Philly Beer Scene

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

The Reading Terminal Market has been a cornerstone of Philadelphia History for quite some time now. 120 Years to be exact. In honor of this grand accomplishment, Philadelphia Brewing Company has brewed a special commemorative beer to celebrate. Engine 1982 is a chocolate stout brewed with chocolate from Reading Market mainstay Chocolate by Mueller. Aside from possibly a few random, special tappings in the city, this beer will be available at the new Molly Malloys in the Terminal for a very short time. Once it’s gone, this one is gone for good. With what seems to be the coldest days of winter now finally upon us, it’s the perfect time for a few pints of chocolate stout! Get here quick as this may not last more than a couple weeks.
For those not familiar with Molly Malloy’s, they recently took over and renovated the old beer garden that was located centrally in the Market. They have done wonders for the location as it has now become a destination for great beer and an added reason to visit the Market. They have 24 beers on tap and 20 of them are craft, with a majority being local. They also have about a dozen craft bottles. That is a drastic change from what was the crappy old beer garden and is now a much more fitting pub for Philadelphia. The food is also quite good and definitely worth a few tries.

Location:Molly Malloys

The good folks up in Easton, PA have finally revised there logo.  They make some fantastic beers but packaging was definitely there weakness. No more, as they now have a brand new logo and the artwork for all their brands will soon see a facelift as well. It’s a pretty big change as they’ve went with a much darker/scarier approach, but it’s kinda fitting for a brewery that focuses on big beers. What do you think?

Old Logo

New Logo

Starting Monday, February 6th, we’re going to start giving away weekly prizes through social media. Each week we will pick one winner at random on both Facebook and Twitter. The contest will continue for 8 weeks culminating with a grand prize of being a guest reviewer in the “Tasting Room” in a future issue. All you have to do to enter is just share anything we put on facebook with your friends or retweet any of our tweets.   Each retweet/share gets you an entry and you can get as many entries as you like. Weekly winners will be annouced every Friday during the months of February and March. You can win more than once as well.  Each time you enter, you’re name will be dropped into a bucket and each week a name will be picked and then dropped back into the bucket, with more names being added each week.  The more you enter throughout the first 7 weeks, the better your chances of winning the grand prize in Week 8 are. Here are the prizes:

Week 1: Philly Beer Scene Beer Week Shirt and Pint Glass
Week 2: 2010 Philly Beer Scene Poster
Week 3: 2011 Philly Beer Scene Poster
Week 4: Grey Philly Beer Scene Shirt
Week 5: Blue Philly Beer Scene Shirt
Week 6: Philly Beer Scene Jacket
Week 7: $25 Gift Card to a local bar
Week 8: Guest Spot in the the “Tasting Room”