The Civil Life Brewing Company

Dylan, who many people believe looks partly homeless when his beard is in full force during the winter, is the workhorse behind our little brewery.  The seed for the idea of the Civil Life was planted a long time ago when I headed over to Dylan's house for a home brew party.  As many of our industry friends consumed his beers remarks were made on their general tastiness.  Months later, we were working our shift at 33 in Lafayette Square and it happened to coincide with my personal search to begin another business.  I had opened 33 in 2001 and it had done exceptionally well but it was an 800 square foot room and quite frankly, I wanted a bigger or different place to work in.  I had decided to sell.  

Dylan, Mike and I were working one night at when it struck me,  a revelation of sorts.  We should open a brewery.  Within three hours, I purchased on my credit card a pro-consumer SABCO brewing system which allowed us to take Dylan's home brews up a few more notches.  Mike and Dylan began brewing immediately with the intention of opening the brewery.  The following year, Dylan headed off to brewing school at Siebel Institute in Chicago. Mike continued brewing.

In the early days, we would brew a batch of beer and play games of Risk.  Home-brewing in Dylan's basement was fun.  We would drink previous batches and try a variety of beers.  Things have changed a bit since then.  But we are playing a much bigger game of risk and it's really nice that we now work on the first floor in a brewery designed for beer makery.  

For the first 2 years of our business, Dylan long claimed that Mike was our mortar.  That Brick, Brick, Mortar was the best way to describe the three of us.  It's true.  Mike picked up brewing in wicked short time.  He came up with the English Pale recipe that is now one of our flagships.  Mike also was the Mike behind Mike's deli.  The only problem is Mike is no longer with us.  Rest assured, he is alive and well.  He moved to Florida to be closer to family. Dylan and I are thinking of a way to move Florida closer to St. Louis but we have been really busy with the brewery so that project is on hold.  Mike is working on opening his own sandwich shop in Florida and we will definitely keep you posted.  We're not sure exactly how we will get along with our our mortar but get along we must and get along we will but this time as brick and brick.