Day 333, Nov 29 / All In Amber

Day 333 / November 29, 2011

All In Amber

Full Pint Brewing Company / North Versailles, PA

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Chinookie last night, a quickie tonight.

All In Amber Ale was Full Pint's first beer released.  It’s a good, sessionable amber ale, not too hoppy, nice malt character.  Give it a try… if you live in the greater Pittsburgh area.

Day 332, Nov 28 / Chinookie IPA

Day 332 / November 28, 2011

Chinookie IPA

Full Pint Brewing Company / North Versailles, PA

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Got a little Chinookie last night. Or… A Beer Run within a Beer Run.

It’s kind of like Inception.  It’s a Beer Run within a Beer Run.  Wrap your head around that!

I’m still swigging beers from Pittsburgh (just not IN Pittsburgh anymore).  But starting with Sunday’s RumpelPilsen, I’ve been drinking beers from Full Pint Brewing Company.

Last night I got a little Chinookie.  Chinookie IPA, that is.  Full Pint’s IPA is made with Chinook hops, then dry hopped with more of the same.  You know what they say… Chinookie is like pizza…

Beers I Didn't Bring Back from Pittsburgh

Day 331, Nov 27 / RumpelPilsen

Day 331 / November 27, 2011

RumpelPilsen

Full Pint Brewing Company / North Versailles, PA

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Brought a little bit of the ‘Burgh home with me.

If you’ve spent any time in Pennsylvania, you’ll know that beer is mostly sold by the case by distributors.  So you’ve got to really like a beer if you’re going to commit to 24 of the same beers at a time.  Fortunately, most craft brewers offer a mixed case sampler pack, with at least three or four different beers.  Since the year of beer is coming to a close, I figured it was safe to buy a case for the new year.

Full Pint Brewing Company was started in 2010 by former brewers from a defunct John Harvard’s brewpub in Monroeville, PA.  Their beers are distributed within Pennsylvania only.

As legend tells it… Remplestiltzkin spun straw into gold.  Rumplelpilsen spins malt and hops into a liquid gold creating a brew of mythological proportions.

RumpelPilsen is their pilsner beer, and it is a clean crisp beer.  There is a mild hop taste, not too bitter.  Definitely a good, sessionable beer.

Pittsburgh Magazine did a nice write-up on Full Pint Brewing in their June issue.

Day 330, Nov 26 / Hofbrau Dunkel

Day 330 / November 26, 2011

Hofbrau Dunkel

Hofbrauhaus Pittsburgh / Pittsburgh, PA

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A beer at the end of the rainbow.

I gladly endured an afternoon of shopping with my wife, mother-in-law, sister-in-law and bickering cousins, because I knew what was waiting for me at the end of the afternoon.  We drove dahntahn to Station Square, where my one niece and her dad boarded The Good Ship Lollipop paddle wheeler for a birthday party / Santa cruise on the river.  Station Square isn’t quite the attraction it used to be.  Close to half the shops are now vacant, and at least three of the others only sell Steelers and Penguins gear. 

So we headed down to the Southside Works, a relatively new shopping, dining and entertainment district on the Southside, at Carson and 27^th streets.  After another 90 minutes of poking, there it was, our final destination.  Hofbrauhaus Pittsburgh!

Hofbrauhaus Pittsburgh is modeled after the original Hofbrauhaus in Munich.  The place is huge – it seats 450 in two indoor beer halls, and another 600 on outdoor patios and terraces, some of which are enclosed and heated for the colder months.  There were lots of kids in there around 5pm, and they can be loud!  There is a stage for an oompah band, but the only entertainment during our visit was a guy who looked like Santa in lederhosen, playing an electric organ with yodeling apparently sampled on the keys.

They brew all of the beer onsite, using German recipes and techniques, in an impressively clean brewhouse.  They offer lager, light lager, hefeweizen, dunkel and a rotating seasonal or two.  And they’ve got a full menu of schnitzels, wursts, goulash, sauerkraut and spaetzle.   And chicken fingers and cheeseburgers for those not so adventurous.

