2010 Wagon Queen Family Truckster and Brewpub Tour!

The Wagon Queen Family Truckster. You think you hate it now, but wait till you drive it.

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The family and I are going to visit my wife's family next week. I'd greatly appreciate it if anyone would recommend any breweries/tours, brewpubs, etc. along the way. Thanks!

Major cities we'll be traveling through:

St. Louis, MO (Cardinals game and Schlafly)
Springfield, IL
Madison, WI
Dells, WI
St. Paul/Minneapolis, MN
Des Moines, IA
Kansas City, MO (Boulevard)

New Glarus Brewery for sure. I hated fruit beers until I tried their cherry. Unbelievable beer.

http://www.newglarusbrewing.com/

Thanks, mattjmac!

Checked out their website last night and definitely going to add to the list of places to stop.

Anyone else?

If memory serves me right, there's a pretty big brewery in St. Louis whose name escapes me for the moment. "Ayerhouser Boosh" or something like that.

I grew up in East St. Louis area. It was always nice to see the big AB Eagle when we were coming back from a long road trip. It meant we were almost home.

I see you already mentioned Boulevard in KC but just wanted to second that suggestion. I toured the brewery last month and I really enjoyed it. Just book ahead of time as it fills up quick. The beer tasted great out of the tap.

Enjoy.

75th Street brewpub in KC, MO has good beer and food

If you visit Lawrence which isn't far from KC you can go to the Free State Brewing Company.

In Kansas City/Lawrence I definitely second Boulevard, 75th Street & Free State.

In the St. Louis area, also check out O'Fallon:
http://www.ofallonbrewery.com/


From their Website:
Q: Do you offer tours?
A: We love to show beer-lovers (and their family and friends) where and how we make our beer. However we're still a pretty small operation, so we need to schedule tours on weekends when the brewery's not in operation. Generally we offer private tours Saturday afternoons at 2:00 p.m. for folks who make a reservation in advance. Each tour is followed by a beer tasting session and lasts about an hour. We can handle a total of about 20 guests at a time. Please call (636-474-2337) or email ([email protected]) to make an appointment for a free tour and tasting session.

I've never been to any of these places, but I've had their beer and they are great:

When up in Minneapolis, visit Surly
http://www.surlybrewing.com/
[ame="http://maps.google.com/maps?oe=utf-8&client=firefox&ie=UTF8&q=surly+brewing&fb=1&gl=us&hq=surly+brewing&cid=0,0,13152920065117129032&ei=SnlATIr_AcLtnQes6dnrDw&ved=0CCAQnwIwAQ&hnear=&ll=45.046844,-93.297615&spn=0.14263,0.363922&t=h&z=12"]Located Here.[/ame]

Just outside of Madison is The Furthermore Brewery
http://www.furthermorebeer.com/
[ame="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=525+E+Madison+St+Spring+Green+WI+53588&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=40.817312,93.164063&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=525+E+Madison+St,+Spring+Green,+Sauk,+Wisconsin+53588&ll=43.173135,-90.054932&spn=4.711022,11.645508&t=h&z=7"]Located Here.[/ame]


Also,
GO CARDS!

Well, because of travel times and tour times/days, looks like O'Fallon, Schlafly and Boulevard are out.

Still trying to figure out how to get over to Surly.

The good news is that I can definitely make it to New Glarus and Leinenkugel. Also, I will most likely just plan on finding a time to drive up to Boulevard and then over to Schlafly and perhaps O'Fallon on the way to catch a Cards game before the end of the season.

Appreciate everyone's suggestions/responses to this thread!

If you end up having to choose, definitely hit up Surly over Leinenkugel! Surly makes some delicious beer, and have been great to the Homebrew community in Minneapolis.

Went to New Glarus today. Good beer and the "self-guided tour" was very cool. If you can manage to get by there on a Friday the "hard hat tour" would be great, I'm sure.

More pics...pilot system to start:

It's been a really long time since I was there on a road trip across the land, but I remember Morgan Street Brewpub in St. Louis to be really good. It's walking distance from the arch, so if you're going to check out that landmark, you'll be right there....

Surly is great, but the tours have been suspended until September due to heat.

Dave

Moose Jaw Brewery (and Pizza Company):