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A sweet start for Greensburg Craft Beer Week

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The first-ever Greensburg Craft Beer Week got off to a good start on Monday … especially for those of us with a sweet tooth.

I started in downtown Greensburg, where Hugo’s Taproom — a cozy neighborhood pub with good-looking food and a great-looking tap list — hosted a beer and chocolate pairing. The beer was provided by Quinn Brewing, which brought along four rich, malt forward selections to compliment the chocolates. And the chocolates gave us a preview of McFeely’s Gourmet Chocolate, a shop that’s set to open a Greensburg location soon.

The pairings all worked well; my favorite was definitely Braddock’s Golden Ale — a soft, approachable beer that Alan Quinn said was the brewery’s “regular beer” — and a dark chocolate-jalapeno bark.

From there, I stopped at Tapped Brick Oven and Pour House, to get a little dinner and to get a taste of Foster Pumpkin Project, a pumpkin beer made by the folks at Tapped and Delmont’s Yellow Bridge Brewing. I also followed up my delicious thin-crust pizza with a #gbgcbw dessert pairing: beers from Fat Head’s and desserts from Sweet Tarte’s Bakerie; my choice was the Goggle Fogger hefeweizen and a slice of bananas Foster cheesecake.

And then I waddled out to my car and drove home.

The dessert pairing and the pumpkin collab will be available at Tapped all week, and there are plenty more events to entice a drive to Greensburg. Take a look at the schedule, and then head east this week … it’s worth the trip.

Category: Region, Westmoreland County | Tags: , ,

Greensburg gets its own craft beer week

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Jeff Guidos, owner of All Saints Brewing, discusses the collaboration beers he’s readying for Greensburg Craft Beer Week.

Don’t think Greensburg has enough going on to sustain its own version of a beer week?

Think again.

GBG and the surrounding area is home to some of the best breweries in the region, from long-timers like All Saints to brand-new places like Yellow Bridge. There’s an established group of taverns and restaurants that put craft beer front and center. And there’s a growing enthusiasm for better beer, in Greensburg and throughout Westmoreland County.

Still not buying it? Consider this: organizers of the first Greensburg Craft Beer Week, scheduled for Oct. 9-15, was originally going to be held over a long weekend; since the event was announced, though, the list of stuff to do has ballooned to close to 40 events — as of press time, that is — spread out over a full week.

The week had been a longtime daydream of Jenn Weir who, as a brewery rep, had firsthand experience with successful craft beer weeks in Pittsburgh and Cleveland. The daydream was set in motion more than a year ago when Weir, now with Greensburg Beverage, discussed her vision with Jess Hickey of the Downtown Greensburg Project; Hickey has been organizing the event since.

What’s to come once the week begins? The full events listing is here, but the highlights include several beer dinners and events that pair beers with desserts, doughnuts and even cigars. If you’re feeling active, there are brewery-hosted yoga classes and a bike tour. And there are some definite headliners: Art on Tap at the gorgeous Westmoreland Museum of American Art, a Friday the Firkenteenth party at Tapped and a tasting tent at Seton Hill University’s homecoming tailgate party.

And yes, there is beer — local breweries have teamed to make four collaboration beers for the week. All Saints owner Jeff Guidos said he’s worked with Noble Stein to brew a red IPA and with Rivertowne to brew a double IPA, the first time he’s made a high-gravity IPA. Fury and Levity will release a Baltic porter brewed with rich plums and on the week’s opening night, Yellow Bridge and the folks at Tapped will release a pumpkin pie beer — based on the restaurant’s pumpkin pie recipe — to benefit the Foster Love Project.

Let’s see: A great local craft beer scene? Check. More events than one person could attend? Check. Collabs? Check.

Greensburg Craft Beer Week? Check … as in, make sure you to Greensburg and check it out.

Category: Westmoreland County | Tags: , ,