Pittsburgh - New Beers & Local Breweries

It figures that I would love the one beer you guys think is ho-hum from them.

 

I personally love hop fro, and with jungle juiced and hop stalker on draft (and cans for stalker) I have to swing in there this evening.

Also - pretty sure Whole Foods Wexford has a double dose at 5 today. Excited to sample on draft.

They also had the alpine bottles (duet and hoppy birthday). I haven't had the original alpine brewed versions, but the duet bottles were really, really good.

 

Between Fat Heads and BG, it seems we have all we need in the hoppy department. Now who is gonna step up in the other style categories?

 

This x1000

I think DL is pushing wild ales forward and in another year I think more people will be talking about them

 

Does anyone know if FH fills 32oz growlers?

 

I always thought that Roundabout would be able to pump out a really good stout. He has all the technical skill to do it. But at this point, it seems he has an infatuation with low ABV beers so my optimism has been crushed. I don't want a 5% stout. That has 0 appeal to me.

 

Maybe. Not nearly as impressed with their sour efforts as I am with the hoppy efforts of the aforementioned. I'm really sensitive to acetic acid in sours though...

 

I've only seen the bottles this year so far. Awesome if they got in cans as well.

 

Totally agree. Roundabout is so far off my radar of interesting beer in Pittsburgh right now.

 

Unless it's jacked up stout, I agree...

 

They do, just no discount. For example, a 32 of jungle juiced would be about 12 whereas a 64 would run 18.

 

Oh you're right, damn. Those 16oz pounder cans last year were awesome.

 

It is crazy that Roundabout has fallen off most of our radars, Steve clearly has a ton of brewing talent. That being said, he seems to be making beer for the masses, or maybe I am just misreading it. Maybe he is brewing his favorite styles, it just so happens that 99% of us don't really get excited about those styles.

For me, they have fallen off my radar because each experience in the last 6-8 months has been less than memorable. I was pretty stoked to try his berliner and all of its fruited cousins.......and was massively let down. On top of this, the place is really, really loud so my expectations of my visit are that I will be let down.

Nothing I have had from them has been a complete miss. The beers are easy to drink and there is always at least one beer worth having a second of.

 

He still brews very well made, technically sound beers. They just are, with few exceptions, uninteresting. I still really like Hyer-PA. His marzen was really good. 2014 Heini's was solid. But his string of ambers, steam beers, and milds is just not what I'm looking for. I've only been there once in the last 6 months or so as a result. I still think that he has all the skill in the world to make beers that everyone on here would love (except Shuggy of course). But the desire seems to lie elsewhere.

 

Felt nearly the same way.

 

It's just really uninteresting to me in every way, if I'm being honest. When I've been in there I've not really cared or anything I've had, it's in a location I don't really care to go to with bad parking options and the space itself is, to be redundant, uninteresting. There have never been more than maybe two people in there when I have been along with one seemingly disinterested lady behind the counter pouring drinks. Just nothing about them, from the beer to the location to the space itself, makes me the least bit interested in going back.

I do still have my bottle of 14' Heini's Good Cheer though. Maybe opening that will pique my interest again.

 

Was that the first batch or second?

The first batch was nearly a drain pour for me. Major disappointment.

 

Agreed. The second batch is pretty tasty, just opened one this past weekend. The very first Church Brew Works batch was phenomenal. That was the one that won gold at GABF. I think I went through 5 growlers of it.

 

Second.

 

Never had the pleasure of trying the Church version...but have heard good things. And after wasting my money on the first roundabout batch, I had absolutely zero interest in returning to buy bottles of b2 when that was released.