Your favorite St. Louis brewery?

For generations St. Louisans have been brewing and consuming beer.  From the biggest to the smallest, and everything in between, the number of breweries in the St. Louis area is impressive.

The poll this week asks your favorite local brewery.  I’m not asking which you consume the most, but which is your favorite.  They might be the same and they might not.

The list of breweries was taken from participants in the 2009 St. Louis Brewers Heritage Festival (must be 21 to enter site):

• Alandale Brewing
• Amalgamated Brewery
• Anheuser Busch
• Augusta Brewery
• Buffalo Brewing
• Mattingly Brewing
• Morgan Street Brewery
• O’Fallon Brewery
• Schlafly
• Square One Brewery
• Trailhead Brewery

I have tried about 5-6 of them but that means there is that many I haven’t tried.   In the event I omitted a local brewery from the poll I have enabled the “other” field so you can add in one not listed.  The breweries are presented alphabetically.

I see the corner bar/brewery as being part of an urban environment.  Applebee’s says they are a “Neighborhood Grill & Bar”  yet their neighborhood is often a suburban strip mall. Just not the same.

Most of these places are small brewers.  Others started small and expanded.  Most are in the City of St. Louis but there are exceptions.  Whenever I’m on Main Street in St. Charles I usually end up at Trailhead.  Going to Augusta used to be about wine for me but since I discovered Augusta Brewery I go for beer instead.

Brews from some of these brewers are available in other establishments/grocery store while others can only be obtained directly.  You may think it unfair to have A-B compete in the poll with small micro breweries.  Again, I’m asking for your favorite brewer.   I like A-B’s Amber Bach but that doesn’t make A-B my favorite brewer in town.

Fans of local beer can go to the stlhops.com forum where members post what beers pubs have in stock on certain days.  Technology and beer are a nice combination.  As I finish writing this post Halloween night I’m finishing off a local pumpkin ale.

Thanks to contributor Jim Zavist for the idea for this poll & post.  The poll is at the top of the right sidebar. If you chose to drink please do so responsibly.

– Steve Patterson

Poll results from last week

Last week I had two polls, here are the results:

1) A Louisiana justice of the peace refused to marry an interracial couple citing concern for any kids they may have. Thoughts?

• This is not 1959! He should resign. 154 (72%)
• A legit concern even in 2009, he should keep his job. 53 (25%)
• Unsure/no opinion 8 (4%)

A state statute says justices of the peace may perform marriage ceremonies, but it does not require such officials to do so, Tammi Arender, a spokeswoman for the Louisiana attorney general, told CNN on Monday.

Justices of the peace in Louisiana are elected, but the state’s high court has jurisdiction over whether they can keep their jobs, Louisiana Supreme Court spokeswoman Valerie Willard said. The Judiciary Commission, a judicial body independent of the Supreme Court, has the power to review a case and make recommendations to the high court. (Source: CNN)

2) Should Catholic Priests be allowed to marry:

• Yes 103 (73%)
• No 25 (18%)
• Unsure/no opinion 13 (9%)

Both interesting results, neither was what I expected.

– Steve Patterson

Limbaugh Dropped From Rams Bid

Last week Rush Limbaugh was dropped the group seeking to take over the St. Louis Rams.  Opposition was mounting locally, nationally and even within the NFL.  Here is the poll question, answers and the final tally:

Q: Rush Limbaugh & Dave Checketts have bid on the St. Louis Rams. Reaction?

• I don’t like Limbaugh and this would make it easier to stay away from the Rams: 77 (30%)
• I don’t care who owns the team as long as it remains in St. Louis: 63 (24%)
• I don’t like Limbaugh, used to support the Rams, but will stop if he becomes an owner: 39 (15%)
• I don’t like Limbaugh but I would continue supporting the Rams: 32 (12%)
• I like Limbaugh and the Rams, great match: 19 (7%)
• I don’t have an opinion on Limbaugh buying the Rams: 15 (6%)
• I like Limbaugh but not the Rams/football: 8 (3%)
• I like Limbaugh so I might start supporting the Rams: 6 (2%)

What we can take away from these results is most of the readers here are Rams fans, or at least want them to stay in St. Louis. 134 of the 259 votes (52%) showed a positive view toward the Rams/NFL.  Conversely, nearly as many are not really interested in the Rams/NFL.  More of those voting dislike Limbaugh than those that do like him.  With Limbaugh out of the picture the focus shifts back to the region’s willingness to pay up to keep the Edwards Jones Dome among the NFL’s best:

