RFT Best of St. Louis 2008 (Beer Edition)
September 29, 2008 9:58 am Beer News
Ah yes, the yearly “Best of” list from the Riverfront Times. If you were reading STL hops way back last year, you may remember I had a few gripes with last year’s lists. So how does the RFT do this year? (And yes, I’m choosing to ignore the people’s choice stuff.)
Best Beer Selection in a Restaurant
The Shaved DuckWhere do you find the beer list in most St. Louis restaurants? On the last page of the wine list - if you’re lucky. More often than not, it exists only in your server’s brain. It’s not too tough, after all, to commit to memory a “selection” of Bud, Bud Light and Bud Select. A server might try to memorize the beer list at the Shaved Duck. A photographic memory would help. The new gastropub in Tower Grove East stocks a terrific selection of beers. It’s not the longest in town, but it’s curated with great care. American craft beers are featured, from local folks like Schlafly and O’Fallon to industry “giants” like Bell’s, New Belgium and Anchor Steam to lesser-known but not lesser lights like Charleville and North Coast. There are only four taps, but the restaurant rotates in new brews with some regularity - all the more reason to return again and again.
Be still my heart. This is a category I suggested last year and low and behold and to see it actually in print brings a tear to my eye. As for the selection? Brilliant. I mean, let’s be honest, if we had seen The Stable, Erato on Main, Mangia Italiano or the Rotten Apple as the winner, would we have been any less happy? We’ve become very fortunate in the past year to see so many new restaurants pop up that really put an emphasis on great beer. I’m glad to see the RFT recognize that.
Best Beer
O’Fallon 5-Day IPAIndia pale ale was born of necessity. How to preserve Britons’ beloved beverage during its long voyage to the far-flung corners of the empire? The solution was elegant in its simplicity, its genius so profound that it has become a rallying cry for craft brewers across America: “Add more hops!” O’Fallon 5-Day IPA - so named because the beer sits atop dry hops for five days during the fermenting process - might not be the hoppiest beer around, but it’s a beautiful example of this essential style. The color is a rich amber, the nose floral. The flavor is explosive: malty sweetness and then that unmistakable hoppy rush of citrus and spice. It is delicious anytime, anywhere, but should you find yourself at Iron Barley (5510 Virginia Ave.; 314-351-4500; www.ironbarley.com) in Carondelet or Dressel’s (419 N. Euclid Ave.; 314-361-1060; www.dresselspub.com) in the Central West End, try it in cask-conditioned form. Held at cellar temperature, the beer’s flavor is pure and utterly perfect.
Even if the article may continue to misrepresent the history of the IPA, it’s good to see one of the best beers in St. Louis get its due. Last year, I was disappointed to see Wheach take this honor, and 5 Day was my choice for best beer in St. Louis. As my tastes have changed over the past year, the question is, would this still be my best beer this year? It would probably be top 5 for certain. Schlafly makes a very strong showing with their Cask APA and their Reserve Series. Buffalo Brewing’s Rye IPA is sublime. But I do love, love Cask 5 Day IPA. I guess it’s great I don’t have to choose.
Best Beer Selection in a Bar
The StableWant to locate a beer connoisseur in a bar? Look for the guy staring daggers at the same half-dozens taps you find everywhere else in town. Maybe, if he’s an optimistic connoisseur, he’ll be leaning over the bar, peering deep into the fridge, seeking that one token bottle of something decent. Want to locate a beer connoisseur at the Stable? Close your eyes and point. This new Benton Park restaurant and bar from the owners of the Rotten Apple in Grafton, Illinois, is becoming a mecca for beer lovers. The bar boasts more than a dozen taps and features numerous beers you’re usually lucky to find in a bottle, let alone on draft: Old Rasputin Stout, Bell’s Two Hearted IPA, Unibroue’s Éphémère and Duchesse du Bourgogne, to name a few. The bottle selection is strong, too, starring hop bombs like Great Divide’s Hercules Double IPA, rich stouts like Rogue’s Shakespeare Stout and the great Belgian-style Three Philosophers from Ommegang. Not a beer connoisseur? Order up a sampler and you’ll be well on your way.
My comments above about the great options for beer in this town again ring true. The Stable is a fantastic choice for a beer lover in St. Louis to get a pint, though I’ve been told that some of the service still leaves a bit to be desired at times. If given the option, I may have chosen 33 Wine Bar, Bailey’s Chocolate Bar or Johnny’s Sidebar given that they’re true “bars.” But this is just splitting hairs.
Overall I think these choices are much more nuanced that the ones I’ve seen in the past, so my applause goes out to the RFT staff for doing a damned fine job representing beer this year. As for some future category options, how about “Best Brewpub” (we’ve had four pop up this year alone), “Best Outdoor Spot to Have a Beer”, or even “Best Food Blog”? Mine excluded, we have a number of fantastic food bloggers in St. Louis and they should get their due. Hell, the music section has a “Best Music Blog” maybe it’s time for local food bloggers to get their due.
