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Of the city’s 37 caves, 24 have been associated with early breweries, Williams said, citing Joe Light of the caving group Meramec Valley Grotto.īefore there was Anheuser Busch, there was the Lemp Brewery, established in 1840 and built on top of the Cherokee Cave System. During Prohibition, the caves served as hideaways to make alcohol. In these pre-A/C days, underground beer halls, complete with live music, began cropping up. Louis, a city built on a complex of natural caves, the perfect place for early German immigrant brewers to set up shop.Īnd, in addition to storing lager, it quickly became obvious that the caves would cool people, too. It turns out that caves, with their stable climate and a cool 55-degree average temperature, made the perfect place to store beer before mechanical refrigeration, making St. You see, despite today’s burgeoning craft beer scene, the number of local breweries has yet to rebound to the pre-Prohibition era: nearly 125 breweries then compared to almost 60 now, Earthbound estimates. Louis has always been a beer town - perhaps even more than the average suds enthusiast realizes. Boy, was I surprised that it was standing-room-only, and a couple rows deep at that. Louis Lagering Caves.” I expected about 10 people to show up to what promised to be a Powerpoint-heavy presentation. The event, scheduled for a hot Tuesday evening, was titled “Bottles to Bricks: Looking at Remnants from St. McBrady and CAIRN President Craig Williams told this and other stories about their explorations of the cave systems underneath the city that were used to store beer before Prohibition as part of this year’s UCBC Speaker Series.
#LOST CAVES OF ST LOUIS FULL#
That’s a once in a lifetime opportunity that Adam McBrady, retail manager for Urban Chestnut Brewing Company (UCBC) and historian for the Cave Archaeology Investigation and Research Network (CAIRN), took full advantage of while touring the old lagering cellars beneath Earthbound Beer’s new location. You’re at a local bar on Cherokee Street listening to a band when suddenly you hear someone shout from a cave below your feet: “Goonies never say die!”