Philly Beer Week (2018)

I heard that prop lasted into last night. Not sure how long that actually means.

Dinner at Monk’s kicked 40 minutes in. I was basically next at the bar when it did. Oh well.

 

Couldn't make the Capone's event, wife's birthday. I would have just yelled at Kevin and Josh about all the hops. "Did you really have to dry hop a Kolsch? A perfectly good saison? Why?".

Have to decide between Teresa's and the opening of Steve Armstrong's place tonight.

 

Spot on analysis...

 

Yeah a friend of mine and I are going to hit that up. Multiple Abraxi and Vermillion sounds good. He said he was there last night for the eclipse event and was surprised at how "reasonable" the pricing was. Not speaking to how he feels today but the were doing $4 4oz pours and had 8 variants on tap and 8 out of the bottle.

 

Wherever you go just make sure to take note that today starts center city sips, so most locations around those areas are sure to be a shit show.

 

I 100% agree that this is a negative twist that occurred when Philly Beer Week switched hands and became Philly Loves Beer with paid positions and all of that. And to be honest, now that they're getting paid I think they're doing a piss-poor job of it. Most importantly though, I feel you're right that these messages are sending the wrong message, and some of the events follow that as well (tailgate games, etc.). It's supposed to be about craft brew, not about drinking games.

 

Agree as well, which is why I asked a few posts back about the silent death of Philly Beer Scene. Mat Falco & crew's publication was great, I felt it was a Philly-centric free version of BA.

 

The Cinder event was nice, never really crowded and ordered the Abraxi and Vermillion which was interesting. Also stopped by monks which was the quietest I had ever seen that place but it was a little later on a Wednesday and they weren't having an event .

 

pbw has been a joke for a few years... cool to see a few events of note but really nobody cares much anymore, all the "it" breweries could give two shits less about doing an event unless it's a beer festival or their friends "anniversary" party etc.

last time i bothered with anything was when voodoo sent some BA black magic and GNVP to bainbridge i think it was... 2015 maybe? oh well, at least monks had a nice event with who let tom into the brewery, but monks always has nice events be it pbw or not

 

Amen. Most of the events for PBW are beyond sad at this point. 21st Amendment tap takeover!!!!! Ohhhh, what's still living in 2009 like?

 

VR, Prop, BCBS Reserve, plenty of Equilibrium beers, Cantillion, plenty of Casa Agria beers, Coconut Rye Parabola, Vanilla Abraxas, Pinot Noir Tilquin (bottles), Pappy Van Winkle flights, and last but not least a commemorative Eagles SB Champions print from the Mikkeller artist are just some examples of things available this week...

I totally get that none of those reach the whale-y heights of GNVP, but it doesn't seem like something too scoff at, either.

Speaking of: there are a few "Voodoo showcases" this week. Any of them going to feature BA stuff?

 

I dunno, I feel like PBW has always been 95% crappy tap takeovers populated with beers available throughout the city at pretty much any time, and 5% good events pouring multiple beers that were not normally available in town. Like there would be 27 Bell's tap takeovers, most of which would be Oberon and Two-Hearted and maybe one of which would actually include Black Note.

But then, I now have Black Note available to the point there are 8 bottles of it in my cellar (though unfortunately 2 are the dreadful 2016 variety). KBS and BCBS are practically shelf turds, where a few years ago they'd headline a stout event and you'd have to seriously consider showing up. So many beers like that which used to be a draw simply aren't any more because they've become much more available. Plus there is more available competition which drives down their draw even more

The desirable beers nowadays are so limited that they aren't showing up for PBW. Vanilla Abraxas is nice, but where is Bourbon Barrel Abraxas? Toppling Goliath ain't showing up here with any Assassin, that's for sure. Tree House isn't coming. In other words, I think the craft beer landscape has shifted considerably. The events are largely pouring the same stuff they always did. That stuff just isn't doing it for craft beer drinkers any more. Which may explain why they're shifting focus to getting people hammered as opposed to fostering appreciation for craft beer.

 

I feel like the local scene is driving it a lot more this year too. So many new breweries in the area and this is a good chance to pair up with other locals to get more exposure. It's a fun week for sure but nothing like sitting down with Shaun Hill before the boycott. Eating dinner next to Shaun Hill at the Farmer's Cabinet and then having ten plus Hill Farmstead beers on tap at Butcher and Brewer is the most Philly 2011-12 thing ever. That right there is probably why I'm jaded on it now haha, hope to check out some other places that I otherwise wouldn't get to but yeah not hitting up any Bells/Founders/other bigger brewery events.

 

I think the primary reason for the decline in the prominence of Philly Beer Week is that the area already has so much good beer year-round.

I also think distributors need to share in some of the blame. Distributors are actively funneling the harder to find beers into a narrow slice of their portfolios rather than spreading the love around. I know a few bar owners who no longer actively partake in Philly Beer Week because they could not get the commitment from their distributors to provide a decent quantity and variety of product. it was not worth it to them to have only 1 or 2 good events. I am even aware of multiple brewers/breweries who no longer partake in Beer Week any longer since they couldn't control which bars and events they were supplying.

This started years back when Bella Vista would hold back all of the rarer beers for their family establishments like Bainbridge, Cambridge, Hawthornes etc. I can't remember if this was 2012 or 2013, but. multiple establishments were promised some harder to find beers from a well regarded PA brewery, but these beers supposedly did not show up at these bars on the day of events. However, they were still available at the above establishments later in the week and for events at a later date. I attended one beer Week event where the brewer of said beer was not even aware why the promised beers were not showing up as intended.

 

I agree with your general sentiment. The Philly market it so saturated with good beer (local, national, international) that it's just hard to create any event that stands out.

And it's not just Philly Beer Week - places like Monk's and Capone's are no longer the kind of destinations they were, because there are dozens of breweries, gastropubs, and beer bars that at any given time have the same kind of quality tap list that would have drawn acclaim 10 years ago.

A place near me had a Founders event last month, and CBS and KBS stayed on a tap for a WEEK. Even 5 years ago they would have lasted a half hour.

 

Yes, "pay to play" has been around for a long time, and it's not all Bella Vista, although I won't call them innocent by any stretch of the imagination. To a certain extent "pay to play" makes sense though - why would a bar that rarely pours Bell's get a keg of Black Note? Shouldn't that go to the bar that runs Oberon every summer and others throughout the year? However, there are favorites being played, which sucks. That can go to how much a certain bar buys from whatever distributor, and just to how much their reps like certain bar owners.

On the other hand, I don't know that specialty beers are the be all and end all of a good beer event, so take that for what it's worth to you.

And let me add this in as well, it seems like at some point Philly Beer Week had a bunch of non-beer bars and restaurants that were never beercentric jumping in on the game, and that doesn't seem to be the case anymore, so that's a positive.

 

The comment was more about the favorites being played. Bars that do put certain breweries on tap throughout the year were being passed over for events in favor of bars that chose not to carry those products. If I recall correctly, Bells requested to sit out Beer Week for many years due to an occurrence along these lines.

You didn't enjoy Yuengling night at Elephant and Castle?!

 

That was one of the better ones!