2nd Shift Brewing

2nd Shift Brewing started as literally that: after Steve Crider got a homebrew kit for Christmas, brewing became the 'second shift' he worked around his day job as a welder. He and his wife Libby — a trained sommelier who manages the taproom and business side — founded the brewery in 2009 in New Haven, Missouri, then hunted for years for a St. Louis home before landing an 18,000-square-foot warehouse on The Hill. When the tasting room opened in December 2016, St. Louis Magazine noted it had 'the distinction of being the storied neighborhood's first brewery' — the first in the city's famous Italian enclave.

For non-drinkers, the draw is Busy Bees N/A, a house line of alcohol-free drinks crafted and packaged at the brewery — 'we believe in having an option for everyone,' as 2nd Shift puts it. The current lineup runs from hop water and root beer to a grape soda made with real cane sugar, plus tangerine-flavored and unflavored sparkling waters, available at the taproom and through the brewery's online store. Owner and head brewmaster Steve Crider highlighted the line in Feast Magazine's 2025 look at St. Louis' changing drinking scene: 'We have our own line of NA products named Busy Bees.' There's no non-alcoholic beer here — Busy Bees is sodas, hop water and sparkling water — but everything is genuinely house-made rather than bought in, a rarity even among NA-friendly breweries.

The taproom at 1601 Sublette Avenue is an easygoing neighborhood spot: Central State Sandwiches runs the in-house kitchen, dogs are welcome inside and on the patio, and kids are fine with adult supervision. The brewery's annual Cask Festival — its 10th edition is set for November 7, 2026 — draws guest breweries from as far away as Chicago's Revolution Brewing, a measure of the respect 2nd Shift commands among fellow brewers. Hours are limited to Wednesday through Sunday, with the week's longest pours on Friday and Saturday, so check before you go; groups of 15 or more are asked to give 24 hours' notice.