The weather has warmed considerably over the past month, which must mean that it’s time for a Beer Menu change at Growlers Pub. Let’s take a look at what’s new:

Draught:

• Kilkenny Irish Ale
• Goose Island 312 Urban Wheat
• Schlafly Kolsch
• Crown Valley Worktruck Wheat
• Charleville Tornado Alley Amber Ale
• New Belgium Ranger IPA
• New Belgium Skinny Dip
• Boulevard Single-Wide I.P.A.
• Lagunitas IPA

Bottle:

• Flying Dog Double Dog Double Pale Ale
• Flying Dog Gonzo Imperial Porter
• Pete’s Wicked Ale
• Ommegang Abbey Ale
• Moylan’s Tipperary Pale Ale
• Tommyknocker Alpine Glacier
• Grand Teton Sweetgrass IPA
• Goose Island Matilda 22oz
• He’brew Messiah Bold
• Dundee Original Honey Brown Lager
• Bell’s Oberon Ale
• Boulevard Pilsner
• Rogue Brutal Bitter 22oz
• Rogue Mocha Porter
• Sierra Nevada Kellerweis Hefeweizen
• Arcadia Hopmouth Double IPA
• Point Beligan White
• Ray Hills American Pilsner
• Avery Red Point Ale
• Avery White Rascal
• New Holland Full Circle
• Southern Tier Iniquity Imperial Black Ale
• Unibroue La Fin Du Monde
• Bass G
• Fuller’s London Porter
• Old Growler Curim Gold
• Hoegaarden
• Chimay Red Cap
• Chimay White Cap
• Moinette Blonde
• St. Bernardus Abt 12
• St. Bernardus Prior 8
• Czech Rebel
• Negra Modelo

As a self-proclaimed hophead, I have to say I’m a big fan of this draught list.  Is it the best list of draught beers I’ve ever seen?  No, but for those of us that frequent Growlers Pub and love hops, we have more than just a single draught IPA option now. I’ve been told that last Fall’s addition of Red’s Rye was a big hit, maybe they’re seeing an upswing on people wanting hoppier beers.

I also enjoy the additional local beer options from Crown Valley and Charleville.  I think people are looking for new local alternatives to what they’ve had in the past, so it’s nice seeing some more local love.

As far as the bottles go, I think there have been some excellent American craft beers added.  Understandably, some of the porters and stouts of the winter have made room for some lighter beers for summer.  It’s also nice seeing some great Belgian beers like St. Bernadus Abt 12 back.

All in all, I think that Growlers is making a genuine push to put together some better beer menus. I think there is some work left to be done, but I think this is a fine start at getting back into a craft beer nerd’s heart.

The weather has cooled considerably over the past few weeks, which must mean that it’s time for a Beer Menu change at Growlers Pub. Let’s take a look at what’s new:

Draught

• Boulevard Porter
• Schlafly Oatmeal Stout
• Founders Red Rye
• Bass
• Tin Mill Sky Scrapper
• Hofbrau Hefe
• Big Sky Moose Drool

Bottle:

• Sierra Nevada Torpedo
• Sierra Nevada Porter
• Maredsous Blonde “6″
• Koning Ludwig Hefe
• Fullers ESB
• Fullers 1845
• Flying Dog Old Scratch
• Berghoff Sundown Dark
• Berghoff Pale Ale
• Bell’s Porter
• Ayinger Ur-Weis
• Tommyknocker Pick Axe
• Tommyknocker Maple
• Tommyknocker Imp Brown
• Southern Tier IPA
• Southern Tier Porter
• Saison Dupont
• Phin & Matts
• New Holland The Poet
• New Holland Sundog
• Moylan’s Kilt Lifter
• Moylan’s Irish Red
• New Holland Mad Hatter
• Lion Stout
• Founders Porter
• Founders Dirty Bastard
• Founders Centenial
• Sam Adams Imperial White
• Monks Café Flemmish
• Gulden Drak
• Big Sky Trout Slayer
• Big Sky Scapegoat
• Big Sky IPA

While the draught list as a whole still leaves a bit to be desired (really guys, do we need 1/6th of your list devoted to some sort of wheat beer?) and the dropping of Single Wide IPA makes me a bit sad. But the addition of Red’s Rye is a fine consolation gift and makes this guy very happy.