Also, maybe I should stop giving away all of my damn ideas and run my own best of?
Tags: 33 wine bar, buffalo brewing, iron barley, mangia italiano, o'fallon, riverfront times, rotten apple, rye ipa, schlafly, shaved duck, the stable
cubby_swans :
Date: September 29, 2008 @ 11:28 am
I don’t even need to see the people’s choices to take a good guess at them…
Best beer menu at a rest: Growlers
Best beer: Bud Light
Best beer menu at a bar: Growlers
Was that in last week’s RFT or the upcomming issue?
mattb :
Date: September 29, 2008 @ 11:36 am
Wow, I can’t begin to tell you how many times I have also, according to that article, been wrong about the history of the I.P.A. Even breweries like Schlafly seem to have it wrong.
Per the Schlafly website:
“This full-bodied traditional English-style ale is brewed with a high gravity and extra hops, which originally helped to preserve the beer on long voyages from England to India.”
Unfortunately, the author of that argument didn’t really present the real origins of the title, “India Pale Ale,” except that some brewer in England said that the beer was “prepared for India.” I’m not saying he’s wrong, and he’s obviously an educated fellow, but just refuting things and not presenting the truth is a pretty weak move.
Shep :
Date: September 29, 2008 @ 11:45 am
Actually the Reader’s Choice was the better choice. The didn’t do the restaurant/beer ones.
2008 Best Beer Selection in a Bar: Cicero’s
It’s in the print edition that is out now. Published September 24th
Ian :
Date: September 29, 2008 @ 1:11 pm
Just FYI, Mike: We gave a shout-out to 33’s beer selection in its award for best wine shop. (I know, it’s a bar, too.) Maybe next year we’ll add Best Beer Selection in a Store.
Embarrassed about that IPA stuff, though. D’oh.
Mike :
Date: September 29, 2008 @ 1:18 pm
Don’t take it too hard Ian, I thought the same thing about an IPA as of a few weeks ago.
mike :
Date: September 29, 2008 @ 1:42 pm
ok wait… beer advocate:
Description:
First brewed in England and exported for the British troops in India during the late 1700s. To withstand the voyage, IPA’s were basically tweaked Pale Ales that were, in comparison, much more malty, boasted a higher alcohol content and were well-hopped, as hops are a natural preservative. Historians believe that an IPA was then watered down for the troops, while officers and the elite would savor the beer at full strength. The English IPA has a lower alcohol due to taxation over the decades. The leaner the brew the less amount of malt there is and less need for a strong hop presence which would easily put the brew out of balance. Some brewers have tried to recreate the origianl IPA with strengths close to 8-9% abv.
What am I missing here?
dan george :
Date: September 29, 2008 @ 1:56 pm
Hmm…What are talking about again?
from the 2008 BJCP guidelines:
Comments: A pale ale brewed to an increased gravity and hop rate. Modern versions of English IPAs generally pale in comparison (pun intended) to their ancestors. The term “IPA” is loosely applied in commercial English beers today, and has been (incorrectly) used in beers below 4% ABV. Generally will have more finish hops and less fruitiness and/or caramel than English pale ales and bitters. Fresher versions will obviously have a more significant finishing hop character.
History: Brewed to survive the voyage from England to India. The temperature extremes and rolling of the seas resulted in a highly attenuated beer upon arrival. English pale ales were derived from India Pale Ales.
Mike :
Date: September 29, 2008 @ 2:22 pm
Don’t shoot the messenger, ask the guys who claim that’s not the case.
BMock :
Date: September 29, 2008 @ 2:45 pm
The controversy, I believe, is the story that mike (lower case) spells out above vs. the “true” history that is found on Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India_Pale_Ale#Early_IPA
Basically, the man who dominated trade to India made this dryer, hop heavy version of a Pale Ale that had nothing to do with surviving the trip. It was actually lower in alcohol that the typical beer of the day.
cubby_swans :
Date: September 29, 2008 @ 3:12 pm
Wikipedia - helping the uninformed become the mis-informed since 2001.
