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

Ginger is one of my favorite flavors. I have ginger in my green tea, I garnish my food with it, I even use ginger toothpaste for that extra zing every morning. So when I was looking to satiate my ginger craving in The City (NYC) the big “Ginger” sign on this bottle drew me in from across the deli.

Unfiltered Ginger Ale by Bruce Cost has pure and natural ingredients and a wonderfully fresh mouth feel. Unlike other ginger beers and ginger ales, it doesn’t leave you with an unnatural tongue burn. As you can see in the picture above, the small pieces of ginger settle at the bottom and it is recommended to give the bottle a gentle shake before you drink. It is made it with a surprisingly simple list of ingredients: water, pure cane sugar, ginger, and citric acid .  There is only one Whole Foods Market in Michigan that is stocking this ginger ale but hopefully more will start [full distribution list here].

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

Michigan has had absolutely beautiful weather lately and there is no better way to spend a Spring evening than making music with friends.  In preparation for watching the sunset from my porch, Ian and I went for a quick shopping trip. As he perused the isles for the best microbrews, I search for root beer. I almost missed the stack of Abita root beer until he pointed out this six pack.

Abita brews their root beer with spring water and they use cane sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup. This root beer is not very rooty and gives you a very soft mouth feel. Abita has kept the carbonation low so that you can enjoy the subtle taste. I wouldn’t pair it with any overpowering flavors.

I am really happy to see Abita is making muslim-friendly drinks. I highly recommend their root beer. It has been a fast favorite for me.

8/10

P.S. Thanks a lot to the Beer and Comics crew for letting me post here! I like root beer almost just as much as they like beer. I look forward to sharing my passion with you all.

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.

As for taste, there’s a definite sour bite to it. Its very similar to a lambic, or a spontaneously fermented beer. That could be expected though, from the scent. While I doubt this is spontaneously fermented, the apple certainly lends that character to it. The biggest surprise is the smokiness. I get that it’s a smoked apple porter, but I after reading the label which mentioned the smoked malts, I wasn’t necessarily excited for it. I thought that the malts would taste more burnt. This was clearly incorrect, and this is a smoky, slightly sweet, sour treat. Very different from anything I’ve had before. I can honestly say I’m thrilled by this in ways I hadn’t imagined I would be.

Is it the greatest beer known to man? No. Is it stellar? That’s up for debate. All I’m comfortable saying is that I really like it for it’s strangeness. In a career of tasting well over a thousand beers, I’ve never had anything like this. It is truly completely one hundred percent unique. Shorts is doing a great job of DOMINATING that category right now. Buy any of their special beers (I highly recommend Good Humans as well) and you will likely be knocked off your chair. Not by the booze, necessarily, but by the innovation.

8/10

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