Microbrews in the brewery town: St. Louis, Missouri

I'm out in a true brewing town this week, St. Louis.  Birthplace of the beer that all beer snobs love to hate, Budweiser.  The self-proclaimed King of Beers.    Yeah, we aren't going to discuss that.   Here, I headed up to the Northern suburbs to the town of Ferguson and Ferguson Brewing Company.

I feel like I should discuss why I headed way up on the North side of town when there are several very good, well known breweries (and I am not talking the Brewery-That-Must-Not-Be-Named) downtown.  It's like this, I was there when there were two Cardinals games and a Rams game in the same weekend and downtown St. Louis, to put in nicely, was a freaking zoo.   What I found was a cool out-of-the-way beer gem.


There's nothing particularly special about Ferguson other then the fact it's just a nice place to kick back for a pint or two.   The menu is pretty typical pub fare with one or two exceptions.  Their beer menu is pretty extensive, so that's cool.   Lots to choose from.

One thing I do want to say.  When I go to breweries I often start with a tasters flight which, ideally a small pour of the majority if not all the beers.  This strikes me as a pretty obvious concept, but maybe not.  Ferguson only serves four of their 10+ beers on tap per taster.  The obvious solution, and the one I ended up going with, was to buy two tasters, but still...

That was my little princess tantrum.  And now... Beer!

Pilsner:  Most of the time this is a beer brewed to appease Bud drinkers who were dragged into the bar by beer snob buddies.   This one, on the other hand, is actually really good.  It has a slight herbal hop aroma.  It starts fairly sweet for a moment and then is hit with a decent dose of herbal hops.  Not IPA strength, but respectable for a pils.

Hefenweizen: Lemony clove aroma.  It has a creamy mouthfeel with a kind of banana nut flavor with clove spice on top.  Very smooth drinkable beer.

Blonde Ale: No aroma.  Slighty malty flavor with a kind of lemony sour flavor in the background.  No bitterness to speak of.  It's light, but manages to be that way without being watery.

It's Pumpkin Ale Season Again.

Pumpkin Ale:  It's that time of year again.  Personally I love the pumpkin ales that start taking up tap spaces in microbreweries all over this country, though I seem to be of the minority.  So I'm going to say this up front, if you don't like the pumpkin spice ale style stay the hell away from this.  It has no aroma to speak of.  The spices in the flavor are about as subtle as a 6:00am jackhammer outside your bedroom window.  Lots of cinnamon and nutmeg balanced on a malty foundation.  It's a pumpkin pie in a glass.  It rather liked it, but consider yourself warned.

IPA: This selection had a very light lemony aroma.  Lots of citrus, flowery hops balanced rather well on it's malty foundation.

Munich Dunkel:  No aroma again.  It has a spicy, malty flavor right of the top but it quickly turns surprisingly bitter for the style.  Lots of herbal, pine hops in this one.  The description the brewery gives is, "Hops come into play both in the aroma and slightly in the flavor."
Um... yeah.  No slightly about this one.

Pecan Nut Brown Ale: This is a brown ale brewed with actual nuts in the mash.  It manages to avoid the usual downfall of the brown ale style, i.e. watery and light.  This one is nutty on top of a fairly heavy malt bill.  Hops come to play at the end of the palate and linger unusually long.

Oatmeal Stout:  Again, I found aroma lacking.  The flavor is all sweet coffee and cream in flavor and mouthfeel. Again, I ran across a distinct hop flavor in the background.  At first I was afraid that I had some left on my palate from a previous beer, but even after water and a bit of food, I could taste hops in the background.  Still not sure how I feel about that.

Barleywine:  Light, fruity aroma here.  Notes of strawberry and raspberry peak out among the sea of malt and hops.  It has a very heavy dose of flowery, herbal hops.  This to is  limited offering by the brewery, but it's worth checking out.