Back in June, Irene and I visited Kansas City for the Cardinals/Royals series. Besides visiting The Flying Saucer, we also had the chance to have a very special tour of Boulevard Brewery with Director of the Artisanal Division, John Bryan. (I promise, I’ll get these photos up soon.) At the end of the tour John sat us down and broke out two of Boulevard’s newest creations, Saison-Brett (lovingly nicknamed the ‘George Brett’) and the Bourbon Barrel Quad (also known as the BBQ.)

First the good news. Unlike the first round of the Smokestack Series which saw a delayed release in St. Louis, these beers will be released in St. Louis at the same time they’re released in Kansas City. The Brett will see a release on October 1st and the BBQ will see a release around November 1st. Now the bad news, as you can see in the images below, these are limited, numbered releases. In fact according to Beernews.org we’ll only be seeing 995 cases of Brett and 550 cases of BBQ total.

The Bourbon Barrel really helps to mellow the sweetness of the Quad and make it more enjoyable for my palate, as I’m not a fan of really sweet beers. But the vanilla and bourbon really comes through and makes for a very pleasant beer. The Saison-Brett was our clear favorite though. It had a wonderful distinctive Brett barnyard, earthy aroma and really took my favorite of the Smokestack series to the next level. Also, aren’t these bottles awesome?

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.

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.

Irene and I made our way down to the newest Amalgamated Brewing venture, The Stable, for Saturday night’s grand opening. I’ve been to a few grand openings as of recent and for the most part they’re usually low-key events. The opening of The Stable was anything but. We walked in and the place was packed, filled to the brim with people either waiting to get a beer or waiting to get a table.

The Stable
1821 Cherokee Street (Map It)
St Louis, MO 63118
(314) 771-8500

Beer

If The Stable doesn’t win some sort of award next year for best beer selection in a restaurant in one of the local magazines, I may just have to give up hope for this town. The devotion to beer that everyone involved with The Stable has is just mindblowing. With over 20 hand-picked draught choices and another 15 in bottles, The Stable proves that having the largest selection doesn’t necessary mean you have the best selection. Two other extremely encouraging tidbits I picked up was that this will be a rotating selection, so that beer you had on your first visit may not be there on the second. Also, they’ve made the promise that you’ll see no beer with the word “Light” in the name.

Food:

Not content with just pizza and beer, The Stable offers a full line of sandwiches and also some interesting starters. I had the steak special and Irene tried the cajun carbonara. While my steak was cooked perfectly to temperature, I found it a bit tough and not very moist. But I was in the mood for beef so it satisfied my craving. Irene’s carbonara was the winning dish between our two. The spiciness of the andouille helped to balance the richness of the cream sauce. The pasta itself was also very well received as it still had a bit of chew to the noodles, almost just shy of al dente.

Intangibles:

This place is pretty gorgeous. If you’ve ever been to the Lemp Mansion you’ll know that it’s almost like stepping back in time to when the mansion was full of Lemps. The Stable does a good job of taking a lot of the feel from the Lemp Mansion and continuing it in this new spot. The updated wood features along with some of the other features keeps you in a very particular mindset. Irene couldn’t stop looking around and saying “wow.” They also feature a “patio” area featuring a second bar which seems less finished and much more sparse. I’ll be interested to see if it gets updated as well.

I’m really excited about the future of The Stable, some time to work out some opening kinks I think it could quickly become the best beer restaurant in St. Louis. Let’s hope that the crowds I saw on opening night think the same as me and keep filling the place up.

What is it about beer events on Saturdays that means, “Hey! It’s time to freeze your butt off!” It’s May, I shouldn’t have to worry about frostbite. But on the plus side, there was always beer to make the event tolerable. Irene and I headed out to O’Fallon Brewery on Saturday morning to begin the day with the Garage Brewing Society. When we arrive at about 11:30, things were in full swing.

Many different kinds of brewing systems. The photo in the lower right is Drew Huerter sparging his American English Barleywine.

