A few weeks ago Irene and I traveled to Kansas City to see the Cardinals take on the Royals. Not unlike any other city I travel to, I thought I’d take in some of the KC beer culture. The Flying Saucer is a chain of restaurants that specializes in beer, and a lot of it. This location carries over 220 beer selections and I believe almost 100 draught choices.

Even though there are obviously a lot of chain aspects to the place, it’s actually a really nice location. There is a lot of wood fixtures giving the location a very warm feeling. They also provide couches and lounge area to help provide a very relaxed atmosphere.

When we arrived on Friday evening after the ball game, the place was hopping, but it was still easy to find a place to sit. The rain came through a few minutes before we arrived and really cooled off the warm summer air. The wide open windows were a lovely touch as they provided a nice breeze throughout the location.

We tried the food when we returned on Saturday night and it was good, but not great. Good enough for a quick snack or an excuse just to visit. If I have one complaint is that it’s previous obvious that the people working at the place aren’t really “beer people.” Sure they’re friendly, but I had one person (who may have been a manager) tell me that Schlafly had a sour beer. Now, in all fairness this place has only been open since May 5th, but that still isn’t much of an excuse for getting the wrong beer.

As a member of Slow Food it’s really difficult saying what I’m about to say, but even though it’s a chain I really liked this place. Sure the food wasn’t that great and the service was sub-par, but the beer selection and the ambiance more than made up for it. It’s a really nice spot to sit back with some friends and enjoy some quality beer. If the Flying Saucer landed in St. Louis, I think I’d board the ship.

I made a decision before attending Monday night’s beer tasting at Growler’s, this was probably going to be my last tasting.  Growler’s recent beer menus have left a bit to be desired.  It seems like the same beers over and over again mixed with a few light lagers to really spice things up.  But if the this most recent tasting is a sign of things to come, I may have to change my mind.  Just a few beers I remember from the tasting:

• Avery Hog Heaven
• Arcadia Coco Loco
• Het Anker Gouden Carolus Carolus D’Or - Cuvée Van De Keizer
• Great Divide Yeti
• De Proefbrouwerij - Reinaert Flemish Wild Ale
• O’Fallon Smoke
• Great Divide Hercules
• Left Hand Milk Stout
• Arcadia Hopmouth

Imperial IPAs?  Imperial Stouts?  Wild Ales?  Was this the same Growler’s I’ve been going to for the past 5 years?  And sure, that Wild Ale isn’t the more funky wild beer you’ll ever find, but it’s a step in the right direction!  Let’s just hope some of these beers make it onto the final beer list.  We’ll have to wait until September to find out for sure.

If I were to come up with another headline for this post, it would probably be, “American Brewers In, Unibroue Out!”  Almost one half of the all the beers Growlers Pub is now offering on this Spring’s beer menu are brewed in the USA.  Now this isn’t to say this is a bad thing, American brewers are some of the best in the world and are given more freedom than any other country in the world to brew any number of styles.  I just thought it was worthy of mentioning.

The most disheartening thing about this newest list is the complete exclusion of Unibroue.  One of the best breweries in Canada gets snubbed over a few more Pilsners added to the list.

I realize it’s summer, so I’m not advocating they add Maudite to the list, but Apple Éphémère or Blanche De Chambly would make wonderful summertime additions.  Here’s the new selections:

Draught

• Samuel Adams Seasonal
• Schlafly No. 15
• New Belgium 1554
• Peroni
• New Belgium Mothership Wit
• Boulevard Dry Stout
• Samuel Adams Boston Lager
• Shock Top Belgian White Ale
• O’Fallon 5 Day IPA

Bottle:

