Meet Me in St. Louie, Louie. Meet me at the.... other brewery?

Big thanks to my friend Nick for not only providing me with a new wireless mouse and keyboard, but also for introducing me to another St. Louis based beer (kinda). Originally brewed in St. Louis, the dark lager is now brewed and bottled in Pennsylvania, but is still distributed here in St. Louis.

With claims of not only being the first beer brewed in St. Louis, but in America as a whole, Lemp (started in 1838) apparently has a lot of history. Why then would I, a St. Louis native, not have heard of the oldest brewery in the country? Where are the Lemp Brewery tours? The Lemp family? Sure, there's a building in the city called the Lemp Arts Center but.... what happened?

Prohibition happened, that's what. A quick gander at the history page on the Lemp Lager website will show that this once thriving company was bought out after prohibition and made into a warehouse for some shoe company.

Luckily, the Lemp name (and recipe..hopefully) were bought in 1988 by a St. Louis-an who decided it was about time that Lemp made a comeback It was once known throughout the whole of the United States...or so the story goes.

It's ironic. With the "loss" on Anheuser Busch, I've been in search for a decent American Lager. I thought I would have to travel far across the nation to find one, but thankfully, there just happens to be another great lager here in St. Louis. Coincidence or fate? Who knows.

And yes, it really is a great lager. However, if you're searching for a light, crisp Budweiser-like lager, I suggest you try something like Tennent's (apparently, Scotland's favorite pale lager.) This is a dark lager that is much thicker, and much less carbonated. If I didn't know it was a lager, I would've said that it was a porter. Now I must say, I was given a relatively cold bottle of this to try. My suggesttion would be to drink this at a little warmer temperature than "straight out of the fridge." My first taste of this beer was dominated by a roasted/woody flavor (like a fat tire), followed by lingering bitter after taste.

Yet, once I had consumed about 1/2 of the bottle, much more complex flavors began to surface, as the chill of the liquid dissipated. Tobacco and honey-like flavors are the true make up of the taste of this beer. Mouth feel, whether the beer is cold or warm, is definitely smooth. It finishes like you've been drinking coffee.

With everything that's good about this beer, It's not something that I can come home to. I would have to be in the mood for this beer. I could drink it in a pub, or as something to drink with a meal. It's not the "sit on my ass and watch TV" lager that Budweiser is. It's a beer from a generation long gone, probably, best enjoyed in older settings, like listening to jazz, or beat poetry.

Verdict: The beer I'll drink when I have children