That’s my liter of dunkel in the picture and my wife’s half liter of lager.  The dunkel was a tasty, malty delight.  And you just can’t but love drinking a beer out of a glass like that.  The waitresses there must certainly get a workout!

Photo credits for the last pictures below to some Yelpers!

Day 329, Nov 25 / Old Wylie’s IPA

Day 329 / November 25, 2011

Old Wylie’s IPA

RiverTowne Pourhouse / Pittsburgh, PA

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Beer hopping in the ‘Burgh!

My brother-in-law and I headed out to hit a few local beer bars on Friday night, starting at The Sharp Edge Creekhouse in Crafton, PA.  The Sharp Edge is a beer and food café, with five locations in the Pittsburgh area.  They started out primarily serving Belgian beers, but now offer a good selection of craft and local beers as well.

My beer selections at Sharp Edge were Coronado’s Islander IPA and a Bell Haven Scottish Ale, both good selections, if I do say so myself.

Then we headed downtown to the RiverTowne Pourhouse, located down near Heinz Field.  RiverTowne is a chain of restaurants and brewpubs.  Not all of the locations brew their own beer – they didn’t at this location, but they serve beer brewed at the Monroeville location.

The Old Wylie’s IPA (named after their fish mascot) was decent, good but nothing too special.

Our last stop of the night was the Tilted Kilt, right across from RiverTowne.  The beer selection was nothing special, but the scenery was pretty good!

The Sharp Edge Creekhouse

Day 328, Nov 24 / Kaiser Pils

Day 328 / November 24, 2011

Kaiser Pils

Pennsylvania Brewing Co / Pittsburgh, PA

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I’m thankful for beer!

And many other things, of course.  But good beer is definitely on the list.

I had a very nice Thanksgiving dinner yesterday at my in-law’s in-law’s house.  Specifically, it was my wife’s sister’s husband’s sister’s house.  I guess the person there most distantly related to me would be my brother-in-law’s brother-in-law’s stepmother’s mother.  I can figure that out, but once you start talking about second cousins once removed, I’m entirely lost!

Anyway, there was a great spread, entirely non-conducive to the 50 Pounds part of this quest, which I think we all know isn’t gonna happen this year.  My sister-in-law-in-law made one version of stuffing with pomegranates and figs, which was unique and quite tasty!

After I had digested most of the feast, I opened up a Kaiser Pils, from Pennsylvania Brewing Company in downtown Pittsburgh.

The Penn Brewery has a storied history.  The buildings on Pittsburgh’s North Side originally housed the Eberhardt & Ober Brewery, pictured below. E&O Brewing was founded in 1852, and in 1899 merged with 19 other breweries in and around the city to form the Pittsburgh Brewing Co. The plant continued to turn out its E & O and Dutch Club brands until 1952. 

Tom Pastorius, the son of German immigrants, first founded the Pennsylvania Brewing Company in the mid 1980’s, with a mission to bring true German style beer back to Pittsburgh. He originally contracted out his brewing, but bought the historic E&O buildings in 1987, and began outfitting them with new brewing equipment.  Pastorius was also instrumental in getting Pennsylvania’s laws changed to allow breweries to serve food, thus paving the way for the birth of brewpubs in Pennsylvania.

In 2003, an investment firm bought a controlling stake in Penn Brewery.  Pastorius became less involved in the business, and eventually retired in 2008 at age 65.  From 2003 to 2008, the new owners made several changes to the business, eventually contracting out the brewing operations and closing the brewpub.

But apparently, Pastorious has Penn beer in his blood.  In 2009, an opportunity arose for Pastorius to buy back the business.  He assembled a group of like-minded investors and bought it back, restarting brewing at the location in 2010 and re-opening the brewpub.

There’s some great information about this story from Inc. Magazine, Wikipedia and the Pennsylvania Brewery Historians websites.

The Kaiser Pils is actually more of a traditional German style pilsner than their flagship beer, Penn Pilsner, which is really an amber Vienna style lager beer.  The Kaiser Pils is light in color, and has a crisp, hoppy taste.