Its not like any of us live here, or close to it. Far from it. But it was relatively central location (between Indiana, Ohio, Memphis TN, and Minnesota), and there is plenty to do. So here we are.

As you probably know, St Louis is the headquarters of Budweiser manufacturer, Anheuser-Busch. And I’m not exactly proud to say it, but we went on the tour. I dove in, right into the belly of the beast.

How was it? Did I end up finding anything else in St Louis actually worthing drinking?

First, was the tour great? Naw, nothing amazing, but it was okay. The right company (my family) made it fun, but if you want to see beer being made, go somewhere smaller (my favorite brewery tour was at Goose Island in Chicago).

On the plus side, I got one of these free at the end of the tour:

Other highlights include my brother and sister-in-law being dorks:

and some pretty cool old buildings and architecture in the A-B complex:

So due to flooding on the Mississippi River, our riverboat dinner cruise was cancelled, so we ended up hanging out at the hotel. After (a nap for me) dinner and a dip in the pool, everyone else was going to bed. And naturally, I wasn’t tired.

So I head down to the lobby, and order a beer at the bar. This is where I finally found a truly fantastic beer here in St Louis.
This is Schlafly Pale Ale. Nothing revolutionary by any means, but far more impressive than the beers they make at Anheuser-Busch, and solid by any hardened craft beer drinker’s standards.

Its refreshing, but hoppy, and bears a particular flavor, due to the pH and mineral content of the local water.

The only detractor is that there is smoking in the lobby, albeit on the other side. Its getting to my eyes, and to my sense of smell, and my enjoyment of the beer.

But get yourself a Schlafly if you’re in St Louis. You won’t regret it.

We will see what the next two days turn up, and I’ll keep you up to date on anything I might find.

Ian!

The can popped with almost no carbonation. It felt strange pouring a beer out of a can and into a glass, so I figured why not drink it straight out of the can?

The aroma is instantly hoppy, but with a nice sweetness to it. It doesn’t scream at you that its going to be terribly bitter, more that its going to have a nice nose and a more balanced flavor.

First drinking it, you can notice the alpha acids in the finish, but they’re not too present up front, making this surprisingly refreshing for an IIPA.

Subsequent drinks reveal a bit more of the bitterness, but its still really well balanced with the malt character. The malt is gently sweet, and a substantial mouthfeel that doesn’t overwhelm.

If we could get this in Michigan, I would absolutely be buying it. Probably the closest an Imperial IPA will ever get to a lawnmower beer – and in this case that’s a good thing.

8/10

So does it live up to the hype?

Sure, its tasty. A nice nuttiness to it. A highly drinkable brown.

But at $2.19/bottle? Not really worth it. Nothing too remarkable going on here.

5/10

Via Bleeding Cool.

What exactly is a Beer Mile, you ask?

1) Run a quarter mile.

2) Drink a beer (or cider if you can’t drink beer. I have at least one friend with celiac).

3) Repeat! (until you’ve run a full mile and drank four beers)

This may or may not be a good idea in the end, and someone will probably end up sick, but its a challenge (we like those), its beer (we like that), and its running (we… okay, Brian likes that).

If you’re in Lansing Michigan, love beer, don’t mind running, or simply want to come watch us make fools of ourselves, come on out! Shoot me a message for more information if you need it. Its at my house, at 5pm today.

Feel free to bring friends, just no jerks. And don’t be an idiot. You will probably not be driving after this. A DD is encouraged.

BYOB

He’s smart, funny, and has a lot more interesting things to say about these costumes than most of us might have thought of initially.

He also gets it. He understands the cultural relevance of these characters. He gets why Superman and Spiderman work. Not just how iconic they’ve become (which is a large part of their value), but why they worked in the first place.

Well worth the time.

But I still like to try some now and again.

That’s what I was thinking when I bought this. It’s something a but different for the Scots, so why not?

Really, it’s nothing special, but it’s not too bad. Pours with a huge, quickly-dissipating head.

It’s a lager. Plain, simple, but actually kind of tastey. I’d drink this again, especially for the right price, which this was. $1.89 for a bottle.

Don’t expect a revolution, but it was better than I expected.

6/10

I figured that if nothing else, I would grab a bottle of Arcadia Ale’s Sky High Rye. Its affordable, delicious, and at 6% abv, isn’t going to be that big a deal. A nice nightcap.

I wasn’t expecting to find something I’ve never seen before. That I haven’t even HEARD OF before.

So imagine my surprise when I see two beers from Saugatuck Brewing Company. A Michigan brewery I’ve never seen? Interesting…

So I picked up a bottle of Saugatuck Singapore IPA. I figure a Michigan IPA is a good thing, and it was only $6.39 for the bomber, so why not?

A pleasant surprise to say the least.

It begins with an aroma right out of the bottle – like you would expect, a nice hop presence in the nose. Some citrus and flowers. Once its in the glass, you even notice some pale malt there.

There’s a little bit of sticky head, leaving a serious lacing on the glass.

Its pretty bitter on the back of your tongue, but well balanced all in all, with some sweetness from the malt lingering up front.

The bottle reads like so:

“Named after the legendary Lake Michigan ghost town, this India Pale Ale is a well balanced blend of bitter & sweet that will not punish your palate.”

And from this Beer Nuts article from eTruth, it sounds like a place worth visiting too.

Not bad. It nice to find a new Michigan beer.

6/10

Dick Burger has been hailed by fandom as the greatest comic book creator since Jack Kirby. Unlike Kirby, however, Burger retained ownership of his characters and became a media tycoon, complete with a private jet furnished with a hot tub and a mansion in Los Angeles. He is also an insufferable bastard.

Leonard Bates is a North American journalist who is conducting research for a biography of Burger. When he travels to Hicksville, New Zealand to visit Burger’s childhood home, he discovers that no one in the village wants to talk to him about Burger. For reasons unknown to Bates, they are downright angry at him for even mentioning his name. They are delighted, however, to give Bates access to the town library, which contains the greatest comic book collection on the face of the earth (including several copies of Action #1 which they casually pull from the shelves). It turns out that everyone in the village is connoisseur of comics and they’d all read Bates’ earlier biography of Kirby. What is going in here? wonders Bates, and what’s the big mystery about Burger?

It sounds fascinating to me. I do enjoy more “real” comics, in addition to the standard superhero fare. Joe Sacco is probably my favorite non-fiction writer (check out Palestine and The Fixer, and Ryan Claytor (now a fellow Michigan resident) has done some cool autobiographical stuff, as well as a wonderful, sad piece called The Machinist.

My expectation is that Hicksville is a bit of that kind of tone – obviously fiction, but much more real-world than the typical comic book – melded with a bit of meta-awareness.

I’m going to hunt this one down.

Via DC’s The Source