Trip down to Philly Memorial Day

Cans on a Friday are near to impossible. They typically release Wed (sometimes Thurs) and 85% of the time sell out by nights end/early afternoon next day. Having said that, Forest & Main is popular for the older styles, Sours, Belgians what have you, but nothing else really of mention along your direct route. Best bet would be to organize a meet up where you *ahem* scratch someones back and have them *ahem* scratch yours.

 

If you are looking for beer you can find in any beer store, the "shelf" IPAs on the PA Top Beer List would be Victory Dirtwolf, Neshaminy Creek Shape of Hops to Come, Troegs Perpetual, Voodoo Good Vibes.

If you are in KOP you can drive a half hour (non rush hour) up 422 to Hidden River who does do limited crowlers of their well regarded IPAs. Stickman Brews is out that way too, they have a few IPAs typically but focus more on Belgian style beers. Their have limited bottles though

 

Conshohocken Type A is available in 16oz cans. If heading to KOP you can stop in at either Conshy or Bridgeport locations although it is also in distributors.

 

can you elaborate more on why you call the beers that Forest & Main makes "older styles"?

 

If you think about it, English styles would actually be "newer" than sours. Until the domestication of brewers yeast in about the 16th Century, all beer was likely sour.

While Forest & Main has great cask English-style beers (Dark Milds, Stouts, Old Ales, Bitters, Barleywine, etc), they do also seem to be brewing weekly "hazy" IPAs that they sell crowlers of, that would be in interest to @BostonHoppa

 

I knew I was treading lightly with the over-simplification I really just meant their sweet spot isn't specializing in hops.

 

One day everything old will be new again. Oh, wait, sours are new again already? Who knew?

One thing I'll throw in is that if you are going to go to Tired Hands, the Beer Shoppe in Ardmore is a block or so away (west), and a mile down the road is a new brewpub called Tin Lizard. From there on your way back to K.O.P. you can hit the Beer Yard for some bottles, and then La Cabra which doesn't specialize in IPAs but has some great beers and great food.

The other option driving-wise is to head back east to I-76 at exit 338/Green Lane-Belmont which is right across the river from the Manayunk Brewing Company. As that's your only way back onto the expressway (other than going west to Radnor), if you decide to do that it might be worth a few minutes to stop in and visit.

Regardless of what you decide to do, money-wise I'd look at hitting Wegmans Market for beer as opposed to a bottle ship. There's one in King of Prussia, and one in Collegeville right off of 422 if you decide to head up to Hidden River.

 

Jim, have you been to Tin Lizard yet? If so, whatcha think?

Cheers!

 

Hey Jack! I haven't been to the Tin Lizard yet - I don't get out much! You might have noticed my ankle bracelet at the Yards Real Ale Fest !!!

Seriously, there's just so much going on that I can't keep up. There are too many places opening, and too many that I haven't even been to yet.

One that note, one that I have been to is the Wissahickon Brewing Company, and I was going to stop back on Friday night but given that it was a freakin' hassle pulling my friends together (they couldn't decide what they wanted to do), and that Tim (the brewer/owner) told me they're just overwhelmed there, I decided to just scrap it and go to Earth Bread + Brewery. Simple and easy. Had I thought about it though, Tin Lizard would have probably been just as easy.

 

Maybe next Friday night?

Cheers!

P.S. My wife and I went to Sly Fox Brewpub last Saturday (5/13) for dinner and we picked up two 4-packs of Hop Project #002. I will be discussing this beer this Sunday in the New Beer Sunday thread.

 

I was just in Philly, and in addition to what's been mentioned, Vault Brewing in Yardley was awesome. Good beers, cool space (it's an old bank) and I had a duck confit/apple/bacon pizza that was out of this world. Had plenty of cans to go, too.