Alcoholic Beverage Manufacturing

Farmhaus Hosting Shane Wine Cellars Dinner on May 8

Seats remain for the first wine dinner at Kevin Willmann's acclaimed Farmhaus (3257 Ivanhoe Avenue; 314-647-3800) next Wednesday, May 8. The dinner will pair four courses with wines from Shane Wine Cellars. Shane owner and winemaker Shane Finley will attend the event. In an e-mail to Gut Check, Far ... More >>

Sample Craft Brews at Inaugural Belleville Ale Fest Saturday

Belleville, Illinois, is jumping on the craft-beer bandwagon. The small city to the east of the big river is hosting its inaugural craft-beer festival this Saturday, April 20, from noon to 4 p.m at the Belleville Crossing shopping center. Gut Check spoke with John Lengerman, the executive director ... More >>

The Six Best Craft Beer Makers in St. Louis

Gut Check has been looking back on the Riverfront Times Best of St. Louis 2012, but we're also keeping an eye on the Best of St. Louis 2013 by nominating finalists for our awards this fall. With the craft beer scene exploding across the Midwest and the recent opening of the beer emporium Flying Sauc ... More >>

Wine and Dine and Wind Around

St. Louis-Based American Patriot Beer Makes Its Local Debut

Lifelong St. Louisan John Beal's favorite beer growing up was Budweiser. "I always wanted the Budweiser car to win," he says. When its parent company Anheuser-Busch was purchased by Belgian brewing behemoths InBev in 2008, the career roofer was "bothered" by the takeover, and decided to take matters ... More >>

Q&A With New Metro East Craft Brewery East Wind Brewing Company

St. Louis is up to its ears in microbreweries. Everywhere you turn, there's a festival, tour or tap house promoting all the hops you can drink. So is all hope lost if you have the urge to brew? Luckily, even within this saturated market, drinkers and brewers alike are welcoming to brewers who are tr ... More >>

The Seven Best Brewpubs in St. Louis

Gut Check has been looking back on the Riverfront Times Best of St. Louis 2011, but we're also keeping an eye on the Best of St. Louis 2012 by nominating finalists for our awards this fall. To see hundreds more winners and finalists, suggest your own contenders and download the Riverfront Times Best ... More >>

William K Busch Brewing Company Launches Kräftig Lager and Kräftig Light

​Last week, the World Series trophy came back to St. Louis. This week sees the return of another tradition in the Gateway City: the Busch family brewing lager beer.William K. Busch, son of August A. "Gussie" Busch Jr. and great-grandson of Adolphus Busch, this summer announced the founding of the ... More >>

Food & Wine on St. Louis' Craft-Beer Boom

Inside Urban Chestnut Brewing Company, part of the St. Louis craft-beer boom​Of the national food publications, few -- maybe none -- have paid St. Louis as much attention as Food & Wine. Already this year, the magazine tabbed Kevin Willmann of Farmhaus as one of its "Best New Chefs" -- the sec ... More >>

Formerly AB-Owned Purus Vodka Expands Distribution

Image viaThis sexy bottle is "designed to emulate the shape of a water droplet off of the Italian Alps!" Recognize!​In 2008, InBev bought Anheuser-Busch, creating ABInBev, now the world's largest brewer. Of course, you know that! The story dominated the news for a large chunk of that summer. ... More >>

In Honor of St. Louis Craft Beer Week, Gut Check Plans to Launch Our Own Brew

Image viaSt. Louis Craft Beer Week offers lots and lots of fancy-pants brew-centric events.​Call us crazy, but sometimes Gut Check International HQ misses the good ol' days when Anheuser-Busch drove this city like a team of clydesdales and you could actually buy a Busch beer at the stadium tha ... More >>

Anheuser-Busch Wants to Trademark Your Area Code

Image viaAnheuser-Busch may not want to use this trademark -- but they definitely want to own it.​If brewing giant Anheuser-Busch gets its way, we won't just be living in the 314.We'll be living in the 314 (TM).The St. Louis-based brewery, now owned by Belgian conglomerate InBev, has applied for a ... More >>

