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

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

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

Bourbon Barrel aged beers from Founders. A brewery known for producing consistently high-quality beers, and sometimes brilliant high-gravity beers. Then sometimes, they decide to put them in oak barrels. That’s how you get these beers.

Backwoods Bastard: This is a bourbon barrel aged version of their Dirty Bastard Scotch ale. While Ian doesn’t normally like Dirty Bastard (not that into the style, to be honest), he happens to love Backwoods. Get a bottle and put it in your cellar. Better yet, get a few, save some, and drink some now. Go ahead, we’ll wait for you to get back from the store.

Brian isn’t particularly thrilled with Dirty Bastard either. Its good for the style, just doesn’t knock his socks off.

So Backwoods is quite remarkable. It takes a moderate beer, and turns it into something HUGE and amazing. A huge bourbon in the nose, and some roastiness in the flavor that isn’t there in the original. It is also WAAAYY darker than the original. Maybe that’s from the charring of the barrels? Hard to tell, but if we had to guess, that would be it. But its tasty.

Nemesis is a maple bourbon barrel aged wheat wine, and is particularly interesting in that its a lot lighter in color and mouthfeel than expected.

In a blind smell-test, Brian could barely tell the difference between the two. There is a very similar bourbon aroma to them, and a serious alcohol presence, but Brian detected a slightly greater sweetness in the Backwoods.

The Backwoods is more complex, and has a weight in the center of the palate. Brian almost wants to say its vanilla, but also knows that’s not quite it. Ian thinks its a darker flavor.

Brian has a theory: Backwoods Bastard has carmel corn in it, and Nemesis doesn’t. That’s it. Only difference.

In all fairness, that’s a decent (if unique) way to describe it. The high malt profile of the Dirty Bastard, paired with the vanilla in the bourbon, seems to give an effect not totally unlike carmel corn.

The difference is carmel corn.

Backwoods Bastard: 8/10 – the benchmark by which all other bourbon aged Scotch Ales are to be judged.
Nemesis: 8/10

But here’s the kicker: value. Is Backwoods worth the $5/bottle? Oh yeah.
Is Nemesis worth $7/bottle? That gets a little tougher.

VALUE POINTS:
Backwoods Bastard: 6.5/10
Nemesis: 4/10

Doesn’t seem like it should make that big a difference, but it does.

I like Goose Island. On the whole, they make good beer in a variety of styles, and their regular offerings are great examples of what a brewery of their size and stature should be doing. They also make some more interesting limited brews.

Bourbon County Stout? Awesome.

Pere Jacques? Amazing.

And Sofie? They’re staying consistent here: also fantastic.

This is a Belgian style ale that pours a paler color than the golden color that it ends up once fully decanted. It also has a serious sticky head.

The initial aroma is good, funky and Belgian. Citrus, and plenty of candy sugar here, too.

What is interesting is that there’s something familiar but unexpected right there with the orange flavor. Then it hit me, “Didn’t they age this in Cabernet barrels?”

No, not exactly. My memory was telling me so, but in actuality, they blended it 80% straight, and 20% “aged in wine barrels with orange peel”, as the bottle kindly reminded me.

I suppose that given that, I would have expected a bit darker color, maybe a hint of red? But there’s none of that. Just a hint of the flavor in there with the citrus. So there you go.

This is a great, easy to drink Belgian. At $8/bomber, I won’t buy it a ton, but I will be revisiting this. Probably from my cellar, at some point in the future.

8/10

It poured a delicious brick red/ruby/brown type color, and left a very weak head.  All of this expected for an 11.5% ABV barleywine.

As for smell, I managed to grab a whiff before I hopped in the shower, and it was very thick with syrup and molasses, and cut with a hefty dose of ethanol.  It smells as a barleywine should, although I’d prefer a bit more hops.  Then again, I prefer all beers over 50 IBUs.

The taste was really upsetting at first.  I was less than thrilled.  It was just alcohol and a teensy sweet.  Not bad, necessarily, but the cost is not worth it.  However, once it warmed up a bit, and I was half way through, it really opened up.  It was quite sweet…  it really balanced out the alcohol well.  I have to admit, it almost leaves you with a vanilla or bourbon finish, but not quite.  My tongue actually begs for it.  Pop this beast in a bourbon barrel for a few months, and this beer would be a 9.  As it stands, it’s only a 6.

-brian