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10/19/2017

A pint of plain: A tale of two Porters

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A Pint of Plain for All Life’s Ills
“When things go wrong and will not come right,
Though you do the best you can,
When life looks black as the hour of night -
A pint of plain is your only man.”
(Read the full poem here: https://www.maths.tcd.ie/~bradyn/flann.html)
 
So begins “The Workman’s Friend” by Flann O’Brien. In Ireland, that nation of great drinkers, Flann O’Brien was one of the greatest. A character in the novel At Swim Two Birds composes this short ode to the restorative powers of beer, porter in particular.
 
“Plain” refers to plain porter, a beer we at the Civil Life love. You have been enjoying our new Eclipse Baltic Porter for several weeks now. As supplies dwindle, you needn’t worry, our classic London Porter will be returning in a few weeks.
 
Let’s consider the differences between these great beers. The Baltic Porter, being a lager, is somewhat lighter bodied, though registering a respectable 7% alcohol. Its layered roast has notes of chocolate, dried fruit, and even licorice.
 
Our London Porter is a classic English recipe, with all English malts, including Maris Otter, brown and black malts, and some crystal and flaked barley for body. We use our ESB yeast strain and Northdown hops. This Porter is rich and full-bodied, with rich roasted malt character, including cocoa, coffee, and caramel. Our own barman, sign painter, and Swedish automobile mechanic Chris Valier refers to it as “a meatball.”
 
Just in time for the autumn and winter, it’s comfort food in a glass. You can’t go wrong with porter. According to Flann O’Brien, a pint of plain combats bad luck, poverty, ill health, hunger, and even national strife. Talk about a timely tipple! Porter is the worker’s restorative. And whether you carry a hod of bricks all day, or shift zeros and ones on a screen, you deserve the blessed consolation of a pint of one of the finest porters available.
 
Join us in our well-wooded pub for a pint. Enjoy the transition from Baltic Porter to London Porter. Feel free to call it plain (though in truth, it’s anything but). As always we wish you good luck, wealth, good health, a well-stocked larder, and national unity. Sláinte!

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    The Civil Blog has returned.  It is predominantly authored by Civil Life Barman, Dr. Patrick Hurley, who can be found tending to our bar patrons on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.  He is also responsible for tending to our draft lines, which is recognized as one of our most important tasks. Special guest writers will appear from time to time. We hope reading this blog will give you much insight about the Civil Life and most importantly help you understand a bit more about all of us that work here and the beers we put our hearts into.  

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HOURS:
​
Closed Mondays
​Tues-Thur  4 pm to 11 pm
Friday 12 pm to 11 pm
Saturday 11 am to 11 pm

Sunday's 11 am to 9 pm (Soup Only until April 14th)

CASH ONLY. NO PHONE NUMBER.  
  • ​No Outside Food or Drink please.  
  • Unfortunately, we are unable to handle groups over 12 and ANY BUS or Limo. It's a pub not the Oscars. 
  •  We have deemed ourselves ill-equipped to handle mean people.
  • We have no interest in over-serving and serving the over-served.  But would love to see you for your first pint or two. 
  • We are however great at handling kind, good hearted people who appreciate good beer and the fellowship of humans.  We were scored A+++++ in this category by real live humans in our latest inter-galactic review. 
  • We'll pour you a sample of any beer we have. We'll treat you well and hopefully you'll come back.
The Civil Life Brewing Co. 3714 Holt Ave. St. Louis, Mo 63116 Planet Earth 
  • PUB
    • BEER ON DRAUGHT >
      • Wit Beer
      • German Wheat
      • Pint Boots Table Beer
      • Kolsch-Style Ale
      • Pale Ale
      • Rye Pale Ale GABF Gold 2014
      • The Angel and the Sword Ale
      • British Mild
      • American Brown Ale
      • Porter
      • Milk Stout
      • Extra Stout
      • BEERS ON DECK!! >
        • India Pale Ale
      • Beers on Vacation >
        • #Carlbock Lager
        • Altbier
        • American ESB
        • American Pale Ale
        • American Session Ale
        • Amsterdam Tavern Goal!den Ale
        • "Bee Civil" Honey Wheat Beer
        • Belgian Dubbel
        • Belgian Table Beer
        • BIG BEER SERIES "BIG AMERICAN STOUT"
        • BIG BEER SERIES Big Belgian Blonde
        • BIG BEER SERIES "BIG YEAR BROWN"
        • BIG BEER SERIES "GORDIAN KNOT BOCK"
        • BIG BEER SERIES Scottish "Wee Bit" Heavy
        • Black Ale
        • Black Lager
        • British Bitter (English Pale Ale)
        • Burton-on-Holt
        • Circle 7 American Wheat Beer
        • Civil Common
        • Cream Ale
        • Czech Pilsner
        • Dortmunder Lager
        • Dresselsbier "Hoppy Wheat"
        • Dry Hop Red Ale
        • English IPA
        • English Summer Ale
        • Extra Special Bitter (ESB)
        • German Pilsner
        • Guerrilla Street Blonde Ale
        • Merchant Ship IPA
        • Munich Dunkel Lager
        • Northern English Brown
        • Oatmeal Brown Ale
        • Oatmeal Stout
        • Oktoberfest
        • Ordinary Bitter Ale
        • Premium Bitter
        • Proper Pint
        • Ruby Mild
        • Rye Stout
        • Scottish Ale
        • Scottish Export Ale
        • Scottish Style "70 Shilling"
        • Stevie's 5 Star Amber
        • STL Best Ale
        • "The Great Hencini" Southern English Brown
        • "The Mentor" English Golden Rye
        • UK IPA
        • Vienna Lager
    • CIVIL EATS
    • Civil Wines
  • BEER TO GO
  • Civil Blog
  • About us
    • Contact us
    • Locating Us!
    • EMAIL LIST
    • Social Media Feeds
    • OUR LOGOS
    • Q & A
    • Who Are We?
    • The Civil Solar Panels
    • Employment
  • Donation Requests
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