Just like Anheuser Busch downtown, Schlafly gives free tours of the brewery itself as well as free tastings of their beers every day. Betsy and I headed down to get an appetizer before their last tour of the day. It's a good thing we were early, because they have a strict "no open-toed shoe" policy in the brewery itself. Crap. We were both wearing flip flops. Fortunately I'm a fan of Fast & the Furious, so I was able to shoot back home, grab some shoes for both of us and make it back to the brewery before the tour started. Don't worry, I drove very safely. :) Unfortunately, my feet are a bit larger than Betsy's, so she had to clomp around in shoes way too big for her. Ah well, at least she was able to wear something.
We started the tour with the beer tasting itself. Out of their 8 signature beers, we were only able to try 3. This was due to the fact that their beer tasting room was being occupied by a wedding rehearsal. Stupid wedding rehearsals ruining my beer tasting! So, our guide had to bring out pitchers, and I guess he didn't want to drag out 8 different ones. Now, I'm not a beer connoisseur; very far from it in fact. I only drink a small handful of beers, so I couldn't tell you a pilsner from a stout or from a hefeweizen. So, forgive me if I don't recount what he said accurately. I tried to take notes, but he was talking pretty fast!
Our guide poured us all the first beer and since I was first, he got a little overzealous with his pour. I think I had about 3 times more beer than everyone else! The first one we tried was the signature Pale Ale. It is actually an IPA, or Indian (/British) Pale Ale, because it has more hops in it. It comes from back in the day when beer was brewed in Britain, and in order to make it last all the way to India without spoiling, they had to add more hops. Hops apparently are what helps preserve beer. Who knew. British/Indian hops have a more piney aroma. Whatever. I have no idea what he was talking about.
Woo-hooo...that's a bit more than a sip!
Before we took our first sip, he told us how to taste beer. We had to use the four senses of sight (color), smell (aroma), feel and taste. The Pale Ale was amber in color, and since it was filtered, you could see through it. We swirled our glasses to catch a whiff of its aroma. The guide said that most people pour beer along the side to decrease the foam at the top. But, if you want more aroma from your beer, you're supposed to pour straight down, directly in the middle of the glass. Huh. Then, sip a little in your mouth, and move it around your tongue and get the "feel" of its density. This is called "chewing" your beer. What the? Finally swallow the beer and if you breathe out through your nose after swallowing you'll get more flavor in your mouth.
In the amount of time it took me to drink one small sip, I could have drank half a Bud Light. Seriously, this sipping and swirling crap goes against everything I learned in college. The IPA wasn't that bad, but I wasn't really a fan. Like I said, I'm kind of a beer snob. I have a limited vocabulary when it comes to beer. The second beer we tried was an APA, American Pale Ale. These hops have a more citrusy aroma. I could kind of smell that. Sort of. He said that the APA is more bitter than the IPA, but I found I liked it better. To me it went down a bit smoother. But, that was only after a few small sips.
The final beer was their Oatmeal Stout. It's a super dark beer because they use dark roasted grains for it. It kind of had a coffee-esque aftertaste to it. I was not a fan. I didn't figure I'd like it. I didn't really want to spit it out or anything, but it's not something I would ever choose to drink.
After our tasting, the guide let us try some of the barley they use for their beer. One whiff of the lighter grain, and it smelled like the farm. It was incredibly crunchy and tasted a bit like dry granola. Apparently it was 2-row barley. No idea what that means. The darker grain that had been roasted a lot longer tasted like crap. Unless you like espresso, then it was coffee flavored crap. But you might have liked it. We smelled some of their hops and the guide told us that hops are used to control the bitterness, the aroma or the flavor of beer.
Barley and hops.
Finally it was time to head into the brewery for the tour. Most of the people who had been at the tasting had to leave because they were wearing sandals. Suckers! It ended up only being me and Betsy and two other people. We found out that they grind their own grain there and then add that along with water to the mash tank. They heat the water to 170 degrees so that the grain starts to germinate and turn into sugars. Then they run more water through to separate the sugar water from the grain. The sugar water goes into the brew pot where the hops are added in different intervals depending on what kind of beer they are brewing. It gets boiled for around 30-60 minutes and then goes into the whirlpool to remove the hops particles. Then it's cooled down to head to the fermentation process.
This grinds the grain and sends it to the mash tank.
The whirlpool.
Lots o' grain.
Big bag o' grain.
I can't remember how many fermentation tanks they have, but it was a lot. And each one costs $60,000 and is made of 100% stainless steel. They have two different types, one with a conical bottom and one with a rounded bottom. He explained the difference, but I don't remember a word of it. They each hold 200 barrels of beer. 1 barrel = 31 gallons. That's a lot of beer. Schlafly brews around 28,000 barrels of beer a year.
Only some of the fermentation tanks.
After that we headed to the bottling section. Since it was a Saturday, they weren't bottling. But, they bottle Monday through Friday if you ever want to see that. They also keep one 6-pack from every batch they brew until it is no longer on the shelves at stores. This way they have a sample to go back to in case someone calls to complain about their beer tasting bad. The tour itself didn't last very long, but it was nice to have a smaller, more intimate tour. The AB tour is always nice, but there are always a ton of people on them.
Bottling section.
The beer is fed directly to the taps from the brew room. So, the beer you get in the bar and restaurant hasn't been bottled or put into a keg. Now, that's some fresh beer!
After the tour was over, we headed over into the restaurant area to have dinner. The entire building is pretty large. Besides the brewery, there is the restaurant, along with a banquet room, a gift shop, an outdoor patio and even a garden. According to Betsy, you can work in the garden during the day and get a free meal for dinner. If only I liked gardening. That's where Schlafly gets all their fresh ingredients for their meals. Our dinner was really good, and I topped it off with a Hefeweizen, the closest beer they have to Bud Light. It wasn't too bad. I don't think I could sit down and drink a 6-pack, but it was nice with dinner.
Those two silos hold grain. And the glass on the right is where the brewery is located.
The outdoor patio.
The garden.
The restaurant entrance.
The gift shop.
1 comment:
MMMMM...BEER IS GOOD!!!!!
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