Schlafly Bottleworks

St. Louis has a long association with brewing, and was home to many producers pre-prohibition. The most famous among them, of course, is Anheuser-Busch. In more recent years, craft brewers have emerged. We visited the Schlafly Bottleworks, the primary brewing and bottling facility of the Saint Louis Brewery. They offer a free tour of the brewery and beer tasting that I would definitely recommend for beer fans.

Located in a former supermarket, the Bottleworks is home to a pub, beer garden, store, and a small museum of St. Louis brewing history, in addition to the brewing and bottling facilities. Our guide informed us that Schlafly produces 45,000 barrels of beer each year, an output that Anheuser-Busch can match in just a few hours. Their brewhouse, pictured below, is where the beer-making process begins, before moving to storage containers to ferment.

To qualify as a craft brewery in the United States, a brewery's "flagship beer" must use the four craft beer ingredients: water, barley, hops, and yeast. This means no "adjunct" ingredients in the mash, like the major brands use. Schlafly's flagship is their English-style Pale Ale. They must also be locally owned and produce under six million barrels each year. Schlafly was the first craft brewery in St. Louis when it opened in 1991. 

The tasting included four different beers: Pale Ale, Hefeweizen, American Pale Ale, and Schwarzbier. The Pale Ale, their flagship beer, is a good example of English-style pale ale, full of flavor and a nice bitterness. Hefeweizen (unfiltered wheat beer) is actually one of the beer styles I'm not particularly fond of. This one was a pleasant surprise for me, as it uses American hops and was not so overwhelmingly aromatic. The American Pale Ale had a strong grapefruit-citrus flavor, and differs from the English style with the use of American hops. The Schwarzbier was perhaps the most interesting brew they offered. It is a black lager, combining the light crispness of lager with the smokiness of a dark beer. I brought home a sampler six pack. The oatmeal stout is pictured above.