Pittsburgh or Bust (Saturday)

I worked up my thirst wandering around the city Saturday morning so onto East End Brewing, arriving there just after noon for the release of Gratitude 2008, which was originally set to be released months ago but there was a slight protein burn issue that left Gratitude tasting like burnt hair. I know, you like a good keratin OD occasionally right?  Thankfully (pun intended, if you caught it), Scott remade the formula and it is quite delicious. Also filled a growler of Session Ale #25, Dark Rye Kvass, brewed with 60 loaves of rye and fermented with bread yeast.

Scott also offered up pretzels, chips, and cheese to offer something to soak up the barleywine this hot summer day.  He is Cool People, down to earth and outgoing. The first time I met him was at a cask event in State College last year.  A few college kids invited some of us beer geeks to a party.  In true frat boy style, we ended up drinking Gratitude out of plastic cups that had otherwise been reserved for the Yuengling keg.

The Hofbrauhaus in Munich, Germany has been brewing for 400 years.  There are only three locations in the US right now including Pittsburgh, Newport, Kentucky, a suburb of Cincinnati (Munich’s “sister city” it seems), and Vegas, with more on the way.  Oktoberfest is on my bucket list, but I had to check out this bier garden with seating for more than a grand.  All beer is brewed under the supervision of the Staatliches Hofbrauhaus (State Owned Hofbrauhaus) in Munich.  They brew four beers year round- the Lager, Munich Weizen, Dunkel, and Light- and one monthly seasonal.  The June seasonal, German Pilsner, had been drained already and was replaced by the Zwickelbeer, a 5.2% unfiltered lager.  It was good but the Weizen I ordered was delicious, albeit slightly short pours…  It had sweet cereal malt with complimented by banana and clove, or a fancy way of saying a totally gnarly summer beer.  The location is perfect alongside the Monongahela River (say that ten beers past) and the beer hall inside holds long tables for plenty of beer drinkers to clink glasses together and sing Zicke Zacke, Zicke Zacke, Hoi Hoi Hoi.

When I know I’ll be paying homage to my German heritage (drinking is in our blood!), I become a carbovore, feasting my eyes on The Works Combo. This spread of fried zucchini (with a lemon aioli sauce), pretzels (with bier cheese sauce), potato pancakes (with apple sauce), and fried sauerkraut balls (with mustard) would help me remain buoyant the remainder of the day.  And of course the menu is a smorgasboard of traditional German foods including Gulaschsuppe (Hungarian Gulash), Jagerschnitzel (breaded pork cutlet with a wine mushroom and bacon sauce), and Spatzle (noodles), as well as salads and fish for the unadventurous.  The Hofbrauhaus Wurstlteller was a delicious sausage fest.  There are three varieties- the mettwurst (beef), bierwurst (pork and beef), and bratwurst (pork) served with sauerkraut and mashed potatoes.  Yes, this is by all means a touristy, commercialized operation, but definitely worth a visit.

Last stop on the beer tour- Penn Brewery.  Tom Pastorius opened Penn Brewing in 1986 in a historic brick building in the Deuthschtown section of Pittsburgh’s Northside, formerly home to Eberhardt and Ober Brewery, which opened in 1882.  This building is probably held together by mash. Unfortunately, some disagreements between the property owner and the Penn Brewing CEO have left the brewing operation in limbo. While a few months ago, it was almost inevitable they were going to move somewhere else, a deal was reached at the last minute supposedly extending the lease. The bartender basically said everything was still up in the air. Brewing operations ceased in December, the bottling line sold, and Lion Brewing was contracted to brew Penn’s beers and so far they don’t seem to have screwed the recipes up. Samplers are nice sized and include the Pilsner, Dark, Gold, Weizen, Marzen, and St. Nicolas Bock.

They did have a fancy looking 8 liter beer stein on the counter. I joked that would make a great happy hour drink, roughly 270 ounces, or 22.5 beers.  The bar manager then filled it (with water…) and had me lift the thing. You’d need giant pixie stick straws to even attempt such a feat, but we did start trying to sell it as the special of the night. I posed he should contact Adam Richman for a sort of Man vs. (Liquid) Food challenge but I’m not sure he wants to take on something that borders Alcohol Poisoning or requires getting his stomach pumped.

Beer Passport

Club seats at PNC Park- sweet view, right on the river, walking distance from hotel

$5 concession stand credit (and $4.50 hot dogs)

2 hours of unlimited East End and Church Brew works beers (including CBW

Coconut Porter, Big Hop, and EE Monkey Boy)

No affiliation to either team (root for home team- NL team- duh)

Two elusive triples in one game- what’s the useless stat on that ESPN?

Fireworks after the game

Do you think I had fun? Hells yeah!