Pittsburgh Craft Beer Week

Black Note at Harris' made my week - phenomenal beer and well worth the hype.

Anyone have the BA Penn Dark yet?

 

I must say that this week is turning out to be a ton better than I first thought...

Between the Sour/Funk tasting, the special collaboration beers and having the likes of Brute, KBS mini-vert and Black Note on draft...well done PCBW...can't wait to see (drink) some more!

 

+1 to this. Glad to see this made an appearence for PCBW. Definetly as good if not better than what others have said. On that note wish I had more of this. Hopefully Bells will continue to make and bottle this in the future.

 

Can't believe there isn't more chatter on here about some of these events. Black Note was spectacular, was super excited to have Brute, who knows if/when I'll have that again. The mIni vert of KBS was a pleasent surprise. These are the limited type events that were talked about in the beginning of this thread right?

 

It has been a fun week so far. The KBS vertical was fun but i was surprised at how lightly attended the event was. They have worked hard to bring in the better events but there has been little advertisement about these events. I never knew about black note and brute until i read it on this thread.

 

Agreed. Why not make better mention of what you're going to have?

I'm surprised and shocked at the quality of some of the goings on. Kudos to those who are stepping it up.

 

Went to Carson St. Deli last night for the Oskar Blues tasting. If you haven't been there, get there. Nice staff, really good bottle selection, 4 taps (I believe), and bomb sandwiches.

 

The advertising thing is a Catch 22. If these limited/hyped events are advertised, then 1000 people show up and everyones upset that its crowded and they didnt get any/or get to enjoy the beers. If its not advertised, everyone complains that they didnt know about it. People knew about black note. It was rumored months ago in these very forums. People knew about it because it didnt even last on tap for 24 hours. I dont think that that many random people went to the Harris Grill on Tuesday evening/Wednesday afternoon for no reason. Same with Brute last night. There were only maybe a dozen people at F&F drinking Brute. Its probably still on tap as we speak, but again its not going to last past today probably. I guess some people cant be satisfied. As for the KBS, probably didnt help that it kicked off at 830 in the morning on a Wednesday. I however was able to stop by yesterday afternoon, around 1230-1, and got to try all three. They still might be on tap as we speak.

I want an honest opinion from the area do you really want these limited events highly publisized?

 

Maybe places like Harris and F&F do not realize that they can market offerings like Brute and (especially) Black Note into an event

à la ​

Fat Heads w/CBS...

 

I'm especially glad the Brute tapping wasn't well-publicized. I don't think F&F's bar can really handle a huge crowd. There were probably <12 people at the bar last night. I think 20 would've been pretty uncomfortable.
Also, of course, for purely selfish reasons, I'm pretty glad the Brute and Black Note events were under-attended. I got 3 pours of each (and could've had more if I really wanted to have that kind of a night). Thank you, PCBW.

 

There needs to be more corner-stone events. A few too many regular "tastings" and not enought actual big draw events. However, it is the first official week so next year will be better, in all aspects.

 

I frequent F&F a lot and talked to the bartenders and they said they had no idea that Ithaca was bring brute until it showed up before the event. So F & F could not have done any advisement because they did not know.

 

Herein lies the problem. How does one know which ones are corner-stone events? Most of the event info on the PCBW website is pretty generic.

Take the Harris info for example:

Bells Bacon Night Tap Takeover. Bells takes 7 taps for your pleasure. We supply the Bacon.

When I see that I think it is going to be the typical Pittsburgh event featuring the same Bell's beers I can get in any bottle shop. I love bacon but this = Pass.

Some mention of Black Note and this = In Like Flint.

 

What I was really hoping for is that some of the marquee establishments would seperate themselves from the rest of the pack with some hevier hitting events. I understand that there are a lot of business' out there trying to jump on the bandwagon, and I cant really fault them for that. I was surprised with places such as Harris and F&F were hosting some of the standout events. This is something that I would like to see change for next year. Those well established places hold events that would draw the majority of people looking to expand there knowledge/palate while some of the smaller places swoop in and come up with events that are equally sought after as far as what they are offering that those "in the know" seek out those events. Not sure if I conveyed that the right way but hopefully you get the point.

 

Like I said I know it was mentioned in the forums, either this one or its previous incarnation. Now I understand it was just a rumor at that time but it should be worth your time to look into. Now as for actually mentioning it on the PCBW calender, it that was done, how many people do you think would of showed up for that? Harris is not a very big place and it was semi-crowded Tuesday anyways. I will agree with you about the descriptions of these events, and even think the format overall could use some tweaking.

 

I was the one who first mentioned Black Note at Harris. I was being completely facetious and I stated as such a few posts later. There wasn't any rumor at all.

Lots of places have no problem posting what they will have for bigger events and they somehow manage to accommodate a crush of people.

 

Both Bells and Harris' posted that Black Note would be available. It was on the bells website as early as Friday 4/20

 

It is on Bell's site(never even thought to look there) but it was never on the Harris Grill site. I'm not a social network person so if it was there I'd never see it. I rely on you young whippersnappers to keep up with social media type places and relay the good bits.

Where were you a week ago?

 

Like yourself I do not rely on social media sites either. I receive email updates from Harris/Shiloh and they listed all the events they were hosting for PCBW. Black Note was listed on there, that's how I knew for sure it was going to be there. I get communication like this from several other establishments around the city, they conveyed much more information about events and happenings(not only for PCBW) then the PCBW website did. Again something that probably needs improved upon for next year.

On a side note, I wasnt all that impressed with the BA WWS at Fatheads yesterday. Anyone else feel the same/different?

 

I didn't attend nearly as many events as anyone in this thread, but I drove out 2 Fridays in a row and had some beers I hadn't had before. For being an out-of-towner, I thought all of the things I read about (and couldn't attend) made this a pretty impressive first event.

I got to have some KBS, WWS, and 120 Minute, among others and brought home quite a few bombers each trip, so I'm nothing but a fan of what went on at PCBW and wish it was a couple of months later so I might be able to spend most of the week in the city, or at least come out for things like Black Note and such.