• Miller High Life
• Flying Dog “Tire Bite”
• Abita Amber
• Retro Red American Amber
• North Coast Pranqster
• Ommegang Hennepin
• Samuel Adams Irish Red
• ODells Indian Pale Ale
• ODells 90 Schilling
• ODells East Street Wheat
• Breckenridge Avalanche
• O’Fallon Wheach
• Goose Island Honkers Ale
• Red Hook ESB
• Land Shark Lager
• Kona Longboard Lager
• Kona Fire Rock Pale Ale
• Boddington Pub Ale
• Paulaner Hefeweizen
• Paulaner Salvator Dopplebock
• Hofbrau Original Lager
• Wittekerke Witbier
• Lindemans Pomme
• Bavik Pilsner
• Carlsberg Lager
• Elephant Lager
• Zatech Pils
• Moretti La Rosa

Some quick thoughts:  First, I don’t see it on their website, but is AB distributing Peroni now?  The reason I ask is that I think I’ve seen it on draught at 3 or 4 restaurants I’ve been to recently.  It’s not good enough to stand on it’s own, I assume it’s one of the type of beers to get a big marketing push as of recent.  Also, I love a Belgian Wit as much as anyone, but do we really need 5 different Wits on the menu?  Doesn’t that seem a bit high?

Good to see 5 Day IPA on draught, though I’ve heard that it wasn’t available at the Creve Coeur location the other day.  Also nice to see Hennepin, but HOLY CRAP, they want $11.25 for it?!  That’s outrageous, it’s one thing to charge $11.25 for Ommegang’s Three Philosophers, which carries a premium price at retail, but Hennepin doesn’t.  In fact it’s usually about $5-6 bucks retail while 3P is about $9 bucks.  That’s gouging at its finest and frankly, it’s pretty insulting.  Though, I’m pretty sure Growlers doesn’t care about real beer enthusiasts anyway.

Ric Syberg, one of the Culinary Directors at Whole Foods in Brentwood, has also taken on the task of being the beer buyer for Syberg’s on Gravois. Ric has done all of us beer nerds the favor of adding some new beer to the Syberg’s menu. He’s added beers such as Rouge Dead Guy Ale, Bells Two Hearted Ale and (correct me if I’m wrong) two beers (thank you Dave) one beer I’ve never seen on a local beer menu here in St. Louis: Goose Island Imperial IPA and Goose Island Bourbon County Stout.

At 5 bucks per 12oz bottle retail, I’m kind of curious to see how much Syberg’s is planning to sell the Goose Island beers for. More important is that us beer nerds make the effort to patronize the location and show them that when they care about beer, we care about them.

A couple of months ago I received an email from Ally Nisbet, the owner of the Scottish Arms, thanking me for mentioning The Shaved Duck. The real shocking part to me was when Ally asked me to come by the Scottish Arms some time and talk about the beer list for the Shaved Duck. So on a cold Tuesday evening a few weeks ago, we (Ally, myself and one of Ally’s right hand men, Patrick Thomas) got together had some beers and discussed ideas for the new restaurants beer list.

They wanted their beer list to feature North American craft breweries. I thought this was a genius idea. America is one of the only beer brewing countries in the world that features all of the different styles of the world. Only in America will you find beers from German-style Pilsners to Belgian-style ales. It was a concept I was extremely excited about and couldn’t wait to see what kind of list they’d come up with. Without further ado, here’s the (very large) list after the jump:
Read the rest…

Last week Irene and I had another fantastic meal at a fantastic restaurant with another shoddy beer list. So rather than continue to complain about it (though I know I will) I came up with another idea instead. Create a cookie-cutter beer list that will allow area restaurants to not only make money, but to also provide upscale beers that are more fitting to the cuisine they serve. I’m going to offer up a small (10 beers), medium (15 beers) and large (20 beers) list depending on what a restaurant is wanting to offer. I’m sure this post will generate a bit of discussion and controversy, but I welcome it. Feel free to give your 2 cents and I’ll be more than happy to explain my rationale for each choice.

