Pittsburgh Breweries - Fall Edition

Just saw bottles at the packy today. Good stuff, that.

 

Forgive me if I’ve missed this... I have a buddy back home in Pittsburgh for Xmas. How does dancing gnome and brew gentlemen to-go options work? Will he be able to waltz in grab cans and/or growlers or are these scheduled releases? Thanks in advance.

 

No cans, though BG has a few bottles available. Growlers are no problem, though I’ve noticed that DG’s IPAs tend to kick on busy days.

 

Enjoyed Cinderlands. Real nice space and bigger than you would think just from looking at the outside. Some of their beers were a little too thin, but overall, pretty solid for a new brewery - the Blazing Crude coffee milk stout was the best and was right up there with my favorite milk stouts. From talking to their GM, 99% of their food is made in house (including sausages, etc.) and I get the sense that they care about the food as much as the beer. I only drank but the menu did look pretty interesting, although Lawrenceville prices apply here.

 

Good to see the ole Pittsburgh thread is still alive and kicking to a certain extent over here.

Roundabout's offerings have gotten a lot better since they opened the second location in Sharpsburg, IMO.

I've tried hard to like Dancing Gnome, but for some reason they just don't do it for me for the most part. Sometimes they have one that's a hit for me, big fan of Better One or Two, but for my tastes Brew Gentlemen's hops blow DGs out of the water by a significant margin.

 

Sure you don't mean Hitchhiker?

 

Yeah I do, my mistake. I'm half awake this morning.

 

No worries. Didn't think Steve had any want to expand, but you can never be sure.

FWIW, Hart gave me samples of Hitchhiker's Barbarian IPA and The Shakes Coffee Porter, last time I was over to Piper's and they both kicked all kinds of ass. Barbarian was very impressive. They're a completely different brewery, IMO. 'Bout time, too.

 

I normally don't enjoy a coffee porter, but I really like The Shakes. Silky smooth without the overly bitter black coffee bite.

Barbarian was pretty decent for me, but not really in the same league as most of BG's hoppy offerings. I really enjoyed Whole Punch: Guava though, and the mango gose... Stranger Than You? I think it's called, is nice too. I got cans of Whole Punch: Hawaiian Punch but I thought they were pretty green at time of release. Need to revisit them this weekend.

I live about 10-15 minutes from Sharpsburg so I'm happy to have someone other than DG canning down there.

 

I know a lot of people in Pittsburgh are crazy over Dancing Gnome's IPAs however, I think a ton of the hype comes from their can releases. Don't get me wrong, I think DG is making some great IPAs however, I'm in agreement with you that Brew Gentlemen's IPAs are better (at least to my palate). I wonder if Brew Gentlemen will ever can beer?

 

Yeah almost all of DGs beers throw a garlic/onion vegetal thing for me that I find to be off putting. I know some people enjoy that, but it doesn't work for me.

I hope BG cans at some point. I don't mind getting a growler most of the time, but I would probably make the trek out to Braddock a little more often if I could snag some 4 packs while I was at it.

Any of you all try the two Hanging Gardens beers they just did? I thought they were impeccable.

 

I haven't tried those beers. I live in Erie so I typically don't get any of BG's bottle releases. Only get what's on draft when I visit friends in Pittsburgh.

 

There's a Dancing Gnome scheduled can release Thursday (Underscore-American Sour Ale) and Saturday (Infinite Highway). I haven't been to any of the can releases when they open, so I can't comment on the lines, but my understanding is some of these go quick.

This is also their first sour release, so it will be interesting to see the feedback on that.

 

A canned raspberry sour ale? Interesting. Something tells me that it's probably hot side soured, though. Anyone know for sure?