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We can’t believe it’s been four months since our beer excursion to St. Louis. It feels like 2014 is going by so fast, so after much delay, here’s the final installment. We had a busy Friday and Saturday and had enjoyed a lot of good beer and food. By Sunday morning we were tired from running non-stop brewery to brewery. But there was no time for a break, our STL beer tour wasn’t over yet. But we kept Sunday to a low intensity, we still needed to travel back home that evening and go to work Monday.
Sunday started with brunch at the Schlafly Bottleworks. We didn’t go to the Bottleworks earlier because we heard the Sunday Brunch was fabulous. It was. The Bottleworks has a different feel than the Schlafly Tap Room. The Tap Room feels like an urban brew pub, but the Bottleworks feels like a destination. The facility is in a revitalized supermarket in the Maplewood neighborhood with a gift shop, tours, a production brewery and a restaurant. This is a can’t miss stop in any St. Louis visit. And if you really want to enjoy it, go for brunch.
Next up was a final beer run to Friar Tuck’s in Crestwood. We stocked up on beers we can’t get in TN, like Firestone Walker, Crooked Stave, Prairie Artisan Ales and Deschutes. Although we couldn’t get all the bottles home on our flight, our friends promised to bring our haul on their next trip back to Nashville. The Friar had a great selection and a lot of hard to find beers.
On the way back to town, we finished at Urban Chestnut, a unique brewery. Some breweries brew outside-of-the-box with little regard to style, while others zealously craft beers based on centuries of tradition. Urban Chestnut does both with their true-to-style classics from the Reverence series, while producing cutting-edge, style-pushing boundaries with their Revolution beers. The Dorfbier was my favorite Reverence beer, a classic Dunkel. From the Revolution series I enjoyed the STLIPA, pronounced “sta-leep-ah.” It was a big American Double-IPA, with Sterling, Cascade, Mt. Hood, Willamette and Chinook hops. Unfortunately we didn’t have much time left and had to leave before we tried them all. Next time, we’re hitting Urban Chestnut first.
From Nashville, St. Louis is only 5 hours by car, or an hour direct flight on Southwest. It’s also centrally located and an easy trip from the Midwest and South. If you’re looking for something to do on a long weekend, it’s the perfect road trip. You’ll find Midwestern hospitality, delicious food and a great beer culture.
For us, the best part of our STL trip was visiting some dear friends who left Nashville a few years ago to chase their dream. We want to give a big thank you to Melanie & Price for playing DD all weekend and graciously treating us to the best of the STL beer scene.
Cheers.
(FYI, we totally forgot to take pictures Sunday. Here’s a link to a Google image search to the Schlafly Bottleworks and Urban Chestnut taproom.)