Our Tap Room Brewhouse

The Tap Room brewhouse was built and installed in 1991.

We worked with BRD (Brewers Research and Design) at the time to assemble the brewery with a kettle, mash tun and platform constructed by DME in P.E.I., and the three original fermenters by Century Manufufacturing in West Alexandria, Ohio. We added a fourth fermenter in March 1992. It’s a 15-bbl. single-infusion mash system, and it has expanded greatly over the years.

We make just under 2,000 bbls. per year, although at our maximum capacity before we opened the Bottleworks we were brewing just under 7,000 bbls.

Given that additional capacity we installed over the years (more fermenters, bright tanks and serving tanks in both cellars), we have many unitanks which we’re currently keeping busy with our series of bottle-conditioned Belgian-style beers; two oak-aged Reserve beers; and now the four beers we’re brewing to commemorate our 20th anniversary.

All of these beers are brewed here and bottled in 750 ml.(champagne-size) bottles. Our bottle filler/crowner is a 4-head HDP marvel built in Canada, and it typically yields up to 200 cases per day, just about what the small crew can handle in a day.

Two of our three bars have sixteen taps each, with the Club Room bar fixed at twelve taps (our second floor banquet space). In addition to these taps, our South Bar in the main dining room has two beer engines to draw fresh cask-conditioned beer from the firkins in the cellar. Real Ale: warm and flat is where it’s at!

The beer landscape in St. Louis has changed significantly over the years we’ve been open, and we’re excited about what the future holds for us. We’ve funneled some of that excitement into another great project: the world of sour beers and wild ales. Secret parts of the depths of our 100-year building have been converted into an aging room (don’t you just love the word Undercroft?) for beers aged in wooden barrels. The results from this exploration will be known in a few years. Stay tuned for the continuation of this thrilling melodrama!