There's no doubt, St. Louis is a beer town.

Some even call it "America's Beer Capital."

And while that, of course, has much to do with being the home of the nation's largest brewer, it also means a lot to many of the small craft beer makers that have flourished here in recent years.

But now, with local control of Anheuser-Busch Cos. up in the air, many in this beer town's beer industry are pondering the prospect of life after "The King."

From Schlafly-makers St. Louis Brewing Co. to the owners of the Stable, a new microbrewery just a quarter-mile from One Busch Place, most local craft brewers agree that they benefit from the big guy in town, even if their products are different and their output adds up to mere spillover on Pestalozzi Street.

Anheuser-Busch sponsors beer festivals and events all over town. Its brewmasters talk shop with other brewers, and its products introduce beer to the masses, some of whom will seek out more complex microbrews.

And its ubiquitous television ads, with their distinctive "Anheuser-Busch, St. Louis,

Missouri" tag line, tell the world that this is, indeed, a place where people care about beer.

"A-B being here helps us all," said Tony Caradonna, who with his wife owns O'Fallon Brewery in O'Fallon, Mo. "It's the sort of thing that puts us all on the map."

And to a man who grew up in south St. Louis, "within wind" of Anheuser-Busch's Soulard brewery, the idea of the local icon being bought out is hard to swallow. It's something he never thought he'd see happen.

But, Caradonna admits, it actually might be a positive for his business. People who want to buy a local brew, he said, may be more likely to turn to O'Fallon.

"We remain a local, independent brewer," he said. "That's good for us, and it's good for our brand."

PART OF THE BRAND

For some brewers, St. Louis and its beer heritage — with names like Falstaff, Griesedieck and Lemp — are a key part of that brand.

That's the case for Schlafly, which touts its birthplace in "America's Beer Capital" on the side of delivery trucks and proudly proclaims on its label that it's "Brewed in Saint Louis."

Fostering a strong beer culture here is part of the Schlafly business model, said co-founder Dan Kopman. Today, A-B contributes to that image and culture, but if it is bought by a company that doesn't consider those things a priority, the job of maintaining it will fall more to the smaller breweries.

"We think it's really important to St. Louis to be 'America's Beer Capital,'" Kopman said. "No matter what happens with A-B."

MARKETING TO TOURISTS

For one thing, beer is a way to market St. Louis to tourists.

With about 350,000 visitors, the Anheuser-Busch brewery was the region's seventh-biggest tourist attraction in 2006, according to the St. Louis Convention and Visitors Commission. Local tourism groups "embrace" the city's brewing heritage and promote a tour package around "baseball, brew and the blues." A-B is a big part of that.

"We want the Clydesdales. We want Grant's Farm," said CVC spokeswoman Donna Andrews. "It's all a marketing point for us."

A-B also co-sponsors events that help other brewers, like the St. Louis Brewers Heritage Festival, which in just two years has become the nation's third-largest beer festival. In May, 20,000 people attended over three days. Those thousands tasted not just A-B products, but beers from eight local brewers, including small outfits like Augusta Brewery in Augusta.

'GREAT EXPOSURE'

"It's great exposure for us," said Augusta owner Steve Neukomm. "It's a lot of fun, and people discover our products."

An InBev purchase of Anheuser-Busch may have no impact at all on the festival. Kopman notes that Munich's famous Oktoberfest has survived several brewery takeovers. But there are no guarantees.

"If the deal goes through, it will not just be the responsibility of A-B to continue to send the message that this is still America's beer capital," Kopman said. "It really will be a community effort."

And the community of brewers here keeps growing.

For several years, local entrepreneur Steve DeBellis and some partners have been reviving Lemp beer, the once-great St. Louis brew that rivaled A-B before Prohibition. They've been hiring other breweries to make it and sell about 8,000 cases a month in six states — "a drop in a drop in the bucket," compared to the big boys, as DeBellis put it.

But soon they'll start producing lager at the Stable in the old Lemp complex on Cherokee Street in south St. Louis, the first time Lemp will be made in the city since Prohibition. If things go well, they hope to expand brewing operations and bottle here, too.

"It's just a bizarre coincidence," he said. "But Lemp's coming home to St. Louis right when the eagle is threatening to fly to Belgium."

tlogan@post-dispatch.com | 314-340-8291