The Civil Life Brewing Co. owner Jake Hafner told customers in an email today that Missouri Beverage will begin to distribute his brewery's draft beers to St. Louis-area bars and restaurants on March 3.
"Over the next week and a half, I will be reaching out to the several thousand (read 20) restaurants and bars that have expressed interest in pouring the Civil Life," Hafner wrote in the email. "We will be posting on our blog updates along the way and thanking those restaurants and pubs that allow us the privilege of being poured in their establishments."
Missouri Beverage's portfolio includes wines and spirits as well as beer from Left Hand, Ska, Founders, Cathedral Square and other craft breweries.
The Civil Life (3714 Holt Avenue) is the final of 2011's crop of new St. Louis craft breweries to announce distribution plans.
4 Hands Brewing Co. began local draft distribution last month through Major Brands, while Perennial Artisan Ales and Urban Chestnut Brewing Co. signed last year with Grey Eagle Distributors.
Grey Eagle, an Anheuser-Busch InBev wholesaler, took part in a recent deal with two other local A-B distributors to share Perennial and about a dozen other craft brands.
Evan S. Benn is the assistant editor of Go! magazine. He also writes about beer and food, and he is author of the 2011 Post-Dispatch book "Brew in the Lou: St. Louis' Beer Culture - Past, Present and Future," available here. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.
