A lot of news recently about Buffalo Brewing, hopefully this is pleasant news for everyone involved. Sean Sweeney (no relation) one of the award winning homebrewers from the St. Louis Brews was invited to brew his Dubbel recipe at Buffalo Brewing about a month ago. Well, it’s ready to drink and to celebrate the occasion Buffalo is putting together a small get together on Wednesday, August 20th from 7PM to 9PM.

You can see photos of Sean brewing the Dubbel on the St. Louis Brews forum.

First of all, let me just quickly say that Buffalo Brewing is not closed or closing. I tried to keep from any sort of speculation about the current state of the brewery in the last post, but obviously speculation is bound to occur. Also, let me apologize again to Dave and Dushan from Buffalo because as I mentioned in the original post it was never my intention to cause any problems.

According to Dave Johnson, Dushan (the owner of Buffalo) is looking to take on an investor to the Buffalo Brewery which will allow him to not have to spend every waking hour at the restaurant. Dushan is very devoted to Buffalo, but as you can imagine all of the hours he puts in can take a bit of a toll on him. Bringing someone else on to help with managing the place is a good way to allow him to give him a bit more free time for a personal life.

Now, if someone came to him and offered to purchase the business, this is something I’d think he’d probably consider as any good business person should. At this point it’s looking like we’ll all have hopefully have beer from Buffalo for years to come.

As you might imagine, I hear a lot of rumor as I talk to people around the area. I try to avoid posting rumor because honestly, I think posting rumors without having any hard facts are what have given blogs a bad name over the years. It’s with extreme trepidation that I post this, but I received an email over the weekend that tipped me off to a possible sale of Buffalo Brewing Company.

I say “trepidation” because I don’t know the whole story and I don’t want to cause any problems for anyone involved with Buffalo. But this is certainly news if it is true and I hope that the prospective buyer has the passion to continue to brew great beer in St. Louis.

Follow up to this post found here.

After constantly saying, “I really need to make my way down there.” Irene and I finally had the chance to visit Buffalo Brewing a couple of weeks ago, so I though I’d share some of my thoughts and some photos.

Buffalo Brewing Co.
3100 Olive St. (Map It)
St. Louis, MO 63103
314-534-BEER (534-2337)

Beers:

Obviously Buffalo Brewing’s biggest draw is the fact that they provide hand-crafted fresh micro-brewed beer on premises. Their current line-up is Buffalo Gold (a pale-colored ale), Chili Beer, Buffalo Drool (a brown ale), Buffalo Red, Hefeweizen and a Rye IPA. Since the Gold was currently out, I decided to go with a sampler line-up of the five remaining beers. I’m happy to say that they were all clean-well made beers.

Judging by the menu, the Chili beers looks to be the same base recipe as the Buffalo Gold but with chili added to the beer after primary fermentation. I don’t have much experience with chili beers, but I was pleasantly surprised by the subtle chili flavor. You would just catch a hit of the heat in the back of your tongue, but it was never overpowering. It always left you wanting more.

The Drool and the Red were both solid session beers, perfect for someone who’s looking to either bring someone into the craft beer fold or for the times you want to have 2 or 3 pints without having to worry about getting fall-down drunk. The stand out beer of the evening for me was the Rye IPA. It had a wonderful floral aroma and the hops matched well with the spiciness of the rye malt.

If I had one qualm with the beer it’s with the “hefeweizen.” True hefes feature a spicy clove and banana aroma which this beer had neither of. This is just another American wheat beer. There isn’t anything wrong with it, but it’s not a hefe. (And Buffalo, you’re not the only one guilty of this, you’re just the first for me to nitpick on this detail***.)

Food:

One of the things I couldn’t quite get over when reading through the menu was just how inexpensive things were. Irene and I had two beers, a five beer sampler, an appetizer and also two entrees and I don’t think we dropped more than 35 bucks. That’s a nice little respite over some of the prices we’ve been paying for food and beer recently. While the menu offers a lot of typical bar fare they also offer a lot of buffalo based choices if you’re looking for the taste of beef without all of the fat.

Intangibles:

Buffalo Brewing offers a large dining room with a western motif. One issue we noticed with the indoor dining was that because of the high ceilings it can get a bit noisy at times. Buffalo also offers a nice outdoor covered patio if eating alfresco is your thing. They also have a very large bar if you’re looking to just belly up and have a few beers.

