Civility in Threes: A trio of ales by Civil Life Brewing

In a previous post, I noted that, even if I could not go to St. Louis, I at least could enjoy a Dunkel from that fair town.

However, a friend of mine could go to St. Louis and, indeed he did recently. In addition to eating at Pappy's Smokehouse to his stomach's content, he made a stop at Civil Life Brewing. They don't distribute here nor to Chicagoland so their beer is something of a treat since it can only be obtained after a 5 hour drive south-southwest and I hadn't done that in several years.

 

Shortly after my friend's return to this side of the Cheddar Curtain, I was gifted with about half of a sampler case. My refrigerator was full of porter and brown ale and more porter and ESB and so on. Civil Life tends to brew English-style beers and some American interpretations of them. I had not delved deeply into their offerings until I received my gift.

The first brew I sampled was the IPA. My reasoning was two-fold: 1) if it wasn't an English IPA then I would get it done and out of the way as American ones, generally speaking, are not my cup of tea and 2) it had been a while since I'd had an English IPA and, since I liked the one I'd tasted, it'd be hoopy to have another.

 

I was quite surprised when I poured some and found that it wasn't just hazy, it was turbid. Was this really a hazy-juicy IPA? From Civil Life?

"Well, they've gotta keep the lights on somehow," I reasoned.

The mega-haze dulled what I think would have been a very pretty gold beer. On the plus side, the head was this big dollop of just off-white foam that lingered. I took solace in the fact that I didn't smell Hawaiian Punch as I inspected the glass. Taking a big whiff, my nose was greeted by pine, something like mango, and a malty sweetness. The mango wasn't unpleasant and it was in the background behind the pine.

My first sip found a medium-light body that leaned towards the former. Instead of being a hazy IPA, it was more like a West Coast one with the pine and some grapefruit being the prominent flavors. I appreciated that the malt was a bit restrained and didn't have that syrupy sweetness in the background trying to be the hops' foil.

I was pleasantly reminded of Sierra Nevada's Pale Ale with this one.

Next I tried Civil Life's American Brown Ale.

A lovely deep amber with a big, light tan head. Looked scrumptious. It had an aroma that I've smelled in beer before but I don't know what it is and can best describe it as musty plum, but in a good way. Also, a little spicy hoppiness and some leather.

Every beer I've been drinking lately seems to have a medium-light body and this one did too. Some milk chocolate was joined by coffee flavors and caramel too, though the beer wasn't particularly sweet.

If I recall correctly, this is Civil Life's best-seller. No wonder as it's very, very tasty. If their IPA brought back memories from the mid-90s of drinking Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, this did the same only for Pete's Wicked Ale. Does this stuff taste like that pioneering beer? I don't recall. But it is decidedly retro to have a brown ale as your best selling brew.

I enjoyed how easy drinking this was despite having a fuller malt flavor. Astringency was mild, sweetness was kept at bay. It was malty without being cloying and it had just the perfect amount of hops for balance with a pleasing bitterness at the end.

This trio of Civil Life brews will be rounded out with their Goal!den Ale.

The goofy name comes from the fact that this beer was originally brewed for the Amsterdam Tavern in St. Louis, a place where folks like to gather to watch soccer. Er, football.

A very pretty beer with a big white head and light gold color. It was hazy, but only just. Smelled great too with notes of biscuit and honey as well as a faint bit of grass.

This one was light-medium - ha! A slight sweetness along with the taste of biscuit and something else. Just as there was that scent in the brown ale that was familiar yet undefinable, this stuff had a flavor that made me think there was corn in it. (The brewery disabused me of this idea via email.) It had a vague resemblance to Corona. When your beer's malty taste doesn't have a clear baked good analogue such as a biscuit or a cracker or bread and instead has more of a muddy, doughy taste - well, this is it. There was also a hint of lemon and some gentle herbal-peppery hops.

