Ah, summer. Here again to oppress us with it's heat waves and droughts. Luckily we have a multitude of beers and places to enjoy beer to beat the heat. Until Oklahoma breweries can serve up free samples here are some neighboring breweries you can visit for a mini vacation.
Not long ago I made a trek with some friends up to Missouri along I-44 to visit a few breweries in a day. We started at
Public House Brewing Company in Rolla. Driving past the city so many times I never thought it would actually have a brew pub in it'd downtown area. This great brew pub has a nice lounge area and large seating capacity. While they don't serve much food you can bring your own in. We sampled 6 beers they currently had on tap from Rod's Cream Ale to Revelations Stout. Their Bird and Baby Mild was my favorite and rightly so as it won the 2011 GABF bronze medal for English Mild.
After we picked up some imprinted discus and bumper stickers from Public House we made our way south to Bucyrus, MO. A small community an hour south of Rolla, pretty much the middle of nowhere, there's a big red barn located near the
Piney River. Just so happens that is the name of the brewery as well. Piney was developed by Brian and Jolene Durham who took their love of craft beer and transformed their barn into a brewery/canning facility/bar and lounge. We had a rather informal tour from one of the brewers which are always the best where we viewed their 7-barrel brew house and canning machine. Their beers reflect the Ozark community as easy drinking beers that you can take in a can on float trips. Their Firefly Ale now called Float Trip Ale is a 4.5% Blonde Ale is perfect for such an occasion. They have live music on Saturdays and plenty of merch and beer to take back with you.
We had to tear ourselves away from the beautiful countryside to venture into the big city of Springfield, MO and Mother's Brewing Company. Marked by the large white silo we were a little close to closing time but able to get about 20 samples in a dish washing rack.We took it out to their lawn area where people were playing bocce ball and gearing up for a night out. Mother's offers some very sought after, flavorful year round beers as well as seasonal releases. They recently released a farmhouse ale called Spring Batch for their spring seasonal and MILF, a wonderful Imperial Stout. What put me over the top was their Black Cherry Sherry Thang which prompted me to buy a stainless steel growler of it. Check them out soon as they are a three hour drive from Tulsa and will be celebrating Springfield Craft Beer Week starting July 14th.
You'd think we were done by then but ohhhh no. For dinner we made our way to
Springfield Brewing Company. They offer great American cuisine and several year round beers as well as seasonals and special one-offs. A great end to a great day of beer in our neighbor state of Missouri. And that was just the southeast corner! It's a great way to take a mini-vacation and stock up on great local craft beer.
