Pittsburgh - New Beers & Local Breweries

I'd like to echo this statement and expand a bit. If you are looking for a great representation of some of the great beer that Pittsburgh has to offer I would head to Brew Gentlemen, Draai Laag and Round about.

On top of that I'd say Voodoo and Fat Heads are great stops as well, just not brewed locally. They both have great tap offerings and are well worth the stop.

Church is know for their unique setting and if you had a few extra days it is worthwhile to stop in and check out the atmosphere. But as a brewery there are far better options for great beer.

 

It is a unique space. Haven't heard lately about their beers, and I'll surely revisit the place--sooner if improvement is the consensus. But it's not on an abbreviated list that I'd recommend for a visitor who has limited time.

 

I more or less dismissed it from memory when it was first announced. Not something I can dish out $50 for a ticket. I really wish I had more pocket change for things like that, Real Ale fest, etc. If it were closer down to $35 maybe. Craft beer festivals sure are getting expensive these days. Yea, they're expensive to put on, and I'm sure the people promoting and rep'ing them are probably barely breaking even or whatever. Just can't swing it personally.

 

Me too; although the $3.99 DIPA was tempting I remembered it's not very good.

 

GE robinson had La Folie and Transatlantic Kriek.

 

Will say that I was more impressed with the Real Ale Fest, as compared to the Big Pour. Though I was pissed they cancelled the second event so belatedly. I won't be around that weekend this year, but I would go if I were.

Price points for these events seem to still be looking for a ceiling unfortunately/annoyingly, but they sometimes have good volunteer opportunities (but they do dry up quickly).

 

General admission ticket for Big Pour is $80. General adimission for that Snallygaster event is $38. WTF?

 

I'll second that WTF. $80? Is it all inclusive of beer and food? That is the only way I could see them justifying that price.

 

Yes, and the food is awesome.

 

WTF is correct...

 

Might be true...but that won't ever sway me in the direction of paying $80 for a beer fest...unless there are some rare bottles getting crackalacked...

As someone said above, local bottle shares yield WAY more interesting ticks and the price of admission is a bottle or two from your cellar that you were looking forward to drinking anyway...

 

Also at Snallygaster I am pretty sure that the $38 gets you a few tickets but you have to buy additional tickets if you want more than 1-2 pours. I've read in that thread that it usually costs $100+ if you want to try many of the big beers there.

 

not to be a wiener or anything, but to be candid, clearly we are not the target audience of the fests. of course a rare bottle share will be much more appealing to us than paying $80 to get hamboned, but that's what the majority of pgh'ers wanna do at a beerfest... get blown out. not sit around and pontificate about whalez.

 

I think $50 is reasonable for the real ale fest since chances are slim to be able to try the majority of the beers again. Plus food from the chip shop is great and im a big cask fan. The big pours I went to only had one or two rarer beers that would be hard to track down. I feel like if you and a few friends each pitched up that $80 you could have your own awesome beer fest at your house and not wait in line for the bathroom for 25 minutes

 

Oh I completely agree. I don't think any of us would say that the event planners are doing a poor job of raising funds for construction junction or whatever...(clearly I don't know why they have this event...someone will correct me)

But I'm guessing troygreer is one of us...and he was the one asking about whether the fest was worth it or not...so while I suppose we could have responded with "it's great if you wanna get hamboned and eat awesome food that you won't remember for roughly the cost of a scalped Stiller ticket"...but my guess is he was looking for answers from the perspective of us whale pontificators...ya wiener.

 

I guess I was hoping it was something closer to the Michigan Winter Beer fest, but that sounds like it is too much to ask.

 

$80 is completely ridiculous. I know the food is really good, but unless they are serving surf n turf to everyone, its still not worth it at that price point. Also I still cant believe they haven't added more portajohns yet. This was the main complaint when I was still going and that's been at least 5 years ago or so. I stopped going to this fest when tickets hit $60. That is the same price I pay to go to FOBAB, which has all kinds of rare beers.

 

The sours are only at 4 stores ... Mine and 3 others. I don't know which others.

 

Standing in line at the Big Pour was the closest I've ever come to rupturing my bladder. Suffice to say I found...an alternative...

 

Now I feel stupid, well, not really. I just assumed that the info I got from Giant Eagle Corporate and another whosaler was correct. I should have know better. We never get the correct info.