Hope they figure things out. The brewpub is always a place the fam and I go to when we travel to Pittsburgh and I always bring a case of mixed 6 packs home. Rare brewpub combo of good food and great beer.
You mean the Pilsner they brew that is actually a Pilsner? I bought my buddy a 6 pack of Penn pils when I was at the brewpub late last summer. He sent me a msg stating that, although he enjoyed it, it was not what he was expecting for a pils. I had failed to mention that it’s more of a Vienna lager.
Took my mom there when she came to visit when trying to come inland when a hurricane was incoming. She gave the food a thumbs up, and she's a tough critic of German food, after living with her first husband at Rammstein.
I'd always get the wurstplatte and a couple Kaisers. Possibly a Penn Weizen. Never left disappointed.
I miss actual brewpubs, where the food was as good as the beer. The hot beers now do not really translate well to pairing with food.
Not that you can't still find them, but I miss the comfort of a well-thought-out brewpub. Most tasting rooms are cold and industrial or feel cheap and thrown together usually with a bunch of picnic tables or something of that ilk. Not saying that every place needs to have the nooks and coziness of some English pubs, but, for fuck's sake, at least make your space comfortable enough to make me stay and relax a while.
This is a bit pedantic, but I think 'most' is an overstatement and 'some' is a better word to use. I do agree with you about not liking the industrial-like setting that describes some 'taprooms' but I don't see that many like that. Maybe it's a regional thing (and I think I've noticed it as such in all of my 700+ brewery visits), or maybe I do my homework well enough to avoid those places when I'm on a pub crawl, but I'm very comfortable in over 90% of the places I visit.
I will certainly defer to you on this one, as I am speaking mainly of the ones here locally and I don't visit many taprooms when I'm on holiday.
Where I live there is a steady stream of small breweries that are closing as fast as new ones pop up. It appears to me that it is a very mature market which leads to intense competition and margin pressure. An attorney friend of mine in Buffalo once told me he makes his living opening and closing bars and restaurants. It's the type of business that everyone thinks that they would be good at but in reality is one of the toughest. Micro breweries fall into that category IMO.
On this topic: https://washingtonbeerblog.com/rising-pint-prices-threaten-to-crush-the-craft-beer-industry-or-not/
boston beer rep had a presentation and tasting top 10 products they sell now are all seltzers and garbage at that 30 minute presentation 0.0 minutes spent talking about beer boston beer next big one to go this year fucking america makes me sad happy aloha friday fuckahs
That's another that I liked to hit and close to the stadiums. I'll be back up in July and looks like the options are dwindling!
Boston Beer going under, or at least their beer side closing up, wouldn't be an indictment of american beer culture in my mind. They made the decision to move from being a craft brewery to being a mainstream alcoholic beverage company. Beer is clearly an afterthought for them these days.
Sam Adams never drew me into a place, even when it was one of the first nationally available “craft” beers. I can’t say their pivot away from beer toward other beverages will impact my life at all. In many respects, many other beers and breweries have passed them by. Maybe this is one way for them to secure their future. Don’t let the door hit ya where the good lord split ya.
