The brew life

The Micro-brewery business is hopping in Springfield and we decided to stop at a few of them while we were here. Our goal was just to hit 4 or 5 of them, but then we ran aross the Tap and Pour Card that introduced us to a few more, and promised us a nice t-shirt if we went to 10 of the participants, soooo we did. Here were our highlights:

Tie & Timber Brewing Company - This is a cozy little place with a some great beers and a neat little location. The Brick & Timber Coffee Amber is that beer I never knew I was missing in my life, finally a coffee beer that’s not a stout or porter!
Mother’s Brewing Company - Mother’s seems to be one of the best put together breweries in the area. Lots of different beers and a venue large enough for concerts, but not too large that you feel like that drunk guy at the park doing a little day drinking. The Sunshine Chugsuckle is a New England IPA that’s delicious and not very hoppy at all.
Show-Me Brewing - If you’re looking for a change of pace and a different taste each time you go, Show-Me Brewing might be your stop. It’s a place where home brewers go to to brew and sell their own beer. They have a small bar with a ‘build your own flight’ option or just try them a pint at a time. They sell a lot of the gear you need for brewing and wine making.
4 By 4 Brewing Company - Good beers but nothing particularly stood out, the environment on the other hand was great, free popcorn, board games, cornhole, this is a great place to spend an afternoon.
Great Escape Beer Works - So this one wasn’t one of our favorites, not that it did anything wrong, there just wasn’t much they did that stood out. They had a pretty short beer list, kind of a quite tasting area, and they were located in a brand new, made to look rustic, shopping center.
Boat Town Brewing - You have to get a bit out of town for this one, but it’s well worth it. Great beer selection, lumberjack beer hall motif, outdoor beer garden, and a BBQ wood-fired kitchen next door. Favorite beers were the Wyota Wheat, Wanderlust Wit, and Danny Down the Road.

The Eats

We didn’t eat at a lot of places on this trip, but the ones we stopped at were certainly worth a mention. As always, we stopped at Mo Hick’s BBQ on the way out of St. Louis.

Springfield Brewing Company - We were warned away from the food a little bit by a person who sounded like their chief complaint was that the food wasn’t unique enough, but what they lacked in “I’m going to sprinkle caramel and flower pedals all over this steak” they make up for with a big menu with some very filling and delicious meals. The buffalo chicken mac and cheese was definitely the winner of our meal.

Lost Signal Brewing Company - We came here for brunch and began to understand the criticism we had heard about with our earlier choice, the menu here was definitely unique with one patron describing their hollandaise sauce as life changing. We weren’t really in the mood for life changing so we went with their BBQ lunch instead. Their pulled pork and beef brisket were both very good, their slim choice of sauces was disappointing but the two they had were pretty good. The hand cut fries were delicious and even though the mac & cheese was good, $3 for a half of a cup of it didn’t make it THAT good. The beer wasn’t much to write home about, but it was also early for us and they did have Mimosa pitchers for brunch that drew a crowd.

Hurts Donut - I mean, right? This was the joke we all made when we were younger and someone went out and opened a place with the name. This is similar in concept to a Voodoo Donuts or a Strange Donuts, but in practice, the selection seems much more practical. They had donuts with M&Ms on them, cake donuts with extra frosting, donuts with maple glaze, and so on, and those cinnamon rolls looked like they could feed two! Definitely recommend stopping if you are in the area.

We could have stopped at several other places on this trip, our googling found several good pizza joints and a number of other highly regarded BBQ places that we just didn’t have the time for, but there’s always next year.