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Down on the Hop Farm

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At almost two years old, Hop Farm Brewing has a growing problem.

Owner Matt Gouwens isn’tĀ having any problems growing ingredients for the beer he brews at 56th and Butler streets in Lawrenceville; the day we visited, he was dumping home-grown lime basil into a tank of saison that will be ready to drink in a few short weeks.

Instead, the issue was the tanks themselves — as in, Mr. Gouwens didn’t have enough of them. That was partially corrected earlier this year, when gleaming new tanks came on line, more than doubling the brewery’s storage capacity. There could be more on the way soon, if theĀ plan — more capacity and an expansion of the brewery’s in-house tap system to include as many as 15 lines, including one that will be dedicated to barrel-aged beers — comes to fruition.

In the meantime, Mr. Gouwens will continue to churn out a full line of staples and inventive seasonals and one-offs. In the tanks this week is the aforementioned — and as yet unnamed — lime basil saison; while we talked this week, he mentioned that his first-ever hefeweizen would be replaced this fall by a dunkelweizen … or maybe even a pumpkin dunkelweizen. Those go well with the raspberry-tinged Copperhop IPA the brewery made earlier this year and a growing sours program (Remember 2014’s sour blonde Margot? A barrel-aged version will be available soon).

And if the beer isn’t enough to get you to the brewery there are a handful of events coming up in the next month or two that should. The Lawrenceville Rock All Night Tour on Aug. 15 will bring bands, beers and several food trucks to 56th Street outside the brewery. The Aug. 30 King of the Wing event is sold out, although Mr. Gouwens said a few tickets could be released later this month. And tickets for the big one — the brewery’s 2nd anniversary party Sept. 25, which will feature more than two dozen food-and-beer pairings — will go on sale towards the end of this month. And that sounds like an excellent anniversary to me.

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