Pittsburgh

[PSUMike]

Stopped by Stick City in Mars today. They just opened 2 weeks ago.

It's in an old converted fire station. About 2/3s of the space is for brewing and the rest is the bar area. They also opened the garage doors and have a patio area set up. It was pretty packed. There was only 1 open seat at the bar and all the tables inside were taken plus the multiple picnic tables set out in the patio. Very nice live wood bar top and it was pretty well polished for being so new. Probably 20 tap handles so I'm guessing there is some ambition there. They also offer Narcisi wine and had a food truck.

For the beer, I only had 2. They had 2 IPAs, a Pale Ale, an English Porter, and a Brown Ale. Both IPAs were billed as hazy. Surprisingly, they were pretty distinctly different. Neptune 2000 has very little in the way of a nose but it was a nice mix of melon and pine on the taste with a low but present bitterness. Stickney was more on the tropical spectrum and it smelled nice but was a little bland on the palette. Both were better than expected. I wouldn't put them on the level of say Grist House but they are every bit as good as Yellow Bridge at this point in the hops realm. Cautious optimism at this point and I hope they offer a bit more variety as they get their bearings.

 

[OneDropSoup]

Stopped by Stick City in Mars today. They just opened 2 weeks ago.

It's in an old converted fire station. About 2/3s of the space is for brewing and the rest is the bar area. They also opened the garage doors and have a patio area set up. It was pretty packed. There was only 1 open seat at the bar and all the tables inside were taken plus the multiple picnic tables set out in the patio. Very nice live wood bar top and it was pretty well polished for being so new. Probably 20 tap handles so I'm guessing there is some ambition there. They also offer Narcisi wine and had a food truck.

For the beer, I only had 2. They had 2 IPAs, a Pale Ale, an English Porter, and a Brown Ale. Both IPAs were billed as hazy. Surprisingly, they were pretty distinctly different. Neptune 2000 has very little in the way of a nose but it was a nice mix of melon and pine on the taste with a low but present bitterness. Stickney was more on the tropical spectrum and it smelled nice but was a little bland on the palette. Both were better than expected. I wouldn't put them on the level of say Grist House but they are every bit as good as Yellow Bridge at this point in the hops realm. Cautious optimism at this point and I hope they offer a bit more variety as they get their bearings.

How would you personally rank the hazemakers around town?

 

[PSUMike]

Among the ones I've had:

BG
DG (If they'd stop releasing everything so green, they'd close the gap)
Voodoo (Voodoo's best is on the same level as DG but they are inconsistent)
Grist House
Insurrection
Yellow Bridge/Stick City

Everyone else

 

[OneDropSoup]

Among the ones I've had:

BG
DG (If they'd stop releasing everything so green, they'd close the gap)
Voodoo (Voodoo's best is on the same level as DG but they are inconsistent)
Grist House
Insurrection
Yellow Bridge/Stick City

Everyone else

"Everyone else" include Roundabout?

 

[docreight1]

Anybody here have the sum of things that hitchhiker released the other day? My first impressions are that it is every bit as good or better than the a lot of the other hazebois I’ve had. Then again I didn’t have to wait in a line so maybe I’m wrong.

 

[PSUMike]

"Everyone else" include Roundabout?

Forgot about them. I'd put them around Insurrection.

 

[dtx00]

I think this quote pretty much sums up why PCBW sucks.

“I don’t think it’s about beer,” he said of the event. “It’s about people”.

I'll add the context that that is a quote from a board member about PCBW in general. Pretty sure they are missing the point if they think it's not about the beer. I guess it's just like most things when it comes to Pittsburgh and craft beer, stuck in the past. We have plenty of breweries these days that are moving the culture and scene in a positive forward direction, but the people that run beer week seem to have the mindset still that they need to get people involved in what craft beer is. It feels like their outlook hasn't changed since the first craft beer week meeting. "Hey we have to get people to drink more craft beer". Apparently they haven't seen any of the lines at local breweries releases? It's all about the beer, always has been, and always should be. How is there this big of a disconnect?