The Rams lease agreement with the St. Louis Convention & Visitors Commission (CVC) requires the Edward Jones Dome rank among the top eight stadiums in the 32-team NFL on the Dome’s 20th birthday in 2015. If first-tier status is not met, the Rams lease would switch to year-to-year terms a decade ahead of schedule and the team would have the option to leave St. Louis.  (Source: St. Louis Business Journal, 5/16/08, Edward Jones Dome challenged to measure up)

Renovations to the dome will likely cost more in the coming years than the dome cost to build.  Estimates are in the hundreds of millions.  The hotel room tax doesn’t collect enough to fund the renovations that will be needed.  2015 will be here soon. Can we assume that if Dave Checketts and his partners are successful in buying a controlling interest in the Rams that they wouldn’t move the team out of the region?  Maybe.  Expect to hear much more about this over the next 5-6 years.

The best part is we won’t be hearing from Rush Limbaugh as a team owner.

– Steve Patterson

Father and Son

It is nice to see the St. Louis region make the New York Times, although of late it has done so for less than positive reasons (Limbaugh/Rams).  The latest brings up interesting issues:

O’FALLON, Mo. – With three small children and her marriage in trouble, Pat Bond attended a spirituality retreat for Roman Catholic women in Illinois 26 years ago in hopes of finding support and comfort.What Ms. Bond found was a priest – a dynamic, handsome Franciscan friar in a brown robe – who was serving as the spiritual director for the retreat and agreed to begin counseling her on her marriage. One day, she said, as she was leaving the priest’s parlor, he pulled her aside for a passionate kiss.

Ms. Bond separated from her husband, and for the next five years she and the priest, the Rev. Henry Willenborg, carried on an intimate relationship, according to interviews and court documents. In public, they were both leaders in their Catholic community in Quincy, Ill. In private they functioned like a married couple, sharing a bed, meals, movie nights and vacations with the children.

Eventually they had a son, setting off a series of legal battles as Ms. Bond repeatedly petitioned the church for child support. The Franciscans acquiesced, with the stipulation that she sign a confidentiality agreement. It is now an agreement she is willing to break as both she and her child, Nathan Halbach, 22, are battling cancer.  (full story, A Mother, a Sick Son and His Father, the Priest)

Let me state for the record that not only am I not Catholic, I don’t believe in a deity.  My thoughts here will be brief because this isn’t about my views.  I want to get your thoughts.

I believe the requirement that Catholic priests be celibate is the root of the problems they often have with women and/or children.   Male celibacy just isn’t natural. Where do I, a non-believer, get off making such a statement?

Victims of abuse have used the courts to seek resolution.  Once an issue leaves a church and enters a civil court it becomes fair game.  The Catholic Church should permit priests to marry, to have normal adult relationships.  This is the question in one of two polls this week (see right sidebar).

– Steve Patterson

Interracial Marriage Remains an Issue

Interracial marriage remains an issue for some:

NEW ORLEANS (AP) – A white Louisiana justice of the peace said he refused to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple out of concern for any children the couple might have.

Keith Bardwell, justice of the peace in Tangipahoa Parish, says it is his experience that most interracial marriages do not last long.

“I’m not a racist. I just don’t believe in mixing the races that way,” Bardwell told the Associated Press on Thursday. “I have piles and piles of black friends. They come to my home, I marry them, they use my bathroom. I treat them just like everyone else.”

Bardwell said he asks everyone who calls about marriage if they are a mixed race couple. If they are, he does not marry them, he said.

(Full article from the Associated Press: Interracial couple denied marriage license in La.)

I can’t believe a justice of the peace in 2009 would be so backwards.  Few of us can say for certain we are of a single race, mixing has been going on for centuries.     This issue is the subject of one of two pols this week, see right sidebar to vote.

We all know our president is the child of an interracial couple, he seemed to do alright for himself.  What bothers me is it seems like the interracial marriage issue only comes up when one party is black.  What about an Asian and an American Indian?  Would this justice of the peace object to that union? Probably not, we are hung up on black.  I just thought we were long past the point of a government representative blocking black & white marriages.

– Steve Patterson