Since I'm from Missouri, I'll mention a couple of my favorite "local" breweries. The St. Louis Brewery in, er, St. Louis brews a wide selection of very good beer under the Schlafly name. Around the St. Louis area their pale ale is very popular. I prefer the Summer Kolsch or the Pilsner. Anyway, over the last few years the St. Louis Brewery has graduated to the status of small regional brewer. I've seen their offerings as far east as Ohio. They are NOT affiliated with AB. With any luck I'll have a case to bring to GFM.
About halfway across the state in Columbia, MO, is a small brewery/restaurant/bar called Flat Branch. It's in an old factory on Fifth street. I can't recommend these guys highly enough. During the winter they brew the Old Cave Dweller's Barley Wine. No hops. It's thick, sweet, and goes down wonderfully on a cold day. Their Oil Change Stout puts Guinness to shame. If any of you happen by, try the Flat Branch Burger. It's covered in a spinach-artichoke dip and served with mashed potatoes. Plus, they're in a college town, so there's plenty of eye-candy, too. <vbg> I'm booking my plane ticket back home now. On 12/13/05, frank theriault <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > There used to be lots of smaller local breweries up here, too. I > don't think the prohibition killed them off, I think they got killed > off by the "Big Three" (now the Big Two, Molson and Labatts, since > Molson bought out Carling-O'Keefe some 10 years ago). > > Either the little guys just couldn't compete with the marketing of the > big guys, or they were bought out. Typically, the little local > brewery would continue under the big guy's name for several years, > only to be eventually closed down due to "ineffeciencies". Often the > big guy only wanted to buy the brand (not the beer, just the brand). > Once the local brewery was closed, they big guy continued to market > the small brand, urban myth stating that they simply diverted bottles > of beer of one of their big lines and re-labelled them. > > It was long rumoured that Labatt Blue and "cult" beer Labatt Crystal > was all the same beer with different labels. Same thing with Molson > Canadian some other beer that I forget the brand of (was it Molson > Club?). > > As in the US, so-called microbreweries started to pop up in the 80's > and 90's, typically brewing something other than the same-tasting > homogeneous beers from the big guys. There was one called Rickerts > (they're still around), who make a barely okay tasting red ale called > Rickerts Red. It was a poorly-kept secret for many years that > Rickerts is 100% owned by Molson (although it is nowhere stated as > such on the bottles or in the ads), and that they were just Molson's > attempt to regain or not lose their market share to micros. > > Anyway, that's probably more than anyone needs to know about Canadian > breweries. > > cheers, > frank > -- > "Sharpness is a bourgeois concept." -Henri Cartier-Bresson > > -- Scott Loveless http://www.twosixteen.com -- "You have to hold the button down" -Arnold Newman
