Headin' to the HandleBar

This blog post also got lost in the shuffle... it may be a little outdated, but there is still some good stuff in there.

Tonight was a busy night. It started off with a Pubcrawl meeting where we purchased all of our costumes for the upcoming Quinceanera Crawl. It is going to be a blast and I hope to see all of my readers there as we celebrate the 15th year of Pubcrawls through the Central West End. You can respond your attendance on the Facebook group page found HERE or you can just join us at the following bars (you may have to decipher our "spanglish" interpretation of some of these bars):

6:00 Tortillaria
6:40 Zona de Loading
7:20 Flora Loco
8:00 Rosa’s
8:40 34 Casa
9:20 Cantina Louie
10:00 El Duff’s
10:40 El Dressel’s
11:20 !Viva!

Titan IPA

After we gathered our costumes together (we look great by the way), we capped the meeting at Wildflower for a quick beer or two. My first beer there was Grand Rapids Michigan's Founders "Dirty Bastard". Dirty Bastard is a very malty Scotch Ale that was, for the lack of a better word, good. there was nothing Earth shattering about this beer. It's a pretty standard Scotch ale. It may be a little maltier than most, but I am so much more a hops guy than a malt guy, so maybe this beer was just not for me!

Second and Third beers were both the "Titan IPA" made by Great Divide Brewery which I have blogged about in a previous post. This is one of my favorite beers of the moment and I will have to suggest that everyone try it!

Cheers! PCC!

After 3 beers, it was time to play some softball! We have been bombarded with rain in Saint Louis this year, essentially ruining any hopes for a normal softball season. The weather tonight, however, was spectacular and we were able to get our game in without incident! After our hard fought victory, we were looking for a place to grab a cold beer. The HandleBar on Manchester Ave was where we ended up. Not only do they have an exceptionally great selection of beers, but they also have wonderful food and a very unique bicycle theme throughout the entire bar. A unique feature of this place is the selection of local beers they have on tap. This is not the place to go if you are looking for some of that "fizzy yellow stuff".

Mena hiding!

Tonight I started off with 2nd Shift's Colaboration ale This beer was a little light for my tastes, so I decided to jump back to an old favorite for my following 2 beers; O'Fallon Brewery's "5 Day IPA". For all intents and purposes, this is my "go-to" beer when I am looking for a delicious craft beer. It has a rich dark color and the hops are present and almost sweet to the tounge, making it a very easy to drink IPA. O'Fallon does not distribute much outside of the Midwest, making this a beer that will be missed when I move away from here.

The HandleBar, proved to be a very welcoming place with everything I look for in a good bar; great local tap beer, awesome selection of food, knowledgeable and interesting bartenders and of course, my favorite, trivia nights! I really enjoyed myself tonight and hope to sample more of the delicious beers they have on tap. If you would like more info on the HandleBar, follow the link to their website HERE... or follow them on Twitter like I am... they are @HandleBarSTL.

In my continuing "Adventure", I like to become inspired by the people who serve me beer! With this in mind, this is the part of my post, where I ask my bartender the following question: If you had committed some heinous crime and were to be sentenced to death... What would your last beer be before you were put to death?"

It is an admittedly morbid thought, but I think it not only yields insight into the personality of my bar keep, but also exposes me to potentially interesting beers!

Tonight my bartender was a perky and very knowledgeable young woman by the name of Keelee (I hope I spelled it right). Keelee stated that she would want her last beer to be Northern Indiana's own 3 Floyd's "Robert the Bruce". I did not drink this beer tonight, but found out later that this beer is a malty "Scotch Ale" named after the great Scottish King and Warrior. Being completely uninterested in history, I had never heard of "Robert the Bruce" (The beer or the man) before this evening, and found it interesting, that one of the patrons of the bar who had over heard my conversation with Keeley knew a whole lot about the man (not so much about the beer). I didn't get this fine young man's name, so I will refer to him as "Historian", because he really did know a lot about history. Historian went on and on about all the reasons that Robert the Bruce was such a great king and that he fought vast armies to keep the Scottish safe... most of which I sort of tuned out because I wanted to drink my beer! However, I did take away the fact that Robert the Bruce, was sort of like the character of King Leonidis' in the movie "300" where he slaughtered massive amounts of enemies in order to preserve his land. I intend to find out more about "Robert the Bruce" (the beer) in coming weeks as I add it to my list of beers to seek out. If any of my readers spot this beer around Saint Louis, please post in the comments below where you have spotted this beer!

That is all for today, if you would like to follow me on this Drinking Adventure, please click on the link on the right where you can subscribe to my feeds. you can also follow me on twitter at @williepawn or friend me on Facebook. You can also email me here. I am also keeping a compiled list of beers tasted HERE that you can look at.