Philly Beer Scene

It seems to be charity season as the Hulmeville in is having a fundraiser for leukemia and lymphoma as well. Unlike Victory’s this one won’t make you a brewer for the day but you will win some really special and extremely rare beers. Here’s the rundown:

We’re having a charity beer raffle! One ticket for $5, five tickets for $20. Every Penny received will be donated to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS). LLS is the world’s largest non-profit health organization dedicated to finding blood cancer research and providing education and patient services.

1st Prize
2011 Sam Adams Utopias, 2011 Westvleteren 12 (Belgian Quad), and Founders CBS (Imperial Stout) $25 Hulmeville Inn Gift Card

2nd Prize
2011 Westvleteren 12 (Belgian Quad), 2006 JW Lee’s Harvest Ale (Barleywine), 2007 Alaskan Smoked Porter, and Southern Tier Oaked Cuvee Series 1 (American Strong Ale)
$25 Hulmeville Inn Gift Card

3rd Prize
Founders CBS (Imperial Stout), 2007 JW Lee’s Harvest Ale (Barleywine), Weyerbacher Rapture (American Wild Ale), and Firestone Walker 15th Anniversary (American Strong Ale) $25 Hulmeville Inn Gift Card

4th Prize
2008 Three Floyds Dark Lord (Imperial Stout), Fraoch 20th Anniversary Whiskey Cask (Scottish Gruit/Herbed Ale), 2010 Uinta Cockeyed Cooper (Bourbon Barrel Barleywine), and 2012 Jolly Pumpkin La Roja (American Wild Ale) $25 Hulmeville Inn Gift Card

5th Prize
2002 JW Lee’s Harvest Ale (Barleywine), 2010 Brooklyn Black OPS (Russian Imperial Stout), Arbor Brewing 2005 Special Reserve (American Wild Ale), and 2009 Allagash Interlude (American Wild Ale) $25 Hulmeville Inn Gift Card

The Drawing will be held on March 18th. Winners need not be present at the drawing to win. Please write your name and a means to contact you (phone number or email address) legibly in pen on the back of the ticket. First ticket drawn will win first prize and remaining prizes will be drawn in order. After the drawings for the 5 main prizes, all remaining non-winning tickets will be drawn and other prizes (see below) will be given away. Prizes above are guaranteed, additional beers may be added as donated.
2011 Lost Abbey Lost and Found (Belgian Dubbel), 2011 Lost Abbey Devotion (Belgian Pale Ale), 2011 Lost Abbey Serpent’s Stout (Imperial Stout), Flying Fish Exit 1 (Oyster Stout), Trappist Rochefort 10 (Belgian Quad), Maine Beer Co. Lunch (IPA), 3 Liter Allagash Tripel (Belgian Tripel), and 3 Liter 2010 Chimay Blue (Belgian Strong Dark Ale)

Location:Hulmeville Inn

Victory Brewing Co is holding a raffle to raise money to help fight leukemia and lymphoma. The winning ticket gets to learn the in’s and out’s of being a brewer as they will get to work in the brewery for a day! Here are the details straight from Victory:

Victory’s own Matt Krueger is campaigning for the title of Man of the Year. You can help him win by helping others fight cancer. You can donate to his campaign for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and/or you can enter for a chance to be a brewer for a day!

What you could win…

You and a friend will spend a day in the brewhouse
Learn every step of the brewing process
Help the brewers make a batch of Victory beer
End your day with a beer dinner for six people
$20 per entry. 100% of proceeds will be donated to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

4 winners will be chosen!
Last day to enter is April 9th.
The winner will be notified on or before April 16th.

Location:Victory Brewing Co

Yards 5th Annual Real Ale Invitational is just around the corner. For those of you not familiar, the Real Ale Festival is a cask beer festival featuring 25 (plus) firkins from local breweries with a few regional casks in the mix. Tickets are kept to a minimum to ensure a more relaxed, enjoyable time for our guests. The event will be held at Yards brewing on March 25th from 1-5:00. Tickets and more info are available here.

Location:Yards Brewing Co

In what is shaping up to be an awesome year for the local beer scene as we will see almost a dozen new breweries popping up in the local market, Bucks County is seeing it’s first new addition in early March. Doylestown Brewing Company is making it’s debut on March 9th with a special public tasting to be held at Shaving Grace Barbers in downtown Doylestown. The event will go from 6-9:00 and you will be able to sample their three launch beers: Union Street IPA, R5 Lager, and Fountain House Light. You can read a little more about the beers here. The beers are currently being contract brewed as they are in search of their own brewery in downtown Doylestown.

The event is free and open to all.

