2015 BEER DISCOVERY TOUR: The Saint Louis Brewery, Schlafly Bottleworks, St. Louis, MO (June 29, Brewery Stop #14)
The 14th brewery that we visited on the cross-country beer discovery tour (click to read about the whole trip) was Schlafly Bottleworks in St. Louis MO. After a great KC BBQ lunch, we hit the road and headed to St. Louis. There was a little bit of traffic out of KC, and a whole bunch of traffic trying to get into St. Louis which pushed out travel time to over 5hrs. We ended up getting off the freeway and taking some side-roads into the SW part of town as their rush hour freeway traffic is horrible. The Schlafly Bottleworks location isn’t hard to find, just be ready to drive a bit through residential areas to get there. Note, that there are two locations, we went to the production facility to meet up with one of Gary’s former students that lives in the area in the suburbs and not the main downtown restaurant and bar.
I had never heard of Schlafly before our trip, it was selected by Devin and I’m glad he picked it out for us to stop at. They have a pretty broad range of beers available in bottle (distributed) as well as a great selection of beer at the brewery (one-off’s). If it wasn’t so incredibly hot when we got there after 4 hours of driving, we would have sat outside on the big patio (as you can see from the pictures), but since we wanted to relax we ended up inside in the restaurant. The production facility is pretty big, large swag room with tons of stuff to buy, bottles/cases/kegs to go, side rooms with windows to look at their kettles and production, and a huge patio and restaurant to enjoy.
The overall vibe of the location is pretty corporate. There’s lots of flashy design stuff and swag around in the restaurant which I enjoyed seeing an effort being made to step up their image, and the great thing is that their beers were not that bad. We ordered a full range of tasters and some food to eat while we sipped. The restaurant was a little bit busy so it took a while for the food to show up, but the beers made it to the table pretty quickly.
Out of the 12 beers we sampled, there were a couple of stand-outs and the overall takeaway was a bit of ‘middle of the road’ to ‘standard’ in flavor and approach. Again, I had to remind myself to remember the audience in the mid-west, and remember that it’s ok to produce a solid line of beers, and not always push the envelope like they do on the west coast. The outstanding ones we sampled were the Kolsch, Dry Hopped Marzen, and Eighty Shilling. They did have an interesting range of IPAs as well, but they tended to have a similar flavor profile and mouth-feel.
The beer reviews start with the 6 standards on the placemat, and we then had 6 additional seasonal’s as shown in the pictures below (the 12th was a full pint not pictured). So, if you are ever in St. Louis, and can make it to one of their locations, it’s definitely worth stopping and trying their one-off’s and seasonal’s. Or try to find them in bottles around the mid-west. They do a decent job on the standards and they tend to be a bit better than some of the other mid-west beers we’ve tried. I would recommend the sessionable “standard IPA” that’s available in cans, or the seasonal Marzen.
The Saint Louis Brewery, Schlafly Bottleworks
7260 Southwest Ave.
St. Louis, MO 63143
Phone:(314) 241-2337
E: questions@schlafly.com
Web: http://schlafly.com/
Face: https://www.facebook.com/SchlaflyBeer
 Pale AleSchlafly Bottleworks • American Pale Ale (APA) • IBU: 25 • ABV: 4.4% • 13.5 SRM HOPS: East Kent Goldings, Northdown, Pilgrim (UK) GRAINS : Pale, Caramel YEAST: London Ale Solid golden hue, bright white foamy head with nice retention on the rim. The nose is light, sweet, slight bread, slight dry pine hops. Front mouth is a little bit sharp with grassy and mid to back malts that hold the bitters in place. The back and after have a nice rounded mouth-feel and lingering grassy to pine resin bitters. |
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| Hefeweizen Schlafly Bottleworks • Hefeweizen • IBU: 16 • ABV: 4.4% • 6 SRM HOPS: Tettnang (US), Marynka (PL) GRAINS : Pale, Wheat, Munich YEAST: American Ale Nice cloudy soft yellow hue, bright foamy head that left big bubbly lacing. The nose is slight lemon, yeast, coriander and hints of bread. The front mouth has nice carbonation, mid-bodied mouth-feel, lemons, slight bitters from the citrus rind, hints of dry hopping on the after-taste. |
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| Kölsch Schlafly Bottleworks • Kölsch • IBU: 25 • ABV: 4.8% • 6 SRM HOPS: Hallertau Tradition, Perle (DE) GRAINS : Pale, Wheat, Munich, Carapils ® YEAST: Köln Brewery Yeast Strain Shiny bright yellow, clean and crisp, smaller frothy head left minimal lacing. The nose is sharp, grassy hops, slight yeast. The front mouth is effervescent, fully carbonated, hits of lemon zest, citrus rind, grassy to resin hops. Mid to back is a little yeasty with a thin back. Slight bitters linger. |
