# Review: 4 Hands Brewery Tour

- Link: https://www.nyrdcast.com/review-4-hands-brewery-tour/
- Published: 2015-08-10T15:38:33-05:00
- Author: Eugene Tierney

This past weekend, my wife and I were walking around downtown St. Louis when I realized
we were close to the [4 Hands Brewery](http://4handsbrewery.com/). We decided to
stop in, take the tour, and sample a couple of beers.

The tours are free and they recommend you grab a pint when walking through the brewery.

Our tour guide was Jordan, one of the bartenders. There are 22 employees in the 
brewery and some serve multiple functions; Jordan did point out that since they 
are up to 22, the additional roles have been cut down. At one point, the bar employees
would help with the canning process.

The brewery was started by Kevin Lemp, a former beer distributor, in 2011; the name
4 Hands comes from Kevin, his wife, and 2 sons, who all have a “hand” in the business(
although his sons are below drinking age and really have nothing to do with the 
brewery). From the sounds of it, Kevin doesn’t get involved in the brewing much,
as there are 3 dedicated brewers on the staff.

The brewing process is pretty standard, but I was intrigued about their testing 
process. They use home brewing kits when they try new beers. Jordan said that when
they started to test a new Chocolate Milk/Peanut Butter Stout, they made a few different
batches in 5 gallon intervals that tested different brands of peanut butter. They
wanted to make sure that they used the right ingredients before making a full batch.

It was also pointed out that their fermenters are slightly different than most breweries;
they use shorter but wider fermenters due to the size of their facility. The 60-
gallon fermenters are specially made for the facility.

To prevent over-carbonation, the brewery has added a centerfuge to remove the yeast
from their beer prior to bottling. A lot of breweries employ filters to remove yeast,
but that can also filter out some of the taste.

The bottling process is also interesting, as it’s all done by hand. They manually
load the bottles into the machine; the machine fills them and caps them, then they
are put into the standard six pack box and boxed up. They also do canning in this
facility (although we didn’t get to see either process in action).

Right now, the brewery distributes their beer to all of Missouri and Illinois, Philadelphia,
and Washington D.C.

Jordan also let us know that the next few beers to be released are their Chocolate
Milk Stout, the already mentioned Chocolate Milk/Peanut Butter Stout, and an Imperial
IPA. I’ve had the Chocolate Milk Stout and recommend it; I’m looking forward to 
trying the other 2.

While their, I was able to try the Cuvee Ange and Resurrected IPA. This was my first
Cuvee Ange, which was really good; unfortunately this is near impossible to find
in the stores right now. I’ve had Resurrected before, and this was just as good 
as I remembered. I’ll try to get reviews of both up soon.

If you get a chance to stop by 4 Hands, I’d definitely recommend it. I give the 
tour and experience 4.5 empty pint glasses (the more empty, the better).
 [⌊4.5⌉](https://i0.wp.com/www.nyrdcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/4.5.png?ssl=1)

[⌊wpid-20150808_120316.jpg⌉⌊wpid-20150808_120316.jpg⌉[[⌊wpid-20150808_120139.jpg⌉⌊
wpid-20150808_120139.jpg⌉[[⌊wpid-20150808_120143.jpg⌉⌊wpid-20150808_120143.jpg⌉[

[⌊wpid-20150808_120209.jpg⌉⌊wpid-20150808_120209.jpg⌉[[⌊wpid-20150808_121230.jpg⌉⌊
wpid-20150808_121230.jpg⌉[[⌊wpid-20150808_122019.jpg⌉⌊wpid-20150808_122019.jpg⌉[

[⌊wpid-20150808_121701.jpg⌉⌊wpid-20150808_121701.jpg⌉[[⌊wpid-20150808_121652.jpg⌉⌊
wpid-20150808_121652.jpg⌉[[⌊wpid-20150808_122709.jpg⌉⌊wpid-20150808_122709.jpg⌉[

[⌊wpid-20150808_122431.jpg⌉⌊wpid-20150808_122431.jpg⌉[[⌊wpid-20150808_122601.jpg⌉⌊
wpid-20150808_122601.jpg⌉[[⌊wpid-20150808_122436.jpg⌉⌊wpid-20150808_122436.jpg⌉[

[⌊4 Hands Cuvee Ange⌉⌊4 Hands Cuvee Ange⌉[

4 Hands Cuvee Ange

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