Location:Shaving Grace Barbers 41 East State Street Doylestown, PA 18901

Last week we held a forum on beer laws at Yards Brewing Company. Senator Chuck McIlhinney and Lew Bryson were our guests as they answered many questions from the audience about our archaic system that controls the alcohol sales in the state.  For those of you who couldn’t make it out, we just uploaded an audio recording of the event.  You can listen to it here.  Skip to about 1:37 in for the actual beginning of the forum and please bare with the first minute as we fixed some technical issues. Some of the audience questions may be hard to hear as well, but Tom Kehoe, who moderated, did a good job of repeating the question once the discussion began.

As you may have already noticed (and even attended the event), and i apologize for the late post, Victory Brewing Co. turned 16 yesterday.  To celebrated they teamed up with Eclat Chocolates to make a special beer.  To celebrate even further they released an app for iPhones and androids.  Best of all, the app is free and helps you find Victory beers wherever you are (even down to what styles the bar/store should have in stock) and gives you all the details on the brewery and it’s offerings.  Just search Victory Beer in your app store and it should pop up.

There is a new German Bierfest in the works. The festival will be held at the German Society on Spring Garden and will be celebrating the heritage of German brewing. There will be a dozen german-style beers being poured from local Pennsylvania breweries, a rotating selection of actual German beers being poured by the good people over the the Foodery, and some great German fare from Philly’s premier German restaurant, Brauhaus Schmitz. On top of the beer, there will also be a Brewers Discussion Panel on the history of the style and where it is believed to be headed. The panel includes brewers Bill Covaleski of Victory, John Callahan of Yuengling, John Trogner of Troegs, Scott Rudich of Round Guys as well as non-brewers including Adam of Drink Philly and Mat from Philly Beer Scene. Author Marnie Old will also be hosting a guided VIP beer seminar. For more details on the festival and how to get tickets, click here.

Participating PA Craft Breweries:
Sly Fox
Victory
Round Guys
Yuengling
Troegs
Berwick
Appalachian
Pennsylvania Brewing Co
Stoudts
Roy Pitz
Lion Brewery

Location:German Society

Allentown area brewpub chain, Fegley’s Brew Works went through a significant expansion yesterday. They added 3 huge fermentation tanks adding 1,200 bbl’s to their capacity at the Allentown location. Those 1,200 additional barrels are equal to the size of the Bethlehem location, so they pretty much added on the equivalent of a new brewpub. Hopefully this means we’ll be seeing a lot more beer from them, especially the Amber Lager which we don’t see nearly enough of!

**UPDATE**  Tonight’s dinner has been postponed due to some unforseen circumstances.  We will inform you of the new date as soon as it is announced.

In honor of turning 7 years old, Brooklyn based brewery Sixpoint will be having a special dinner at Silk City to celebrate. Four of the five beers being served are very limited, draft only offerings including the new 7th Anniversary Red IPA. Plus, the dinner is super cheap at only $35 a person. See the promotional flyer below for details on the dinner itself.

Location:Silk City

I’m gonna be a little lazy with this one and just share the Press Release with you for all the details. This is a HUGE homebrew competition and even if you didn’t submit a beer you should still stop by and check it out. There will be plenty of beers to sample from professionals and homebrewers alike so it’s sure to be a good time. Here’s the details:

On February 18, Keystone Homebrew Supply will host the first major regional homebrew competition of 2012 – the 17th annual War of the Worts. The War of the Worts is consistently one of the largest homebrew competitions in the country, and the largest on the East Coast, drawing entries from all over the United States. Although primarily a competition for homebrewed beer, many styles of hard cider and mead are entered into the competition as well. Last year, the War of the Worts had 765 entries being judged according to Beer Judge Certification Program (“BJCP”) guidelines by BJCP certified judges, and this year the number of entries is estimated to have grown to approximately 880. More than fifty beer and homebrew industry sponsors have graciously donated prizes worth thousands of dollars, which will be awarded for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place in each category. The highlight of the day is a final judging of all the 1st place category winners by senior ranked judges to determine Best of Show. Prizes and bragging rights aside, the awards ceremony brings together a large portion of the homebrew community, along with local professional brewers and their beer for the enjoyment of all on hand. The judging for the War of the Worts will take place all day on February 18th, with the awards ceremony commencing at approximately 6:30pm. All are invited to attend the ceremony and of course share in tasty beer.

Between 4:30pm and 6:30pm, attendees can sample free beers from both established and up-and-coming local breweries, including the Cabinet Artisanal Brewhouse, Forest & Main Brewing, Freewill Brewing, Iron Hill Brewery, Naked Brewing, Prism Brewing and Round Guys Brewing, plus hard cider from Fratelli Desiato Vineyards. Also starting at 4:30pm, there will also be a free seminar about beer chemistry presented by local author Roger Barth, phD.

The War of the Worts is the first qualifying competition for the Eastern Pennsylvania Homebrew of the Year, which is given to the winningest local homebrewer in the 4 major homebrew competitions in the eastern Pennsylvania region. It is also a qualifying event for Philly Beer Geek and Clone Brew Wars, both popular Philly Beer Week events.

Location:Keystone Homebrew