Pittsburgh - New Beers & Local Breweries

Is that today?!

 

Tomorrow.

 

Was just looking over BG's line up as listed on here and came across this little guy added today:

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/34599/197155/

Color me intrigued.

 

from their newsletter:

...we're also geeking out pretty hard about bringing you four new beers this Thursday - two in bottles, two on draft:

• Headlining the release is Skeuomorph, a Belgian Golden Strong Ale aged in apple brandy barrels. This was one of the first beers Zach made as head brewer, and it has been patiently resting in barrels for over 8 months. At 10% ABV, this beer has warm notes of vanilla, marshmallow, apple sauce, oak, and caramel, with a slight hint of Belgian yeast. Limited quantities available in bottles, one keg on draft.
• We'll also be releasing bottles of Citra Saison, which, like the rest of our House Saison series, has been bottle-conditioned with our brettanomyces blend.
• On draft, we'll have Insane Clown Party, a bigger, angrier Double IPA version of Clown Party, our rye IPA.
• To balance that madness, we'll also be releasing Ploughman's Lunch, a mild and easy-drinking English bitter

 

I must say that those all sound pretty good. I was a big fan of Clown Party, so Insane Clown Party now has high expectations for me. I also enjoyed the Citra Saison on draft so I have been looking forward to the bottled version with Brett. The other 2 wont turn many heads, but I appreciate someone willing to take the time to make an English bitter, hope it turns out well. The Skeuomorph actually sounds a lot better than ABGM. Belgian Golden Strong Ale seems like a better base than a Triple.

 

And at least they are releasing it next to some more "desirable" styles and/or aren't bottling it...

 

I had all of the first four sours in their Farmers Reserve series. 3 & 4 were both better than 1 & 2, but I have had better versions of each of the style flavors. I believe 3 was the lemon one, and 4 was the strawberry. I remember them commanding decent stuff when I traded for them. I would be a nice solid lineup of sours to go to but if we dont see them I wont lose sleep over it either.

 

Still pretty damn similar if you ask me...I'm sure someone will come in here and tear me down for this...but wouldn't that be like comparing a "Triple IPA" to an "American Strong Ale"...

 

Yeah, I really can't tell much difference between a triple and a belgian golden strong ale.

 

For me I feel like more of the yeast flavor comes through on the Triple. That is a big turnoff for me as the Belgian yeast flavor is what kept me from drinking a lot of Belgian beers when I first got into craft. You might have enticed me to do a side by side of La Fin Du Monde and Duvel (The top beers of each style according to this site)

 

Belgian golden ales vs. tripels, per the BJCP:
http://jeffreycrane.blogspot.com/2010/10/belgian-beer-series-golden-strong-or.html

I'm not sure that Voodoo's real stubborn about Gran Met being a tripel. Didn't they call it a biere de garde when it first came out?

 

Another "Best Pittsburgh Breweries" list: www.tabelog.us/summary_articles/the-best-breweries-in-pittsburgh?tpl=cd

 

Hmmmm some of those breweries are ranked too high and some are ranked too low. That's my hot take.

I'm sure others may have stronger opinions, like the ones that got the last thread nuked!

 

That's just about the worst one of those I've seen.

 

I agree, for reasons separate from the actual rankings. So little actually said about each place, & what is there is mostly redundant.

 

That list looks like it was made by a robot

 

Yep, and we've had this discussion ad nauseum, but there are at least two on there that can't even properly, in my opinion, be considered Pittsburgh breweries. That's not a knock on them, far from it, but they just aren't.

 

You mean like Fat Head's?

 

Something like that.

 

What's the best one you've seen? I've got a weekend in Pittsburgh coming up and would love to hit a couple of great breweries and craft bars.