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Getting bigger but thinking small at Rivertowne

Posted June 23, 2016 • 0 comment

I recall my first visit to Rivertowne Pour House in Monroeville about a decade ago; I was impressed that they were able to keep 18 taps pouring their own beer, brewed on a small, in-house system.

The hard work it took to keep all that beer flowing back then was a precursor to Rivertowne Brewing’s position now: distributing its staples in six states while still being nimble enough to experiment … and come up with great results.

The growth that came with the startup of its production brewery in Murrysville — Rivertowne sells beer in Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, New Jersey, North Carolina and Florida, where the brand is especially popular in Bradenton, the spring home of the Pirates — has given brewmaster Andrew Maxwell, who gave up a job as a chemist with a pharmaceutical company to follow his passion for brewing, a chance to continue tinkering while maintaining an almost-obsessive watch over the liquids he’s in charge of making; talk to Mr. Maxwell for 30 minutes, and the words “quality control” will come up at least a half-dozen times.

Much of the tinkering comes on the system in the Monroeville Pour House, which Mr. Maxwell said has practically become an extension of his body. Need an amber that features honey and chamomile? That’s where it would start. Turning a one-off pineapple beer into a year-round sensation? Here’s a spoiler for a bonus video to be released next week: it happened in Monroeville as well.

Rivertowne grew up in Pittsburgh, and even as the brand has grown, Mr. Maxwell and founder Christian Fyke still acknowledge the brewery’s roots. Rivertowne’s annual Rhythm and Brews party is scheduled for Aug. 27 at Tall Trees Amphitheater in Monroeville. Proceeds raised from the event will result in a hefty donation to local charities; the brewery’s other annual events — haunted brewery tours in October, the Hibernation party in January and the Jahla party in April all do the same.

You can now find Rivertowne beers in five other states. You can drink Old Wylie’s IPA in the the Hall of Fame Club at PNC Park. But you can still find the experiments of Mr. Maxwell and the other staff brewers at Rivertowne’s four restaurants or at its brewery tap room — it will never be too big for that.

Category: Allegheny County, Region, Westmoreland County | Tags: breweries, brewpubs, tap room

Five years, dozens of beers — that’s Beer Week

Posted April 28, 2016 • 1 comment

When you reach a five-year milestone, it feels right to take a moment and reflect on the path that got you there. And if you think back to the first Pittsburgh Craft Beer Week — especially if you do so right after completing the fifth — you’ll understand just how far the industry has come in that time.

Were there a dozen Pittsburgh-area craft breweries back then? And will there be three or four times that many by the end of 2016?

As we learned last week, it’s not just the number that should leave an impression. It’s the quality of the beer as well. Just look at this year’s collaboration beers: breweries that haven’t yet opened or got started in the last six months contributed to five of the seven official collaborations, and all were excellent.

Summarizing my beer week is always a tough task. But let’s give it a try.

Favorite events: I made a point to try to get to some new stuff (to me, anyway), and I liked everything I got to. A standout was Oysterfest, the annual party under the Homestead Grays Bridge put on by Blue Dust — and I’m not even a fan of oysters, although the festival’s namesakes drew huge lines all afternoon. The beer choices were unique — don’t pass up a chance to try stuff from Shawnee Craft Brewing as it shows up around here, boys and girls — and there were plenty of food trucks for those who didn’t want oysters. I was also pleasantly surprised by the Summer Craft Brewhaha, a summer seasonal preview held at Altar Bar; the selection was far from predictable and the space worked out better than I expected. I hit some staples as well: the annual Wednesday beer breakfast at Piper’s Pub featured an extra delicious menu this year, perhaps in celebration of its spot on the calendar (April 20, ahem); the Helltown Brewing cask takeover at Piper’s, this year with beef braised in the brewery’s Mischievous Brown Ale as the dinner special; and if I can help it, I will never miss an edition of the Brewers’ Olympics, the event at Grist House that puts a perfect cap on the week.

Favorite beers: Here’s a great sign — the collaboration beers are more consistently good every year. With one slightly embarrassing caveat — that this North Side resident never got a taste of the Mash Paddle vs. Hipster India Red Lager collab from Penn, Spring Hill, War Streets and Allegheny City — I’ll say that the standout among the collaborations was Greenfield Bridge is Falling Down, the deliciously juicy Vermont-style IPA from Spoonwood, Helltown and two newcomers: Helicon and Dancing Gnome. I loved all of the other collaborations, but I have to give specific mention to one more, mostly because I made such a big deal about it in my beer week previews: white stouts — like Prospero, from Rock Bottom, Hitchhiker, Bloom Brew and and Eleventh Hour — work wonderfully, even if one’s brain can’t figure out in advance how a white stout might work. A few others: I really liked 5 Point Black IPA, the collaboration between Carson Street Deli and Rock Bottom; Big Boots Gose, a margarita-esque effort from the women of Pittsburgh’s Pink Boots Society; and as it starts to get warmer, be on the lookout for Grapefruit Chinookee IPA from Full Pint — it was a standout at the summer festival.

