Pittsburgh Breweries - 2018

Cigar City Brewing will now be available in western PA with a series of events starting Monday. Story in PG Weekend Magazine..

 

Draai Laag/Strange Roots fucking sucks now. They dropped their flight in favor of sampler. And they pour them into a mason jar THEN into the glass?

Seriously, this was my wife's favorite place and now she says she won't come back.


On another note Margot and Farm Season at Hop Farm are delicious!

Cinderlands. First time here. Service seems shitty and beer tastes watery.

Now where to, because after our six "samplers" here at Strange Roots, we're out.

 

I'm not sure what Strange Root's identity really is these days... seems like a lot of changes at once (branding / beers / new location)... it'll be interesting to see how things play out there. I hear you on Cinderlands, but I think they have a lot of promise... I'd give them 3-6 months and try again.

I'm torn on the flights thing. I've done my fair share of flight tours across the Burgh and other cities when I'm there, but I can see the annoyance this brings to the breweries and nowadays I'm much more prone to get a draft or two, perhaps because I know my palate better and don't need to try 5-6 beers anymore. The more I think about it, the more I prefer the route Dancing Gnome went with their offering: no flights but 8 oz pours. 8 oz is a better representation of the beer, still feels like a draft, but you can still have several. Thoughts from others?

 

I have been to both locations and I don't know what this means.

When I was at the new Gibsonia location they were pouring both sizes into the same glass. You got a half glass for the small size pour and a full glass for the full pour.

Did something change?

 

Damn not a peep about BRV VII eh? Slackers.

 

Got a full allotment. I'm stoked!

 

Damn, I got down there about an hour after the announcement and barely got partial allotment A!

 

I was fortunate it was my day off yesterday so right when they posted on social media I was able to jump in my car and get there fairly quickly. I live in Erie so it's just a short drive to downtown for me.

 

Nice. Yeah, I left work within 5 minutes of the announcement but getting over to Homestead isn't fun. I wonder how they parse out the allotments between the locations (does each location doing the release get an even amount of spots? seemed like the workers in Homestead were frequently on the phone, so maybe they just track the progress live between the locations?). The Homestead line took an hour too.

 

From my understanding, they don't allocate a specific number of allotments to each location. Kinda shitty for the people in Pittsburgh because it's a much larger market. The girl at the Erie location was also on the phone the entire time so I'm guessing they track the progress live.

 

I work on Babcock Blvd in the North Hills. I got the IG notification at 4:10 and by 4:12 I was in the car and rolling out. I got to Homestead about 4:55, stood in line for about 20 minutes and by the time I got to the front and got my full allotment, the lady at the computer said there were 10 full spots left.

I skipped out on the Zangief BRC hoping that the next one would be more exciting. I was right (JMO, of course) and I'm beyond stoked to get this one. K13 is so damn good.

 

Everything is tracked through their online system and all locations pull from the same pool. I'd love to know how many of the allotments were allocated through Homestead. Definitely significantly more than the other locations.

 

I was personally excited for Zangief just because it was a brand new beer, but I'm more excited for K13 in all honesty. I never got to try batch 1 of K13, but I've heard it's an excellent beer.

 

Zangief just didn't move the needle much for me and the weather was awful that day. I decided to roll the dice that something better was coming down the pipe.

b1 K13 was phenomenal. A syrupy BA barleywine is my favorite style overall though so I'm a little biased in that regard.

 

Pretty pumped to get at least one K13. Never had it before and I've really been coming around on barleywines.

 

While this isn't a bad system, I wonder how many people missed out in Homestead simply due to having to wait in line for so long. I'm guessing the other locations didn't have the lines Homestead had. I bet people showed up at 5:30 in Homestead and didn't get an allotment whereas people strolled into Erie or wherever at 6 and snagged some.

That said, hard to be perfect, and certainly beats the debacle of a program Brew Gentlemen set out for their 4th anniversary release last week.

 

BG underestimated the demand because of the style. BA Wee Heavies often don't really move the needle with people. Especially for a brewery who has never done one.

They're good, smart dudes though and will learn from the mistake. In the past they had always limited the reservations to X amount per day and this time they decided to try something new. It didn't work out, but now they know.