Small

• Budweiser
• Bud Light
• Schlafly Pale Ale
• New Belgium Fat Tire
• O’Dells 90 Schilling
• Boulevard Bully Porter
• Bell’s Two Hearted or O’Fallon 5 Day IPA
• Unibroue La Fin Du Monde
• Blue Moon or Hoegaarden
• Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout

A few thoughts on the Small list. First of all, you’ll notice I picked some of the old money making standbys. We all need to keep in mind that a restaurant is in the business of making money. A lot of people enjoy some of these beers and therefore a restaurant needs to carry some of them to retain business. One of the problems with a list this small is that you’re left lacking things like a dark clean lager or a brown ale. If I were to drop one beer, it would either be the Porter or Stout. I think you need a dark rich beer to pair with dessert, but you may not need two different choices. Removing one of those would open it up to a brown ale like Avery’s Ellie’s Brown Ale.

One of the main things people may say is, “Why no Guinness?” My rationale for that is that Guinness is pretty fricken expensive (especially draught) and cost is always a factor for restaurants. I personally think you can accomplish the same thing with a Russian Imperial Stout that may be a bit cheaper in the long run. See the rest of the lists after the jump.

Read the rest…

If you got your hands on this week’s RFT, you had a chance to read Ian’s review of Tigín, a new Irish pub located in downtown St. Louis. Ian touched briefly on the beer menu, but I thought I would delve into it a bit deeper. Now, one quick disclaimer, I have not yet visited Tigín, I’m only commenting on the beer menu as I see it.

As this is an Irish pub, seeing beers such as Guinness, Harp, Bass and Newcastle on draught doesn’t bother me that much. In fact, I’d be almost insulted if an Irish bar didn’t carry them. Hell, I don’t even mind seeing Budweiser on draught, this is St. Louis after all. But that bottle list is pretty awful. Heineken? Miller Genuine Draft? Smirnoff? Corona?

I realize that this location is near the Edward Jones Dome and so they’re going to be seeing a lot of tailgating and conventioneers but does that really mean you need to carry both MGD and Miller Lite? Do we really need a tap handle of Bud and Bud Light? I’m not so hoity toity to think that every beer needs to be a craft product, but do we really need to double or triple up on similar styles? I guess for a chain restaurant it’s impressive to see things such as Lindeman’s Framboise, Duvel and Chimay, but Ian’s comparison to Applebee’s isn’t too far off.

In their defense Tigín claims to serve the best glass of Guinness in St. Louis due to their Nitrogen/CO2 mixture. I’d argue that 39 degrees is a bit too cold for Guinness, but I applaud them for trying to keep some semblance of temperature control for beer, something that is lacking in even some of the best beer bars in St. Louis.

I plan on visiting Tigín in the near future, but it looks like I’ll probably be sticking to a Guinness.

Irene and I recently received some good news and I decided that we should celebrate by visiting Newstead Tower Public House. In reality we probably would have visited anyway, the celebrate is just an excuse to go. If you’re interested in a review of the food, I’d check in with a couple of guys that will do far better justice than I. But I’ll give you my thoughts from a beer nerd’s perspective.

Newstead Tower Public House
4353 Manchester Avenue (Map It)
St. Louis, MO 63110
(314) 535-7771

Beers: (Menu) The first thing you think of, or at least when I think of, when you hear the word “pub” is beer. Newstead carries 12 draught beers and 14 bottled beers. The 12 draught beers have a heavy emphasis on local and American craft beers, whereas the bottle selection tends toward European beers with a lot of the old standards (Orval, Smithwicks, Guinness, Sammy Smith). I appreciate the selections of the local beers, but I personally would have liked to have seen a couple of export draught selections as well. While by no means a terrible selection of beer, I think a little more creativity could have been put into the bottle selection. Perhaps the addition of a cask beer would have also lended a more authentic feel to the pub.

Food: (Menu) Instead of trying to juggle a number of different dishes, it looks like Chef Anthony Devoti has deicded on concentrating on kicked-up versions of classic pub cuisine. While the menu may seem limited, each dish seems like it’s extremely well put together and well-thought out. Prices are extremely reasonable as well.

Intangibles: This is an extremely beautiful location, with a warm and rich decor. This is a place where if I lived within walking distance I could see visiting on almost a nightly basis. While I’ve never visited a pub in the UK, this is almost exactly what I think of when I think of a pub. And if you’re lucky a Mardi Gras float will stop by.

