You don’t need to travel very far to technically ‘get out of St. Louis’ especially if your goal is to ‘get out’ and drinks some beer.
Just about 45 minutes outside of downtown is where you’ll find the large red barn, amid the rolling 17 acres that is home to the brewery, tasting room and biergarten of Point Labaddie Brewery.
The brewery’s core beer profile focuses are farm house ales, Belgian styles and IPAs. All of their beers are unfiltered, with the goal to brew flavorful classic and modern styles using only traditional ingredients when possible. Simple food is available in the tasting room, and food trucks / vendors are brought in for live American Roots music every Sunday.
The Backstory
Owner Rob Grimm was born and raised in Chesterfield, MO. Like many local brewery owners, he began by home brewing.
“In 2004, I began using a 3-gallon stainless steel pot on an electric stove burner. Charlie Papazian’s “The Joy of Home Brewing” was my guidebook as I began my journey with malt extract batches, and quickly decided that I needed to start hobbling equipment together to start brewing all grain batches. It took exactly one batch for me to fall in love with brewing, and soon I was fantasizing over home brews about one day making a living at it,” said Grimm.
It took 5 years, but Grimm finally realized his dream. He purchased a Sabco Brew Magic which allowed him to improve batch repeatability. He then enrolled at the Siebel Institute of Technology in Chicago, IL in 2012 to gain a professional education in brewing technology, followed by 6 weeks of advanced brewing courses at their sister school Doemen’s Academy in Gräfelfing, Germany, just outside Munich in the Spring of 2014.
Everything finally came together at the end of 2015. An equipment vendor was selected, funding completed, and the purchase of 17 acres of pasture and woods on the south side of the community of Labadie, MO, about 100 yards off Highway 100 (Historic Route 66). Construction started on the building in January 2016 and brewing and retail sales licenses were received in September 2016.
Grimm then began brewing his first batches in his new 15bbl brew house.
“Our tap room opened to the public with 8 guest beers on tap. The first Point Labaddie beer, our Batch 1 Saison (now renamed Saison Du Labaddie), was served at the end of October 2016. The Grand Opening was held in mid-November with 3 Point Labaddie beers, and 5 guest beers on tap.
