Heavy Riff Brewing Company - St. Louis

Down in St. Louis last fall, I was up for visiting a brewpub, but I was looking for one that I hadn't been to before.  Doing an on-line search, I found one that wasn't far from my hotel and I was sort of incredulous to find out that it had been open since 2013 and I had never heard of the place before my search.  It was less than a five minute drive - if that - from my hotel to Heavy Riff Brewing Company.  

Jerid Saffell and his younger brother Justin weren't necessarily close to one another when they were growing up in the St. Louis suburb of St. John, near Lambert International Airport.  Both were highly competitive and hard feelings between the two abounded from time to time.  When they reached their early 20's, the brothers found a common bond with both musical tastes and craft beers.  The two began to home-brew beers together and some of the stuff they came up with was pretty good.  They dreamed of owning their own brewery some day, and the more that they brewed beer and sat around enjoying it while listening to music, the more they talked about coming up with a plan to have their own brewpub.  

Jerid eventually found work at a number of brewpubs in the greater St. Louis area and learned the fine craft of brewing beers on the job.  Meanwhile, Justin went to college and became a political science major - even running for city council in St. John and winning on his second try at the age of 22 while still living at home with his parents.   But doing their own brewpub was still the goal for the Saffell brothers.  

Once the brothers figured out that they were going to go into business together, they looked at possibly putting their brewpub in St. John.  But when a space opened along Clayton Ave. in the Dogtown neighborhood, they decided to take that place instead.  The Saffell brothers, along with help from their friends Jason and Matt Walters, built pretty much everything in the place - the bar, back bar, table tops, moldings and chair railings were all done by the Saffell brothers and the Walters.  And to give the bar a distinctive musical feeling - and to go along with Justin Saffell's love for music - they decided upon a musical theme to the place, complete with guitars hanging on the walls with music posters and memorabilia, along with a good music playing in the background.  

In September of 2013, the brothers opened Heavy Riff Brewing Company.  At first, they didn't have an operational kitchen and they allowed patrons to bring in food from some of the restaurants in the immediate area.  However, they eventually began to have food at the brewpub in addition to the 15 beers they had on tap.  And in June of last year, Heavy Riff began to distribute their beer around greater St. Louis.  Nearly 50 bars, restaurants and liquor/grocery stores sell Heavy Riffs beers.  

Heavy Riff Brewing Company is located at the corner of Clayton Road and Art Hill Place.  (see map)  There's a parking lot on the west side of the building along with street parking along Clayton.  Inside I found a long, narrow space filled with tables and chairs, as well as a number of music posters highlighted on the wall.  A regulation shuffleboard table was along the wall toward the back.  The tanks for the brewery were visible in the backroom through a glass window that separated that area from the dining area.    

I took a seat at the bar.  The beer taps were in the middle with two sets of guitars flanking the taps.  I understand that one of the guitars on display behind the bar was signed by Neil Young.  It was fitting that Neil Young was playing on the brewpubs sound system along with a diverse music list by the likes of Wilco, Arctic Monkeys, Metallica, and The Jesus and Mary Chain.  I think I even heard a Paul McCartney song being played while I was there.  

I was given a food menu by the bartender and I looked through the list of the 15 beers they had on tap.  They still had some of their Summer Fling, a blonde seasonal, on tap and I ended up getting one of those.  It was light and refreshing, a nice beer for an unseasonably warm fall evening.  

The food menu isn't all that big - it featured a handful of appetizers including nachos topped with a choice of barbecued meats such as pork, beef brisket or turkey, then finished with a special cheese sauce, sweet corn kernels, sweet peppers and baked beans.  They had sliders, as well as large soft pretzels and beer bread made out of the spent grain from their brewing process.  Heavy Riff also featured salads such as a blue cheese/smoked brisket salad, a Hawaiian-style pulled pork salad, and a smoked turkey salad with a raspberry vinaigrette finished with sliced almonds and dried cranberries.  Vegan offerings were available for both the appetizers and salads.  

Heavy Riff features only a handful of smoked meat sandwiches to choose from, as well.  No burgers, no dinner plates, no fried foods, and no seafood offerings.  That evening, they were featuring the smoked corned beef reuben sandwich.  It had chunks of smoked corned beef piled high on dark rye bread with generous amounts of sauerkraut, thick sliced Swiss cheese, and finished with a housemade 1000 Island dressing.  I had a choice of sides to go with the sandwich and I ended up getting the smoked brisket burnt ends baked beans.  (The cheesy scalloped potatoes also sounded good.)  

The sandwich was delicious - the smoked corned beef was tender and had a bit of a smoky flavor to it.  The dark rye bread was lightly toasted, and the combination of the Swiss cheese, sauerkraut and dressing tied everything together.  This was a very good reuben sandwich.  

The burnt ends baked beans were also very good.  I like sweet tasting baked beans and there was both molasses and brown sugar mixed in with the tangy barbecue sauce.  The baked beans had tender chunks of smoked brisket mixed in.  I usually like to mix in a spicy barbecue sauce into my baked beans when I'm at barbecue joints, but these beans didn't need any help at all.  

I'm still somewhat amazed that I hadn't known about Heavy Riff Brewing Company before this considering they've been in business for over 4 years and I usually stay at a hotel very close to the place when I come to St. Louis.  The menu isn't all that extensive at Heavy Riff, but I was more than happy with the smoked corned beef reuben that I had on my visit, as well as with the wonderful burnt ends baked beans that had a sweet and smoky taste to them.  The Summer Fling, a nice light seasonal that Heavy Riff still had into the fall, was also a nice beer to drink.  I really can't come up with anything to quibble about during my visit to Heavy Riff.  Just be prepared to know that the emphasis is on their beers and not at food when you go.  

Comments

[Jeni F.]

A good Reuben is a beautiful thing