Today marks the debut of Rock Bridge Brewing beers in St. Louis. The brewery, out of Columbia, Missouri, will debut its beers in St. Louis tonight at all three St. Louis area locations of International Tap House. The beers will begin pouring at the Chesterfield, Soulard and Central West End locations at 6pm. The two men behind Rock Bridge, Dave Bouder and Stu Burkemper, will be at the Soulard iTap location introducing their beers and pouring beers from a special cask of Rye You Little Punk.

Although originally intended to be a “Keep The Glass” event, iTap put out this status a couple days ago on its Facebook page.

 

Hopefully, we will see a KTG night from Rock Bridge Brewing in the near future.

Rock Bridge Brewing was Columbia’s first production brewery when it opened in early 2012. Flat Branch Pub & Brewing has long brewed up its own beers in Columbia and Broadway Brewery does the same, but Rock Bridge was Columbia’s first to make beer to be sold throughout Columbia, not just on premise. It is co-owned by Bouder and Burkemper. Bouder was a long-time home brewer who decided after more than a decade in the insurance world to strike out on his own. Burkemper, who went to high school in Troy, Missouri with this writer, has trained in Chicago and Germany before taking a job as an assistant brewer with O’Fallon Brewery. Bouder and Burkemper are both alums of the University of Missouri-Columbia.

After just a year and a half in business, Rock Bridge announced back in August that they were expanding from 1,500 square feet of space to 18,000 square feet with plans to brew 4,500 barrels of beer a year. They announced at the same time that they were exploring distribution in the St. Louis area. The brewery distributes their beer in the traditional draft form and also has a canning line on-site that produces up to 40 cans per minute.

Beers from Rock Bridge Brewing are currently available at various Columbia establishments and in stores throughout the mid-Missouri area. That includes the Columbia location of International Tap House. The brewery is also exploring distribution options in the Kansas City area. Rock Bridge’s website lists six beers ranging from the Tailgate Brown with an ABV of 3.5% to The Black Fog American Black Ale with a ABV of 8.7%.

Tonight’s event is somewhat of a “soft-release” introduction to the St. Louis market for the brewery. The beers will be available in limited amounts around town for now. Once Rock Bridge finishes its expansion plans closer to the spring, the beers will be more readily available.

The new cans for Rock Bridge were designed by Curt Bean as part of his Art of War Project. Bean, another Troy Buchanan High School alum, is a veteran of the United States Army. He started this organization to help veterans suffering for Post-traumatic stress disorder. The organization focuses on using art and other creative outlets to help veterans deal with the disease.

Welcome to St. Louis, Rock Bridge Brewing

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