 

[epicureIO]

I think this quote pretty much sums up why PCBW sucks.

“I don’t think it’s about beer,” he said of the event. “It’s about people”.

I'll add the context that that is a quote from a board member about PCBW in general. Pretty sure they are missing the point if they think it's not about the beer. I guess it's just like most things when it comes to Pittsburgh and craft beer, stuck in the past. We have plenty of breweries these days that are moving the culture and scene in a positive forward direction, but the people that run beer week seem to have the mindset still that they need to get people involved in what craft beer is. It feels like their outlook hasn't changed since the first craft beer week meeting. "Hey we have to get people to drink more craft beer". Apparently they haven't seen any of the lines at local breweries releases? It's all about the beer, always has been, and always should be. How is there this big of a disconnect?

"It's not about the beer. It's about Caliente and the hot new location in Aspinwall!"

 

[OneDropSoup]

I think this quote pretty much sums up why PCBW sucks.

“I don’t think it’s about beer,” he said of the event. “It’s about people”.

I'll add the context that that is a quote from a board member about PCBW in general. Pretty sure they are missing the point if they think it's not about the beer. I guess it's just like most things when it comes to Pittsburgh and craft beer, stuck in the past. We have plenty of breweries these days that are moving the culture and scene in a positive forward direction, but the people that run beer week seem to have the mindset still that they need to get people involved in what craft beer is. It feels like their outlook hasn't changed since the first craft beer week meeting. "Hey we have to get people to drink more craft beer". Apparently they haven't seen any of the lines at local breweries releases? It's all about the beer, always has been, and always should be. How is there this big of a disconnect?

I'm not sure what it means for PCBW to be either "about the beer" or "about the people".

My favorite quote is from the President's Letter in the official guide: "It's been a wild ride but in the end, I wouldn't change a thing."

 

[tommyguz]

OneDropSoup weren't you asking about that blind IPA tasting ?


(Link to media)


Didn't mean to steal the show from psbhockey12

 

[tommyguz]

I think this quote pretty much sums up why PCBW sucks.

“I don’t think it’s about beer,” he said of the event. “It’s about people”.

I'll add the context that that is a quote from a board member about PCBW in general. Pretty sure they are missing the point if they think it's not about the beer. I guess it's just like most things when it comes to Pittsburgh and craft beer, stuck in the past. We have plenty of breweries these days that are moving the culture and scene in a positive forward direction, but the people that run beer week seem to have the mindset still that they need to get people involved in what craft beer is. It feels like their outlook hasn't changed since the first craft beer week meeting. "Hey we have to get people to drink more craft beer". Apparently they haven't seen any of the lines at local breweries releases? It's all about the beer, always has been, and always should be. How is there this big of a disconnect?

It could be about the people but needs to be about the beer and breweries too

 

[preluderl]

PCBW has never been a consideration for me. I've never cared about it, thought about it, or given any credence to it in any sorta way.

Not sure what any of that means really. Maybe it says something to those of you who have been more invested than I have. To me it always just seemed like the sort of thrown together ******** thing that people do to push a narrative to get someone money somewhere. Not like it was actually for or about beer, but to make sure that the sub-par local breweries who have a foothold with someone somewhere that matters were able to use it to unload crap-tier product that they had selling otherwise.

 

[OneDropSoup]

I always just saw it as an opportunity for anyone with a foothold in the industry to use whatever capital (figuratively) they might have in a concerted effort to do cool **** & have fun. Doesn't have to be any agenda beyond that. People still seem to be willing to put in the effort to do that, but fewer than in the past.

 

[preluderl]

I always just saw it as an opportunity for anyone with a foothold in the industry to use whatever capital (figuratively) they might have in a concerted effort to do cool **** & have fun. Doesn't have to be any agenda beyond that. People still seem to be willing to put in the effort to do that, but fewer than in the past.

Yeah that probably sounded more pejorative than I intended. I was just trying to say that, from someone who didn't know much about it, that was what it seemed like to me. I could easily have been wrong, but it also could be a pretty significant shortfall from a marketing perspective that someone who didn't know much about it had that idea.

