Post-Gazette Blogs

After 5 years, Arsenal finds a second cider house

Posted

IMG_1743

In their first year in business, Bill and Michelle Larkin occasionally found themselves with a problem — they were out of cider.

Arsenal Cider House, the cider and fruit wine tap room the couple started in their Lawrenceville home in 2010, proved to be popular enough that the Larkins occasionally had to shut down to allow the ciders in basement tanks to finish fermentation.

Demand for Fighting Elleck and Archibald’s Ado hasn’t flagged a bit, but the basement of the Larkins’ home — which sits across 39th Street from Arsenal Park — is filled with enough tanks to keep cider flowing at not one but two taprooms.

And that brings us to Soergel’s Orchards, the farm and country store in Wexford that has supplied Arsenal with base fruit juices since they got started. A discussion a few months ago turned into Arsenal’s second tap room, back in McIntosh Hall. The space is appropriately rustic for a Civil War-themed cider house, and there is plenty of room for outdoor tasting in a large, shaded patio in front of the hall.

The new location isn’t the only way Arsenal is marking the fifth anniversary. If you like outdoor drinking in the North Hills, chances are pretty good that you’ll like it even more at the newly completed cider garden, behind the original location. And if you show up on a weekend, chances are pretty good that you’ll also find one of Pittsburgh’s food trucks and maybe even a band back there.

Finally, I was happy to hear that the Larkins have plans to handle the demand that will likely come with the new spot. Mr. Larkin said they just bought a building in Penn Hills that will serve as a production facility when it gets running sometime in the next year. Arsenal’s staples will move to that spot, leaving Lawrenceville and Wexford available for small-batch experiments.

To summarize five years of Arsenal Cider: a garden, a second tap room and a way to ensure there’s plenty of cider to go around. And that sounds like a great anniversary to me.

Post-Gazette coverage of Arsenal Cider House:

Category: Allegheny County | Tags: , ,

A six pack of Big Hop? Yes we can

Posted

FullSizeRender

Cans and craft beer have already proven to be good partners, across the country and here in Pittsburgh. But it took a more recent brewing industry innovation — a mobile canning production line — to finally bring cans to East End Brewing.

Even with an exponential increase in square footage when Scott Smith moved his brewery to its current spot on Julius Street, figuring out where to squeeze in a canning line — not to mention the mountain of empty cans he’d need to store — in the space. Paying for the operation? That’s a whole other question.

And that’s where We Can Mobile Canning of Danville, Pa., comes in. One day last week, We Can owner Pete Rickert and colleague Jason Cichoskie spent about 12 hours canning 275 cases of Big Hop India pale ale, the first time East End’s flagship beer has been available in something other than a keg, a growler or glass.

Why the change? Mr. Smith has always preferred the idea of canning over a bottling operation (with the exception of the special-release bottles that appear at the brewery a few times each year); they’re lighter and they do a better job of protecting the product from light and oxygen.

Add to that the availability of a company that can store East End’s empty cans and bring the canning line to the brewery? The decision to start canning became much easier.

The guys at We Can are finding that’s the case across their territory, which ranges from Cincinnati to the East Coast. Mr. Rickert said We Can got started two years ago with Lavery Brewing in Erie and now cans up to 10,000 cases of beer each week.

“We’re the canning line, we’re the warehouse and we’re the labor,” he said. “All our customers have to do is get the cans to the distributor or to their customers. We’re here to make this process easy.”

Post-Gazette coverage of East End and We Can:

Category: Allegheny County | Tags: ,

Spoonwood starts small in a big space

Posted

IMG_1398

Steve Ilnicki doesn’t have designs on becoming huge.

But that doesn’t mean the head brewer of Bethel Park’s Spoonwood Brewing didn’t start big when the brewpub opened in late January. It’s a big space: a 15-barrel brewhouse, a full food menu, easy seating for 250 thirsty customers – or more, now that the patio is open. And it’s off to a big start.

While working as an assistant brewer at Homestead’s Rock Bottom, Mr. Ilnicki answered an ad on a jobs board at the American Brewing Guild’s web site for a new Pittsburgh brew pub; that turned out to be a new building at the site of an old railroad-themed restaurant – and an older train station – on Baptist Road in Bethel Park. Construction on the spacious building began late last summer and was wrapped up in time for a mid-winter soft opening.