 

There was a line at the Erie location that moved pretty slow (according to my friend who got there around 5:00), but I would venture to guess that the Homestead location line was much longer. As you mentioned, while this isn't a perfect system, it does beat online ticket sales and waiting in line for ridiculous amounts of time (i.e. Tree House and other hyped breweries). The silent part also allows locals to purchase the beer as opposed to outsiders who don't care about Voodoo other than when they drop a BRC (I know this is very important to Voodoo when it comes to these releases).

 

Agreed. I appreciate that from them. I wish they gave a few hour notice, but then again, people would go down there immediately anyway, and thus the line would only be that much longer.

 

I absolutely hear you, but if I were BG at this point, I would just assume the masses would show to any BA release of theirs. What's the downside, say, in limiting to 2 bottles, and offering up to an optional 2 to the early birds if they don't sell out over the 4 days?

 

Exactly. When it comes to beer releases, I don't think there is a perfect method. While I was lucky they released this BRC yesterday because it was my day off, I've missed a majority of them secondary to work and other planned obligations.

 

I've never had the opportunity to attend a BG bottle release, but it does sound like they botched this one a bit. I'm sure they've learned and will adjust accordingly.

 

This. They're ultra smart dudes and it didn't work out the way they would have liked. They'll learn and adjust.

I'm just glad both BG and Voodoo have fully gotten on board with the reservation system. I've been on the unfortunate short end of missing one from time to time, but ultimately I think it's the most fair way available. It's imperfect, but I don't think a perfect method truly exists.

 

Kind of off topic from the Voodoo BRC conversation, but I'll possibly be in Pittsburgh on Saturday and if I make the trip I'm looking to hit up DG for the can release. I've never been to a Saturday DG can release so what time do you guys recommend I get in line?

 

I haven't been to any of the flower series IPA releases, but they seem pretty popular, and Saturday releases always get more of a crowd. That said, they seem do a pretty good job of limiting the amount you can get, depending on how long the line is. You're safe if you get there by 11am IMO and even most likely if you get there closer to noon, but depends on how much you want to risk it.

 

What was the issue with the BG release? I thought they did it the same as doublemex last October which went pretty smooth I thought. Or did they do something new?

 

Instead of capping each of the 4 reservation days at X people/day, they decided not to cap at all (and were silent on the matter on social media) and allowed up to 4 bottles pp, thinking they had properly anticipated demand, especially with a different style. After Wed and Thurs, they had almost already run out and posted Friday morning that only the first 20 people on each of the next two days would be able to get BG IV. This upset some people that planned on going Fri/Sat since it was obviously hard/impossible to make it in time. Seems like they were trying to think of ways to avoid a huge line each day, but obviously that only works if you have enough beer to go around. They were apologetic about it and said they would make the proper changes next time, which I'm sure will be the case.

 

So this is a thing that's happening.

 

Wow, people have been clamoring about this for years it seems. Tempted to get back down there this afternoon. No bottles though?

 

Crowlers/growlers to start, it seems.

 

I'll be hitting up the Erie location tonight to try the beer! I think my wife is more excited than I am.

 

While we're on the topic of voodoo what's their plan for their summer block party? Is it a ticketed event or just throwing caution to the wind and first come first serve?

 

I know this was a few days back, but when I ordered Little Birdy, they had a full mason jar under the taps that they poured from into my glass instead of giving fresh. There were about 3 mason jars filled with beer (tbh, mostly foam) that they were pouring from into the glasses instead of a fresh draft. It was beyond flat.

 

I haven't heard anything concrete or from any credible sources, but there are rumors a majority of the tickets will be sold at the different locations with some ticket sales online. Who knows at this point though. Something will have to come up soon because its less than 2 months away....

 

Anybody try Really Thin Pancakes? To me, it tastes like a non BA IBS. Really enjoyed it even though the price point isn't the best.

 

Not yet, glad to hear the feedback. Any sense on how much they still have? I was thinking about swinging down there for a few over the weekend.

 

Not sure which pub you’re going to try to hit up but I know the Erie location still has a decent amount left.

 

Sorry, Homestead, but still good to know.

 

I think the 4 pack limit and the price point will keep the beer around awhile.

 

Just an fyi, I saw on facebook last night that someone posted the cans of Really Thin Pancakes are getting low in Homestead.