PCBW Collaboration Beer Dinner – 2/25

For the second annual Pittsburgh Craft Beer Week, five teams of local brewers (including the two of us) have gotten together and formulated five very unique collaboration beers. Given that we’re just shy of our state license, we can’t serve our own beer, but we’ve teamed up with chefs Jamilka Borges and Justin Steel of Bar Marco to bring you a one-of-a-kind, five-course beer dinner featuring all five PCBW collaboration beers. The event will begin at 7pm on Thursday, April 25th at Bar Marco. Tickets are $60 apiece and can be purchased via the ShowClix event page. We will be there to help out and teach a quick lesson on pairing beer and food.

Beer shots by Adam Milliron

Some gorgeous new photos of General Braddock’s IPA and White Sky, shot by local food photographer Adam Milliron.

What We Learned: Craft Brewer’s Conference 2013

It’s a quiet, grey Sunday in Pittsburgh today – an environment well-suited for recovery from what we’ve lovingly referred to as the most educational four-day bender of our lives. We’ve returned home from the 2013 Craft Brewers Conference in Washington D.C. with weary bodies and exhilarated, hungry minds. Apart from the objective knowledge gained from trying dozens of new beers within a short window of time, the conference was proof positive that we are on the right track. Here are a few choice nuggets of wisdom that we’d like to share based on our rookie CBC experience.

1. The Pittsburgh craft beer scene has a lot of room for growth. Our city’s craft beer scene is still very much in its infant stage. We have a very limited number of breweries compared to a lot of other U.S. cities, and a relatively hard time obtaining rare beers from breweries outside Pennsylvania. We have a long way to go.

One easily recognizable trend that we saw in D.C. (and during our recent trip to Toronto as well) was a healthy relationship between great beer and great food. Yes, you can find a decent assortment of excellent beer in this city, but, more often than not, they exist alongside a slew of televisions and fried miscellany. More often than not, fancier restaurants in Pittsburgh will spend a disproportionately large amount of time and money on their wine list than on their beer list. Toronto’s BarVolo and Washington’s Meridian Pint are two standout examples of restaurants that take their beer as seriously as they take their food. Although pounding a couple of Yuenglings during a Pirates game is a recipe for an excellent afternoon, one would be hard-pressed in Pittsburgh to find a thoughtful presentation of a rich, earthy goat cheese alongside the dry, complex tanginess of a saison.

2. Because growth is inevitable, do so carefully. Most breweries, especially those in underserved markets like Pittsburgh, are poised to explode at breakneck speeds. But rapid growth is not necessarily the best type of growth. As a small brewery, we must vigilantly ensure the quality of both our beer and our brand; rapid growth does not permit the fervent attention to detail allowed by steady, strategic expansion. Even if we have the ability to grow like a weed, we must remind ourselves that weeds may easily be uprooted.

This point is especially relevant to us at the moment, when it feels like we’ve been working for months with nothing to show for it. It’s nice to be reminded that our preparation is worthwhile; in looking back, if we had gone full-steam on any previous iterations of our plan, we would have either failed immediately or set ourselves up for gradual failure. We may be taking significantly longer than we initially expected, but we’ve chosen to sacrifice speed for quality. Which brings us to our third and most important point…

3. Quintessential quality is key. Dr. Michael Lewis, head of the brewing science program at UC Davis, gave a powerful talk on the responsibility of a brewery to guarantee quintessential quality across all areas of operation. From their facility to their employees, their products to their brands, their accounts to their consumers, breweries must curate an overarching standard of quality. Cutting corners, even in seemingly negligible areas, is a direct sign of disrespect to the people that love and believe in your company. For instance, if a tap kicks and you merely tape a hand-written note ripped from a sheet of white lined paper to the existing taphandle, you are sending a clear message that you value your customer’s experience less than you value your sales. Although craft beer is not necessarily a bubble, there will most definitely be a shake-down within the next few years of breweries that don’t take a holistic approach to quality assurance. Taking steps such as Cicerone certification for all of our employees will make sure we place our community above all else.

Oh yes, and one more:

4. Live disco/funk is a rollicking, face-meltingly good time after a few tall-boys of Dale’s Pale Ale. Or any canned craft beer. Or all craft beer. Holy crap.

Double Tapped

Last summer we made the somewhat on-the-spot decision to reach out to Mike McAllister, the man behind Epic Development and the Tapped pop-up beer garden series (and now the Urbanist guide). We had been to a few of the Tapped events and wanted to get in on the action. This led to the overwhelmingly successful Tapped: Braddock in October, the final Tapped event of 2012, but it also led to a lasting partnership between ourselves, Mike, Bar Marco, and Fukuda (more on that later). And now we’re pleased to announce that we’re all back for a bigger and better Tapped series in 2013, beginning with Double Tapped.

