Philly Beer Week, Days 2 and 3

The first weekend of Philly Beer Week is over, and I made it through! I think I'm getting smarter about this whole drinking thing because I managed not to have a hangover at any point. So that only took about 20 years.

Anyway, what a great weekend it was! The weather couldn't have been better, and the events I went to couldn't have been more fun. Let's start with Saturday, or Day 2.

Day 2
After getting a very late start, I made it to The Pour House in Collingswood for lunch where they were having a Goose Island Tap Takeover. It was also the Haddon Pub Fest, but we didn't do any crawling. Finally made it in to Philly a little before 5 and headed straight to Varga where they were having their annual block party. Although it was late in the day (the event only went until about 6), we were still there in plenty of time for fun and good beer. There was a DJ spinning great music and everyone was just chilling out, enjoying the beautiful skies and light breeze. The block party ended and then it was a Great Lakes Tap Takeover event. Got to have some of the great beers from Great Lakes before heading to the next destination.

Devil's Den was next on our list. Although there wasn't anything in particular happening while we were there, we benefited from earlier events in the form of rare/new beers. I got a flight, which consisted of Ballast Point Even Keel (an amazing, tasty session beer that's only 3.7% ABV), Reprisal Centennial Red from 4 Hands Brewing, Belgian Tripel from Neshaminy Creek (really liking what these guys are doing!), and a Choco-Latte from Williamsburg AleWerks.

Our Beer Week adventures ended there, but the fun continued as we helped a friend celebrate his birthday.

Day 3

Sunday was another beautiful day. Unfortunately, I had to take John to the airport as he'll be in LA for the week for work. I was sad to drop him off, but luckily I had some Heady Topper from The Alchemist at Misconduct Tavern to look forward to. This was the first I've had of the Heady Topper; it was from a keg and it was honestly awesome. I've heard some say it's a strong rival against Pliny the Younger, and I agree with this sentiment! Next up was a Lavery Oak-aged Lipoard Oir, from Lavery Brewing, which even after the bitter bite of the Heady Topper still came through as a beautiful saison.

The artist at work

 The best part of Sunday was absolutely Mat Falco of Philly Beer Scene getting his head shaved by Casey Hughes. I believe Mat's been growing his hair for 2 years. To the left you can see what Casey had to work through. I don't even have the words to describe how much fun it was to see this happen.
Mat was a great sport, although more than once I'm sure he had to be wondering what he had gotten himself in to.

The end result

Casey did a nice job, although Mat may feel differently. You can see more photos here.

Next up was the Cirque de Sasion at Tapestry. This was a great event for kids and adults. There was face painting, live music provided by Slo & Shakey, men on stilts, hoola-hooping, and an amazing array of saisons. I had the Del Ducato Nuova Mattina. Delizioso!

Making my way north and east, I wound up at Standard Tap where they were having a scratch beer showdown between beer writers Lew Bryson and Jack Curtin. Both used Troeg's facility to brew their beers; Lew's was a Zwickel Licker and Jack offered a Biere de Grouche. It was essentially a dead heat, with Jack beating Lew by just three glasses. (I'll be honest. I didn't stay until the end and I just read online what the outcome was). Having tried both, I'd say they were both winners.

It was an epic weekend, followed by the need for a day off, which is why I won't be posting anything tomorrow about Day 4. My Day 4 consisted of lots of TV time and water. Back at it again tomorrow (Day 5) and am excited for what the night will bring.

Photos courtesy of Stephen Lyford.






                                                                                

Some Philly Favorites of 2010

Happy new year everyone!

I hope your holidays were as wonderful as mine. I finally got over my cold and joined John in the great Midwest. I met some wonderful new people, saw some old friends, visited a part of the country I'd never been to before, and got to try some great new beers. A terrific end to 2010 and a perfect beginning to 2011.

One of these days I'm going to have some real time to sit down and compile my end-of-year list. I'd like to write about my favorite beers, moments, songs, movies, etc from last year.

That day, however, is not today. I do have some intersting information to share, though, thanks to my good friends at PhillyTapFinder.com. Launched in September of last year, PhillyTapFinder.com is a great way for you to find out where your favorite beers are being served. As a matter of fact, I did a write up on the site that you can read here.

But back to the interesting information. Jared, the President of PTF, looked at the most popular beer and bar searches from the launch of the site through the end of the year. Below are his findings.

