GIVE ME YOUR BEER SUGGESTIONS!!

[Troy Loney]

I would skip those three and just do the big pour.

[the wicked child]

So what makes that one better than the other 3? Particularly to the point of skipping them? Why limit yourself?

[Troy Loney]

The food at the big pour.

[Froggy]

So who’s beer festing it this year?

Penn Brewery is in 2 weeks, 6/7
Pittsburgh summer Beerfest is 7/18-19
Millvale Beerfest is 8/9

Going to try to hit all 3 myself.

I'm at least gonna hit the summer beer fest. I'm sure we'll have a get together arranged

[the wicked child]

The food at the big pour.

So I should skip the other 3 festivals because of the food at this one. Yeah no. I may consider adding it however.

[Troy Loney]

The food at the big pour.

So I should skip the other 3 festivals because of the food at this one. Yeah no. I may consider adding it however.

I'm not telling you what to do, i just said what i would do, as the big pour was ommitted from your list of pittsburgh beer festivals.

[the wicked child]

I was unaware of it. I will take it under consideration, however. So the food they mention is included? That would explain the hefty pricetag if so. Brewery list looks similar to the Pittsburgh fest with a much higher price.

[Troy Loney]

And that is a product of my experiences at beer festivals. I've been to the Big Pour, then a mad mex beer festival at robinson and the big pour again.

The event at mad mex was so inferior to the big pour, i pretty much made a resolution to not waste time at lesser festivals. The big pour is in the early fall which is really prime beer drinking season, it's expensive, but the space is huge and the only tedious line can be the bathrooms. Food from quality local food places is available all over the place with a great mix of ethnic places so you can really just about get whatever you want to eat. That really just makes it a better experience, having great food options widely avaiable as opposed to having to pay for food on top of the beer is smarter.

[the wicked child]

I can't really speak to the Mad Mex fest as I never attended it. However, the Penn and millvale fests provide decent food in addition to a lot of local breweries. I did not attend last summer's Pittsburgh beerfest, but the winter fest was very enjoyable, despite not including any food in the price (there are tons of local food vendors there to buy from, should you choose).

I like all of those in their own way, so even if the Big Pour is the be all, end all of festivals, I can't imagine simply not going to the others. There is likely to be some variety between what is offered at one fest to the next even by the same breweries.

For me it's mostly about getting a chance to try a lot of new beers. I tend not to get a chance to do that so much throughout most of the year, save for when I make it to a bottleshop now and again.

But hey, to each their own.

[the wicked child]

On the topic of beer, planning to hit the Penn Brewery tonight and try some of the new beers they have out... In particular the Dunkel Weizen. Supposedly they made a batch of weizenbock this year so I may grab a growler for my cookout tomorrow.

[shafnutz05]

Picked up both a Smuttynose and a Victory variety pack for this weekend. One of the beers in the Smuttynose variety pack (which is a great deal at $31) is a brewer's choice, and this one had Noonan's Black IPA. Solid beer, I think I am a fan of this genre.

[the wicked child]

What all is in the Victory pack these days?

[shafnutz05]

What all is in the Victory pack these days?

Golden Monkey, Headwaters, HopDevil, Prima Pils.

That particular variety pack was more for my wife than for me. Truth be told, I would love for that Pils to be replaced with Storm King.

[the wicked child]

Yeah, the pils is kinda meh. Actually haven't had the headwaters.

I kinda wish they would do a couple seasonals alongside the GM and HD, kinda like Sam Adams does with their vps.

Like some whirlwind in the spring, Moonglow in the late summer/fall and such.

[shafnutz05]

One thing about Victory, a lot of their really awesome brews are really only available at the brewery itself. I know this is common at most breweries, but if you ever go to Victory to eat (it's about 25 minutes away and is outstanding), you would be blown away by their tap list and what is available.

One of my favorite things to get there:

http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/victory-oa ... al/195636/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Eismann]

SD&H, Randy is leaving Shaler Jiggle next week. He's heading to Shadyside Market District.

Weep.

[llipgh2]

Just got a bunch of California beers today:

Cali Creamin' Vanilla Cream Ale - Brother Earth Brewery
Black Marlin Porter - Ballast Point Brewing Company
Black Phoenix Chipotle Coffee Stout - Bootlegger's Brewery
Old World Hefeweizen - Bootlegger's Brewery
Orange Wheat - Hangar 24
Pistol Whip'd Pils - Noble

Thanks to my connection.

[Kraftster]

SD&H, Randy is leaving Shaler Jiggle next week. He's heading to Shadyside Market District.

Weep.

*GASP*

[llipgh2]

SD&H, Randy is leaving Shaler Jiggle next week. He's heading to Shadyside Market District.

Weep.

*GASP*

Hooray! That's my Market District!

[Eismann]

SD&H, Randy is leaving Shaler Jiggle next week. He's heading to Shadyside Market District.

Weep.

*GASP*

Hooray! That's my Market District!

Thou art truly blest. He's a great dude and will hook you up. Get to know him with haste.

[slappybrown]

Picked up both a Smuttynose and a Victory variety pack for this weekend. One of the beers in the Smuttynose variety pack (which is a great deal at $31) is a brewer's choice, and this one had Noonan's Black IPA. Solid beer, I think I am a fan of this genre.

Victory is my second favorite American brewery. Need to make a personal visit like you suggest.

[the wicked child]

So most of the beers I wanted to try were too foamy. :(

Did manage to get a pint of the Dunkel Weizen though. It was excellent.

The ginger beer was meh. Basically just a lager with a subtle ginger taste.

No growler of Weizenbock, so now I need to pick something up tomorrow before the cookout.

[shafnutz05]

This should probably go in the pet peeves thread, but variety packs that aren't really variety (to me anyway). The Great Lakes variety pack is one of my favorites, because it has four DISTINCTLY different beers. Eddie Fitz (porter), Eliot Ness (strong lager), Burning Gold (pale ale), Dortmunder (lighter lager). I hate variety packs that are basically "ale, more hopped ale, even more hopped ale, random beer"

[llipgh2]

Opened the Cali Creamin' Vanilla Cream Ale tonight. And I'm surprised. I really like it.

I thought the vanilla would be overpowering. But it's subtle. Nice taste. Like a good vanilla ice cream. The kind that isn't sweet.

[eddysnake]

Founders has a nice variety - Pale Ale, Centennial IPA, Dirty Bastard, Porter

I think bells has a good one too - Kalamazoo, amber, 2 hearted, and Midwestern pa