Happy April!

Beer, baseball and bad media are some of my favorite topics on which to write. Too bad I've been so busy. But, hopefully as it warms up I will have more time to blog. So stay tuned.

Brew Pubs and Breweries in STL

In the past several weeks I've had the chance to re-visit a few of the micro-breweries around St. Louis and some are doing a great job and others may not be around too much longer. I will write more about the various locations as time permits. (Gee what is free time)?

Urban Chestnut Brewing is the latest member of the St. Louis brewing family. I visited them on a recent Friday night and was not impressed. I know it is early and the brew team is still working out the bugs in their production. From a beer drinker's point of view, the service was outstanding. The bartenders know their stuff and were willing to share their knowledge of the product.

I was able to sample all of their new offerings that evening and settled on a Pilsner. The Pilsner was nice, but it was not by any means the best I have had. Apparently, the philosophy of the brewery is to serve styles that are popular in Germany. There are many fine German brews. But, this is St. Louis and many craft beer drinkers want bigger beers despite what they tell you. I sampled the half IPA Urban offers and found it disappointing. In fairness to the brewer I am a hop head, so I am biased. But, why bother making the half IPA, when there are so many other styles on which he could have focused?

I wish Urban Chestnut well but this brewery may be too sophisticated for the average micro-brewery customer. The night I visited, Urban Chestnut was crowded and I didn't hear too many complaints. So, I really hope I am wrong in my assessment and this venture is around for quite some time.

Missouri is Lucky to Still Be Playing

My beloved Missouri Tigers are in a funk. It seems they couldn't fall out of a boat and hit water. Lately the shooting has been horrendous and Kim English continues to fire away. Mr. English is a lot like Will Rogers, except that English has never met a shot he didn't like. And the poor shooting hurt the Tigers down the stretch as they lost their last three conference games. I have a feeling that will come back to bite them in the butt when the tournament committee makes it's selections for the "Big Dance".

The Tigers dodged a bullet last night against Texas Tech and held on to win 88-84. At times they look brilliant and at other times they look like mental midgets. I am not sure what the problem is. But, Mike Anderson has better figure it out fast. Up next this evening is Texas A&M in Kansas City. The Aggies won earlier this season down in College Station. Hopefully Mizzou will defend it's home soil, but I'm not holding my breath.

"Little Darling It's Been a Long Cold Lonely Winter"

Any true Beatles fan knows that line comes from the Abbey Road song "Here Comes the Sun". It has been a long and cold six weeks for the area. But, yesterday the temperature got to 50 degrees and today it made 63. Yes it is very welcome after the ice and snow of the last few weeks. Just to give you an idea of how nasty the ice was, I still have about an inch of ice on portions of my driveway and sidewalk even after the sun shone it today.

So to celebrate, I have four split fryers on the Weber Kettle and a nice Lagunitas Maximus IPA in my right hand. (Well, I have had to set it down to type). With warm weather, barbecue cooking on the grill and sipping a great beer...life is good!

Hail to the Packers

The dust has settled from last Sunday night's Super Bowl 45 and the fans have all gone back to Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. But, the score stands. Packers 31 - Steelers 25. I thought it was a good game and for the most part pretty well played. I think if it got played again 100 times, the Packers would still win the majority of the games. Bottom line is Aaron Rodgers (who won the MVP) did turn out to be a better quarterback than Ben Rothlisberger even if his receivers (ie; Jordy) decided to drop a bunch of passes they should have caught.

My forecast had been the Pack by two. Well, I missed it by four points, but it doesn't matter. The NFC Green Bay Packers are the 2011 Super Bowl Champions. Congratulations Packers!