What do you get when you take a post-industrial city, fill it with students from six universities and give it a healthy dose of entrepreneurial drive? Among many other things; a dramatic spike in craft brewing.
There is a sense that Pittsburgh Pennsylvania is a strange bubble in which the normal laws of trends or progress do not necessarily apply. The city was an industrial centre for over a hundred years, known for making steel, pushing the technological boundaries of production since the 1870’s but fast forward to the 1980’s and economic turmoil, Pittsburgh and other cities saw the mills close and ship off along with the jobs to Canada, Mexico and elsewhere.
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| Between the Allegheny and the Monongahela, forming the Ohio. |
But fortunately for Pittsburgh, the spirit of enterprise remained and a new array of industries sprang up seemingly overnight as some of the best minds in the country set the city up as a centre of legal practice, advanced medicine and robotics (they designed the Mars rover thing, how cool is that?!). And where do those high brow professionals turn for their end of day swill? Probably one of the many high quality craft brews from Pittsburgh (from here on I will use only local nicknames for the city).
Much like the tide of the steel industry; one skin sheds, a more suited skin emerges, the beer scene went the same way. In 2009, as the local lager, Iron City picked up and left town for neighboring Latrobe (and tried to hide it, what gall!) the fiercely proud Yinzers of the Steel City were inspired to look closer to home.
As of September 2013 the brewing scene in the City of Bridges included a fair list of breweries producing some really exciting beers, filling every niche a beer lover could desire from classic Czech styled pilsner from Penn Brewery, to big dense IPA from Full Pint and Trappist styles from Draai Laag and hundreds others. Here’s a look at some of the more established names in the ‘Burgh.
The Penn Brewery has been producing its eponymous Penn Pilsener for nearly 30 years out of the old E&O Brewery building in the the Deutschtown neighborhood and has become one of the go-to beers in the city. Add to this a solid range including the top-notch Allegheny Pale Ale and the Kaiser Pils and this is the City of Champion’s answer to Samuel Adams: a craft brewery making great beer on a larger scale.
The Church Brew Works in Lawrenceville is perhaps the most recognizable brewery in the city. Sited in a desanctified (did I invent this word?) Catholic Catholic church, this is a Pittsburgh institution and a religious experience for a beer-lover. The altar is home to the tanks, the the bar is appropriately located at the confessional the pews are swapped for more sociable tables. As this is more of a brew pub, it is a rare treat to find the beers in bottle, so this might require a visit to the Three River City. A worthy pilgrimage!
Among the new upstarts are a selection of breweries quickly proving themselves. Full Pint, Rivertowne and East End alongside the smaller operations of Hop-Farm, Copper Kettle and Roundabout ensure that there is always new beer to be had. Forget your Sierra Nevadas, your Victory and your Brooklyn. When your in the Burgh, you could have a different brew every day from one of a wide array of breweries. Not even counting the Seasonals!
So the city between the Three Rivers is bursting it's banks with good beer. It can only be so long before it flows into the world.
Much Love,
G