August Busch IV Saga Tackled by BusinessWeek

August Busch IV gets the BusinessWeek treatment.​Cocaine! Oxycodone! A former Hooters waitress, dead in a darkened bedroom!A very bad beer baron!A BusinessWeek feature story that hit the Internets today, "Fall of the House of Busch," details the 2010 death of the girlfriend of August Busch IV, Adr ... More >>

Beyond Schlafly: Three microbreweries for the St. Louis summer

Wine of the Week: Alias California Cabernet Sauvignon at Kaya's Import Wine & Spirits

Gut Check loves us some wine. We want a bottle with bang and a bang for our buck, so every week we will visit a local wine shop, where an expert will recommend a good-value wine priced under $15. We'll drink some and tell you wether we want to continue -- because the only time Gut Check has our nose ... More >>

Get Ready, Arrogant Bastards! Stone Week Starts Tomorrow.

Stone Brewing Co.​ Few craft brewers have arrived in St. Louis with the anticipation and fanfare of Escondido, California's Stone Brewing. But they're here this week, bringing all the Arrogant Bastard Ale and Stone Ruination IPA we've been longing for. The beer hits store shelves and bar tap ... More >>

Six-Pack City: Six Row Brewing Company adds food to the equation

Six Row Brewing Company: Review Slideshow

Jennifer SilverbergA pint of the "Whale" beer at Six Row Brewing Company​One of the many new craft brewers gracing the St. Louis scene over the past couple of years. My review of Six Row Brewing Company (3690 Forest Park Avenue; 314-531-5600) is now available online, and be sure to check out Jenni ... More >>

Review Preview: Six Row Brewing Company

Jennifer SilverbergBeer flights at Six Row Brewing Company​I took a break from writing reviews last week. What did I do instead? I drank beer. Specifically, I drank beer at Six Row Brewing Company (3690 Forest Park Avenue; 314-531-5600). I also tried some of the fare from the brewpub's relatively ... More >>

Washington Post Highlights St. Louis Craft Beer

St. Louis craft beer welcomes more and more breweries.​Former RFT staff writer Kristen Hinman, whose desk was located directly next to Gut Check International Headquarters, has an article in the Washington Post about the growth of the beer scene in St. Louis beyond Anheuser-Busch.Hinman gives prop ... More >>

Brazilian Investment Firm Buys Burger King

Image viaBurger King now has an even greater global presence!​Brazilian investment firm 3G will purchase perpetual fast-food bridesmaid Burger King for roughly $4 billion, the New York Times reports. The deal holds some (admittedly tangential) interest for St. Louis.A backer of 3G is Brazilian bil ... More >>

Fermenting Ferguson: Cork Wine Bar and Hill Brewing Company are the new kids on Ferguson's block

Saturday Funday

Craft Beer Week Starts Small Brew Celebration This Weekend

Image viaA toast to Craft Beer Week​"In a nutshell, I created Craft Beer Week to celebrate craft beer in St. Louis," says Mike Sweeney, founder of local beer blog STL Hops. "Too often, I think people outside of St. Louis think of our hometown as the land of pale, fizzy lagers, when in reality we h ... More >>

Schlafly Rises in Craft Beer Volume Ranks; A-B Still #1 Overall

Image viaStill looming large.​The Brewers Association has released its annual list of the top 50 craft and overall breweries by volume. The St. Louis Brewery, maker of Schlafly beers, ranked #41 on this year's list of craft brewers, up from #50 last year.Boston Beer Co., maker of Sam Adams, is #1 ... More >>

Have a Beer with Greg Koch, CEO and Cofounder of Stone Brewing Co.

