>Philly a better beer-drinking city than Pittsburgh? Sez them.
>Thursday, March 06, 2008
>By Bob Batz Jr., Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
>
>Stacy Innerst, Post-Gazette illustration
>Philadelphia says it's a better beer town than Pittsburgh.
>
>Better than any other town.
>
>So says the logo for "Philly Beer Week," an event debuting there
>tomorrow that is humbly subtitled, "America's Best Beer-Drinking
>City."
>
>I'm not big enough to pick a fight with hardly anyone from
>Philadelphia, and certainly not with event co-chair Joe Sixpack.
>That's the nom de plume of Don Russell, who certainly is one of
>America's best and best-known beer journalists. He's gone from being a
>longtime Philadelphia Daily News staffer to working from home
>(www.joesixpack.net) and is just releasing his first book, "Joe
>Sixpack's Philly Beer Guide: A Reporter's Notes on the Best Beer-
>Drinking City in America" (Camino Books, $14.95).
>
>It'd be fun to argue with him about the claim over a pint or three,
>but I'd have to concede:
>
>Philly has organized a beer week and Pittsburgh hasn't.
>
>As you can see on the event's Web site, the coming week-plus is now
>packed with nearly 200 fun and tasty events -- talks and brewer meets
>and meals.
>
>Some highlights I like:
>
>* The Pennsylvania Breweries and Game Dinner at the Grey Lodge Pub
>hosted Sunday by beer writer Lew Bryson (who's doing a beer brunch the
>following Sunday).
>
>* Next Friday's "A Tribute to Michael Jackson" at the University of
>Pennsylvania Museum.
>
>* The Ladies Beer Tea.
>
>Mr. Russell kicks it off tomorrow night with "Joe Sixpack's Philly
>Favorites," a tasting of brews from 22 area brewers at the Marketplace
>at East Falls.
>
>Mr. Russell, part of the nonprofit corporation running the 10-day
>event, stresses, as does his book, his city's beer diversity, the fact
>that nearly 400 taverns in it and its suburbs -- from corner joints to
>fancy restaurants -- have impressive and varied beer lists. He says,
>"Come to the city and find out yourself."
>
>Philadelphia is a much bigger city and metro area than Pittsburgh, a
>seaport, and older ("We've been crafting [beer] for more than 300
>years, since the days of William Penn," brags the Philly site.) It is
>blessed with several excellent breweries, albeit some are in the
>outskirts -- Victory, Dogfish Head. The city itself has only four
>brewpubs. That's why, reported the Philadelphia City Paper last week,
>New Mexico beer guru Stan Hieronymous gives best beer city edge to
>Portland, Ore. But he ranks Philly among the top, with San Francisco.
>
>Though it wasn't and won't yet be mentioned in that tier, I think
>Pittsburgh now can hold its own as a great beer city, too.
>
>Maybe someone should organize 'Burgh Beer Week. All it would take is
>grouping some of the many events that already happen here regularly --
>from Venture Outdoors beer hikes and Cultural Trust "Beer School" to
>fests and fundraisers -- then building on those with more and letting
>businesses and groups jump on the beerwagon. Perhaps it could be
>planned around our beer high holiday: the Pennsylvania Microbrewers
>Fest, which will be held for the 13th time at the Penn Brewery on Troy
>Hill on June 7 (www.pennbrew.com).
>
>Penn Brewery's brick complex is one of the highest landmarks on the
>local beer landscape, having been started 20-plus years ago at the
>start of the craft beer revolution in the former Eberhardt & Ober
>brewery, which is connected to our deep "Iron City" beer-making roots.
>Penn beers are among the diverse styles made right here, from Munchner-
>style helles to kvass, several of which have brought home medals from
>beer competitions around the globe.
>
>Heck, you could organize your own 'Burgh Beer Week, and hold it just
>about anytime you wanted. Here are seven days of ideas to get you
>started.
>
>Thursday
>Visit a local brewer. On a Thursday (or a Tuesday or a Saturday), a
>good one to visit would be East End Brewing Co., a mostly one-man
>(Scott Smith) outfit in a nondescript warehouse in Homewood. Three
>times a week Mr. Smith props open the door for "growler" hours, during
>which he'll fill his $3 glass jug "growlers" with a half-gallon of one
>of his handmade draft beers for $10 to $12. Tonight, from 5 to 7 p.m.,
>he'll be pouring seven. Get some on your shoes. Shake Scott's hand.
>
>You can meet the brewer at several fine brewpubs: Penn, Rock Bottom in
>Homestead, John Harvard's in Wilkins, Rivertowne Pour House (17 house-
>made beers!) in Monroeville, Hereford & Hops in Cranberry, and Church
>Brew Works in Lawrenceville (more on that one later).
