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Tag Archives: tap room

Talking beer and bourbon with Lew Bryson

Lew Bryson knows Pittsburgh liquids.

He may be a native of the Philly area, but Bryson, who splits his professional time writing about whiskey and beer, has spent a significant amount of time here, attending school at Carnegie Mellon and haunting some of our great old beer bars, like Chiodo’s Tavern in Homestead.

And even though his roots remain in the eastern side of the state, Bryson is here a lot, often enough that he knows what our breweries have to offer and how they stack up against the rest of the country. And he pretty much wrote the book on tasting whiskey (no, really — he wrote the book on tasting whiskey), so he knows what our craft distillers are up to as well.

Bryson was in town recently to share pours of a treat from Marker’s Mark: a Private Select blend he worked on with a few other spirits writers who, collectively, were known as the curmudgeons (seriously — it says so right on the bottle). And while we discussed the process of picking out differently prepared barrel staves that were used to give their bourbon some heft, we also took a little time to discuss the scene in Pittsburgh and how we’re buying and consuming our beer these days.

As promised in the show: find Bryson on Twitter. He’s got a few more bottles of that special Maker’s to share, so pay attention, and you might get a taste for yourself.

Category: Pittsburgh, Region | Tags: , ,

New brewery, old world styles at Cobblehaus

If you’re spending a lot of time in Dusseldorf, it’s probably a good idea to get to know the local beers.

We don’t necessarily have to travel to Dusseldorf to get to know the styles native to that German city; we can just go to Cobblehaus Brewing in Coraopolis instead.

Owner and brewer Scott Mills got to known the beers of Dusseldorf thanks to a good number of work-related trips there years ago. And that’s one of the reasons why Cobblehaus emphasizes European beer styles — that’s what he likes.

When you stop at Cobblehaus, start with a glass of the altbier, called Olde Towne. It’s a style native to Dusseldorf, it’s the recipe that Mills has been tinkering with the longest … and thanks to the clean, well-balanced flavors, it’s also been the brewery’s best seller. And if you go soon, you’ll be able to get another Dusseldorf treat: the seasonal sticke Altstadt, typically released in the late fall, with boosted flavors and ABV; it is a rich, warming treat, especially good for a chilly November day.

The other spot on the map Mills likes is Belgium. Give the Tin Man saison a try — it has a little more heft than many saisons, but you’ll also notice a little citrus melding with the style’s earthy base. And check back later this year; a Belgian quad will be released in time for the holidays.

And finally, you don’t have to stay in Europe — there are excellent beers on tap that will be more familiar. Five O’Clock porter has huge coffee flavors while maintaining a lighter body; Moon Hop IPA uses crystal malts for a unique twist on the style.

Ready to go halfway around the world and back? All you need to do is get to Coraopolis, and Cobblehaus Brewing.

Hitchhiker opens up shop in Sharpsburg

Once Gary Olden and Andy Kwiatkowski found a new home for Hitchhiker Brewing, making the change didn’t take all that long.

It was finding the home that was the tough part.

Olden, the owner, and Kwiatkowski, the head brewer, started looking for a larger space for Hitchhiker since shortly after the Mt. Lebanon brewery opened. The taproom in the original home has served — and will continue to serve — customers well, but the three-barrel brewhouse was stuffed into the basement of the building, forcing the pair to find some creative solutions when it came to storing hops and grains, cleaning and filling kegs … oh, and making beer.

They thought they had a place lined up off East Carson Street in the South Side, but city of Pittsburgh red tape — and what would have been a hefty plumbing bill — meant that space was unsuitable. But the search stretched into a second year before a break came for Hitchhiker; Olden was visiting Sharpsburg to check out another property when he noticed the massive outbuilding that had been the power house for the old Fort Pitt brewery. It turned out that the building was for sale, and by last winter, Olden, Kwiatkowski and a small crew had started work on building a new brewery and tap room.

The brewhouse was done first, and Kwiatkowski brewed his first beer there — an APA called 15th and Canal, for the new brewery’s location in Sharpsburg — in June. The taproom, though, took a bit longer — they put the finishing touches on it just in the last week or two, and opened the doors for a couple test nights this week.

