I'm not often impressed with the sandwiches here, but these get the job done. Civil Life's Brown Ale is on tap all over town, and is one of my favorites, hands down. They currently don't bottle, so the distribution is limited.
4
Hands Brewing Company - A small brewery all the way downtown, but
within walking distance of Busch Stadium. On many summer days, the tasting room
is full of people wearing Cardinals gear, which doesn't bother me unless it's a
day my Philadelphia Phillies are in town. The selection here is smaller, but
might be the best out of the ones that I've described. Again, they're a little
more on the traditional side, but they do occasionally reach that mind-blowing
level. They have a terrific menu in their tasting room. It is simple,
affordable, and changes frequently. It was developed with a local restaurant
owner, Dave
Bailey, a guy who seems to be single handedly attempting to revive St.
Louis's somewhat desolate downtown through food. All of his restaurants are
pretty damn good. I should note that I have, on occasion, seen 4 Hands on tap
in the Philly area, and was surprised, but excited. In talking to the bartender
at 4 Hands one night I learned that it is because the brewer's wife is from the
area, and they used to live there so they still have connections. Cool.While the brewery isn't as entertaining as Civil Life, they do have a Foosball table, and they frequently host food trucks in their parking lot. Obviously I like the brown ale because that's my thing, but I also drink the Single Speed Session and love it.
This concludes our tour on the up-and-coming world of
brewing in St. Louis. I am sure that I could write another post in a few months
time and I would have several new breweries to add to the list. Despite my
frequent gripes about the city, great things are, indeed, happening here in
terms of beer, and dare I say it - you should consider checking it out!
**I have been asked to include this picture of Connect Four at Civil Life, make of it what you will, I sense just a little sibling rivalry***
Civil Life!!!!!!!!!
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