St. Louis has never been a wine town. It’s never been a cocktail town. Since the dawn of time, St. Louis has been a beer town. Well, at least since Anheuser-Busch started brewing there in 1852. Budweiser, Busch, Bud Light: Those are some of their beers. Maybe you’ve heard of them.

Bud Light is still the country’s best-selling beer, but America is starting to broaden its horizons. 2.3 American breweries opened every day in 2016, and even though craft beer accounts for only 13% of the American beer market, its presence in the nation’s largest cities and smallest towns is expanding.

People take pride in their local craft breweries, and St. Louis is no exception, which begs the question: How can craft beer survive on Anheuser-Busch’s home turf? These four inventive St. Louis craft breweries hold the answer.

Schlafly

The Original St. Louis Rebel

When Tom Schlafly opened Schlafly Brewery in 1991 there were only two other brewers in the state of Missouri, one of which was AB. “The thought of another brewery existing in the same town as AB was inconceivable,” explained Stephen Hale, ambassador brewer at Schlafly. “The consensus at AB was that a smaller guy couldn’t possibly make it in the shadow of the eagle.”

Craft beer in St. Louis was uncharted territory in the ‘90s. “We grew by trial and error. We didn’t know what people wanted to drink. We didn’t really know much of anything,” said Tom Schlafly. “If you tell someone who lives in St. Louis, that doesn’t own or operate a brewery of their own, to meet you at ‘The Brewery’, that means AB. It was hard fighting a brand that was so institutionalized.”

A Schlafly kölsch, waiting to be slugged

Despite AB’s control of distribution and zoning legislation (which made it hellish for a small operation like Schlafly to distribute beer and erect a taproom) and a general skepticism from the people of St. Louis, Schlafly had one major advantage. “We got way more media attention than a small brewery or business would have warranted,” said Schlafly. “It was the David and Goliath story that everyone wanted to see.” The opening was covered on all local news outlets, giving Schlafly press he never could have afforded.

“Part of the message we tried to get out there was variety. At the time, anything not on this narrow sliver of the beer spectrum, lagers and light lagers, was considered exotic or revolutionary,” explained Schlafly, who started introducing oatmeal stouts, pale ales, and wheat ales to the city. “I knew micro-brewing was a trend that wouldn’t evade St. Louis forever. I had to try it. If I failed, I failed.”

Twenty-six years later, Schlafly distributes in 13 states (and Washinton D.C.). If you head to any bar in St. Louis with more than three tap handles, you’ll probably find a Schlafly Pale Ale or White Lager on the list. All it took to prove craft beer had a home in St. Louis was one brewery to take the plunge.

The Class of 2011

The Leaders of the Next Wave