One last quick note, I stopped by Buffalo last Wednesday for a beer and was disappointed to find out that a few beers were out and were temporarily replaced with a few O’Fallon beers. Hopefully the next time I show up I’ll be able to have another pint of that tasty Rye IPA.

*** So according to Dave Johnson, he used a true German hefe yeast, the banana and clove just didn’t come through.  He’s going to try using a different yeast next time.

If you’re not all festivaled (yes, I did just make up a word) out yet then Saturday, June 28th is your next chance to get yourself a sampler glass and enjoy some Missouri beer.  Westport Plaza is hosting a Beer and Brat Festival from Noon-6PM next Saturday to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.   Here is a list of the breweries who are attending:

• Schlafly
• Buffalo Brewing
• Anheuser-Busch
• Alandale
• Boulevard
• Griesedieck
• Gruhlke
• Ray Hill

Tickets are $20 in advance and $25 dollars at the door.  Not too many things go better together than beer and brats.

At least, let’s hope it is open today. Dave emailed me earlier in the week to inform me that Buffalo Brewing Company was shooting for a Thursday opening. Unfortunately, there is some good news and some bad news. The bad news is that due to some electrical problems in the brewhouse, none of the beer Buffalo is carrying will be their own. Dave is hoping that beer should be in the tanks as of this weekend. Now the good news: in the meantime Buffalo will be carrying O’Fallon Brewery’s beers.

One thing I want you to keep in mind if you do visit Buffalo this week is that this is a brand new restaurant, so it’s very likely that they’re going to have some bugs to work out for a little while. Don’t let what could be a kink in the works sour you on coming back in the future. If you do visit, please report back and give everyone your thoughts in the forum.

I’ve mentioned Buffalo Brewing a couple of times now, but it’s looks like we’re in the home stretch now. According to Dave from O’Fallon Brewery the final inspections are occurring and he hopes to be brewing on Sunday. Wondering what kind of beers they plan on offering? Well lucky for you, Buffalo Brewing now has a website which also provides a quick rundown of their first beer offerings:

Buffalo Gold
Is brewed with premium American barley, wheat and imported hops. This light colored ale has a light malt flavor and smooth finish
5% ABV - 15 IBU

Chili Beer
Our Fun Beer!
Is brewed with highly modified premium American Barley, wheat and imported hops. Our chili ale has a light flavor and subtle spiciness.
5% ABV- 15IBU

Buffalo Drool
Our interpretation of the American Brown Ale. It’s brewed with six American grains and American hops. Our brown ale has a strong malt backbone and slight chocolate flavor, with a hint of hops in the finish
5.5% - 15 IBU

Buffalo Red
It’s brewed with four premium American grains and premium American hops. Our red ale has a strong malt backbone and a high hop flavor.
5.6% - 30 IBU

Buffalo Drool sounds a lot like Moose Drool from Big Sky Brewery in Montana. I’ve heard a lot of good things about Moose Drool, so if Buffalo Drool is anything like it, we’re in for a treat.

Edit: Dave informed me that they’re also be carrying two seasonal beers, starting with a Bavarian Hefe and a Rye IPA.

Granite City Brewery Opens on January 15

Larry Chase, the Brewery manager for Granite City Food and Brewery, informed me that their newest location, which is in Creve Couer, will be opening tomorrow. GCFB has a very unusual method of brewing beer, which Bill Burge touched briefly on a while back. Larry has kindly accepted an offer for a interview in the near future, so if you have anything you’d like me to ask him feel free to leave a comment or post it in the forums.

Scottish Arms Owner Opening New Restaurant

Thanks to Jim for point this one out to me from Sauce’s Scoop. Alistair Nisbet, the owner of the Scottish Arms, will be opening a new restaurant in the Tower Grove area named The Shaved Duck. Besides having what sounds like the most delicious name ever, the Shaved Duck will feature only American craft beers. It will be interesting to see what kind of list they put together, we’ll find out when the restaurant opens in March.

Buffalo Brewing Company Updates

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago about the newest brewpub entering the St. Louis area, the Buffalo Brewing Company. Dave from O’Fallon Brewery has informed us that he’ll be brewing part time for the new brewery and that 2-4 beer wills be on tap when the pub opens in a couple of weeks. A total of 6 beers will be on draught when they get fully up and operational, 4 flagships and 2 seasonals. From Dave, “The proposed beers to start are, Am. Brown Ale, Chili beer, Amber Ale, Golden Ale, Rye IPA, and Bavarian Hefeweisen.”