{"id":357,"date":"2016-12-08T20:15:44","date_gmt":"2016-12-09T01:15:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/beerme\/?p=357"},"modified":"2016-12-08T15:34:00","modified_gmt":"2016-12-08T20:34:00","slug":"a-good-start-for-helicon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/beerme\/allegheny\/a-good-start-for-helicon\/","title":{"rendered":"A good start for Helicon"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/beerme\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/12\/helicon-thumb.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-358\" src=\"http:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/beerme\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/12\/helicon-thumb.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"949\" height=\"531\" srcset=\"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/beerme\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/12\/helicon-thumb.jpg 949w, https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/beerme\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/12\/helicon-thumb-300x168.jpg 300w, https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/beerme\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/12\/helicon-thumb-768x430.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 949px) 100vw, 949px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s natural to expect that a brand new brewery might have some growing pains. Going from a homebrewing scale to a 15-barrel brewing system isn&#8217;t an easy transition, and that says nothing of all of the other tasks that come with opening and running a beer-making business.<\/p>\n<p>Unless, apparently, you work at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/heliconbrewing\/\">Helicon Brewing<\/a> in Oakdale.<\/p>\n<p>For Chris Brunetti and Andy Weigel, the first brew day on their new system wasn&#8217;t ideal &#8212; it took more than twice as long as it should, for one thing.<\/p>\n<div style=\"display: block; position: relative; max-width: 100%;margin-bottom:20px;\">\r\n<div style=\"padding-top: 56.25%;\">\r\n<video data-video-id=\"5240515432001\"\r\ndata-account=\"1105443290001\" \r\ndata-player=\"N1VVkFril\" \r\ndata-embed=\"default\" \r\ndata-application-id \r\nclass=\"video-js\" \r\ncontrols \r\nstyle=\"width: 100%; height: 100%; position: absolute; top: 0px; bottom: 0px; right: 0px; left: 0px;\"><\/video>\r\n<script src=\"\/\/players.brightcove.net\/1105443290001\/N1VVkFril_default\/index.min.js\"><\/script><\/div><\/div>\n<p>But it&#8217;s tough to argue with the result: 001 Pale Ale, a nicely balanced American pale that has become the brewery&#8217;s best-seller in its first month in business. Close on its heels: 002 India Pale Ale, a juicy New England style IPA that can make even a cold December afternoon feel like a day in the tropics.<\/p>\n<p>Add to that &#8212; among others &#8212; a blonde ale, an imperial stout and what is sure to be a long list of Mr. Weigel&#8217;s lagers &#8212; all good enough to prompt a cult-like following among Pittsburgh&#8217;s homebrewing community &#8212; and you get the sense that Helicon is going to do just fine.<\/p>\n<p>The brewery&#8217;s\u00a0distinction of being the first in western Allegheny County &#8212; it&#8217;s just a few minutes&#8217; drive south of the shopping areas in Robinson and North Fayette &#8212; will likely help as well, although that wasn&#8217;t part of the business plan; that&#8217;s just where Mr. Brunetti was able find space. It should work out well in the future, too; the parcel in Oakdale, the site of a former dog food factory, is big enough to accommodate the owner&#8217;s plans for a restaurant and other businesses.<\/p>\n<p>And the fact that the Panhandle Trail runs right along the property means there should be a ready-made audience for a cold beer or two in the warmer months.<\/p>\n<p>But don&#8217;t wait until then to give Helicon a try. You&#8217;d miss out on one of the region&#8217;s best new breweries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s natural to expect that a brand new brewery might have some growing pains. Going from a homebrewing scale to a 15-barrel brewing system isn&#8217;t an easy transition, and that says nothing of all of the other tasks that come with opening and running a beer-making business. Unless, apparently, you work at Helicon Brewing in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[5,6],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/beerme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/beerme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/beerme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/beerme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/beerme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=357"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/beerme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":359,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/beerme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357\/revisions\/359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/beerme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/beerme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/beerme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}