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For many St. Louis beer lovers, American Brown has become a local staple and citywide favorite. The legend behind it is not as well known, but well documented on the brewery blog.

American Brown, was already a thought even before the brewery debuted in 2011 and was among the very first of these beers created by the Civil Life Team. Created in a head brewer Dylan Mosley’s basement, he and Mike Bianco “poured batch after batch of brown ale wort through an elaborate system of mash tuns, brew kettles, carboys, alembics, retorts, and genie bottles.”

Like anything good, patience was their virtue and eventually, the first Civil Life beer was perfected and the rest, as they say, is history.

Now, it’s time for the next evolution of the legend. A new look for American Brown.

“Our label designer is Brian Woolbright and he has been both a customer and a friend for quite some time as he was also a customer of mine at 33,” said Civil Live’s Jake Hafner. In a series of discussions with Woolbright and another regular, friend David Boyd the trio decided to chart a different course with Civil Life’s labels. The hope is that when they are all collectively seen together they can be clearly named, easily identifiable and also have identifiable Civil Life qualities. “It was a comprehensive look at how we present ourselves in can form and hoping at some point in the future (when is completely undetermined at this point) when we finally decide to go retail, that our beer can be inviting on a very crowded supermarket shelf,” said Hafner.

There is also a new addition to the American Brown beer inside the can.

“Going forward, we are now filtering it. Our brewers and I analyzed samples that went through filtering and had them side by side with an unfiltered sample and though the difference to a majority of customers will very likely only be in clarity we all felt that there was an undeniable improvement in the beer.” The clarity is nice but Civil Life fans will notice the edges of the beer are softened ever so slightly and the beer became even better to drink. “I think it was a bit of a surprise to us to all like the filtered version better,” said Hafner. “Therefore we feel strongly that this is without a doubt a good move for our flagship.” With all of their recipes, Hafner and his team have a strong protocol in dealing with any changes, even if it is minimal, as they feel they’ve built a reputation on consistency. “I can fully assure any and all of our die-hard American Brown drinkers out there that this is a good move. If there is any disagreement among our customers in the market, we will be providing counseling over a pint of American Brown in our pub Tuesdays to Thursdays 4 to 11. Fridays 12:00 am to 11 pm, Saturdays from 11 am to 11 pm and Sundays from 11 to 9 pm,” said Hafner.

Now, that is some counseling, I will look forward too.