Perennial Artisan Ales
- Cru and Hannah
- Jul 18
- 6 min read
St Louis, Missouri
Crusin’ Rating: B-
Booze Rating: A-
This week, Hannah, me, The Wanderer and the Prankster are all visiting Perennial Artisan Ales in St. Louis, Missouri as part of our brief guest series there. As you know, we had the chance to visit them for a long weekend in St. Louis and we made the absolute most of it by visiting The Gateway Arch, the amazing Botanical Garden, outstanding barbecue (Pappy’s Smokehouse and Stellar Hog), try out some fantastic cocktail bars (New Society, Lazy Tiger, and Platypus ), and, of course, - a couple of breweries. You’ve already been along with us to one of them as we talked about Anheuser-Busch’s. Â
Perennial Artisan Ales is a spot that first got on my radar last year at the Great Taste of the Midwest. It was one of the few booths that Mr. Tin Fox and I tried everything they had available. I didn’t realize at the time (or had forgotten) that they were headquartered in St. Louis until I had begun doing research for this trip. The unmistakable logo of the Ginkgo leaf was enough for me to connect the dots between what I had tasted and where we were going to stop for one of our reviews.
Perennial opened in 2011 and now has three locations in Missouri - we visited the original location at 8215 Michigan Avenue. They have since opened locations in Webster Groves (a brewpub) and are set to open another location in Kirkwood - the latter of which is in an old bike shop and will focus more on Perennial’s whiskey, Common Ritual Whiskey and will feature signature cocktails. The head brewer and co-founder, Phil Wymore worked on the barrel-aging program for Goose Island, was Head Brewer at Half Acre Beer Company (Chicago), and enjoyed some time at Grindstone Brewing Company (MO) - an impressive resume! It made sense that Mr. Fox and I were drawn to some of the beers and how they stood out at a festival sporting over a thousand beer choices. Â
So much of the space reminded us of the warehouse that houses Torzala, New Barons, Component, and Twisted Path in Milwaukee. An old industrial building that has since been repurposed to house a brewery, loft apartments, and a couple artisan shops. While we could only see in a few windows of the upper floors, the apartments looked awesome. We were so impressed with the outside space at Perennial, and thanks to some unseasonably cool weather in St. Louis we opted to sit outside and, admittedly, only went inside for some photos and beer orders. The inside was functional, with teal seats at the bar, a modest swag area, and plenty of seating as you moved farther into the space. Outside though, there were covered picnic tables under a pergola, more yet under a pavilion roof that came in handy as rain set in, and AstroTurf over a patio that featured Foosball, corn hole, and even some hanging bench swings to take your ease on. Space is at a premium in the city and while we did pass by other breweries doing what they could to give you some seats in the open air, Perennial took the cake.
The space is dog friendly and you can bring your own food in - the bartender was kind and attentive and we really had no complaints - except for the rain that set in later into our review. They, unfortunately, don’t offer flights but you could taste whatever you wanted so we snagged smaller pours of a couple of beers and got the teams thoughts. 5 oz pours run anywhere from $4 to $7 and (it’s usually cheaper to get the larger pour by cost per ounce) and there were a handful that were only available in 750ml bottles- which you could consume on sight or to go. The 750 bottles ran up to $25 to $35 for some rarer stouts. For non-beer drinkers there was bourbon, cocktails, cider, and N/A beverages available.Â
Sun River Gold (5.7% ABV) This hazy yellow-orange colored IPA was brewed with Mosaic, and El Dorado Cryo Hops. Hannah immediately picked up on the Mosaic Hops - earthy-green-tropical fruit. The Prankster took note of guava (his favorite fruit) when tasting, and the Wanderer picked up on grapefruit. For my part, I took note of a sugary, almost caramel note in there at the end and it finished dry. A fairly easily drinkable IPA that even Hannah admitted was nice to sip. Â
Tropical Suburban Beverage (4.2% ABV) - This Gose-style ale was brewed with lime, pineapple, mango and sea salt. You know Hannah loves a Gose. This beer poured a mango-yellow and had aromas of green mango skins, pineapple skin, and sea breeze salt. A few-days-old limes, underripe pineapple, and a little bit of tart mango all hit your tongue with a slightly salty finish. With high carbonation but a head that does not stick around - this was a pleasant beer, but Hannah wished the lime was more pronounced and we all agreed that the salt should be more noticeable. Another one that was easy to drink on a summer’s day.  Â
Climate Promise (4.2% ABV) - This French Saison was made in collaboration for the St. Louis Earth Day Festival with honeysuckle, dandelion, rose hips, orange and lemon peel. We got it because we were feeling pretty supportive of earth day after a great afternoon spent at the botanical garden. This beer was a lot of fun, pouring warm gold with a very vegetal aroma that featured hay, some barnyard funk, and a hint of spice on the nose. Green spices - peppercorns, sharp herbalism, floral and some zesty yeast all came through when tasting. Unique and complex, this beer was my own favorite as you don’t see a lot of plants added into beer (outside of hops). I enjoyed this one enough to get a pint after our tasting. This beer was on point for the style, while also trying some new things. Â
O’Doyle Rules! (13.2% ABV) - This collaboration with 18th Street Brewing that ran us $12 for 5 oz was a treat to myself. I knew what I was getting into here and I remember the stouts standing out to me amongst so many other sickly sweet stouts offered at the festival. This one was barrel-aged for 33 months and featured bananas, cacao nibs, and vanilla beans. With an aroma of strong coffee, chocolate, vanilla, buttercream frosting and some woodiness there was so much hitting your nose at once. While I knew this would be a sweet stout, be prepared for very sweet - with an impression of Cinnamon Toast Crunch, cream, strong vanilla notes, coffee liqueur, and overripe banana mush (like banana bread level) there was a lot going on here and while it did border on the almost-too-sweet to finish - this would be great on a cold winter’s day. Really no complaints here - just be prepared for sweet - and I personally wish this leaned more toward a chocolate-covered banana - to me, that banana was overshadowed.Â
We tried various pints after our review as we enjoyed listening to the rain come while deciding where to stuff ourselves with smoked meats for the afternoon. I think the only thing we really didn’t care for was the Pilsner. While we probably won’t make it down to St. Louis very often, I can easily see revisiting this brewery again and I will definitely be waiting to try them at this year’s great Taste of the Midwest. While it may have been nice to have food, or some more food options to carry in close by, there are so many delicious places to try in St. Louis I’m kind of glad that they didn’t have food so we were forced to go and try something new. The outside space was great, and luckily, St. Louis has the weather to make the most of it. The inside space could do with a little more light, and just be a little more comfort and not so spare-industrial.  If you’re heading down to St. Louis - I’m going to add this to your list of a place you absolutely should stop by to try. The beer is really just solid all around.
Until next time, keep on crusin’, don’t stop boozin’!
To learn more about Perennial Artisan Ales, please visit their website at: www.perennialbeer.com or on Facebook: @PerennialBeer or on Instagram: @PerennialBeer