Hi! It’s me, Cathy. I recognize it has been a pretty long time since I last wrote anything. That’s just because I didn’t have anything to write about 😬 Times like this, I really miss my old life in Spain where there was always something to write about… and I admire my past commitment to posting something new every 10 days…
Anyway, more travel is in my immediate future! Later this month, Matt and I are driving up to Milwaukee for a few days. And then when we get back, we’re flying up to spend a week in Washington/Oregon with one of his college friends! So, more to come. But for now, we’re here to talk about breweries across the state from us in St. Louis, Missouri.
Our Day at the Breweries in St. Louis
Of course, St. Louis is famous for its Budweiser/Anheuser-Busch brewery. I went on that brewery tour back in 2014 when I was visiting friends in St. Louis for the first time as an adult and was newly 21 years old. But when we went to St. Louis over the 4th of July, we were looking for something fun to do. My best friend from college, Hanna (who lives in St. Louis) suggested that we check out some different smaller breweries around the city.
We had a group of six people for our five-brewery excursion: Matt and me, Hanna and her boyfriend Quinn, Matt’s best friend from childhood, Eric, and Hanna’s friend Sam. Sam’s friend Katie joined us at the first couple of places. Eric was nice enough to be our DD for the day, so I was free to drink more beers in one day than I think I’ve ever done before.
Okay, so, these breweries aren’t ranked in any certain order. They’re just listed in the order that we went to them. So if my memories of the later ones are a little more hazy, you’ll understand why.
1. 4 Hands Brewing Company
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First up, around noon, was 4 Hands Brewing Company! It’s in the LaSalle neighborhood, fairly close to downtown. Hanna came up with all these places, and the order, by the way — but I knew Matt would be happy about going to 4 Hands. He’s recently gotten into IPAs, and he’d grabbed a 12-pack sampler of 4 Hands IPAs from our local liquor store a month or so ago.
4 Hands had plenty of indoor seating, including an upstairs room with a second bar. I’ll go ahead and tell you which beer I had at each place, too, because I feel like that’s probably an important part of talking about breweries. So at 4 Hands, I had the “Ripple” White Ale at the suggestion of Hanna and Sam.
Here’s 4 Hands’ full beer list.
2. Urban Chestnut Brewing
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Next up was Urban Chestnut. Hanna and I had actually come to Urban Chestnut the day before, too, because we were in the area and wanted to keep catching up after spending too long at the coffee shop down the street. Urban Chestnut is in a neighborhood called The Grove, which I hear is pretty up-and-coming.
Urban Chestnut also had plenty of space in the form of a huge tasting room, a patio, and a “beer garden” across the street with chairs and sun umbrellas. We sat on the patio, and we also ordered food (this was a good move considering how much beer we would drink that day). I had a burger. Beer-wise, I had a Schnickelfritz — a repeat from the day before — and I thiiiink? the Ku’damm. As you can tell, I like pretty light beers.
Urban Chestnut’s beer list.
3. Rockwell Beer Co.
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I really liked Urban Chestnut, but Rockwell was probably the hidden gem of the day for me. It was our third stop of the day, in the Botanical Heights neighborhood. Rockwell just had a different vibe than anywhere else we went — it was much smaller than the previous two places, with one smaller tasting room as well as an outdoor area. And its logo is a llama, if that tells you anything about Rockwell.
The place was full of bright colors and fun symbols, and it had a special beer that reminded Hanna and I of our study abroad days in London. It was called the “Mikey Sunshine” with a $1 upcharge to add their house-made raspberry syrup. (In London, it was a “Raspberry Snakebite” with 1/2 beer and 1/2 raspberry cider.) The other beer I tried at Rockwell was their Belgian-style “Passing Clouds,” which Sam had proclaimed earlier in the day as the most perfect beer she’d ever tasted.
Scroll a bit for Rockwell’s full beer menu.
4. 2nd Shift Brewing
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Sorry, 2nd Shift Brewing… I remember you the least. (I blame the 2x beers at the last two places.) We also didn’t stay too long, because although Hanna had called and asked how late they would be open — and they said 8 p.m. — they informed us they were closing at 5 when we arrived at 4:30.
2nd Shift is just north of the famous Italian neighborhood, “The Hill,” but the brewery itself is in a very industrial area that has you wondering whether you’re in the right place up until the very end. It’s got a decent-sized tasting room as well as an outdoor area, but we sat inside. While I held down the table, I tasked Matt with ordering me the “Bless This Mess” beer, which was touted as a golden ale that tastes like key lime pie. He came back with the darkest beer I’d ever seen — apparently there are multiple “Bless This Mess” beers and he’d guessed wrong when pressed on which one I wanted. It turned out to be an Imperial Stout, chocolate and peanut butter flavored. I drank it anyway (I was how many beers in at this point?) and I was actually surprised how much I liked it.
5. Alpha Brewing Company
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Our last stop of the day before heading back to Hanna’s house for the rest of the night was Alpha Brewing. Alpha Brewing is in Tower Grove South. While it has a small tasting room inside, it has a patio on both sides of the building. We were there late in the day, so we also ordered food.
Do you like the picture I selected from their Instagram? That’s their resident brewery cat, Tassie 😻 I love cats and I was super happy to see her out on the patio. She was really friendly and cute. Might have been my favorite part about Alpha. As far as the beer goes, I’m fairly certain I had the “Blackberry Funk.” I’m fairly certain it was good.
Here’s Alpha’s beer list. Be sure to scroll down and then click the arrows to see their full selection.
If you can’t tell, writing about beer isn’t really my specialty — but it was still fun thinking back on the day and sharing a little bit about each place we went! It was a good 4th of July, visiting some breweries in St. Louis and spending time with good friends.
Which brewery would you visit first, or which beer would you be most interested in trying? Let me know in the comments!
-Cathy
Originally Published on July 12, 2021.
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