 

[Beerwanderer]

Speaking of PCBW. Battle of the Barrels at Shadyside tomorrow starting at 4 with the beer names revealed at 6pm. The six beers are awesome this year. A few breweries went very big with beers that have never seen Pittsburgh on draft before. Shameless plug, I know.

 

[psbhockey12]

OneDropSoup weren't you asking about that blind IPA tasting ?


(Link to media)

Didn't mean to steal the show from psbhockey12

 

[london1o11]

I always just saw it as an opportunity for anyone with a foothold in the industry to use whatever capital (figuratively) they might have in a concerted effort to do cool **** & have fun. Doesn't have to be any agenda beyond that. People still seem to be willing to put in the effort to do that, but fewer than in the past.

Speaking of this, did grist house so their brewery Olympics this year? That's been my favorite pcbw event of the past couple years.

 

[london1o11]

Speaking of PCBW. Battle of the Barrels at Shadyside tomorrow starting at 4 with the beer names revealed at 6pm. The six beers are awesome this year. A few breweries went very big with beers that have never seen Pittsburgh on draft before. Shameless plug, I know.

This will be the first year I'm not working and can actually make it to this. Was this a "show up hours early or get shut out" type of event in years past, or can I actually roll up at 4?

 

[tommyguz]

Yeah that probably sounded more pejorative than I intended. I was just trying to say that, from someone who didn't know much about it, that was what it seemed like to me. I could easily have been wrong, but it also could be a pretty significant shortfall from a marketing perspective that someone who didn't know much about it had that idea.

Harrisburg beer week seems to be going well?

 

[preluderl]

Harrisburg beer week seems to be going well?

 

[OneDropSoup]

Speaking of PCBW. Battle of the Barrels at Shadyside tomorrow starting at 4 with the beer names revealed at 6pm. The six beers are awesome this year. A few breweries went very big with beers that have never seen Pittsburgh on draft before. Shameless plug, I know.

Site says tickets are on a first come, first served basis. Do tickets go on sale at 4 then?

 

[Beerwanderer]

Site says tickets are on a first come, first served basis. Do tickets go on sale at 4 then?

The event starts at 4. Get your ticket when you get you flight. Ticket gets you a flight of all 6 beers and the ability to buy 2 more 10oz.

 

[OneDropSoup]

The event starts at 4. Get your ticket when you get you flight. Ticket gets you a flight of all 6 beers and the ability to buy 2 more 10oz.

Cool, thanks. Plan to come down around 4:30-5, hope I'm not DIH*.

*Dong In Hand

 

[OneDropSoup]

Cheers to Beerwanderer for a good time yesterday. I drank more than I should have. Did any of them kick?

 

[preluderl]

Cheers to Beerwanderer for a good time yesterday. I drank more than I should have. Did any of them kick?

What were the beers/results?

 

[clwatt3]

What were the beers/results?

 

[Pierre Pressure]

Cheers to Beerwanderer for a good time yesterday. I drank more than I should have. Did any of them kick?

Any event I can walk away from thinking that BA Ten Fidy was the worst beer of the night is one hell of an event. Next year though, I'm going to remember to buy a box of crackers before I sit down.

 

[OneDropSoup]

What were the beers/results?

I took off before anything kicked & haven't seen results re: a winner anywhere, but judging by word of mouth the Stone Mikhail seemed to be a lot of folks' favorite.

 

[preluderl]

Does anyone know what bottles they currently have at BG? Haven't been out there for a little while and I wasn't sure if they still had Hanging Gardens or E&D3? I presume they have Table Beer as it's been consistently in stock for a while.

 

[Dogleg1]

Does anyone know what bottles they currently have at BG? Haven't been out there for a little while and I wasn't sure if they still had Hanging Gardens or E&D3? I presume they have Table Beer as it's been consistently in stock for a while.

When I was there on Saturday they had at least one of the Hanging Gardens, not sure which one, ED 3 and Table.