Schlafly Pale Ale

Product Reviewed: Schlafly Pale Ale
Brewed by: St. Louis Brewery, Inc.
Date Reviewed: December 11, 1994
Reviewed By: David Brockington
Original Posted to Usenet: February 15, 1995

The St. Louis Brewery
corner of 21st and Olive
St. Louis, MO
314-241-2337

This past December my roommate and I went on this little roadtrip. We drove from Seattle to DC in five days, hung out in the DC area for four, and then drove home via the south in eight. The primary impetus for this trip was beer related, so stopping at brewpubs along the route (even planning in which cities and motels we would spend the night) was the order of the day. On the way out, we managed to find The St. Louis Brewery. This is the brewpub where Dave Miller was the head brewer, until September. Needless to say, we were excited to have the opportunity to finally try some of Miller's creations. As Miller claims to be primarily a lager brewer, we were somewhat surprised to have the opportunity to try a cask conditioned Bitter. While I did take notes on several of the lagers offered at the St Louis Brewery, I have chosen to review the cask ale first.

A quick note on the establishment itself -- the building is old, in a mostly vacant part of town. The refurbishment done to the building, at least the interior, was excellent. Plenty of wood, brewery off to the right behind glass, nice bar. A rather comfortable place to quaff a pint or two.

Initial Impressions:

The beer was hand pumped into my glass. I probed the bartender about the authenticity of this "cask" beer, and he assured me that it indeed did its secondary ferment in the cask and was not exposed to CO2. I wish I could have visited for several days to chart the evolution of this beer. Needless to say, the beer was relatively flat -- not gassy at all, but gentle. The color was a copper-amber; basically what one would expect for a cask ESB. The pour was rather nice, going straight to the rim. The beer did leave a modest lacework charting my progress through the pint.

Nose:

The nose had more caramel/crystal notes than hop aroma, but the latter did peek through.

Flavor:

Not assertive at all. A subtle combination of fruitiness, crystal notes, slight maltiness, and a restrained but lingering hop bitterness made this to be an enjoyable, gentle pint of cask ale. I suspect that the water was burtonized as well, but I am largely unfamiliar with the base properties of St. Louis water. I do understand that AB uses it straight from the source with only a minor filtration, so I would guess that any attempt at replicating a "Burton" type of bitter would require some water treatment.

Final Analysis:

A very pleasant session beer. A nice, but subtle, combination of flavor constituents make this an enjoyable pint of Real Ale. However, like all the beers we tried at the St. Louis brewery, it tended towards the conservative. Of course, the style does not allow much experimentation, but I would have appreciated a bit more of everything -- more fruitiness, more maltiness, and more hoppiness. But just a bit more. Ultimately, my impression of this beer, like all the Schlafly beers I sampled that afternoon, is that it is technically astute but lacking creative vision or spirit.

***1/2 (out of 5)

Next Up:

Schlafly Pilsner
Baltimore Brewing Pilsner
Rubicon IPA

David Brockington, Seattle, USA
bronyaur@u.washington.edu