A simple pleasure. Approachable soft-toned Abbey Ale emulating from New Mexico contrasts mild crystal malt creaming, vanilla-spiced honeyed fruiting and dewy sweetness against white-peppered herbal hops. Ancillary caramelized banana, sugarplum, burgundy, apricot and fig notions provide fruity center.
On tap at Blue Grasshopper, middling moderate-bodied English-styled brown ale offers toffee-sugared nut roast and caramelized dried fruiting to iced tea-like sweetness. Light pecan, fig and plum illusions fade quickly. In the bottle, dryer cocoa-powdered Bakers chocolate influence informs sourer-than-sweet dried fruiting.
On tap at Blue Grasshopper, smoothly creamed milk stout saddles nutty mocha entry with mild dark-roasted hop bittering. Brown chocolate-sugared coffee roast, vanilla fudging and cocoa powdering consume less effective hazelnut-cola-walnut conflux.
On tap at Blue Grasshopper, soft-tongued pilsner brings honeyed lemon sweetness to floral-daubed earthen hop astringency, getting a tad soapy at the musky maize-dried citrus finish.
OWASSA, OKLAHOMA
In a freestanding red brick edifice in the Green Country ‘Cherokee Nation’ of Owassa, 15 miles northeast of Tulsa, lies BRICKTOWN BREWERY, opened 2014. A slick traditional American sportsbar with eight locations spread across Oklahoma, Kansas and Arkansas, Owassa’s Bricktown franchise brews off premise and serves better-than-generic fare that takes no stylistic chances with each specific offering.
A big American flag on the wall and exposed pipes at the high ceiling mark the spacious dining hall. A 20-stool bar with centralized refrigerator, large TV and Beer Board services several tables and features 20-plus tap handles plus bottled fare. Burgers and pizza went well with the seven proprietary draught beers available on my March 2016 visit with college pals, Jeff and Dana.
For openers, dry golden ale, Old King Kolsch, brought lemony Cascade hop zest and salty brine to its wheat cracker spine. Wiley One-Eyed Wheat allowed tart lemon-wedged orange peel sweetness to its wispy white wheat base. Blues Berry Ale offered light-bodied perfume-hopped blueberry tartness to carbolic lemon-dropped spritz.
Sessionable Three Guardsman India Pale Ale maintained a soft citric flow as its subtly spiced lemon and grapefruit tang gained resonance. Softly creamed Millie Mc Fadden Red Rye contrasted dry-hopped citrus tones against delicate rye-toasted cereal malts.
On the dark side, mediocre Bricktown Brown plied muddled nutty tones to citric-soured tea drear. Somewhat better, Single String Stout placed cocoa-powdered coffee sourness above cola nuttiness.
www.bricktownbrewery.com
ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI
It’s hard to find fault with forward-thinking FLYING SAUCER DRAUGHT EMPORIUM, despite the fact such large-scale beer pub endeavors merely scratch the surface promoting local independent brewers’ true obsession crafting off-center hybrids, hard-to-find limited editions, daringly ambitious seasonals and obscure one-offs. While bigger beerpub chains such as Yard House and World Of Beer offer hundreds of great microbrew choices, there’s barely any specialty brews amongst the obvious best-selling fare. Ultimately, this standard predictability led to the future demise of Bud-Coors-Miller, three boring macrobrewers scrambling to find a cool niche while selling watered-down versions of timid mainstream recipes to vapid sycophantic dilettantes.
Originating in Fort Worth, Texas, during 1995, the mighty Flying Saucer now operates 16 locations scattered through Missouri, Arkansas, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and the Lone Star State as of my April Fools Day 2016 sojourn.
Taking up the entire first floor space and large outdoor deck of a red brick downtown Industrial edifice within walking distance of Busch Stadium (home to the historic St. Louis Cardinals), this vibrant craft beer mecca sports exquisite wood tone elegance, high-ceilinged exposed ducts and prominent recessed columns. The 20-stool central bar services multiple interior tables and the open-air deck. The copper-topped bar matches the acrylic penny-medallion keg taps (featuring 1oo draughts). Silver plates adorn the walls alongside cool Chimay, Petrus, Duvel and 4 Hands souvenir saucers. 100-plus bottled beers and a fine liquor selection also get scattered across an exhausting menu boasting “famous make your own pizzas” and good pub food.
Stopping by lunchtime on a crisp springtime jaunt thru the Gateway to the West, my friend Dennis and I quaff nine previously untried libations (reviewed fully in Beer Index). From Missouri came Modern Arkham’s Finest Stout, O’Fallon King Louie Toffee Stout and Charleville Down With OGP English Porter. Illinois offered Excel Flash Bang Wheat Ale and Old Bakery Porter. Kansas brought forth Tallgrass Wooden Rooster Tripel and Tallgrass Vanilla Bean Buffalo Sweat Cream Stout while Colorado kicked in New Belgium Blackberry Barleywine and California tossed off Ballast Point Victory At Sea – Peppermint. This veritable cornucopia of stylistic intrigue cannot, at this time, be matched by Flying Saucer’s larger competitors.
Perfect for local businessmen, die-hard Cardinals fans and curious beer seekers, Flying Saucer seems to have all corners covered as a truly iconic large-scale American beer pub.
www.beerknurd.com/locations/st–louis–flying–saucer
On tap at Flying Saucer in St. Louis, “festive” robust porter fused with Caffe Calabria coffee and sugared vanilla gains upfront peppermint adjunct to amplify its fudgy black chocolate malting. Like a Peppermint Pattie, its evergreen-fresh peppermint bark confection drapes the dry cocoa bean insistence and chewy mocha-enriched cookie dough spine.
On tap at Flying Saucer in St. Louis, creamily smooth stout utilizes lactose-sugared Ugandan vanilla beans to further sweeten milky black chocolate resonance as well as cocoa, marshmallow and molasses undertones in contrast to astringent hop roast.
On tap at Flying Saucer in St. Louis, soft-toned Imperial Stout utilizes cold-brewed Cafe Peru Chilchos coffee to invigorate bittersweet Baker’s chocolate, dark chocolate, cacao nibs and vanilla dalliances above its moderate earthen hop char.
On tap at Flying Saucer in St. Louis, velvety winter ale utilizes toffee-sugared malts to further sweeten syrupy black chocolate frontage as ancillary roasted coffee, burnt caramel and creamy vanilla illusions gain rich access over sturdy molasses oats spine.
On tap at Flying Saucer in St. Louis, smoothly off-dry English-styled porter contrasts dark cocoa-powdered black chocolate bittering, ashen walnut roast and acrid hop-charred astringency with sweet cookie dough malts. Latent coffee roast reinforces mocha bitterness.
On tap at Flying Saucer in St. Louis, dry English-styled porter brings nutty coffee overtones to mild molasses murk, light citric hop bittering and oats-toasted caramel malt spine.
