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Category Archives: Allegheny County

Barrel-aging wood make that beer even better

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wood me two

If you leave a liquid inside a wood barrel long enough, magical things can happen.

This isn’t a secret. Vintners from from France to California and distillers from Scotland to Kentucky couldn’t do without the wood casks; their wines and whiskeys wouldn’t be the same without them.

These days, those wine and whiskey barrels often end up in the hands of craft brewers, who cherish them for the same reason — months inside a barrel will impart similar flavors the beer wouldn’t have otherwise. And yes, that means oaky notes or tannins from the wood, and additional layers from the booze that was left behind. Aging a stout in a bourbon barrel? You’re going to notice hints of that whiskey in your glass. And setting aside that same beer in barrel that was used to age pinot noir means you’re likely to find tastes of fruit alongside the beer you’re expecting.

There are plenty of famous examples of barrel-aged beers out there — the annual November release of Goose Island Bourbon County Brand Stout always causes an uproar — but before you go chasing down those, take a good look around here first, because there are plenty of examples to taste.

In the pursuit of the last two shows alone, I’ve come across several that are worth the time and effort to track down. At East End Brewing, I’ve tasted Old Knobby, the brewery’s bourbon-barrel aged stock ale, for the show and Steel Cut Oatmeal Stout off camera. You’ll see my reaction to my first taste of the excellent Red Russian stout at Hop Farm Brewing in this episode; the red wine-tinged imperial stout was worth being excited about. And if you happen to stop at Penn Brewery and they still have a bit of their barrel-aged St. Nikolaus Bock available, you shouldn’t pass it up.

I have another suggestion: Grab yourself a ticket to second-annual Good Wood Festival, scheduled for Jan. 16 at East End, which co-sponsors the event with Wigle Whiskey. Breweries all over the region are doing great things with barrels of all varieties — and they’ll all be available in one place that night.

Category: Allegheny County, Region | Tags:

Thankful for local beer on the table

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unnamed

Thanksgiving is just two weeks away and if you’re planning a full Thanksgiving dinner, you’ve got some decisions to make: How to cook the turkey? Sweet potatoes to go with the mashed? How many pies will be needed for dessert?

Oh, right — and what are we drinking?

Here’s a suggestion. Why don’t you skip the overly chilled bottle of chardonnay and track down a locally made beer to go with your bird?

Making the choice to serve beer isn’t hard; picking a specific beer or two, though, could feel a bit overwhelming. In the immediate area alone, there are dozens of breweries, each making multiple styles that would complement your feast. What’s the right choice to make?

Relax. This isn’t as complicated as it sounds. First off, it would be tough to come up with a wrong choice; personal preference counts for a lot in this case. But if you’re still struggling, let Meg Evans, Jake Voelker, Scott Smith, Steve Ilnicki, Michael Murphy and Andy Kwiatkowski — all pros at local craft beer businesses — give you a hand.

I asked each one for recommendations for a beer they brew or pour that would work well with a traditional Thanksgiving meal; I got responses ranging from a saison to a combination of spiced pumpkin beer and a sturdy stout. Why the picks? It might be a broad pairing with most of the dishes that will show up on your table; it might also be a notion that a hefty oatmeal stout would stand up to a smoked turkey breast.

(We asked our pros for another pick, one that they’re not responsible for making or selling; I’ll post those in a bonus video on the Beer Me Facebook page early next week.)

A bunch of choices. All available locally. I hope you can find a couple that would work on your Thanksgiving table.

Category: Allegheny County, Pittsburgh, Region | Tags: , , , ,

Trying to mead the demand

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dave me cranberry clove

Two years ago, David Cerminara was ready to take a leap.

After several years of working professionally as a brewer at Penn Brewing in Troy Hill, Mr. Cerminara had begun thinking of a way to pursue his private passion: brewing mead, the prehistoric style of wine made from fermented honey. The Carnegie native found a space in his hometown and, in the summer of 2014, opened up Apis Mead and Winery with a half-dozen varieties of his modern spin on the ancient drink.

Back then, Mr. Cerminara thought he had found a unique niche; nearly a year and a half later, that’s still the case. As it was when he opened, much of Mr. Cerminara’s professional time is spent educating the customers who walk through his doors; for example, while he makes what he calls a traditional mead — the sweeter, thicker, boozier liquid some of us expect when we hear the word — he concentrates on making a more drinkable beverage: lighter and featuring different flavors than the honey that is the backbone of each version.