You can always count on two thing to warm you up, fire and beer. In this case this beer is Augie Altenbaumer’s Rye Pale Ale that was brewed for the upcoming Heritage Festival.

We then celebrated the worldwide toast at Noon. This was a touching toast that not only celebrated homebrewing but to honor Beer Hunter Michael Jackson as well.

Homebrewers weren’t the only ones brewing on Saturday. Brian Owens, the head brewer at O’Fallon, was brewing up a batch of the O’Fallon Pumpkin Ale. Brian accidentally forgot the rice hulls in this batch until he had sparged about six barrels. Whoops! We then made our way to Worm’s Way to visit the St. Louis Brew’s event.

Read the rest…

I may have taken far too long to get the post on The Scottish Arms up, but I won’t make the same mistake twice. We attended the opening of The Shaved Duck on Thursday evening and I implore you to visit. Not only do you get a wonderful dining experience in an upscale but laid back restaurant, but you get a great selection of American craft beers.

The Shaved Duck
2900 Virginia Ave (Map It)
St. Louis, MO 63118
(314) 776-1407

Beer: I’ll be honest, I can’t quite say enough good things about the beer selection. But one thing I want to get straight first, in the lead up to the opening of the Shaved Duck, Allie (the owner) called to ask for my thoughts on a beer list. Looking back on my post, it looks like I had something to do with the beer list as it is now. I just want to say, Patrick and Allie didn’t need my help in the least. They had done a great job of choosing a lot of the beers before I ever got there. I don’t want to take credit for something that I don’t deserve.

Anyway, now that I’ve got that off my chest, the beer menu is a varied at it is affordable. I didn’t see a single 12oz bottle over 6 dollars and not a single 750ml for over 10 dollars. I had a draught 20oz glass of Unibroue’s Maudite for $5.00. Let that sink in for a couple of seconds. $5.00?! I don’t think I’ve seen a draught Unibroue for less than $6.00 anywhere in St. Louis. Especially not one with a 20oz pour. I posted the list about a month ago, but it has changed slightly, as any good beer list should.

Food:

The Shaved Duck offers a numerous amount of small plates (one of my favorite ways of dining) and a few entrées as well. We tried the duck fat frites and the scallop wraped bacon to start. Both were very tasty. The frites were nice and light but still contained enough fat to remind you that they’re fries. Too often I find that potatoes cut this small become something similar to French’s French Fried Onions. The ketchup paired with the fries provided just enough vinegar to cut down on the sweetness of the tomatoes. The scallop wrapped bacon was a bit of a surprise as we originally read it to be bacon wrapped scallop. The wonderful part of the bacon remaining inside of the scallop was that the smokiness of the bacon didn’t overpower the dish and allowed the sweetness of the scallop to come through.

Both entrées were well prepared, though we were both a bit concerned that the dishes seemed very “wintery” and we’re quickly approaching summer. Nevertheless I’m rarely going to turn down a dish offering marrow and the didn’t disappoint. Irene’s pork was pleasant with the fennel pairing very well with the orange glaze, but the pork could have used a bit more salt to balance the sweetness of the glaze. The desert similar to The Scottish Arm’s wonderful bread pudding but with the addition of dried cherries and coco nibs. Irene found the cherries a bit boozy, but after 3 9% beers, I was completely down with them.

Intangibles:

I think one of the things I enjoyed most about The Shaved Duck was it felt very warm and upscale, but never came across as pretentious. It’s very laid back and never makes you feel like they’re pretending to be something they’re not. The staff was very personable, but there were obviously some opening night jitters and mishaps. But I was very impressed how well things were handled for a restaurant making it’s debut.

I can’t say enough good things about my experience at the Shaved Duck. If I have a few quibbles it’s that the price for a few of the small plates was a bit high (for instance, $9 for a single scallop) but otherwise it was a completely enjoyable experience and made me wish I lived closed to Pestalozzi Street.