Interesting Note: If the trend continues, it looks like Newstead will have a beer dinner at least once a month. This is an exciting proposition for those of us who love to see people pair food with beer.

I think Newstead is really on to something here and I can see myself visiting here quite often. The beer menu could perhaps use a little tinkering, but overall I think it’s living up to it’s gastropub moniker nicely.

Sometimes I wonder if I’m a bit too hard on restaurants. Though I’m guilty of it as well, I guess I’m just tired of hearing the “Well, it’s St. Louis” excuse. Maybe it’s because they’re not really in St. Louis is what sets Erato on Main apart. Erato in Edwardsville goes a long way to prove that just because they’re in the St. Louis area doesn’t mean we have to be subjected to the same old beer choices.

My biggest complaint has always been about the level of effort put into the beer selections in a restaurant. Too often it seems like the selections are chosen by the beer reps who don’t have any interest in pairing the beer with the food, but selling the most popular beers.

But this menu is obviously very deliberate and also offers something for everyone. From West Coast IPAs to Belgian sours, there is something that can compliment every dish from Chef Kevin Willmann’s ever changing menu. Chef Willmann said that all the credit goes to his manager, Shawn Schleich, for putting together this selection. Hats off to him, because this is a truly a selection to be proud of.

I can’t urge you enough to take a trip out to Edwardsville, Illinois to visit Erato on Main. I’ve been twice in the past three weeks and I’m sure I’ll be there again soon. I hope to see you there.

I’ve been a Growlers patron for probably over 5 years now. I’m proud to say that Growlers is where I really began my craft beer drinking adventure. It all began with the Royal Order of Tasters promotion that Growlers runs. I began drinking different kinds of beers and learning about all kinds of different beer styles. Beers ranging from a pale straw color to the deepest black of night.

After you’ve drank all 132 beers that Growlers has to offer you earn a pewter mug with your name on it. Granted, you never want to drink out of the mug after you earned it, but it’s yours. When you’ve finished 5 cards you’re invited to the twice-yearly menu tasting event. Growlers changes their beer menu twice a year, once in the Fall and once in the Spring. Last night they hosted the Spring menu tasting. This is always something I looked forward too, until now.

Let me begin by saying I really like Growlers, I wouldn’t be a regular there if I didn’t. But as recent changes have really cut back my patronage. Slowly but surely it seemed like the Growlers beer menu moved from interesting beers styles to pale lagers from around the world. Sure you could find a decent doppelbock or Belgian dark strong on occasion, but for the most part the were golden fizzy boring beers. Then in August came the final death knell, they removed the Buzztime/NTN trivia from both of their locations.

An establishment I used to visit once or twice a week quickly became a once or twice a month visit. I can handle drinking the same excellent beer all the time while playing trivia, but once they took that away they really took away most of my reasons for visiting. Sure the food is decent and I’m friendly with a lot of the staff, but a mediocre beer selection and no trivia meant less visiting.

So I went to last night’s tasting with a bit of hesitation. Because we were choosing beers for the Spring menu I knew this meant I would be tasting a few of lightly colored beers I disdain, I was just hoping that it wouldn’t be too many. Unfortunately my expectations were too high as approximately 16 or 17 of the 40 beers we tasted fit that definition.

I understand that it’s a spring and summer menu and that people don’t want to be drinking porters and stouts. Hell, I don’t want to be drinking those either. But just because it’s summer does that mean that every beer needs to be a yellow lager? Where were the American Wheats? Where were the American Blondes? I counted one Hefe and two Belgian Wits, but 4 Mexican beers?

It just saddens me to see a place that claims to care so much about beer put so little thought into it’s menu selection. I realize that you’re always going to need your Mexican beer and Light Lagers to keep people happy. I mean this is St. Louis after all. But when your top two selling beers are Budweiser and Bud Light why not use the other 130 beers to show off some real variety?

Coming Thursday, my thoughts on how to fix the problem.

^{_{Sorry about the crappy pictures, forgot about the camera and had to rely on the cell phone.}}