St. Louis Beer

A couple friends, Craig and Barry, and I took a road trip to St. Louis recently to catch the Monday Night Football Game between the Seattle Seahawks vs. the St. Louis Rams.  The World Series happened to be in town also with the Cardinals playing the Boston Red Sox which made it quite the hopping town.  We traveled through five states (TN, KY, IL, MO and IN)  in our road-trip loop trip and had some good beer in a couple of them along the way.

Missouri

We were only outside looking in with the ticket prices being so high, but it was still exciting to be technically at a live World Series game.

The biggest reason for the trip was that we were celebrating Craig's birthday and since both of us grew up as displaced Seahawks fans and even took a trip out to Seattle way back in 1989 to see them play the Denver Broncos in the now-demolished Kingdome, it seemed like now, a mere 24 years later, we should see them play again in a dome.

Our first beer stop was new for me but not for Craig or for this blog since he wrote about his first visit to Morgan Street Brewery a few years ago as a guest-writer for this blog.  It was kind of cool to visit it now with him for my first time.  I had the Grizzly Bear, their IPA, which was tasty.  I finished the visit with their Pumpkin Ale which was good and their Thumper Hoppy Wheat which wasn't bad either.

I think we are in the right town

We had lunch on our first full day in St. Louis at Schlafly Bottle Works.  The food was good and their Tasmanian IPA (TIPA) was terrific!

Schlafly had a nice little museum on the history of beer in St. Louis which included this cool Falstaff display.

Monday Night Countdown was in town of course and we got to see the stars of it live and in person before the game including (L to R) the lovely Suzy Kolber, Hall-of-Famer and Super Bowl Winner Steve Young,  Super Bowl winner Trent Dilfer and the show's newest addition, soon-to-be Hall of Famer and Super Bowl winner, Ray Lewis.

Our lower-bowl end-zone seats were pretty good and really cheap!

Seahawks defensive-star, Richard Sherman, came out after the close win over the Rams to talk to the Monday Night crew and give the nice contingent of Seattle fans still in the building an extra thrill. (Editors note:  Guess who won the Super Bowl this season??  Guess who's not a thug???)

The weather was perfect in St. Louis while we are there and we enjoyed a walk around and beneath the famous arch.

Indiana

We went a bit out of our way on the way back home to Tennessee to have lunch (and a beer sampler) at Tin Man Brewing in Evansville, Indiana.  The food and beer were really good and well worth the side-trip.  The robot-theme the brewery incorporates is pretty nifty.  Here's a run-down of the six samples I had:
Overlord IPACircuit Bohemian Pilsner

Rivet Irish Red Ale

Alloy American IPA (my favorite)

3 Gear Robust Porter

Dry Cell Irish Dry Stout