StudioSchulz.comStone Brewing Co. cofounder Greg Koch, arrogant bastard. (Lighten up - it's a Stone beer.)​Stone Brewing Co.'s CEO and cofounder Greg Koch will be in town Thursday evening to give a speech to the St. Louis chapter of the Master Brewers Association of the Americas. The St. Loui ... More >>

The Noble Writ: A Natural Whine

​No concept is generating more discussion, misuse, vitriol or hype in the wine world right now than "natural" wine. If you've been spared the hubbub to this point, this should offer a gentle and balanced introduction.What is a natural wine? Well, the very term is a primary cause of the friction t ... More >>

The Noble Writ: Are Sulfites Friend or Foe?

One of the larger areas of misconception surrounding wine is the use of sulfur compounds, most commonly sulfur dioxide (SO2), during the wine-making process. Many consumers seem to misunderstand why most winemakers add SO2 and what ill effects it might cause. Given that all wines containing more tha ... More >>

St. Louis Craft Beer Week: Friday's Events

Alberto Gottardo, Wikimedia CommonsThe first annual St. Louis Craft Beer Week concludes this weekend.- Of course, the big event this weekend is the St. Louis Brewers Heritage Festival in Forest Park, featuring area craft brewers, homebrewers and our friends at AB InBev. There are three sessions: 6 ... More >>

Gut Check: NYC love for STL 'cue — and beer, beer, beer

Brew, Baby, Brew: The ranks of St. Louis' craft brewers are swelling as we swill

FoodWire: Some Love for Schlafly

As Gut Check has noted several times, this is the first annual St. Louis Craft Beer Week. So it's nice to see St. Louis craft breweries getting attention outside the area.First up, we have a poll for "Best Midwest Craft Brewery" on the Web site the Full Pint. Schlafly won with 25% of the vote, edgin ... More >>

Gut Check: Raise a toast to departed restaurants — then have a beer or three

Busch: A Great Recession Libation

Sales of the "Blue Train" are heading for the mountains.Anheuser-Busch InBev posted strong gains yesterday for the first quarter of 2009. The results surprised some analysts who thought the weak economy and transition pains from InBev's 2008 acquisition of Anheuser-Busch could disrupt sales. Instead ... More >>

Anheuser-Busch Gaining Market Share, But at What Cost?

flickr.com/photos/tojosanThe Wall Street Journal features a front-page story today on the shakeup since InBev's acquisition of Anheuser-Busch last year.The paper notes that the brewer managed to increase its market share three-quarters of a percentage point in the first quarter of this year (the fir ... More >>

Kid Rock's Name to Grace Detroit Tigers' Ballpark, Official Stadium Beer

Press release of the week winner. Everyone else can go home. It was announced today that Kid Rock has purchased the naming rights to the home of the Detroit Tigers for an undisclosed sum. Kid Rock and The Michigan Brewing Company, in a separate negotiation, are proud to announce that Kid Rock's for ... More >>

AB InBev To Lay Off 1,000 in St. Louis

Anheuser-Busch InBev employees are buzzing about imminent job cuts in the wake of InBev's recent acquisition of St. Louis' corporate crown jewel. The company today announced that it would cut 1,400 jobs in the United States, about 75 percent of them (1,050 jobs) in St. Louis. According to ... More >>

E-Mail of the Day: Pujols in Belgian Garb

Budweiser vs. Stella Artois: A Taste Test

Budweiser vs. Stella Artois: A Taste Test

The Morning Brew: Wednesday, 6.18

Financial Times: InBev Targets Anheuser-Busch

The 75-year anniversary of the repeal of Prohibition is upon us. Let us toast.

The Grape Escape

A Heady Heritage

Bounty by the County

The state’s winemakers and food producers aren’t exactly key playersin the global economy. A Mizzou professor aims to change all that.

Responsibility Matters

In the trade group known as the Beer Industry, Anheuser-Busch holds sway

The Grapes of Mirth

Jonathan Nossiter's wine documentary is subversive, funny and humane

Drinkin' Dirt

Bargain brews such as Pabst Blue Ribbon are making a comeback in some of St. Louis' hippest clubs, but Anheuser-Busch isn't too worried

Best Missouri Winery

Stone Hill Winery