Away

Dan Kopman, St. Louis Brewery Tour, originally uploaded by Tasha Does Tulsa.

If you follow me on Twitter, you know I'm not in Tulsa right now.

I'm in St. Louis. I flew here. I got a plane for the first time since William Jefferson Clinton was in the White House, and I sailed through the clouds and into a MetroLink car and into downtown.

Somehow, I did not go insane. I didn't even cry. Be proud of me, Tulsa. Be proud.

Anyway. I'm here at the home of the gateway to the West for the St. Louis Brewers Heritage Festival. That doesn't get started until Friday, though, so tonight, I went to The St. Louis Brewery, which proudly holds the distinction of being the first brewpub in Missouri (founded in 1991), and was led around the innards of Schlafly Beer. Pictured above is the tour guide, Dan Kopman, vice president of The Saint Louis Brewery.

Kopman should write a crash course-style book on how beer is made. He did a great job of narrating the process, which gets scientific and esoteric in a hurry, all with a beer in hand. His shop brews 10 styles that are available year-round, with dozens of special varieties sliding down the bar each year, all in the shadow of you-know-who, Anheuser Busch. Good thing is, there's camaraderie between brewers in St. Louis, even with the big guys - at least, since the heavyweights realized the folks at the bar drinking craft beer still stocked Bud in their home fridges.

I'll be glad to get home and get back to my McNellies Public House and my Marshall Brewing Company beer, but for right now, I'm rockin' my I Heart Tulsa shirts all over this big city in the Show Me State.

Save a stool at the bar for me, y'all. I'll be home doing Tulsa soon enough. Until then, you can get your drink on 500 miles away, vicariously. And, gee, won't that be a fun way to throw back a cool one.