Pittsburgh Area Breweries-in-Planning

Their Perverse Stout is really good. Consistency is not their strong suit. Insidious runs from really good to not that great.

Really excited for Roundabout.

I agree with almost all of these that I have tried playing it safe. Would love to see someone using Brett or putting more offerings in barrels.

 

If you think Helltown is great, what about All Saints?
I like pretty much all if their brews.

 

All Saints, IMHO makes good beer, but not great beer. I am not putting them down in any way, but I am saying no one is going out of their way to travel there. I think for them and any new place in the market that you need to know your niche. Being "local" is no longer going to be enough, there are too many places coming online. On the flip side for those places doing good local and starting or thinking about canning or bottling, they really need to take a serious look and ask if their offering is as good or better than any of the big players in the regional market. Shelf space is limited, and for as many beers as I try, there is a rather small subset that I revisit, and even fewer I buy on a somewhat regular basis.

Another new operation not listed in the initial list is Alley Brewing: http://alleybrewing.tumblr.com

 

CoStar is another new nano. I never tried anything from them or Alley, but saw them mentioned along the way and followed them on Twitter.

 

Not only should they be asking themselves the question you brought up, but they should also be thinking: "I've been homebrewing for a couple of years. Am I really ready to move onto a professional setup? Is there a reason why so many professional brewers now have both the college courses and experience to open their own place?"

Don't get me wrong. There are homebrewers out there who could move to a pro setup and adapt well. Maybe some of these guys will surprise me.

At the very least, I will always grab some Head Hunter when I'm in the 'Burgh.

 

Interesting, never even heard of these folks. Their ingredient combos look solid. Anyone using Mosaic gets my attention.

 

Not quite sure to whom you're referring, but you sound confident that these breweries don't have brewmasters that have attended brewing school, apprenticed/brewed at the pro level, etc... Are you sure this is the case?

Very few startups have the experience of a Steve Sloan. I give them all credit for chasing down their dreams. Wish I had the balls, that's for sure.

 

I am positive that's the case for some of the aforementioned breweries. Not all of them. I apologize for lumping them all together. Even if some of these guys don't have the experience I mentioned, they may still surprise me and end up making fantastic beer. I may sound harsh, but I am also willing to give any new brewer in the area a fair shake.

I am just not very high on Pittsburgh's brewery scene yet (there is an exception or two), so I am just very skeptical of all these new nanobreweries popping up.

Hopefully I eat crow, but only time will tell.

Cheers!

 

Also I just want to add that this isn't a Pittsburgh-specific problem. This is happening all over. People homebrew for a year, their friends tell them it's really good, and they rush into putting up a Kickstarter page.

It's just that (to my preferences), Pittsburgh doesn't have a truly great brewery yet. Maybe Roundabout will live up to their potential? I hope so, at least.

 

My wife and I will be in Pittsburgh in two weeks or so. Any ideas about Roundabout? Will they just have brewery hours? Tasting room? Their website sucks, are they on facebook or something?

edit: hmm, just found their twitter at least.

Roundabout Brewery to open for growler sales Friday, July 12th, 2013 at 4:30pm. Regular growler sale hours will be Tues-Sat 4:30pm to 9:00pm

 

Report back and let us know how it is!

 

Definitely will as long as we make it. Won't be until the 19th or 20th though.

 

To me this has the most potential on a national scale. I have tried just about every one I come across, but have yet to have a truly good gluten free beer. Some are better than others, but none I would choose to drink over standard shelf offerings. Did you check out the Aurochs website? They need to be successful lol, that is a lot of mouths to feed.

 

Have you had anything from Harvester brewing in oregon? They direct sell now. My fiancees favorite GF choice.

 

I have not. My buddy's wife has Celiac's, I will need to point it out to them.

 

Not necessarily a brewery in planning, but wondering what the general consensus is on Draai Laag?? Those above say that the Pittsburgh scene lacks creativity and plays it safe...well these guys certainly don't. I feel like they're doing some interesting things and are getting close to breaking through...discuss...

 

I tried their Aurious and Simon Girty. I thought both were solid, but not quite great. I had seen oaked versions on tap lists online before, but never got o try. Definitely potential there.

 

They have a sour out there as well. I think it was on tap at one point at Ho1kb...maybe Nate can chime in on it.

 

The big 12% RIS Helltown had at the Big Pour last year was really good. They never got the bottles to carb and wound up dumping them I think. The Rapture variants have ranged from good to almost on par with Idle Hands.