Looks like the rain is finally letting up to give us a gorgeous Spring weekend. I don’t know about you, but I have a jammed packed beer-filled weekend, tonight we’ll be getting together with some friends, drinking some beer and playing some Rock Band. Tomorrow, I’ll be brewing a Two Hearted Clone (currently Irene’s favorite beer) and then we’ll be having dinner at Erato on Main with my family and friends. Then if I’m lucky, I’ll take a trip up the Great River Road and visit Rotten Apple. That’s a hell of a weekend, how about you?

Stuff from around the web

• Here’s some further information about Anheuser-Busch’s plan for Michelob.
• Stan Hieronymus delivers the meaning of “Beer is Back.”
• Must view pictures of Augie Altenbaumer brewing his Rye Beer at O’Fallon Brewery for the Brewers Heritage Festival.
• The Post-Dispatch has some information about changes at AB with exclusivity incentives with their distributors.

Beer Releases and News

• Andrew from Bon Vivant Wines informs me to some new beers he has in his stock:
  • Avery Brewing Company - Collaboration not Litigation
  • Avery Brewing Company - Maharajah
  • Left Hand Brewing Company - Chainsaw
  • Allagash Brewing Company - Allagash Black
  • Allagash Brewing Company - Allagash Odyssey
  • Allagash Brewing Company - Allagash Musette
  • Two Brothers Brewing Company - Monarch White Beer
  • Flying Dog Brewery - Garde Dog
• Paul at The Wine and Cheese Place in Clayton alerts me to some new beers he has in stock:
  • Boulevard Brewing Company - Zon
  • Bell’s Brewing Company - Oberon
• Jerad Gardner, of the Rotten Apple lets me know about his most current draught selection. If you haven’t been to the Rotten Apple, take the time to visit:
  • Two Brothers Brewing Company - Monarch White Beer
  • Lagunitas Brewing - Censored
  • Lagunitas Brewing - IPA
  • Lagunitas Brewing - Pils
  • Allagash Brewing Company - Allagash White
  • New Holland - Nighttripper
  • Great Divide Brewing - Hercules
  • 3 Floyd’s Brewing - Robert the Bruce Scotch Ale
  • St. Louis Brewing - Raspberry Framboise
  • Founders Brewing - Centennial IPA
• Joe Billhartz of Specialty Import Distributing Co. let me know of some beer over in Illinois. Contact your favorite beer store to see if these are available:
  • Avery Brewing Company - Collaboration not Litigation
  • Avery Brewing Company - Maharajah
  • Left Hand Brewing Company - Chainsaw
  • Allagash Brewing Company - Allagash Black
  • Allagash Brewing Company - Allagash Odyssey
  • Allagash Brewing Company - Allagash Musette
  • Two Brothers Brewing Company - Monarch White Beer
  • Flying Dog Brewery - Garde Dog

Here’s a list of upcoming beer events:

• April 4 - Schlafly Spring Beer Dinner at the Ritz Carlton
• April 5 - Repeal of Prohibition Pre-Party at Whole Foods
• April 6/7 - Repeal of Prohibition Toast at Schlafly Tap Room
• April 7 - Beer Class at the Wine and Cheese Place in Clayton
• April 10 - Belgian Beer Blowout at Wine Merchant in Clayton
• April 12 - Schlafly Repeal of Prohibition Festival
• April 16 - “Tripel” Around the World at Whole Foods
• April 23 - Beer Tasting with Ray Hill at Rendezvous Cafe & Wine Bar
• April 26 - 2008 Beerfest at Wine and Cheese Place in Clayton

My girlfriend Irene is taking a trip out to rainy Southern California to visit some family this weekend.  Being the wonderful beer nerd girlfriend she is, she’s going to try and pick up some beers for me and bring them home.  I made her a little list, I hope she pulls through.

• Lost Abbey Gift of the Magi
• Lost Abbey Devotion
• Alesmith Yulesmith
• Stone Double Bastard Ale
• Stone Ruination Double IPA
• Alaskan Smoked Porter 2007
• Lost Abbey Judgment Day
• Ballast Point Seamonster Stout

You ever notice how much I love bullet points?