Top 5 beer searches:
1. Russian River Pliny the Elder (a favorite of mine whose review you can read here)
2. Troegs Mad Elf
3. Southern Tier Pumking (probably my favorite pumpkin beer. You can read what I had to say about it here)
4. Russian River Blind Pig (another one I've reviewed)
5. Dogfish Head Punkin Ale

All great brews! Obviously some of them are seasonal, and so the list is expected to change, but it's fun to see nonetheless.

The top 3 neighborhoods were Rittenhouse, Art Museum/Fairmount, and South Philly.

The top 3 beer styles were IPAs (YES!), porters/stouts, and sours/wild fermented ales.

Finally, the top 5 bars searched were:
1. Kraftwork
2. Devil's Den
3. Monk's
4. Eulogy
5. POPE

Probably no real surprises to anyone, and again, it will be interesting to see the difference at the end of 2011 when the site will have been live for over a year.

In the meantime, don't forget to check PhillyTapFinder.com (from your computer or mobile device) when you want to find your favorite beer on tap.

Cheers!

Philly Beer Week 2010 - Days 5 - 8

Beer Week is drawing to a close, although there are still 2 good days left. What a week it's been! Yesterday was one of the best for me, but I'll get there in a minute.

After staying in Monday night, I was ready to go again on Tuesday. I started with a great event at Smokin' Bettys - Broads & Brews. It featured women owners and brewers from Stoudt's, Dock Street, Flying Fish, and Philadelphia Brewing Company. It was really interesting to meet all these great women, drink their beer (of course), and be able to talk to them about their start in the business.

From there I went to Zavino's Wine Bar (where they also serve beer). Although not part of PBW, I did drink some Dogfish Head. Ended the night at Varga Bar. I know I said before I'd write down all the beers that I had so I could correctly identify them, but I didn't do that at Varga and I honestly can't remember what I drank. I can, however, remember what I sang - a very mumbled version of "Wonderwall" and a very good version of "The Scientist". Suffice it to say it was a very fun night.

Wednesday was pretty devoid of any PBW festivities. I went to a BYO for dinner and had a Sierra Nevada Torpedo. After dinner went to McGillin's, which was the ending point for a bar crawl with local brewers that had been going on. I hadn't gone on the bar crawl, but was glad enough to be there when we were able to get pitchers of the Flying Fish Exit 6 (easily one of the favorite beers I got to try earlier in the week). Was there for the Flyers game, which while a great game, ultimately ended in a Flyers loss and the end of their Stanley Cup run. Still, made for a good evening.

I took Thursday off. Needed time to recharge my batteries. It was well worth it when I was able to go for a run Friday morning and get an early start.

As I mentioned earlier, Friday was a great day and I got to try some really different beers. I went to Monk's for their Belgian brewers lunch. I tried the St. Bernardus Abt 12, Abbaye Val-Dieu Grand Cru, and Brasserie des Rocs Grand Cru. All very different than what I typically drink and all very good. It was really interesting to meet the brewers, too. I love everyone from Belgium that I've met and it makes me more anxious to get there ASAP.

From Monk's, I went to Jose Pistolas for their Weyerbacher lunch (having not eaten at Monk's, it was time for some food). I had the Weyerbacher Verboten (loved!) and the Saison.

After I had my fill of chips and tacos, I headed over to Hawthorne's for a Brewdog meet-the-brewer event. What an event it turned out to be! I got to try two of the most extreme beers out there - the Tactical Nautical Penguin, which comes in at a whopping 32% ABV and the Sink the Bismarck, which comes in at... wait for it... 41% ABV!! I think this may be the strongest beer in the world. I only had a taste of each, but believe me, that's all I needed. I got to also try the Tokyo, which seemed fairly tame at just 18.2%, and the Punk IPA, whose 6% ABV hardly seems worth mentioning. Incredible beers from an incredible brewer.

The day didn't end there. Up next was Supper. Not a PBW event, but great happy hour specials got my attention. 1/2 priced apps (selected ones) and a 1/2 priced featured beer, which yesterday was the SlyFox Pikeland Pils. After a couple of those, headed over to Good Dog, where there was a kick-the-firkin (I think it was a firkin) competition being held. It was a SlyFox bitter vs. a Southampton beer (I don't remember which it was since I didn't have one, but I think that was a bitter as well). I believe my friend got the last SlyFox pour, handing them the win.

Whew! What a Friday! Actually, I wound up going to Continental after for some food, and then my night was officially over.

On tap today? Devil's Den at noon for the Franziskaner/Spaten lunch. Then off to watch the USA in the World Cup. Not sure what - if anything - will come after that, but it's a beautiful day here in Philly and I can only imagine fun times ahead.