As he expected when he surveyed Pittsburgh a couple of years ago and saw a hole in the market, the meads of Apis are in demand, both in his tap room in Carnegie and in bars and restaurants around the region. That’s put some strain on his brewing system, which has doubled in size since he opened and, with the arrival of several new tanks, will increase his capacity again.

That will allow Mr. Cerminara’s experimentation to continue unabated. Yes, as he says, there are meads on his tap list that are just honey, yeast and water, but the fun comes in trying some of the meadery’s more unusual combinations. Habanero peppers and mango? Delicious. Bourbon-barrel aged pumpkin and spice? A perfect warmer for weeks leading up to winter. Cranberry and clove? Thanksgiving is coming, and a bottle of that mead should be on your table. If you’re looking for something that might fall along the lines of a traditional wine, definitely try a bottle of Mr. Cerminara’s mead made with Sangiovese grapes.

It’s understandable if all of this sounds a bit intimidating, but don’t be afraid to stop by Apis at 212 E. Main St. in Carnegie. You’ll likely find Mr. Cerminara there, and he’ll be happy to help you get acquainted.

Post-Gazette coverage of Apis Mead and Winery:

Category: Allegheny County | Tags: , ,

Just a pizza shop — with big ambitions

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me and pizza

This is more than Nick Bogacz had in mind. Even so, he’s happy with the results.

Mr. Bogacz, the owner of Caliente Pizza and Draft Houses in Bloomfield and Hampton, had made a good living working in and running pizza shops; he had recipes that he thought would work and he set out to find a pizza business — take out or delivery only — of his own.

He had been turned down several times before hitting on a promising location on Liberty Avenue in Bloomfield. The catch? The purchase included a liquor license. That went well past the original business plan, but Mr. Bogacz said the numbers worked out … and he took the leap. He also made a fateful business decision — he was going to serve craft beer, as soon as he put in a little research time.

That work paid off. The original Caliente was about six months old when the second annual Pittsburgh Craft Beer Week rolled around, and I recall it kind of exploding into the city’s craft beer consciousness. That was thanks to some shrewd planning on the part of the owner, who made sure he jumped into the beer week efforts with both feet. Those smarts have continued with the opening of the Hampton location, which has been filled with busy suburbanites who wanted to stay caught up with the city’s craft beer scene.

And then there’s the step that goes well beyond what would normally be expected from a pizza shop would — Caliente is making beer. With the help of Matt Moninger — a former brewmaster at Church Brew Works and the currently lead bartender at the Hampton location — Caliente has done beer week collaborations with Church and with East End Brewing; they’ll co-release a collaboration with Draai Laag — a dark sour called The Plague — next weekend and there are plans to brew an IPA with Philadelphia’s Yards Brewing later this year.

I don’t have any reason to doubt Mr. Bogacz when he says he just wanted a pizza shop. But I’m pretty happy that he gave up on those plans three years ago.

Post-Gazette Coverage of Caliente Pizza and Draft House:

Category: Allegheny County | Tags: ,

The (craft beer) holidays have arrived

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dilla

Don’t pay any attention to what the calendar says; the holidays are here.

This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. After all, we’ve been seeing pumpkin beer — the recently crowned staple of autumn craft beer drinking — in stores and at distributors for weeks.

But if you work in the business, what we’ll call Holiday Beer Creep gets started even earlier. Want to make sure your bar has its fair share of pumpkin beer this year? You’re placing orders in June and July. Don’t want your customers to be shut out of Troegs Mad Elf or Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale in December? You’ve got Christmas beer on your mind in August.

The autumn and winter seasons bring distinctive, spicy profiles to the coolers of your favorite bottle shops. In the fall, that means beer that’s part of a larger trend for pumpkin-flavored everything; if it tastes like pumpkin pie, it’s probably going to make customers happy.

(Note: This doesn’t include Oktoberfest beers, those malty German lagers meant to accompany the folk festival that started in Munich in 1810. Before you get too caught up in the pumpkin craze, be sure to give a couple of fest beers a try.)

The winter flavor profiles aren’t as confined, but a bunch are similar: clove, ginger, cinnamon, honey, and maybe with a kicked-up ABV to help keep us warm.

The more jaded among us tend to give a sideways glance at the fall and winter seasonals and, especially, how they seem to stretch the start of their seasons earlier and earlier. But as Chris Dilla, owner of Bocktown Beer and Grill restaurants in Robinson and Monaca who is pictured above, told me this week, there are new ones to try every season — and it would be a shame to miss them.

Category: Allegheny County, Beaver County, Region | Tags: , , , , , ,
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