Our First Birthday Party! 9/28-9/30

Our First Birthday Party!  It begins this Friday and continues through Sunday!  

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Don't have time to read or just ho-hum on the whole reading makes you smarter thing.  See the detailed event list at the bottom of this.  Next year we'll have pictures! 

It is with great pleasure, we announce the festivities surrounding our one year Birthday party.  It’s true, we’re one.  We made it and we are having the most Civil of celebrations beginning Friday Sept. 28th and ending on Sunday Sept 30th.  Please come celebrate with us. 

So here goes.  Get your drinkin’ shoes on, tune up your liver, celebrate the fall and help us, help those that couldn’t locate our place.  Tell your friends, have your friends tell friends and have those friends tell their friends until you hear it back from a friend of a friend.  Then stop, enough people know.  

Put it on your calendar.  Shout it from the mountain or in St. Louis find a big hill or even at least a moderate incline. Inform people in the most kind Civil manner from the top of your lungs in your best opera arietta that our one year birthday is not to be mistaken with a one year old’s birthday.  We at the Civil Life pride our selves on our cake eating ability.  Best yet we deliver something one year olds can't partake in and that's some of the best restorative session ales St. Louis has ever laid their livers upon.

Things will get going here Friday night at 7:50 with the unveiling of our sign between the two brick columns on our patio. It will be followed by real live music with Jon Bonham and Friends playing on our patio that evening. These are the cats that played last year at our Grand Opening.  They are really not cats as you may have guessed as cats due to the lack of opposable thumbs are unable to hold up the neccessary guitar/instrument to play music.  (We have a customer that commented on an opposable thumbs comment before and laughed a bit about it so it is a re-cycled joke in this email and only original because this time it pertains to cats rather than dogs. But we are a company that believes in Recycle, Re-use and Re-purpose whenever possible.)

Each year on our Birthday we will be introducing another logo and Saturday, September 29th is the day it will happen. At 2 pm, I will start my State of the Beer Union Speech (it's best that you have indulged in a few restorative session pints before this speech) and it will be followed by the unveiling of our new logo!  Now, hold on.  The guy with the two mugs will always be our main logo but a chap like that would most certainly have many comrades in consumption and each year we will introduce another one. After the speech we will introduce the new logo and allow a very controlled Civil approach to an area selling the new coasters, t-shirts, hats, growlers and stickers.  The civil approach to the table will be most unlike those horrendous Black Friday free for alls for discounted items that will break in a year or a few days after their warranty expires.  And yes, you~  Smart Civil patron of the Civil Life can participate in the naming of our logo and win prizes! 

The new logo is a highly guarded secret and only a few people’s eyes have yet to even see it.  They are all still alive. In fact, it is being reported by several major news reporting stations and one scientific foundation created by us in our spare time that people seeing the logo have extended their life into the next century possibly millennium or at least until our next parade. Results due in 4 years. Those few people have also noted increased work performance, stamina, sight and one of them is planning on cracking the final Kryptos code by next weekend!  Of course this is after she finds the cure to Cancer.  I told her. Cancer first, Code second.    

As a result we have been on high alert here at the brewery for quite some time.  Our security cameras have caught several people going through our dumpster.  We most certainly believe it was due to the new logo in hopes that a test version was discarded in haste.  But it may have been for small morsels from some of Mike's Deli or cans in our recycling bin.  Hey sandwiches here are only $6.00. It 's the best dealio in town and everyone knows that rarely does a sandwhich go unfinished at the Civil Life. Sometimes a person will not finish their fourth sandwich, but they mostly take that with them rather than put such fine artistry in the rubble bin. But I digress, back to the festivities. Please allow me get your mind out of our dumpster.

Our new friends at Kitchen Kulture, who provide food at the Tower Grove Farmers market have put together a most splendid menu for Saturday and will be serving it from 3 to 8 pm Saturday and 1 to 4 pm on Sunday.  Come by and meet them and enjoy some fine food.  Some of it is beer inspired.  They are righteous peeps and believe in good food and the kitchen life.  Their most excellent t-shirts will be for sale as well and you can find them every week at the Tower Grove Farmers market.

Also on Saturday, we have our “We’re one year Alt beer!” being released, we were able to get the highly sought after Pat Manis "Jukebox Pat" to guarantee showing up on Saturday and kick it our the jukebox.  He’ll be playing music on the jukebox from noon to 2. This is "Jukebox Pat's" first official JukeBox session.  He normally is a silent DJ, a behind the scenes Jukebox hero here at the Civil Life.  While he is playing the jukebox we quite often we hear, "I love the music here." Nope that's not the music that's "Jukebox Pat" that you love.  We then have some real live humans that go by the names Brian Curran and Adam Andrews playing from 6 to 8 and The Lonesome Threesome will be here from 8:30 to 10:30.  Possibly more...stay tuned.  

