FuzzyBrew

Off the bus to Chicago at 9:30. Binny’s to stock up on all the hard-to-get favorites, and some promising unknowns. Feed a baby. Good start.

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If you’ve been paying attention, you are well aware of our fondness for Ska Brewing‘s Modus Hoperandi. I first discovered it last summer on a trip out to Colorado, and Mike and Jeff have since become quite the fans.

We’ve blogged about the fantastic brew a number of times — here, here, here and here.

The brewery tweeted this video a coupla days ago and I thought I better share. Lots of great beer porn here.

Unfortunately, the closest you can get Modus Hoperandi is about 4-and-a-half hours away.

If you find yourself passing through St. Louis and buying beer, we’d sure appreciate a sixer or three.

Read all entries from the St. Louis beer tour:
Part 1: Schlafly Tap Room || Part 2: Morgan Street fail(s), and a decent Downtown sports bar || Part 3: Six Row Brewing Company || Part 4: Straub’s (Bringing home some beer) || Part 5: Anheuser-Busch 

Jeff, of FuzzyBrew, is the master of traveling and bringing home new kinds of beer, especially if an airplane is involved. He can pack them up and travel with beer like no one I know.

I’m not there yet. But I do like to bring home beer if I’m traveling and have my car.

So on my recent visit to St. Louis, I made sure to do some shopping.

Luckily, my brother had just been to St. Louis and recommended Straub’s, a Miss Cordelia’s-like grocery with a nice selection of beer, most of which you can’t buy in Memphis.

My goal was to bring home some Missouri brews that I had yet to try. I did that, plus I picked up some other great stuff.

Here’s what I brought home:

• Two six-packs of Schafly Coffee Stout. I just brewed a coffee stout, so I was interested in trying a commercial version of the beer. St. Louis’ Schlafly uses Kaldi’s Coffee and mixes it with an Oatmeal Stout for a really nice beer.

• Two six-packs of Schlalfy No. 15. This is Schlalfy’s 15th anniversary ale, which is wheaty and spicy. Not a huge fan, but my fellow FuzzyBrewers don’t mind the wheat beers.

• Two six-packs of Schlalfy Winter ESB. A decent winter seasonal brewed with rye flakes and plenty of hops. They were out of this at the Schlafly Taproom, so I was happy to find it here in bottles.

• One six-pack of Cherry Chocolate Beer from O’Fallon, Missouri’s O’Fallon Brewery. I read about this beer online last year, and started craving it for some bizarre reason. I like cherries, and I like chocolate. I bought a sixer when I saw it at Straub’s and couldn’t finish one bottle. It was awful.

• One six-pack of Tin Mill Brewing Company‘s Doppelbock from Hermann, Missouri. A tasty winter brew with nice roasted malts.

• One six-pack of Big Sky IPA from Big Sky Brewing Co. in Missoula, Montana. One of two non-Missouri beers I brought home. It’s a really, really nice IPA. Citrusy, but well-balanced. Hated to finish that sixer.

•Finally, I picked up three six-packs of Ska Brewing Company‘s Modus Hoperandi. This is actually why I went to Straub’s. My brother found this Colorado beer when he went to St. Louis and brought home a sixer for me. One of the best beers I tried in 2010. I bought a six-pack for me, and sixers for both Grant and Jeff. (They also got Schlafly mixers.) They were quite happy with the gift. When I go back to Missouri, I’ll bring back even more Modus.

Up next: In Part 5 of the St. Louis beer tour, I visit the Mecca for beer lovers in the United States, and try to keep a straight face.

After checking out all the end-of-year beer lists for 2010, we thought it would be cool to share each of our top five favorite beers of the year. We drank a lot of good beer in 2010, so this was a fun trip down memory lane.

Jeff’s picks

1.  Estate Homegrown Ale – Sierra Nevada.  This beer explodes with resiny, grapefruity, wet-hopped goodness.  The well-balanced, smooth malt backbone makes this a beer I could drink all night.