Yup, Double Tapped. Two of ‘em. Back to back. Bar Marco during the day, Fukuda into the evening. On the day before St. Patty’s day. Here’s what you need to know, besides the fact that this is face-meltingly awesome:

DOUBLE TAPPED, PART I: BAR MARCO

WHAT: The first leg of Double Tapped, complete with live music and shenanigans.

WHEN: 10am- 3pm

WHERE: Bar Marco, 2216 Penn Ave. (in the Strip District)

FOOD: Good ol’-fashioned St. Patty’s food. Corned beef, cabbage, and all that lovely stuff.

DRINK: Beer by Full Pint, plus Irish whiskey punch by Bar Marco.

COST: $10 entry (can be purchased here via Showclix), food and drinks sold by Bar Marco

DOUBLE TAPPED, PART II: FUKUDA

WHAT: The second leg of Double Tapped, complete with a DJ and EVEN MORE SHENANIGANS.

WHEN: 4pm- 9pm

WHERE: Fukuda, 4770 Liberty Ave (in Bloomfield)

FOOD: Japanese street food. Delicious yet hard-to-pronounce favorites, fresh off the grill.

DRINK: Beer by Full Pint.

COST: Free entry. Food and beer sold by Fukuda.

So for everyone that has been fervently holding out through the winter for the return of Tapped: it’s back in all of its glory with much, much more to come.

Growlers n’at

After a long and tumultuous process full of miscommunications and delays, we finally have Brew Gentlemen Beer Co. growlers. And damn, do they look good.

This is one of the final steps towards fulfilling our Kickstarter rewards, and only a few small challenges remain. The largest of which is the completion of our laser-etched coasters, our plans for which fell through almost immediately after the Kickstarter campaign ended. But fear not, dear readers, for we have looked into a number of possible ways of getting these fabricated and should be able to get cracking on them within the month.

In other news, our federal licensing paperwork has been submitted to the TTB and is officially in their queue. Now, all we can do is pray that everything goes as smoothly as possible and that the government doesn’t accidentally misplace, mislabel, or incinerate our application before awarding us our license. Fingers crossed.

Field Trip: Canada

There is nothing more addicting than visible forward progress.

In the past few weeks leading up to this one, we’ve jackhammered two concrete stairways and a trench drain, installed said trench drain, built all of the necessary frames, and poured two batches of the high-strength, fiber-reinforced, ever-so-slightly graded concrete. If you’re reading this, you probably saw the pictures our the last post. Needless to say, it was awesome finally reaching the tipping point of starting to build rather than to demolish. And now we are proud owners of one sexy-as-hell concrete floor… there is nothing more addicting than visible forward progress.

So after that big milestone, we decided to take a break from the manual labor and go on a field trip. Field trips are essential for us as a young company. They give us a break from focusing on our own business and vision, and instead let us focus on seeing what can be accomplished by likeminded individuals. We’re in the final stages of shopping around for equipment, and were invited up to Niagara Falls by Criveller, the manufacturing company that we have chosen to build our brewing system. So we all piled into Rutherford, the black Ford Ranger that has become the war horse of The Brew Gentlemen Beer Co., and we headed north.

We arrived in Niagara Falls on Monday afternoon to meet with the Criveller folks, and were given a tour of the facility and a look at some of the systems that were in the process of being built. On Tuesday we dipped back into upstate New York to check out the Woodcock Brothers Brewing Co., a brand-new brewery and restaurant that’s working with a new Criveller system. And then, on Wednesday headed north to Toronto on Wednesday for one night of R&D: Research & Debauchery.

Woodcock Brothers Brewing Co., Wilson, NY

Toronto is a fantastic city. Having spent the past five years living in Pittsburgh and being used to a friendly, small city vibe, big cities can seem a bit overwhelming at times. But Canada lives up to its stereotypical friendliness, and Toronto was in no way overwhelming. We did a fair amount of exploration, with each new destination usually based on a recommendation by the patrons and staff of the previous establishment. Two locations stood out to us as hugely inspirational.

barVolo, Toronto

BarVolo is a small, almost café-like beer and whiskey bar in downtown Toronto, sporting an impressive draft list. A rustic little spot with wooden everything, they are purveyors of some rather adventurous fare;  not a wasteland of flagship pale ales and pilsners, but rich with selections containing things such as brettanomyces, hibiscus, pinot noir barrel-aging, oak chips, peppercorns and gruit. Although we had the rest of the evening ahead of us, we could have easily spent four days sitting by the wood-burning stove and drinking wonderful and unique beers.

