Beerbrotha Unposted Reviews: St. Louis

First things first

Beer Log: Right now
State: Eating homemade tacos, listening to the Brewing Network

Squatters Hop Rising
First had this puppy at the Texas Beer Fest (not the Houston Beer Fest), and I enjoyed it. Now let's see if this thing can taste just as good when I'm not in a rodeo arena in Humble on my 14th 2-ounce beer. Aw that nose is awesome. Big piney hops with a huge caramel malt. Perfect pour in my Circle Brewing pint glass, with a huge white head. Beer is unbelievable at the beginning with a huge caramel malt and massive piney/lemon hops. The middle of the slug has something like a slight metallic, and there is a big ick hop flavor on the aftertaste. A pinch more cloying than I would want, but hey, that's Double IPA for ya. Need some food.

Ok. After downing some tacos and contemplating polishing off the rest of the ground meat (no homo), this beer serves as a great foil. Huge flavor all the way around that is very drinkable. I'll give it a high 3 star.

So anyway it turns out that I've been doing some SERIOUS beering and some great travelling this year, and it's not slowing down. If you count Indianapolis in November, I got St. Louis, Chicago, Western suburbs of Chicago, Mobile, New York City, Tampa, Mexico, and downed a ton of great beer at the Philadelphia airport all this year. Now that I actually type all that out, that does look like a lot. Doesn't help that I'm hitting San Antonio this weekend, some travel to the DC area in a couple weeks, and may squeeze in a guys trip to Oktoberfest or Malaysia this fall. After that, I'm going to be eating Top Ramen boiled in Pabst Blue Ribbon. And yes, I did have my beer book.

So let's see what's tappenin in St. Louis. Despite how late I'm getting it done and how much beer I was downing I can actually remember this very well.

Beer Log: March 24, 2011
State: Chilly outside, little did I know it was about to snow like a sonofabitch the rest of the weekend.

To get my Schlafly post, please see this one. So the next day after I got going I managed to make my way down the hill and across the bridge from the Americas Convention center to Morgan Street Brewery , but some time before that I managed to find some Honker's Ale from Goose Island.

Honker's Ale

Amber color with some chill haze. Nice english muffin and grit flavor. Kinda tastes like cream of wheat. I must have forgotten I've had this beer, as I also had this beer at Wrigley stadium a couple weeks ago. Oh well.

So Morgan Street was down in this little area with a block or two of restaurants. I like the historic district feel to it. It was one of those places where you can feel the history of a place. Like a place where they signed some treaty or something. Anyway, it was lunch time, so here we go.

Golden Pilsner: Perfect straw color. Lacy head. Taste has a great combination of something like German hops and maybe American hops. This puppy has a great bitter hoppy aftertaste and is just a great great well made pilsner. Simple, yet effective. 4 Stars.

Honey Wheat: Not much honey in the nose or esteriness. Kinda the two things you would expect in a honey wheat. Strong honey sweetness and wheat in the flavor, soft yet crisp and estery. How my nose missed this I don't know, or care. Very light but tasty. 3 Stars

Alt-Bier: Dammit I love a good alt, especially when it gets all chilly and whatnot. Great malt and color of the alt. A pinch sour as well. So hard to knock it out like ze Germans, but not as bold as the Bud Am Ale or the Boston Ale. Great for mass consumption. No rating.

Decades: Creamy white head (no homo) with a deep amber/copper color. Maybe some caramel malt and still crisp. Big hops and bready. Nice! High 3 stars.

Pumpkin Vienna: Copper with Big pumpking and caramel, with low malt. May be better as an ale so it won't be so crisp and copper ale-y. It goes go great with the smoked mozzarella. 3 Stars.

Oh and by the way, get the damn fried ravioli. Awesomeness

Beering in St. Louis: Schlafly

So I made it out to the NSBE national convention this past March, and the locale was St. Louis. The only things I knew about St. Louis is that they were trying to extend Pujols' deal and what I read on Byron Crawford's blog . That and the highest crime rate in the country. I land in the city and I have a couple of panel discussions I'm supposed to do this time, one of them with a US Congressmen on the panel, and lo and behold I did not have time to get my hair cut. So I ask the sistahs at the hotel and they direct me to this nice place in the hood. It was about 10AM so no need to worry about some bullish going down.

Anyway, after getting hooked up, I head over to the first of several brewpubs in the Lou, first up Schlafly Taproom . I made this one my first stop as I heard about them through the Brewing Network. I get there smackdab at 11AM when they open, and belly up to the bar. The place smells of wort and grain (nice) and is spacious yet cozy. The chalk board has a ton of beer and the man working the bar knew his baseball. So I order up a flight along with some mussels and fries and have at it...

Beer Log: March 22, 2011
State: feeling good, got a new empty beer diary, ready to roll son

Hefeweizen
Good banana and orange peel nose. The taste is high banana and yeasty esters. It's kind of lemony for my taste and has moderate carbonation. This is certainly Bavarian and very well done, however the lemon knocks it from a 4 to a 3 star.

Pilsner
Good strong hops taste and kinda gritty on the tongue. Crisp, cool, high carbonation. Similar to Pilsner Urquell with all those saaz hops. Managed to forget to put down a rating.

Oktoberfest
Gold-amber-copper color without much of a scent. Not bad with the malty taste but I'm not in the right season for it. No rating

Altbier
Now I'm really looking forward to this one, as I love alts but rarely get them. Kinda fruity and plain with the taste (the thing that sucks about flights is that you lose the head and thus a larger portion of the scent to enjoy it. And unless you are boning the bartender will someone bring out a several 3 oz samples every few minutes.) I could see the style here more like an amber lager which I typically love, hello Eliot Ness. Very clear with a low butter and corn, slight acidic. Low 3 Stars.

Dry Hopped APA
Finally an American Pale Ale. Very smooth, good crisp hops. There is a great light biscuity flavor to go with the hops. I wish they ramped it up on the malt, but otherwise drinkable. 3 Stars.

Oatmeal Stout
Pitch black and delish. Very English with the smoothness, big chocolate and coffee. to make it all come together nicely. 4 Stars.

They had an American Amber on Cask of which I ordered a full glass to go to the mussels (which were killer by the way). Warm, soft, and kinda caramely like my favorite strippers. Nice hops but very mellow. High 3 Stars.