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| Dry Hopped APA Schlafly Bottleworks • American Pale Ale • IBU: 50 • ABV: 5.9% • 10 SRM HOPS: Cascade, Chinook (US) GRAINS : Pale, Caramel YEAST: American Ale Unfiltered slightly cloudy orange-golden hue, nice solid white, small bubbly head. The nose is a bit floral (dried) and fruit (grapefruit) hops. The front mouth is a sharper IPA like hop forward profile with slight fresh grass, dried leaves, solid floral and citrus notes. The mid-bodied and fully carbonated draft gives a nice mouth-feel with slight dry bread backing. |
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| Raspberry Hefeweizen Schlafly Bottleworks • Hefeweizen • IBU: 16 • ABV: 4.1% • 7.5 SRM HOPS: Tettnang (US), Marynka (PL) GRAINS : Pale, Wheat, Munich YEAST: American Ale Unfiltered and hazy pink to orange hue, frothy off-white/pink head with some large bubbly lacing. The nose is sweet and yeasty with some chalky vibe. The front to mid mouth is a little sharp fruit tart and bitterness with a nice lingering yeast and malt back to hold it together. This is a bit sweeter than most fruit heffe’s that I’ve had. |
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| Oatmeal Stout Schlafly Bottleworks • Stout • IBU: 40 • ABV: 5.7% • 40+ SRM HOPS: Northdown (UK), Marynka (PL) GRAINS : Pale, Caramel, Roasted Barley, Oat Flakes YEAST: American Ale Super dark brown draft, tan colored, small foamy head with great retention and spidery lacing on the rim. The nose is pretty sharp with burned cacao and coffee hints, backed by sweet oats. The front to mid mouth is chewy, full-bodied, low carbonation, and clean. The mid to back has a lot of burned malts, raw cacao and ground coffee hints. Slight metallic to acidic sharper end. |
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| IPA Schlafly Bottleworks • American India Pale Ale (IPA) • IBU: 30 • ABV: 5% • 10 SRM HOPS: Amarillo, Bullion (US), Magnum (PL) GRAINS: Pale, Caramel, Carapils ® YEAST: American Ale Straw yellow, clear draft with a shallow head that dropped to a sheen on the rim. The nose is a little softer and has some grassy hops, citrus and floral notes. The front to mid is a bit rounded and smoother than their other IPAs, with a nice level of malts and hints of raw barley holding the bitters in check. The mid to back have a nice mix of fresh grassy and aromatic dried leafy hops. Definitely sessionable. |
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| 80/- (Eighty Shilling) Schlafly Bottleworks • Scottish Export Ale • IBU: 21 • ABV: 4% • 30 SRM Darker clear amber draft with a slight off-white frothy head with decent retention. The nose is soft, sweet, slight spice, slight wet-hop profiles. The front to mid is a bit round, full bodied malt build, slight hop bitters (hop florals), and sweet breads on the back. |
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| Yakima Wheat Ale Schlafly Bottleworks • American Pale Wheat Ale • IBU: 25 • ABV: 5% • 5 SRM HOPS: Marynka (PL), Challenger, Mosaic (US) GRAINS : Pale, Wheat, Caramel YEAST: American Ale Bright yellow, slight hazy hued with a solid white head. The nose is really strong with barley and wheat grains and hits of a dry yeastiness. The front to mid mouth is slightly dry, clean, sharp hops of citrus pith, solid grains and sweet breads on the back. Fully carbonated, nice milled grain profile. |
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| Grapefruit IPA Schlafly Bottleworks • American IPA • IBU: 50 • ABV: 5.9% • 16 SRM Mid-orange and amber hazy draft with a solid white head that dropped to a sheen on the glass. The nose is distinctly fruit rind bitters and slight sweet cracker malts. The front mouth is sharp fruit bitters and slight hop resins. The mid to back is mildly carbonated, mid-bodied, really nice mix of citrus flavors. |
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| Dry-Hopped Farmhouse Ale Schlafly Bottleworks • Saison / Farmhouse Ale • IBU: 30 • ABV: 6.9% • 5 SRM HOPS: Centennial, Mosaic (US) GRAINS: Europils, Cara 8, White Wheat Malt YEAST: Belgian Bright yellow, clear, solid white two finger head that had great retention and clingy lacing. The nose is a bit of fruit hops, slight wild / farmhouse yeast funk. The front mouth is a bit dry, higher carbonation, Belgian yeast forward, lots of citrus pith and bitters, unique range of bitterness with the subtle spice from the Belgian funky yeast profile. |
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| Dry Hopped Märzen Schlafly Bottleworks • Oktoberfest/Festbier/Märzen • IBU: 25 • ABV: 5.2% • 16 SRM Mid-red amber clear draft, minimal head, little lacing. The nose is full sweet malts and some mild earthy and spice hop notes. The front mouth is sweet, smooth, low-carbonation. The mid to back is a little bit chewy with the solid malt build, the hops are really secondary and this is a great example of German Oktoberfest style beer. |