Mr. Ilnicki likes drinking India Pale Ales, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that there are two on the tap list now – Killer Diller and Good-Eye Sniper – and the promise of more to come this summer. But he’s also a fan of Belgian styles, and he said more of those should join Elise, Spoonwood’s saison, very soon. There are some delicious, quirky beers ready to taste as well, especially Taffy Gruffudd, a Welsh ale – I’m not making that up, although Mr. Ilnicki might be – that boasts a malty sweetness and enough alcohol heat that it reminds me of a barleywine.

And while you’re sampling the beer, be sure to get something to eat; a pizza, just out of the wood-fired oven, is likely to be adorned with basil that was grown out back.

The pub and the brewhouse are spacious, and that means Mr. Ilnicki and partner Grant Scorsone won’t bump up against brewing capacity any time soon, even as they send a few kegs out to other pubs once in a while. Even with all that room, Mr. Ilnicki says he’ll be content to stay small.

Post-Gazette coverage of Spoonwood Brewing:

 

Category: Allegheny County | Tags:

Thumbs up for Hitchhiker

Posted

IMG_1269

Pittsburgh continues to reap the benefits of our Craft Brewing Class of 2014, and one of the best of that group is Mt. Lebanon’s Hitchhiker Brewing.

Just a little over a year ago, I had my first taste of Hitchhiker’s beer, when Gary Olden, the brewery’s owner, and Andy Kwiatkowski, its head brewer, brought a sixtel of their Tumbleweed Oatmeal Brown Ale to a Pittsburgh Craft Beer Week event. That was the first time most of us had sampled what was to come from Hitchhiker … and we drained the keg in under an hour.

Hitchhiker memory No. 2: About two weeks after the conclusion of Beer Week 2014, Hitchhiker opened its doors at noon on a Saturday for what was to have been a soft opening … except that there was nothing soft about it. Excited customers crowded the bar through the day, buying enough beer that Mr. Olden and Mr. Kwiatkowski stopped filling growlers because they didn’t have enough beer to keep up.

What’s changed since that enthusiastic start? Mr. Kwiatkowski is quick to say that while the brewery’s first batches were good, they have steadily improved since. Getting dialed in on the equipment in the basement brew house has made a difference, as has tinkering with the chemistry of the water at the brewery.

If you’ve been impressed with Hitchhiker in its first year, Mr. Kwiatkowski says you should be sure come back again — it’ll only get better from here.

Post-Gazette coverage of Hitchhiker Brewing:

Category: Allegheny County | Tags:

A bigger, better Beer Week

Posted
FullSizeRender(8)

Getting ready to start the East End Brewing Keg Ride.

I’m nearing full recovery after the craziness of the fourth-annual Pittsburgh Craft Beer Week, and it’s time to take a look back at how the week unfolded.

With each year, Beer Week organizers and the other folks in the industry display a little more creativity, finding new ways to showcase the region’s breweries, its brewers and its beer. That doesn’t make picking favorites any easier … but let’s try anyway.

Best events: I attended 11 of them over Beer Week’s 10 days, and all made a good impression. Two events at Carson Street Deli stood out; the local firkin festival did a nice job of showcasing local brewing talents, and I met — and caught up with — a bunch of great people from Erie at a Lavery Brewing dinner pairing. I try to not work during the annual Helltown cask takeover at Piper’s Pub, because who wants to take notes when we could be tasting five of Mt. Pleasant’s best beers. But for pure fun, it would to hard to top a first-time event, the Brewers’ Olympics, held at Grist House in Millvale. It helped that the weather was perfect; it also helped that everyone seemed to be ready to cut loose a little after a long week of more formal events — or as formal as beer events can be.

Best beer: And yes, this one is even more difficult. I got through most of the collaboration beers, but I’m sorry to say I couldn’t track down a taste of Ghoul Ranch Burritos or Seasons of Hell. Of the ones I did taste, my pick would be the Old GUYser, a beautifully hopped India pale lager from Penn Brewery, Roundabout and Voodoo. Favorite non-collaboration beers? Let’s call it a draw between a specially prepared cask of Lavery’s Ulster Breakfast Stout and Helltown’s Mischievous Brown Ale. And I have to make mention of one that I may never taste again — a pineapple/toasted coconut/rum barrel-aged mead from Apis that I freaked out over when I tasted it at 99 Bottles.

Pittsburgh Craft Beer Week seems to improve every year, which means the fifth edition should be even better. And I should have just enough time to make sure I’m properly rested.

Category: Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh Craft Beer Week, Region | Tags:
← Newer Entries Older Entries →