Category: Pittsburgh Craft Beer Week, Region | Tags: breweries, brewpubs, cask ale, PCBW, Pink Boots Society, Pittsburgh Craft Beer Week, restaurants, seasonal beer, tap room

Reclaiming craft beer in Butler

Posted March 17, 2016 • 0 comment

Mike and John Smith taste three Reclamation beers at the brewery’s pub in Butler.

Butler has always had bars, even some good ones.

But there is something different about a brew pub; it can inspire community and loyalty, and the beers themselves can become friends along with the regulars sitting next to you.

John Smith, his son Ben and their friend Ben Duncan built Reclamation Brewing on Main Street in Butler with Irish pubs in mind; not just in a physical sense — although the 125-year-old planks in the floor and the re-purposed tin ceiling tiles on the face of the bar contribute to a definite Irish feel in the space, which had been a gift shop. In the best pubs they found in Ireland — the ones that dotted the countryside towns, not the ones built for tourists in Dublin — were the community.

And that’s what they wanted for Reclamation. It’s right there on the brewery’s site:

The pub has always been and always will be a place for the community to gather, make connections, share ideas and perspectives, discuss the world, and have a great time together.

John and the Bens began brewing together years ago, as an easier alternative to the wine making they had dabbled with before. Some experimentation led to a few recipes that became regulars — a roasty milk stout, a slightly sweet pale ale and — of course — a dry Irish stout.

They’re all still regulars — Spurgeon’s, Promised Land and Egan’s, respectively — in Butler’s first brewpub, but they have regular company on the menu ranging from standards — Butler Brown, Everyman’s Red and a Belgian Wit called Wittenburg — to hot ginger pales and hefty limited-release barleywines and wee heavies.

That’s enough variety to keep regulars happy … and keep them coming back for more.

Category: Butler County | Tags: brewpubs

Brewing for all Four Seasons

Posted March 3, 2016 • 1 comment

There’s nothing like a little hardware to give a new craft brewery a shot in the arm.

Latrobe’s Four Seasons Brewing Co. had made it through the hard part — finding a home, finding some capital and finding some equipment — and had been in business for not quite a year when, on a fall night in 2014, Mark Pavlik noticed that the brewery’s name kept popping up on social media.

The messages were from the Great American Beer Festival in Colorado, and they told Mr. Pavlik, the brewer and owner, that his oatmeal stout, Dark Side of the Pint, had won a silver medal for the style.

Things were going well at that point, Mr. Pavlik said, but the medal brought the kind of attention that money can’t buy. It wasn’t the only reason the brewery has been able to double capacity since then — and it’s not the sole thing behind Mr. Pavlik being able to convert what started as a growler shop into a full pub — but the hardware definitely helped.

You’ll find Dark Side of the Pint on tap — and maybe on nitro, a creamy treat — when you visit the Four Seasons pub on Lloyd Avenue Extension in Latrobe, along with some others that have become favorites of mine: Bang Bang Double IPA, a juicy bombshell that masks its alcohol-by-volume of nearly 9 percent, and Local, a crisp, hoppy American pale ale that is guaranteed to make a pizza taste twice as good.

You may also soon find Dark Side or Bang Bang in bottles or cans near you. Four Seasons recently took over an additional section of its leased building, and although he doesn’t yet know specifics, Mr. Pavlik has plans for packaging sometime soon.

And that’s great news, regardless of the season.

Post-Gazette coverage of Four Seasons Brewing:

Category: Westmoreland County | Tags: breweries, brewpubs, GABF

For Fat Head’s fans, there’s no rivalry in beer

Posted January 7, 2016 • 0 comment

I remember my first Head Hunter IPA.

I had tasted another Fat Head’s beer before, a tripel contract-brewed in Belgium for the Carson Street saloon and craft beer bar, but this was something else entirely. I didn’t know all the details then, but I had heard about a new Fat Head’s brewpub in Cleveland … and I had heard the IPA was excellent.

And that was an understatement; loaded with rich citrus and sharp pine flavors, Head Hunter wasn’t for the faint of heart, then or now … but it is for anyone who appreciates an aggressive, well-built IPA.

Since then, the Fat Head’s empire — spanning from the South Side to Cleveland’s western suburbs and now to a new brewpub in Portland, Oregon — has grown exponentially. The brand’s portfolio grows each year and with it the list of awards it brings home from the Great American Beer Festival and the World Beer Cup.

There definitely aren’t any signs of a rivalry between Glenn Benigni, who founded Fat Head’s in Pittsburgh nearly 25 years ago, and Matt Cole, the Ohioan who oversees the Fat Head’s breweries. And although I wondered about the arrangement when I first heard of it, there was nothing contentious about starting the brewing side in Cleveland; that’s where Mr. Cole found investors and a location as he finished up a years-long stint at Rocky River Brewing, also in the Cleveland area. A Fat Head’s franchise was sold in North Olmstead, and the Fat Head’s beer soon began flowing to the South Side.

“We look at it has having two backyards,” Mr. Benigni says when asked about the two cities. “We have the best of both worlds.”

And so do we, regardless of which city we call home.

Post-Gazette coverage of Fat Head’s:

Category: Ohio, Pittsburgh | Tags: breweries, brewpubs, tap room