Way back in June I told everyone about some of the beers I had tasted at Growlers Pub twice yearly tasting event. How did Growler’s do? Let’s find out:

Draught

• Spanish Peaks Crystal Weiss
• Breckenridge Avalanche
• Breckenridge 471 IPA
• Boulevard Bully Porter
• Leinenkugel Creamy Dark
• Kona Fire Rock

Bottle:

• Lemp Lager
• Anchor Porter
• Arcadia Coco Loco
• Bridgeport ESB
• Ommegang Rare Vos
• Bridgeport IPA
• O’Dells 5 Barrel
• Left Hand Haystack Wheat
• Left Hand Polster
• Left Hand Jackman
• Left Hand Sawtooth
• Left Hand Milk Stout
• Rogue Hazelnut Brown
• O’Fallon Gold
• Spanish Peaks Black Dog
• Avery Ellie’s Brow
• Avery IPA
• Samuel Smith Imperial Stout
• Samuel Smith Organic Lager
• Samuel Smith India Pale
• Old Peculiar
• Ayinger Celebrator
• Ayinger Dunkel
• Bitburger
• Gouden Carlous Ambrio
• Pilsner Urquell
• Beamish
• Peroni

I don’t know about you but, zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Just as a refresher here are a few beers from the tasting back in June:

• 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

So basically of the beers I tried, two made the cut. How sad is it that I walk into a restaurant with over 130 beers and I usually order the same two beers? I think that’s why I like places like The Stable so much, while it’s awesome they have one of my favorite beers on draught, I find that I only have one glass of it before wanting to try another beer. Growlers has 32 draught beers and changed out 6? Weak.

It looks like their continuing price gouging on Ommegang beers continues, Rare Vos is still $11.25. We also have five Left Hand choices? Seems a bit excessive to me. Nothing against Left Hand, but we get 5 Left Hand beers and no Bear Republic or Great Divide? This list is making me pretty angry and I think it’s just a continuing example that Growlers knows very little about beer and doesn’t have any interest in learning.

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.

On Tuesday I wrote about some of the issues I’ve had with Growlers Pub as of recent but didn’t really offer up any solutions to the problem. Well, I’m not much of a fan of criticism without offering up any kind of ideas or solutions to resolve the issues. So today, I’ll be supplying my thoughts on what could turn Growlers around.

Let’s lay some things on the table first before I start this. Growlers doesn’t really need my help. There is hardly a night I don’t go into the Sunset Hills locations that it isn’t full. They’re making plenty of money and people seem to keep coming back. I’ve even heard rumblings that they’re looking at opening two new locations. So I’m sure everything I’m about to say will fall on deaf ears. But I’m hoping that someone does really care and will take some of my ideas to heart.

Hire someone that would function as a beer sommelier for both of your restaurants. If Growlers is truly committed to beer as they claim to be then they should have someone that oversees their selection. They need to have someone that can educate both the wait staff and the customers on beer styles and food pairings. You need someone that is also watching the quality of the beer served; checking temperatures of the beer served and draught lines for cleanliness (I’ve had a few contaminated draught beers on occasion.)

I could see this person also holding beer classes similar to what Cicero’s does. Educating people about beer and teaching them there is more than just that pale yellow stuff. Putting someone in place that really loves beer, someone that is actually passionate about it, you’ll often find that passion rubs off on people and they’ll start getting excited too. Once you get people excited about drinking beer you’re relying less on selling your Bud and Bud Light and can start selling more expensive craft beer that caries a higher profit margin.

Read the rest…

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.}}