Sunday is Funday.  Adults and kids are welcome.  We have kids activities (balloonist, face painter, stiltwalker/performer, kids games from between the hours of 1 to 4 pm) and for the Big Kids we have drink specials from 4 to 7 and Barbara and John playing music on the patio from 5 to 7. One should take note: drink specials begin after the kids activities have ended and one should note...we are the most Civil of places and soon will have a sign telling you the same thing so it has to be true.  True public spaces are open to everyone and the best public spaces in the world involve kids, parents and adults interacting. It often means both are on their best behavior.  And besides, it gives me a chance to see my nieces and nephews which is something I don’t get to do enough. 

Kitchen Kulture will be serving food (kid friendly options as well) from 1 to 4 pm. 

Sunday at 7 pm will mark the time that it will be 365 days till our 2nd Birthday and only 1460 days until our next Parade.  I know you can’t wait for those events as well but coming to this event helps insure those happen!  Cheers!  

I can't thank everyone enough for helping us make it through our first year.  At one point, we were on the verge of running out of money before we ever opened.  Actually for the record, make that more than one point. We barely got open and it did take a bit for this ship to get moving.  But I, Jake Hafner as the self-proclaimed Captain of the Barley Ship proclaim yet again that we are most certainly here to stay because of you.  A special thanks to all of you in St. Louis that serve our beers and to all of you that order Civil Life beers when you're out around town.  A big thanks to our great distributor Mo-Bev and the kind people that work there. And thanks to all of you for ordering so many local beers from many of our good friends that brew craft beer in St. Louis and are striving to change this city.  I have been a bartender/waiter for over 13 years of my life and this past year has been the greatest.  Every day so many kind people, say hello and thank us for bringing the Civil Life to earth. Despite Dylan's wishes to open up inter-galactically first, I know we made the right choice- right here in St. Louis, Mo.  And most importantly, so many of you return again and again. And continue to order our beers around town.  Thank you.  Thank you.  Thank you.  Should I mention yet again, how much we thank you for ordering our beers around town. Dylan, Mike, Patrick, Chris and I and a whole team of talented people are confident in our mission.  Over the course of the last year, we haven't strayed nor will we from our high standards to deliver great restorative session beers without compromise.  Most importantly, we will never rest in our pursuit of the perfect pint believing that no matter how good of a beer we make, our best beers are still ahead.  And we will always believe that we merely are servants to the Session Pints we make and that the kings are the people who spend their hard earned money on the Civil Life.  Cue theme music now...

To this we say unequivocally, "Good cheer, good beer, always on tap here!"  while Dylan says, "Klaatu, Barada, Nikto."

FRIDAY, SEPT 28th

SIGN Dedication at 7:50 PM (Between the two brick columns) No Longer will people be able to ask, "Why don't you have a sign?" To which, they regret when I say, "Because we don't have any money." We still won't have much money but we had enough to buy a sign!  

AIRPLANE FLY-OVER  (still being arranged... it’s possible we may just wait for a random plane to fly over.) This may be smaller than you hope or bigger if we are lucky.  

MUSIC 8 to 10 PM Jon Bonham and Friends 

SATURDAY, SEPT 29th

MUSIC  12 to 2 pm PAT MANIS "Jukebox Pat"

              6 to 8  Brian Curran and Adam Andrews

              8:30 to 10:30 The Lonesome Threesome

And more!  

 NEW BEER!  “We’re one year Alt!”  Released at 1 pm! (Dylan Named it!) 

STATE OF THE BEER UNION ADDRESS 2 pm!  (DON’T MISS) 

NEW LOGO (DON'T MISS) (Our logo gains a comrade in consumption)  Released 2:10 pm Saturday.  Hats, coasters, t-shirts, soccer shirts, growlers, stickers will be for sale

FOOD Kitchen Kulture catch them at the Brewery from 3 to 8 (Menu Below) 

SUNDAY, SEPT 30th

 (FAMILY EVENT:  ALL WELCOME) 

FOOD:  KITCHEN KULTURE (MENU BELOW) 1 to 4 PM

BALLOONIST 1 to 3 PM

FACE PAINTER 1 to 3 PM

KIDS GAMES 1 to 2:30 PM

PERFORMER JOSH ROUSH 3 to 4 PM

MUSIC:  TOM HALL 3 to 5!

ADULTS DRINK SPECIALS FROM  4 to 7 ($2 1/2 Pints and $4 Pints) 
MUSIC:  5 to 7 Barbara Weathers and John Higgins play on the patio 

MORE TO COME!  

KITCHEN KULTURE MENU 9/29 (Sat) 3 to 8 and 9/30 (Sun) 1 to 4 

Chicken and mushroom skewers with chimichurri grilled corn with cilantro lime butter
Pulled Pork and pork belly cabbage wraps with papaya slaw and hoisin
Ratatouille Skewers over parmesan polenta

Ala Carte Sides:
Potato Salad
Baked Beans
Grilled Corn
Papaya Slaw

SUNDAY FUNDAY KIDS OPTIONS WILL BE AVAILABLE 1 to 4 

Sunday at 7 pm will mark the time that it will be 365 days till our 2nd Birthday and only 1460 days until our next Parade.  I know you can’t wait for those events as well but coming to this event helps ensure those happen!  Cheers!