Days of the Beer, February 15

The beer for today is Schlafly Biere de Garde.

On February 15, 1764, the city of St. Louis, Missouri was founded. It is located just south of where the Missouri and Mississippi rivers meet, by French traders Pierre Laclede and Rene Auguste Chouteau. It was named after King Louis IX (the only French king to be sainted).

Oddly, it was founded on the birthday of the then current French King Louis XV, 10 years before he died.

After the Seven Years' War, the city and Missouri belonged to the Spanish Empire. In 1800 the land was snet back to France, and then in 1803 Napoleon Bonaparte sold it to the United States.

In 1904, the city held both the World's Fair and Olympic Games. The US dominated those games, winning 78 Gold, 82 Silver and 79 Bronze medals. Other nations won a total of 41 medals to the US's 239. Most countries didn't even send teams, as they thought that St. Louis was in the west of the new nation, and not in the center, only 12 nations competed.

The city is home to some of the country's larges corporations, including Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Scottrade, Edward Jones, Energizer, Anheuser-Busch, Boeing, Purina, Monsanto, Wells Fargo, and Mastercard.

As to the beer:

Our Bière de Garde is a traditional French farmhouse ale, with burnt orange coloring.

The beer is 7.5% ABV.

Schlafly (Saint Louis Brewery) opened in 1991.

When we opened twenty years ago, we had no business plan beyond making great beer and food in a fun atmosphere.

Twenty years on, our business plan is still as simple as our original vision: To make a wide variety of great beers and throw some really fun parties.

According to Beer Advocate, most of their beers range from A+ to C+. With an overall rating of A- (excellent).

So, for the French founding St. Louis, have a French Farmhouse Ale from the Saint Louis Brewery (Schlafly).