Martyn Cornell :
Date: September 29, 2008 @ 3:51 pm
MattB, Mike and dan george - I’ve atempted a full refutation of the sorts of claims by Beer Advocate and the BJCP guidelines about the origins of IPA, so I’ll just keep this brief and say: there’s NO contemporary evidence that George Hodgson invented a special beer to export to India, and the early IPAs were NOT specially highly hopped and brewed to a higher-than-normal strength to survive the journey east. (and all that BA stuff about IPA being watered down for the troops … pure fantasy)
Martyn Cornell :
Date: September 29, 2008 @ 3:54 pm
MattB, Mike and dan george - I’ve attempted a full refutation of the sorts of claims by Beer Advocate and the BJCP guidelines about the origins of IPA, so I’ll just keep this brief and say: there’s NO contemporary evidence that George Hodgson invented a special beer to export to India, and the early IPAs were NOT specially highly hopped and brewed to a higher-than-normal strength to survive the journey east. (and all that BA stuff about IPA being watered down for the troops … pure fantasy)
Dave J :
Date: September 29, 2008 @ 6:52 pm
Everyone has failed to mention that the RFT Best Beer was 5 Day IPA. Daddy is proud!
mattb :
Date: September 29, 2008 @ 7:15 pm
Yeah RFT nailed that one. The 5-day is my go-to, everyday beer. It gives me my hop fix but doesn’t overdo it so I can have a couple.
While Wheach is fun and the Smoked Porter is solid, I think O’Fallon needs one more top notch beer to become a become a major player outside of St. Louis. Here’s hoping it’s the cocoa cream stout.
Kally :
Date: September 29, 2008 @ 7:58 pm
No one’s mentioned the error that Iron Barley serves O’Fallon cask IPA, not “cask 5-day”…
Mike :
Date: September 29, 2008 @ 9:22 pm
Huh? That’s cask 5-Day.
William :
Date: September 30, 2008 @ 7:34 am
I gotta agree with Mr. George, if the BJCP has the story about the travel to India then that is the accepted story. The late Michael Jackson “The Beer Hunter” has the same story .
William :
Date: September 30, 2008 @ 7:35 am
http://www.beerhunter.com/styles/india_pale_ale_ipa.html
Mike :
Date: September 30, 2008 @ 7:37 am
But if there is no modern proof that the story is real, when does it just become a fable that has been passed down from generation to generation?
Obviously I’m just playing devil’s advocate here.
dan george :
Date: September 30, 2008 @ 9:47 am
Let’s talk about the history of Porter now…
Dave :
Date: September 30, 2008 @ 1:04 pm
Dan and William, if you don’t know who Martyn is, I recommend taking a few moments to check out his site and books. The man knows what he is talking about.
dan george :
Date: September 30, 2008 @ 2:53 pm
I’m was just throwing fuel on the fire…kidding around. There’s a lot of stuff out there, right and wrong. Bock is still made from the sludge in the bottoms of the barrels though right?
Dave :
Date: September 30, 2008 @ 3:14 pm
Dan, I figured you were probably just giving Martyn a hard time when I saw the Porter comment. For those interested in the history of the British styles, I haven’t seen anyone who comes close to matching Martyn’s research.
Mike :
Date: September 30, 2008 @ 3:29 pm
Ron Pattinson from Shut Up About Barclay Perkins has some interesting stuff too.
Dave J :
Date: October 1, 2008 @ 1:58 am
Kally is right. We call the cask just cask IPA. It is cask conditioned and dry hopped with whatever hop I want to throw in it. I could just cask condition the 5 Day with the same hops, then you could call it cask 5 Day. But it would just be flat warm 5 Day. Almost every batch of cask I make is with a different hop (I use Chinook alot) but I like to mix it up. The ones Tom and Ben have on now I think are Chinook. Next up are dry hopped with (a twist) Hallertau MF. Every cask has a sticker on it with the date and the type of hop it is dry hopped with. If you are curious, nicely ask the bartender to look at the label for you.
mike :
Date: October 1, 2008 @ 7:29 am
ok, i believe martyn… but did someone alert him to this discussion? or is he out surfing blogs looking to dispute the origins of IPA? because that’d be a little obsessive.
Mike :
Date: October 1, 2008 @ 8:06 am
He received a trackback from this post.
Ian :
Date: October 1, 2008 @ 3:02 pm
Well, the 5-Day IPA *is* the Best Beer in St. Louis. We got that much right.
Sigh.
Mike :
Date: October 1, 2008 @ 3:03 pm
I’m curious about that Dave, are you guys brewing a whole different batch of beer or are you just differently dry-hopping the 5-Day base for the cask beer?
Dave J :
Date: October 2, 2008 @ 10:46 pm
We are just differently dry hopping and conditiong the 5 Day. We dont like to call it “cask 5 day” because it is totally different cask conditioned. Yes it is the same beer but its not. Try them side by side, its a good way to test your palate.
Mike :
Date: October 3, 2008 @ 5:33 am
Oh, I agree, I think they’re completely different tasting. But then again I’d argue almost any cask beer is going to taste different from it’s carbonated counterpart.
From a marketing standpoint, I’d personally be inclined to keep the “5 Day” name just to avoid confusion such as this.
But I can understand that with the different dry hopping for the beer it leads to a different tasting beer. Which means you want to keep it separate from the original 5 Day.