There are times when the lines between a golden/blonde ale and an American light lager are thrown into sharp relief. This is not one of those times. Goal!den Ale is crisp and clean with everything about it light and easy going. OK, I'll cop to it having a fuller malt taste than most American light lagers meaning it's not the same species or even genus, but definitely the same family.

A fine lawnmower+ beer.

I wandered alone in St. Charles, till I came upon 1st Street: Center Line by Alter Brewing Company

Echoes of the River Fox
With The Musical Box
Still playing on the stage
Alter Brewing makes an ale
And pours a big ol' glass
Neil Postman, casual viewing
Butt sitting on a bar stool

Back in May, I went down south to see The Musical Box perform a little magic and do their thing which was to perform a Genesis show just as they did back in 1974-75. This meant a performance of The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway with all of the costumes and slides and props and whatnot. Since I wrote about the concert here, I am instead going to pen a few words about a beer I had before the show.

Although I had been to St. Charles, IL to see many shows at the Arcada Theatre, I hadn't really explored the town and its beer offerings before. This time around I would do so. Google informed me that there were two brewpubs in town: Pollyanna Brewing and Alter Brewing. While it would be wrong to say that their beer menus were interchangeable, they both had IPAs aplenty along and a shortage of rauchbiers, rye pilsners, dunkels, or any other style which would have tilted the scales one way or the other. However, Alter did have something that Pollyanna didn't: a food menu.

With things being more or less equal to my tastes on the beer front, I chose the one-stop shopping of Alter for my gustatory needs.

The tasting room/restaurant had that same gussied up industrial vibe that most taprooms do these days. I have to wonder if there is a single company that designs these spaces for 99% of the brewpubs out there.

Neutral colors?

Check.

Lots of exposed duct work?

Check.

And so on.

Alter's space in St. Charles isn't horrible by any means. Just a bit generic, for my discriminating taste in interior drinking spaces. Or maybe I am simply fussy.

On the other hand, my salad was tasty and the beer of such a quality as to compel me to stop at a Binny's on the way out of town to bring for quaffing at home. Both the amber and golden ales were impressive but only the latter, Center Line, was available at the store. Would my quite favorable impression at the taproom hold up upon a second tasting?

My phone is a cheapie so it takes a while before I can get a decent, in focus photograph. Often times this means the head has dissipated to one degree or another as is the case here. There was originally more of the lovely white foam when I poured the beer but some of it had gone by the time I got my camera app working. The beer itself was a gorgeous yellow hue with a bit of haze but not enough to obscure the bubbles inside heading upwards. My nose caught some cracker, a hint of grass, and a faint fruitiness of the tropical variety.

The first sip offered a nice fizziness to complement the beer's medium-light body. The grain taste was like a biscuit, a bit heavier than the aroma had let on. Some grassy tasting hops added balance while presumably another hop variety gave a touch of tropical fruitiness to the proceedings. On the swallow, the biscuit taste went away while the fruity hop flavor came to fore a bit allowing pineapple to emerge from the previously more nebulous tropical taste. Bitterness and dryness were on the low side. Just enough to wash away the sweeter flavors.

My home tasting confirmed the impressions I got at the brewery. As golden ales go, Center Line was a bit heavier than most. Most examples of the style are rather light-bodied and go easy on the grain and hop flavors. Here the body is a touch heavier and so the grain flavor is a bit stronger than I expected but it was quite welcome. This still an easy drinking beer, however, with nothing that overpowers. I thought the brewers struck a very nice balance between malt and hop tastes and I really liked how that pineapple comes in at the end. Again, it's not a big, bold tropical fruit taste but a really nice accent.

Alter took the normal golden ale template and boosted it up to, not 11, but more like 4. There's just a bit more of everything you'd expect from the style. Center Line went well with my meal and fit the bill on a warm day. This is an excellent brew.

Junk food pairing: As Center Line has a little more oomph to it than your normal golden ale, it can handle something beyond a basic chip. Pair it with a big bag of those Funyun flavored potato chips for maximum satisfaction.