Pittsburgh - New Beers & Local Breweries

I've worked in the service industry, but not recently and wasn't privy to the enforcement of corporate policy/procedure that would direct chain restaurants to clean their lines regularly. Wonder if theirs are more likely to be clean, or if I'm naïve to believe this.

Was at a Houligans over the weekend and had the misfortune of having a Hop Devil that was not true to form; returned it for a bottle of Sierra Nevada.

 

Exactly

 

Nate Levi is the shit!!!

 

Smokin Joes is pretty bad. A few years ago I ordered the Chinook Single Hop from Flying Dog and was pretty excited to try it. I ended up with some concoction of water, beer and a load of cheap tequila flavor. It was like one of those times where you think you are drinking like a glass of water and start chugging and you find out its milk and you are so alarmed you spit it out everywhere. Except milk tastes good.

 

Well I just wrote a quick email to Hough's to ask them about their tap line cleaning procedures. Hopefully I get a response.

 

It is a PLCB requirement to have a 2yr record of line cleaning at the establishment. Not sure what the requirements are within that, but someone recently reported my establishment for a different, wrongly accused offense (gotta love the competition) and the officer checked my logs.

If they hear enough complaints, an officer will check in...

 

Also, with New Belgium coming in, they are asking for copies of everyone's line cleaning records, so you either might not see NB on draft in certain places or (hopefully) more places cleaning their lines more frequently.

 

never disappoints

 

Curious - what was the offense reported?

 

The obvious concern is whether their is veracity to the logs. Sheetz has a "restroom cleaned" log with neat initials next to each shift, but the signatures are the neatest things in there. Because usually it looks and smells like someone took a large sheetz and smeared it all over the wall.

 

Damn. Good for them. That's actually a really great strategy that benefits every one.

 

@kbuzz I saw that you gave Smokin Joes a 4/5 in 2014.......would you change that now? Has the bad tap line issue been a recent one for them?

I have never had a beer there so excuse my ignorance.

 

Ha. Remember when Smoking Joe's was pouring Leinenkugel for people by mistake and saying it was CBS? That was gold Jerry, gold.

 

Haha, maybe nachos then? Half price burrito day? I don't know. Did I mention how rarely I go to Mad Mex? Something that's nice for your regular customers without specifically drawing a bunch of non-regular customers out of the woodwork.

Yeah, I do agree that the "overpriced most of the time so you can still make a profit during happy hour" plan seems like a bad one. Although, when the Library has 28 happy hours a week, you're practically 50/50 to show up and have it randomly be happy hour.

 

hahahah, and if you are unlucky like me you show up during the rare non happy hour time and pay $7 for an Oberon

 

Ohhhh, I'm used to the term adjunct referring to cheaper grains like rice and corn being used in the mash, typically for cheap lagers. If people are starting to refer to Hunah as adjunct beer because of the chilis, the term's going to become a lot less derogatory in my mind.

 

Those aren't adjuncts, though.

EDIT: Adjuncts are sources of fermentable sugar other than malt, either used in the mash (corn, oats, rye) or kettle (syrup, sugar). Westy 12 is an "adjunct beer".

 

New Belgium to the rescue! Who would've thought?

 

I feel like the bars at the casino (and/or wherever) should price drinks at 1/2 price half the time and 1.5x price the other half the time, but use a RNG to schedule pricing so you never know what you're going to pay til you order. I mean it's a horrible idea from a business perspective, but the sicko gambler in me kinda loves the idea of even gambling on your beers.

 

The PA law requires weekly cleaning of lines, etc.

https://www.lcbapps.lcb.state.pa.us...ay.asp?opinion_year=2009&opinion_sequence=110