Gateway to interesting beer

MORE IN ST. LOUIS St. Louis is also home to Bevo Mill, a replica of a Dutch Mill built by August A. Busch in 1916.

St. Louis is famous for its beer, but ... well, provide the punchline of your choice.

If you filled in "but I wouldn't want to drink there" perhaps it's time to revisit the Gateway to the West. It has brewpubs and multi-taps, a rowdy Welsh pub and a civilized Welsh pub, Belgian beers on tap, restaurants with good wine-and-beer menus and craft beer at the ballpark. Take your pick.

The obvious place to start is the St. Louis Brewery Tap Room. It hardly seems coincidental that beer drinkers' choices have expanded dramatically since the Tap Room opened in 1991. Dave Miller - yes, the same Dave Miller who has authored several homebrewing books - spent two years shepherding a brewpub bill through the Missouri Legislature and was the Tap Room's original head brewer.

Miller has since moved on to Blackstone Restaurant & Brewery in Nashville, but hang out with the current six-person brewing staff and you'll discover these folks love beer. Their beers have developed a loyal following. By the middle of 1995, the Schlafly brand beers made by St. Louis Brewery were on tap at nearly 50 accounts. That number has grown well beyond 100, and the arrival of new kegs in August figures to send it still higher.

When the brewery opened, capacity was 900 barrels per year. Now it's 4,000, and St. Louis Brewery will sell about 3,000 barrels of draft beer in 1997, more than half of that off-premise. Head brewer Stephen Hale said he expects sales of bottled Schlafly beers - contract-brewed at August Schell in New Ulm, Minn. - will be around 1,200 barrels this year.

Although you can get Schlafly beers at Busch Stadium and other sports venues as well as at all those other accounts, there are plenty of reasons to drink in the Tap Room. The food is outstanding, and it's the only place you can be sure to find the seasonals -- the brewery makes nearly two dozen different ones in the course of a year. The Tap Room was one of the first brewpubs in the country to serve cask-conditioned ale from a British firkin. Regulars have the pleasure of sampling pale ale from a firkin dry-hopped with, say, Fuggles, one day, and a firkin dry-hopped with a different hop the next.

It's located at 2100 Locust St. (314-241-2337).

Not only have the Schlafly beers become commonplace around St. Louis, but so have the beers from Boulevard Brewing in Kansas City, Mo. You can sample those and others at bars around town, including:

Blueberry Hill. This classic spot was undergoing renovation in August, promising to be even bigger and better. A sprawling place, it features a large dart room, 16 taps pouring micros and imports, a jukebox with 2,000 selections that was voted the best in the United States by Cashbox magazine, and a great collection of memorabilia. Much in the bar salutes St. Louis native son Chuck Berry, and there are giant amusement park animal heads and characters, vintage advertising signs, album covers and similar items all about. Display cases are loaded with collectibles such as Howdy Doody dolls, old beer bottles, Beatles and Batman memorabilia and Soakies. Blueberry Hill's hamburgers are always voted among the best in St. Louis. (6504 Delmar Ave., 314-727-0880)

Cicero's. If you haven't been to Cicero's in the last six months, you're in for a surprise. It has moved west on Delmar Avenue to a bigger spot, and is both an Italian bistro and a pool hall, with the largest draft selection for hundreds of miles at the bar in between. The 45 handles include regional micros, micros that distribute nationally, and imports. "I've been amazed by the amount of beer we've been selling," said beer manager Scott Arnett, whose business card identifies him as "beer geek." Cicero's went through a keg of Anchor Old Foghorn the first week it was open, and in July was offering Rodenbach and Boon Kriek on tap. Surprisingly, those Belgian beers are available only by the pint - and the $5 and $6 price tags probably deter some drinkers. While both the beers were still in acceptable condition, they weren't as good as at places that turn kegs of them in less than a week. (6691 Delmar Ave., 314-862-0009)

Dressel's, Llywelyn's Pub. These unrelated Welsh pubs are right around the corner from each other in the Central West End. Dressel's emphasizes civility - a sign outside warns that it is a pub "where the boxes never juke" - while Llewelyn's feels more like a roadhouse. Both feature Felinfoel beers on tap as well as other U.K. imports. (Editor's note: Since this was written Llewelyn's was sold.)

Dressel's serves its beers in Imperial pints. The pub towels are from the Felinfoel Brewery, and the stained-glass windows feature the Welsh dragon. The music includes classical and opera, and the walls bear pictures of famous composers and writers, and posters in Welsh. One large section is devoted to Dylan Thomas, and others on the wall include Ernest Hemingway and James Baldwin. The pub hosts poetry readings on weekends, and the bar upstairs has a fine selection of single malts. (Dressel is at 419 N. Euclid Ave., 314-361-1060)

Growlers Pubs. A beer theme clearly is working at Growlers, which recently added a second location in suburban St. Charles. Each pub is decorated with breweriana, has 32 draft choices, a bottle menu of 99 and serves pub food. They offer more than 30 single-malt Scotches, sell cigars and have a glass cigar room (the "Snug") with easy chairs and a fireplace. They encourage sampling with a "Royal Order of Tasters" club, by selling tasters of individual beers, and by describing beer styles on the menu and then denoting the style of each beer. They also offer different samplers of the single malts - for instance you can try a bit of Macallan 12, 18 and 25 for $14.50. (St Charles: 1600 Heritage Landing, 314-939-9900; St. Louis: 763 Old Ballas Road, 314-432-3110)

King Louie's. A sign you are in a genuine beer place: they shove coasters from the local microbrewery under a table's legs to keep it from wobbling. King Louie's is in the middle of an industrial area, but set in a fine old building that was once the hospitality room for the Stifel Brewery (which had a variety of names before closing its doors in 1916). It has a lovely beer garden with trees in back and is popular with the staff of nearby St. Louis University Hospital. Schlafly beers and those from Boulevard are the most popular of 33 on tap, but imports sell well, too. Five of the six handles on the impressive Paulaner ceramic tower actually pour Paulaner beers. (3800 Chouteau, 314-865-3662)

Morgan Street Brewery. Laclede's Landing is the site of the original St. Louis settlement, and the nine-block area is made up of trendy shops, restaurants and clubs. Morgan Street fits right in, offering easily accessible though not assertive beer and quality food. With plenty of brick and exposed wood-beam ceilings, it feels a little like Maspero's, a restaurant in New Orleans' French Quarter. Cozy, dimly lit booths offer privacy in back. (721 N. Second St., 314-231-9970)

Riddle's Penultimate Cafe & Wine Bar. You couldn't buy Anheuser-Busch products here during the baseball strike of 1995. Owner Andy Ayers put a big sign in the window that had that eagle and a Big A inside a circle, with a slash through them. It read: "If Your Replace Our Baseball Team We'll Replace Your Beer!" Riddle's has more wine on tap than beer, but the draft selection is backed up with an impressive bottle list. The cafe rambles from back to front, and the waitstaff dresses casually, but the food - Louisiana-influenced, with lots of pasta - is outstanding, and the ingredients always fresh. (6307 Delmar Ave., 314-725-6985)

Trailhead Brewing Co. The historic bedroom community of St. Charles, once Missouri's state capital, boasts a historic district, antique shops, bed-and-breakfasts and riverboats. Trailhead is set in a renovated brick building that looks old from the outside but is quite modern and spacious within. You can enjoy beer and food (smoked meats a specialty) in a bar that offers a view of the brewery, in an open dining room or in one of two beer gardens. (921 S. Riverside Dr., 314-946-2739)

This story is from the summer of 1997.