I think the place where the largest strides have been made are in the bottle list. There are some damn fine beers from some damn fine breweries on this list. I count five American IPAs that are on the list. For us hopheads, that’s some great news.

Also nice to see some great porters and stouts on the list as well. I’m also happy to see more of a push for American craft breweries. American brewers are brewing some great beers right now and it’s good to see more of them available.

I think there are some great improvements over the last few beer menus. I think there is some work left to be done, but I think this is a fine start at getting back into a craft beer nerd’s heart.

Despite some overnight snow, Spring is here and that means it’s time for a new beer menu at Growlers Pub. Unfortunately I missed the tasting for this event so I had no idea what I was in store for, let’s see how Growler’s did:

Draught

• Tennet’s
• Magic Hat #9
• New Belgium Blue Paddle
• New Belgium Seasonal
• Budweiser American Ale
• Boulevard Lunar Ale
• Boulevard Single Wide IPA
• Unibroue Chambly Noire

Bottle:

• Flying Dog Tyre Bite
• Abita Turbo Dog
• Pyramid Hefeweizen
• Woodchuck Pear Cider
• Woodchuck Amber Cider
• Ommegang Witte
• Anderson Valley Boont ESB
• Anderson Valley Poleeko Gold
• Anderson Valley Barney Flats
• Odell Easy Street Wheat
• Odell 90 Shilling
• Bell’s Amber Ale
• Longhammer IPA
• Avery Salvation
• Bear Republic Hop Rod Rye
• Bear Republic Racer 5
• Great Divide Denver Pale Ale
• Great Divide Hercules Double IPA
• Sam Adams Boston Lager
• Sam Adams Cherry Wheat
• Sierra Nevada Pale Ale
• Meantime London Porter
• Meantime IPA
• Warsteiner Pilser
• Lindeman’s Peche
• Maredsous Dubbel
• Maredsous Tripel
• Heineken Keg Can
• Fraoch Heather Ale
• Belhaven Twisted Thistle IPA

I’ll be honest, in the past I’ve made Growler’s a bit of a whipping boy.  While I don’t think I’ve ever been unfair, I do think that I may have unfairly picked on Growler’s a bit too much.  They’re not the only bar in town that puts together some subpar beer lists on occasion.

But then again, I don’t see those restaurants touting that they have the best beer list in town. Which is something that simply isn’t true anymore (if it ever was.)  But, I will say that this list update is certainly a step in the right direction.

It’s refreshing to see some of the transgressions I mentioned in the past have been resolved, such as the lack of Bear Republic and Great Divide.  The lack of Unibroue on draught has finally been fixed as well.

But I have to begin to wonder, are they fixing these problems too late?  I mean, with places like iTap and The Stable consistantly bringing in new beers and breweries is there any chance to win back the hearts and minds of beer nerds in St. Louis?

When I was filling out my 2009 Wishlist about a week ago I was toying with the idea of wishing for a local bar that’s sole focus was nothing but beer.  A megabar offering hundreds of beer choices.

I decided to leave it off the list because I didn’t want to seem like I was disparaging the local bars and restaurants that actually do put a lot of work into their beer lists and that today’s economics don’t really lend themselves to someone taking on such a monumental task.  So I scrapped the idea as a pipe dream and moved on.

Then a few days later I receive an email from Brad Lobdell telling me about a new bar that he and his business partner Sean are opening in Chesterfield called International Tap House, or iTap for short.  Brad proceeds to tell me that they’re going to be offering 40 taps and 500 bottles.

To top it off, it turns out that it’s going to be a “no smoking” location, you’ll be able to buy beer to take home and EVERY beer will be served in it’s proper glass. Oh and did I mention they’ll have WiFi? It’s almost as if Brad reached into my brain and pulled out my wish.

While they won’t be serving any food on premises, they’re working with a couple of local restaurants (currently Surf Dogs, Foodies and East Coast Pizza) to offer deliveries right to the bar.  You just tell iTap what you want and they’ll order it for you.  That’s service.

Brad also sent me a copy of a very preliminary bottle beer menu that’s 20 pages long.  It’s arranged by style and features a short description of the style for those not familiar which each style. The list contains the country of origin, size of the bottle and ABV.

All and all, this is looking up to be a great new spot for beer in St. Louis.   The International Tap House has set their Grand Opening date for February 1st, Super Bowl Sunday.  Stay tuned for more information and photos over the next couple of weeks.

Update: Check here for full bottle list at iTap.

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.