2.  Sublimely Self-Righteous Ale – Stone Brewing.  Whatever you want to call it – Black IPA, Cascadian  Dark ale – it doesn’t matter.  Roasted, chocolatey grains that you would expect in a stout or porter combined with the pine forest, citrus hop flavor of an IPA, resulting in a beer that is bad ass and unique.

3.  Sorachi Ace – Brooklyn Brewery.  The  Sorachi hops are front and center for a lemony take on a Siason,  a style known for bracing bitterness, spicy notes and a crisp dry finish.  This beer was killer.

4.  30th Anniversary Brewers Reserve: Oak-Aged Ale - Sierra Nevada.  Weirdly enough, of the four anniversary beers released this year, I was least excited to try this one. That’s why I’m learning not to trust my instincts.  This beer is a blend of their Oak-aged Bigfoot, Celebration Ale and Pale Ale.  They combine to make a tasty blend of oak, malt and hoppy goodness.

5.  Sue – Yazoo Brewing.  An imperial porter that has an incredible blend of chocolate and smoke.  I was blown away the first time I had this at the Cooper Young Regional Beerfest.

Honorable mention: Odell IPA – Odell Brewing.  Thank you for saving me my own bottle, Mr. Erskine.

Mike’s picks

1. Bell’s Two Hearted Ale – Bell’s Brewery.   A really well-balanced AIPA that would be my everyday ale if I could buy it in Memphis.

2. Sweet Water IPA – Sweetwater Brewing. An explosion of grapefruit taste and floral aroma packed in a beer that goes down easy.

3. Flying Dog Gonzo Imperial Porter – Flying Dog Brewery.  The late Hunter S. Thompson graces the bottle’s label and proclaims, “Good people drink good beer.” And this is a really good Baltic porter: rich, roasted malt flavors with hints of molasses and a hell of a kick from the 9.2 ABV.

4. Odell IPA - Odell Brewing.  A mix of citrus and piny hop flavor and aroma with a decent dose of malts. It does not disappoint.

5. Schafly Coffee Stout – The Saint Louis Brewery. First coffee stout I’ve ever tried and loved the smoky, rich coffee flavor with notes of sweetness from the oatmeal stout base.

Grant’s picks

1. Modus Hoperandi – Ska Brewing. Fantastic IPA I found on a trip to Colorado this past summer. The closest it’s available to Memphis is St. Louis. I made a decent clone, which started me on my quest to brew the perfect IPA. This is where the bar is set.

2. #9 – Magic Hat. I don’t actually remember when I had my first one of these, but it quickly became one of my favorites during this past summer’s ridiculous heat wave. It’s a tasty and crisp craft brew you can drink no matter how high the mercury rises. I made a pretty good clone a few months ago and have another in secondary fermentation right now.

3. Old Glory American Pale Ale – Great Dane Pub. Malty, hoppy totally drinkable brew from Madison, Wisconsin. It’s a British-style pale ale with American hops, whatever that means. Wish I could get it around here.

4. St. Vincent’s Dubbel – Captain Lawrence Brewing Co. Jeff gave Mike and I each one of these. Loved the crisp and sour taste. Luckily Mike cracked his open first to share so I still have one.

5. Southern Pecan Nut Brown Ale – Lazy Magnolia. Really tasty brew from Mississippi (where homebrewing and over-5% ABV is illegal. WTF?) Also, fun to give people with nut allergies. This is why there is now an Epipen in the kitchen cabinet.

Honorable mention: Dry-hopped APA – Schlafly Beer. The first couple I had were fantastically hoppy but not too overwhelming. Unfortunately, sixers I’ve bought since indicate it doesn’t have a great shelf life, as the hop taste is muted. This is something we’ve noticed with our homebrewed IPAs, too.

What were the best beers you tried in 2010? Leave a comment below.