Keeping cool with Schlafly

We had a bit of our own meltdown last weekend when the chest freezer I use for lagering and serving decided to quit cooling. Pretty bad timing, as it's now warm enough in the garage that I can't maintain the right temps without it's assistance. I've got a Munich Helles just starting to lager and I had a couple of brews planned that are now on hold until I get a working solution. I can start the lagering process in my fermentation chamber, but it means that I can't brew anything else until I can move it out of there.

We had planned to upgrade the kitchen fridge down the road as we really don't like the one that came with the house. So it looks like we're going to move that timetable up and do it now. I can move the old fridge out to the garage and it will become my lagering and serving fridge. Eventually I'll outfit it with built-in taps. So all is not lost, but it's money we weren't really planning to spend right now.

I went down to the Saint Louis area this week for business and, as usual, wanted to check out the local micro beer scene. You'd think that with AB right there that would make things difficult, but they have a modest number of breweries in the area. They range from very small scale brewpubs to micro breweries.

I only had one night in town so I decided to stop at the Schlafly Tap Room. Schlafly is one of, if not the oldest, craft brewer in the Saint Louis area, having opened in 1991. They started with a 15bbl brewhouse which is still located on site. They added a second, larger, brewhouse near by in 2003 to handle their growing market for bottled and keg beer.

Schlafly makes a unique range of beers, and have a nice selection of regular and seasonal beers on tap all the time. They have the usual brewpub lineup including a dry-hopped Pale Ale, Oatmeal Stout, and Heffeweizen, but also a selection of lagers and hybrids which you don't see as often, such as Pilsner, Kolsch, Munich Helles, and Altbeir.

The two highlights for this stop were the dry-hopped PA and a one-off beer they generically called "Session Ale". The latter was actually contract brewed for a bar in Washington D.C. but they held back just 2 kegs to serve. I was really impressed. At a mere 4.2% ABV it was crisp, fairly complex, and wonderful. It's pretty hard to make a really flavorful low alcohol beer and they pulled it off very well. Another highlight was the Altbier, though all I had was one short sample of that. I really wanted to try the Munich Helles but the need to be responsible meant I had to be selective.

Overall it was a really good stop and I'd recommend the Schlafly Tap Room or their other location, called the Bottle Works, if you are in the area. They also have a pretty good food menu that is more than the usual pub food. I had a lamb burger that was tasty.

Randy