St. Louis Mini Micro Brew Tour

This past weekend, I visited St. Louis and got to play a couple of rounds of golf and visit several microbreweries. As you can imagine, a very fun and relaxing weekend was had. On Friday evening, our first stop was The Stable, a somewhat new brewpub and microbrewery in the old stables of the Lemp Brewery (almost across the street from A-B). Looking at their brew system, it looks like they’re just getting started brewing their own and it looked like it was about a 20-25 gallon brew system. Despite only having one of their beers on tap – the Marzen, which was quite good – they did carry quite a nice selection of local and regional brews on tap. I was able to try another newer nearby brewery’s beer, which was recommended by my friend – Charleville Brewery‘s Hoptimistic. Our next stop was Mattingly Brewing Company, where I had the brown ale and their tripel. Both were pretty good. Our next stop for the evening was Square One Brewery in Lafayette Square. I had the IPA from the cask and their Single Malt Scotch Ale. Not bad, but both seemed a little on the light side. We stopped at Randall’s to pick up some bottles to go, and I got some of Charleville’s Hoptimistic and Amber Ale, some Schlafly APA, Racer 5 IPA, and some of Avery’s Maharaja. Our last stop of the evening, was the Cabin Inn at the City Museum – not a microbrewery, but a unique bar where we could get Schlafly.

Saturday was an early tee time at Tapawingo National Golf Course, but we finished in perfect time to enjoy lunch at Schlafly’s Bottleworks. There, I enjoyed their Helles Summer Lager and their Export IPA… both very good. The rest of the afternoon/evening was spent laying by the rooftop pool watching the activity at the City Museum and enjoying some of my homebrews. Sunday was a rough morning, but we managed to get in a round at Annbriar Golf Course before I headed home.

A great weekend, which I can’t wait to repeat again soon!

St. Louis Brewers Heritage Festival

This past weekend I went to the St. Louis Brewers Heritage Festival (well, in St. Louis, obviously). There were 8 breweries (Alandale Brewing Company, Anheuser-Busch, Schlafly, GriesedieckBros. Brewing, Augusta Brewing Co., O’Fallon Brewery, Square One Brewery, and Morgan Street Brewery), with over 60 beers to sample. Unfortunately, I was only able to try about half of the beers. I’m only disappointed that I was not able to sample beers from Alandale, Square One, or Griesedieck (in all fairness, Griesedieck only had 1 beer to sample). One interesting thing about the festival is that the brewers did not give the “brand name” of their beers, only the brewer and the style. That’s why I made fun of my wife, since the first beer she “tried” was A-B’s “American Light Lager” (Bud Light).

I did enjoy the Schlafly beers alot, in particular the Bavarian Style Dark Wheat (which my friend who went with us tells me is their “#15”) and their Kolsch (for a winter day, I’d go for the Schwarzbier). I only tried two of Morgan Street’s beers, and one was good (the Dusseldorf Altbier) and one was terrible (Vienna Lager). Although each brewer brewed a St. Louis Dark Lager (with the same ingredients) and I have to say that my favorite there was Anheuser-Busch’s version. In the Witbier/Wheat Beer category, I enjoyed Schlafly’s (#15) and Augusta’s Blegian Witbier (A-B’s version was a little too lemon-orangy for me, and O’Fallon’s was a little bland). In the “alternative” (fruit beer) category, I still like Schlafly’s Pumpkin Beer. Although the version they had at the festival seemed to have more spices than the one i had at “The Tap Room” (their restaurant) last October. As far as “hoppy beers” I’d have to go with O’Fallon’s American IPA (I think it’s their “3-Day IPA”) which kicked in a minute or two after I drank it – followed closely by Augusta’s American IPA which had a little bit of grassy taste. The surprise of the day for me was A-B’s Sorghum Beer. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but it wasn’t bad – quite barleyey. Overall, if I had to choose a “Best of Show” I’d have to go with Augusta’s German Pilsner… but only because it was a Pilsner kind of day. Each beer was pretty good on it’s own and it was a pretty good day… and props to the staff at the festival for handing out huge soft pretzels and bottles of water as we left. I hope we’ll be able to go again next year.