suds series vol 5

Readers of SCBC know that I love me a good microbrew. What better way to continue our series than with some old fashioned head-to-head (or maybe crown-to-crown) action via microbrews from our respective cities?

Schlafly and Six Row, I'm pitting you against Sprecher and Lakefront.

I have written about Sprecher here, here and here. Clearly they are a popular topic of conversation in the Lauren Walles household. They have a crap-ton of different types of bottle caps that are excellent for collecting. And did I mention that their root beer is delicious, so creamy and smooth. My only complaint is that it's rare to find Sprecher in my neighborhood.

Schlafly, you are harder to find in NYC than Fitz's, and that's tough to do. I have not been to your brewery, but according to your website, you have a BBQ Shrimp Po Boy, which I can only imagine is delicious and goes well with beer. My friends in St. Louis swear by Schlafly and have turned me on to the tastiness of their beer. Thanks to them, I have a lovely collection of Schlafly bottle caps, and I'm hoping to tour the brewery the next time I visit St. Louis in December.

Lakefront, oh man. I had a delicious Lakefront brew in Milwaukee in the Public Market, and I'm still thinking about it. Such a great experience: beautiful Germanic architecture, amazing food stands in the market, tons of Wisconsin cheese, and a full-bodied Lakefront. Heaven. The bottle cap rocks, too -- it comes complete with a frosty beer mug! Really, it doesn't get better than that.

And finally, Six Row, your beers are tasty, your logo is really clever, and your menu looks amazing.  Can I come have some mac n' cheese? I admit that I have not seen your bottle cap. What gives? Do you have one? Is it the 6 with the wheat? This could tip the scales one way or another.

Hmmm, this is the toughest of them all. Honestly, this should be a tie; I'm a fan of all these microbrews. But if I were forced to choose, I'd go with Schlafly. The brews are varied and interesting, folks in St. Louis seem to love it, and, most importantly, the bottle caps are way cool, which is an important criteria here at Super Cool Bottle Caps. 

So let's say that this was an extra inning contest that St. Louis barely squeaks out.

And so, with that, I announce the winner of the best-of-5 Suds Series 2011......

ST LOUIS!!!!!!! 

St Louis 3

Miller 2

I hope you enjoyed this little experiment, and next week, we will be back to our regularly scheduled bottle cap posts. Have a great weekend everyone. Watch some baseball, and of course, drink something tasty. 

sprecher's beer

Oh my god! Another day of Sprecher? Well, I figured yesterday's post might have been a little long, with the sob story about our traveling woes, and worth breaking up Sprecher's into two days.

Sprecher's also offers a wide variety of beers, a few of which we sampled at their brewery. I tried the Special Amber, and Michael partook of the Pub Ale. We had a sizable tour group, it being Memorial Day Weekend and all, so the bar had pre-poured our samples. Luckily, they were both tasty.

Afterwards, Michael and I perused the gift shop. We bought one of every soda that we hadn't tried (see yesterday's post) as well as a Premium Reserve Triple Abbey Ale and their year round Hefe Weiss.

The interesting thing (I feel) about Sprecher is for all of the fun that they have with their soda bottle caps, they are pretty boring with their beer crowns. All of the beers, be they seasonal or regular, either just have the Griffon Crest (the griffon, by the way, is named Rooty) or no design at all. I noticed quite a few colored beer crowns, but with nothing on them! The premium reserve crown has the crest smaller, and with Premium Reserve on it, but there's no differentiation between beer lines. Sprecher, I am disappointed!

sprecher's soda

You may remember my mini-rant a few weeks ago against those who went to Milwaukee without me. And I promised that if I ever made it there, it would be beer and cheese galore. Well, shortly thereafter, Michael found some cheap tickets to the land of Wisconsin over Memorial Day weekend, and off we went.

It started off rocky. The bus to the airport didn't come for over an hour, and we barely squeezed on (the bus driver tried to tell us to wait for the next bus). Then we got off at the wrong terminal (the D instead of the B terminal! Damn you MTA and your scratchy PA systems. "D" should be distinguishable from "B" if at all possible). Then, we sat on the runway for an hour after having already lounged in the narrow terminal beforehand for hours. Finally, shortly before midnight, we arrived in Milwaukee. But then we strolled to the Enterprise desk and were told that they had underestimated their reservations for the weekend. We ended up having to wait for an additional hour while they called in cars from some mystical off-site land. Sigh. There were numerous calls to the hotel to make sure we would still have a room when we finally did arrive. But arrive we did, and we quickly went to sleep in anticipation of a big day of breweries and sightseeing for Saturday.

One of the breweries that I was really excited about seeing was Sprecher. I've already blogged about their caps in the past, and so far the sodas I've tried have been pretty good (thumbs up for the root beer... sideways thumb for the cream soda). I love their bottle caps and really wanted to see where, as they say, the magic happens.

It turns out that when Randy Sprecher started the company in 1985, he brewed only beer. Many of his visitors then were children, and he wanted something to give them at the end of the tour. So he started making root beer as well. Now they output more root beer than all of their other beverages combined.  Michael and I tried some beer at the end of the tour -- amber ales, which was delicious -- but we were more excited by the prospect of trying their Red Apple Soda, Cherry Cola, Ginger Ale, and Lo Cal Root Beer. None of them disappointed. (Well, maybe the Red Apple Soda -- it was too sweet.) The best part is that I've found a new favorite Cherry Cola. (I've been a Cherry Coke Zero drinker for quite some time.  But man! If I could find a local deli or store in NYC that sells Sprecher Cherry Cola, it would be all over for me.)

These soda crowns are fun: each with a unique color and font. The fonts are both retro and sincere -- a tough combination, to be sure. Their seasonal sodas have plain colored crowns... disappointing, to be honest. Think about the possibilities for Red Apple or Raspberry!

Another thing to note: I'm sorry to report that Sprecher is slowly switching over from their awesome 16oz bottles to 12oz. Stock up on 16oz's while you still can!

16 oz bottles! They're goin' fast! 

Root Beer and Red Apple Soda. The Red Apple Soda was really sweet, so I went back for some Cherry Cola. YUM.

sprecher root beer & cream soda

Well, how about that! I thought Sprecher made only root beer. How wrong I was. I first had Sprecher's tasty root beer in Chicago at Second City.  We took in a hilarious improv show over the holidays and what was on the menu? Sprecher Root Beer in a bottle. The waitress kindly gave me the bottle cap, and the root beer was so creamy and flavorful, we ordered another one.

Just this past weekend I had some meetings in Brooklyn. Perusing the soda/beer selection over lunch, I came upon Sprecher's cream soda. My excitement, however, quickly turned to disappointment after the first swallow. You see, Sprecher puts honey in their cream soda, and I'm a bit of a purist when it comes to cream soda. I want it vanilla all around. They also make their bottles 16 oz., which made it difficult to finish with my lunch.

However, the caps of both are fantastic.  Brightly colored, striking design and twist off. While doing some research for this blog post, I found that Sprecher also makes a Cherry Cola** and a Puma Kola. I want them! I will scour the city, but if anyone has leads, let me know! Or if you have extra caps and you want to donate them to the cause I will GLADLY accept them.
** It turns out I DO have a Cherry Cola cap and didn't even realize it! But I would still love to try the actual soda.