We were wide-eyed with giddy, slightly buzzed excitement by the time we got into Bellwoods Brewery. And just as we did when we set foot inside barVolo, our jaws dropped upon taking in the interior. Bellwoods is a perfect model for what kind of brewery we want to become. From the selection to the decor, they are absolutely nailing it. Sitting at a narrow bar on the balcony overlooking the brewing system, we tasted bold and delicious beers over boards of delicate meats and rich cheeses.

Given that it was rather dimly lit and I didn’t want to be that asshole taking flash photos, we don’t have any photos of the place, so here’s one from a Torontoist article about them. This place is freaking gorgeous.

Bellwoods Brewery, Toronto

All in all, this trip was a success that has provided us with plenty of inspiration and stories. We don’t often get the chance to break out of our Pittsburgh bubble, so the trip was a breath of fresh air. Which is probably good, considering that we spent a solid month breathing concrete dust.

Time to get back to that forward progress.

Steel City Small Pour

Groundbreaking

concrete saw, jackhammer, digging bar, shovel

The Session #71: Brewers & Drinkers

The Session is a monthly event for the beer blogging community where, on the first Friday of each month, all participating bloggers write about a predetermined topic. Each month a different blog is chosen to host The Session, choose the topic, and post a roundup of all the responses received. For more info on The Session, check out the Brookston Beer Bulletin.

This month’s Session topic comes from John at Homebrew Manual, who asks about the relationship between being a brewer and a drinker, and how making beer changes one’s perception of the beers that they consume.

Making beer is an art form, essentially the same as cooking or painting or creating music. And, like most works of art, beer doesn’t require an intimate knowledge of it’s creation process for it’s audience to truly appreciate it. But having that knowledge does let you approach it differently.

I recently had the pleasure of visiting the Winslow Homer exhibit at the Portland Museum of Art, a collection of Homer’s landscape paintings of the coast of southern Maine. Homer is an excellent painter, but as a fellow artist, there is one thing that stands out to me in his work: his depictions of water. I’ve tried my hand at oil painting a number of times (never to any success), so I have a basic grasp of the kind of skill it takes to create something of that caliber, and lemme tell ya, capturing the violent movement of the sea is something that Homer did better than most. His paintings evoke a fear of the power of nature in a way that a lot of landscape painters cannot, a very specific skill that Homer absolutely mastered. Anyone can appreciate his work, but anyone who’s ever painted water, successfully or unsuccessfully, is capable of a different sort of appreciation altogether.

When you look at a beer as a brewer, your mind starts to get into the same type of appreciation. From the way the hops and malts delicately balance each other, all the way down to the label on the bottle or the look of the taphandle, the brewer has made an enormous amount of tiny decisions resulting in the final product you have in your hand. And just like seeing the crashing waves of Homer’s paintings, you don’t have to know what all of these tiny decisions are in order to appreciate their result.

At the end of the day, viewing a painting and drinking a beer are both simple sensory acts from which pleasure can be derived without any prior knowledge at all. Having that knowledge really just changes how long you spend thinking about it.

The Session #70: Hype

In this month’s session, Good Morning asks whether hype is a good thing for the craft beer industry. We think it’s both a good and a bad thing.

Things we like about hype:

• Seasonal hype. When pumpkin beers are everywhere, I start getting excited about Mad Elf being right around the corner. It was one of the first beers I personally hyped to my friends who aren’t big craft beer drinkers and they remembered it. Over Thanksgiving a few of them even joined me at a Mad Elf brunch where the first keg of the season was tapped.
• Event hype. Dark Lord Day, Steel City Big Pour, Extreme Beer Fest, SAVOR. All events centered around craft beer and bringing the community together. I’ve read awesome stories of people drinking rare beers in line at Dark Lord Day and sharing with those around them. SCPB has done so much for the craft beer community in Pittsburgh. It excites me to see so many people work so hard to put on such awesome events.
• Collaboration hype. Who wouldn’t get excited about Stone, Dogfish Head, and Victory doing a beer together? It’s like being at a Willie Nelson concert and having Snoop Dogg come on stage to perform a song with him. Collaborations by breweries allow for hype to spread cross country and reach a much larger audience.

Things we dislike about hype:

• Online beer scalping of hyped beers. It is extremely frustrating to see people buy rare beers just to try to make 10x their money by selling it on eBay. If I’ve missed out, I’ve missed out.
• Insane markups of hyped beers. Bottle shops know which beers are hyped and take advantage of that. There is no reason Hopslam should be $29.99 per six pack. Then again, it’s still sitting on the shelf at our local bottle shop. Guess they aimed too high. I’m ok with a beer costing more if it takes more to produce. I guess those markups aren’t too different than scalpers.
• Seasonal hype, a season early. I’ve only really see this become a problem with pumpkin beers showing up in August. Hopefully that’ll die out. I don’t want to drink a pumpkin beer before October. Don’t show up to a Labor Day BBQ with pumpkin beer, please.