>
>Friday
>Visit one of our great beer bars. Pittsburgh has dozens, in real
>neighborhoods just like Philly's. Start with The Sharp Edge, which, in
>addition to its original location in Friendship, has comfy pubs in
>Crafton and Sewickley. The Edge is nationally and internationally
>noted for one of the best selections of Belgian brews, draft and
>bottled, in America.
>
>I love bellying up to the bar at Fat Head's on the South Side because
>it always has a remarkable and rotating 42 mostly American craft brews
>on tap.
>
>But hey, you find your own favorite watering hole.
>
>Saturday
>Take a beer road trip. Hey, "Philly Beer Week" is including breweries
>from the greater region, so Pittsburgh can claim some farther-out beer
>destinations, too. Don't miss North Country Brewing Co. in Slippery
>Rock, Butler County, and its gorgeous North Woodsy decor (in a 200-
>year-old storefront that once sold caskets). A bit farther north in
>Crawford County, fill a growler at Sprague Farm & Brew Works, where
>friendly Brian and Minnie Sprague make beer in a former dairy barn
>(and they'll put you up in the adjacent farmhouse lodge). A bit
>farther north and you can visit The Brewerie in Erie's former Union
>Station.
>
>And speaking of train stations, it is possible to take an Amtrak train
>from Pittsburgh to Greensburg, where you can disembark at the gorgeous
>train station that also is Red Star Brewery & Grill. According to the
>current schedule for the daily Pennsylvanian train, you'd leave
>Pittsburgh at about 7 a.m. and get there at about 8 a.m., then head
>home at about 7 p.m., but you could make a day of it. You could even
>go to and from Johnstown, home of the Johnstown Brewing Co.
>
>If you're able to, venture farther. No beer pilgrimage to this end of
>the state would be complete without drinking from "the Eternal Tap,"
>which flows freely from the Straub Brewery in St. Marys, Elk County,
>one of the country's few independent production breweries (it was
>started in 1872 by Peter Straub, who'd started at Pittsburgh's
>Eberhardt & Ober). Enjoy a free draft, if you're 21 or older, from 9
>a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays.)
>
>Sunday
>Go to church. The Church Brew Works in Lawrenceville is a beautiful
>brewpub in a former Catholic church. As beer experiences go, it is
>religious.
>
>Monday
>Go beer shopping. If you haven't been to one, hit one of the six-pack
>and bottle shops that have been popping up. There you can buy one
>bottle -- say, of a brew from Meadville's Voodoo Brewery -- to take
>home and try. D's in Regent Square is home of the famous "Beer Cave."
>Bocktown Beer & Grill in North Fayette has a "Beer Library." Most
>offer vast selections and regular free tastings (Wednesdays at
>Bocktown, Thursdays at Barley's & Hops in Bethel Park as well as at 3
>Sons Dogs and Suds in Pine.)
>
>Or make reservations for a beer dinner, something that more local
>restaurants are holding. On March 19, the Bigelow Grill, Downtown,
>hosts another of its sell-out vegetarian beer dinners featuring nine
>courses each paired with a different East End brew ($50,
>bigelowgrille.com).
>
>Tuesday
>Tour a brewery. Pittsburgh Brewing Co. in Lawrenceville is a classic
>brick brewery that, despite financial woes, continues to brew a lot of
>beer. You still can tour it, too, if you set it up with Bierhaus-bar-
>owner-turned-tour-guide Jerry Lorenz (e-mail jlironcity@com-cast.net).
>He promises a real view of the brewing process, not some sissy behind-
>glass peek at computerized bottling lines, and afterward, he'll take
>your group of two to 15 back for a free tasting at the Ober Haus
>hospitality room (Pittsburgh Brewing was formed from Eberhardt & Ober,
>Iron City and some 19 other breweries in 1899, making it the third
>largest in the country).
>
>With Alcoa, the brewer pioneered the pull-tab can back in 1962. Smell
>the history. And the beer. And ask Jerry about his private beer
>museum.
>
>City Brewing Co., which operates the former Rolling Rock brewery in
>Latrobe, does not offer tours. But you could drive past, and do a
>scavenger hunt for the Duquesne, Fort Pitt, Jones and other closed
>breweries that dot the region.
>
>By December, we're to get a new one: one of just three German
>Hofbrauhaus beer halls in this country.
>
>Wednesday
>Join a beer group. The 550-strong Pittsburgh Beer Society is one that
>meets on the first Wednesday of each month and holds other fun events.
>But there are others, including the similar Pittsburgh BrewMasters,
>the bar-crawling Pitt Stops and the Three Rivers Alliance of Serious
>Homebrewers (TRASH).
>
>Pittsburgh has so much good beery goodness, I don't have room for all
>that I know about, and I'm sure I missed some, too.
>
>That just proves my point.
>
>Certainly we have enough good brew to raise a toast to our big
>brotherly city: Best of luck with the first Philly Beer Week!
>
>For a full schedule and more on Philadelphia's event, visit
> www.phillybeerweek.org
>and www.gophila.com/beer.