Things are in full swing with the new café opening in early June. One of the perks to gaining a liquor license is frequent mid-day beer and wine tastings… It’s rough, but someone must do it. Today, After being short-handed on a crazy day and hearing that my brand new hood was damaged in transport, I would have been fine with a bathtub hooch tasting.
Anyway, one of the things that I have been learning about a lot lately is beer. You can probably tell from my past posts that I am more of a wine guy, but after talking to a few St. Louis craft brewers I am intrigued.
Last week we did a tasting with Perennial Artisan Ales (South City) and I was impressed.
Perennial is new to the St. Louis beer scene and their philosophy of seasonal local ingredients definitely lends itself to the culinary world. The folks at perennial categorize their beers as mostly Belgian style, but they add some funky techniques and interesting ingredients that definitely make the suds unique.
Perennials Hommel Bier would probably be my choice for an everyday beer. 
Similar to an IPA, Hommel is loaded with hops. This will make a great pair with the chili rubbed bacon bread sticks during happy hour at the Café.
We also tried the Black Walnut Dunkel. The brewers use hundreds of pounds of Missouri 
walnuts in the brewing process which leaves the beer tasting like bottled banana bread.
Em and I are planning on visiting Perennial’s South City tasting room soon to try some of the other specialty brews on tap. I’m not sure who is carrying Perennial’s products, but if you come across it be sure to give it a try.