The public space makes an impression right away. The tile work was preserved, as were the beams and skylights that give the room its industrial look. The curved bar is backed by a wall of taps. Twelve of those were pouring Hitchhiker beers when I visited this week; a handful of guest liquids were pouring from the others.

When you visit — the grand opening is scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 9 — get a peek in the brewhouse if that door is open. The massive space makes the 15-barrel system seem small. It also means there is plenty of room to grow if there is need; adding more tanks to the space would be easy, and a canning line would fit nicely as well. A few more additions are already in place: two 1,000-gallon foeders — wood vats that will age sour beers — and a wall of smaller barrels for barrel-aged products.

But here’s the best part: the beer. Kwiatkowski doesn’t hesitate to say that Hitchhiker’s products have improved since he started brewing on the new system earlier this summer. And look for higher ABV beers as well; Kwiatkowski said the old system simply didn’t have enough capacity for the grains he needed to build, for example, a double IPA (spoiler alert: there’s one on the way).

If you’re a fan of the cozy Mt. Lebanon taproom, don’t worry — it’s not going anywhere. But if you live on the other side of Pittsburgh’s rivers, you’re in for a treat. And you don’t even have to hitch a ride to get there.

Mindful starts big in the South Hills

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You can’t blame a startup business for taking a conservative approach. Modest beginnings, after all, can lift some pressure and leave room for growth.

Or, you could do what Mindful Brewing Co. did. Go big. And knock it out of the park.

Brewer Nick Jones said the original plan for Mindful was to follow a time-honored blueprint for new craft breweries: Find a place just big enough for the brewhouse, a small tap room and space to park a food truck or two. What Mindful ended up with instead was a two-story palace, with a full restaurant, what would be a first-class bottle shop if it were a standalone business and a brewery that’s been turning out first-class beers since it opened four months ago.

The decision to forgo the more modest plans was driven by the space;  the Library Road property that had been home to the John McGinnis & Co. grocery became available during the search, and although was larger than what the Mindful team had envisioned, it was too good to pass up.

Another accident of timing worked in Mindful’s favor as well. The wife of brewer Marcus Cox had just accepted a job at the University of Pittsburgh and Mr. Cox — twice named Champion Medium Australian Brewer for the beers he made at Thunder Road Brewing near Melbourne, Australia, his hometown — came to Pittsburgh last year in search of a brewing job. “I put in one application, and that was here,” Mr. Cox said.

Mr. Jones had several recipes ready for the big time, including his hugely popular lime-agave wheat, and Mr. Cox brought several of his staples, including what is now Mindful’s Straight Kolsch and Red Brain amber, from Australia. They’ve worked together to scale recipes for their 10-barrel system, and they’re working on new beers, with each other and with outside collaborators.

The brewers and the rest of Mindful’s crew hasn’t had much time to ponder how things have been going since the doors opened in late January … because they’ve been far too busy. But with four months behind them, the guys running the brewery say they now have a sense of what beers are popular — the three aforementioned beers are all in the top four best-sellers — and how much time and tank capacity they can devote to experiments. And they might even be able to make enough to distribute a bit to other craft beer spots in town.

Because, you know, they didn’t start quite big enough.

Post-Gazette coverage of Mindful Brewing Co.:

#PCBW: Barrel-aged surprises from Voodoo Homestead

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It’s one of the best days in craft beer in Western Pennsylvania: when Voodoo releases bottles from its barrel-aging program. The releases are limited; they’re also coveted, which means scoring a share almost feels like a competitive sport.

And that’s what made Saturday’s event at Voodoo’s Homestead tap room so special — if you hadn’t had a chance to taste some of those beers, the barrel-aged tap takeover was your chance. Here is the list, stolen from the Voodoo Homestead Facebook page, that served as the starting point for the day:

Yep, that does say ManBearPig, probably the whale-iest of all of Voodoo’s whalez. If you weren’t there at noon — and I was not — you probably didn’t get a taste of that one. Thanks to a friend, I did get a taste of the Buffalo Trace Black Magick and a couple of other rarities that were added to the list later in the afternoon. I also had a glass of fresh Pork Chop Sandwiches, a delicious IPA that showed up on tap after the initial rush.

How long did the ManBearPig last? Watch the clip to see what Jake has to say about that.