Oh, They Make Beer Here

So, since my last post I've been trying to get out and enjoy STL and I'm starting to see why people so fiercely defended the city/hated on my article on Thought Catalog that went up today. In defense of the article I wrote that mostly for myself right after I got here before I had the chance to really meet anyone or see what kinds of places this city had to offer. Foxxrob over at lifeafterhavingalife did a much better job lampooning the piece than I did writing it.

Which brings me to the point of this post. They make beer here. It's pretty cool. I'd been enjoying some Schlafly beer at home and when our keg of Kolsch ran out I took the opportunity to go down to their Bottleworks to get a new beer for the house. My roommate and I had to wait an hour to get on the next tour of the brewery which they offer for free so we spent some time at the bar while we waited. And no, the bar was not empty. Schlafly is Missouri's third largest brewery, behind Boulevard and Anheuser Busch. The brewery itself is pretty small, but the beers are pretty good, and the food is really good.



Here's our guide during the tour. While the tour is fairly short, probably about fifteen minutes not including the tasting, it's still a neat little place. And you get a free tasting of four beers when you're done, which is awesome. We had the Pale Ale, their flagship beer, The Summer Lager, which is their seasonal right now, the American Pale Ale, and the Hefeweizen. The beer was all pretty good, the American Pale Ale was extremely hoppy which I know a lot of people like but I prefer the regular Pale Ale to it. We got our keg of Hefeweizen all ordered up and tried to avoid the heat for the rest of the day.

This weekend I'll be going to the Anheuser brewery to check out how a huge corporate tour compares to the little guy's. Hopefully it will cool down by then because I hear that there is a lot of walking between buildings on that one, and it is ungodly hot right now.