#2b - Pennsylvania, "The Keystone State" (Harrisburg and West)

One of my friends from college was from outside of Pittsburgh and he raved about Iron City beer. So, when a bunch of us went to Pittsburgh for a football game in 2005 I was expecting big things. What I got was run of the mill light beer in an aluminum bottle, before aluminum bottles really took off. So kudos on early adaptation of environmental stewardship, but I won't be buying a case of Iron City any time soon.

But now looking back, his love of Iron City makes me realize just how unifying crappy beer can be for a region. Regional beers, like Natty Boh in Baltimore and Genesee in upstate New York, along with many others, become ingrained in a local culture. Disrespect those beers to a person from those areas and you directly disrespect them. Even if these beers are clearly no better than hop flavored water. That being said, there are so many better beers than Iron City that are brewed in Western PA. Sorry Tony. At least you made up for your bad beer taste by being good at Mario Tennis.

Beer Stats for Western PA:

Cities: Pittsburgh, Erie, Harrisburg, Altoona

# of Microbreweries: 16, mostly small batch and local, but 9 with significant regional or state distribution
# of Brewpubs: 14
Cities that I have never considered living in: 4 (although I was pleasantly surprised with how cool Pittsburgh was and I've never been to any of the others)

I'm going to be honest and say that I have not tried the majority of the breweries that are listed on beermapping.com. Just off the top of my head, it looks like I've had beers from 3 breweries and I've been to one of the brewpubs. So, since at my current pace I'll finish looking at the breweries of all 50 states when I am staring down my 30th birthday, I'll just talk about the four that I've had. 

Erie Brewing - I was first introduced to Erie Brewing at one of my beer swaps. One of my co-workers brought Ol' Red Cease and Desist Ale. It's what they call a Wee Heavy Ale and it's definitely a strong dark red. They say on their website that it was originally called Red Ryder BIG BEER, but apparently they received multiple cease and desist letters telling them they had to change the name. I can only assume that the company that makes the bb gun with the same name didn't want their young customers accidentally drinking a beer that's 10.1% alcohol and then suing them when they shoot their eye out. So they changed the name to C & D. Pretty good story for a beer that I really liked. Erie opened as a brewpub in 1993 and became a full fledged brewery 6 years later. It's distributed in 15 states and D.C.

Troegs - Troegs is based in Harrisburg and I've had almost all of their beers. They have very bright and detailed label art, which I think is used to distract you from the fact that there is a a 75% that you are about to be assaulted by hops. They seem to be a hop-heavy brewery, which is fine with me in certain instances and certainly not their only niche. Their Nugget Nectar is insanely hopped, they have an 11% winter seasonal called Mad Elf, and then they have my personal favorite, Dead Reckoning. It's a very smooth porter with strong caramel flavors an a good hop taste to it that doesn't linger because of all of the normal coffee, chocolate, and malt flavors that come with a lot of porters. They distribute to 8 states and D.C., so if you are in NY, NJ, DE, PA, OH, MD, MA or VA listen to what people are ordering because it's always fun to see people try to pronounce their name.  

Iron City - I didn't mean to knock Iron City in the first couple paragraphs, because they clearly have a strong following and everyone needs a beer to stock up the fridge or bring to the tailgate. I'm just personally more into beer that is creative and has flavor. 

That previous paragraph was this month's Backhanded Compliment brought to you by your local microbrewery.

Otto's Brewpub - I went to Otto's this past fall on a weekend trip up to State College with some friends. The bar was enormous and the restaurant was pretty spacious but it was still extremely packed, so it's definitely a local favorite. We sat there for an hour or so and had a few of the beers on tap while we ate lunch. The food was what I've come to know as standard for most brewpubs, which is a compliment, because it was high quality sandwiches and appetizers. We had a great time and I wish I remembered specifics about the beer, but I know that I liked the brews that I tried. I recommend State College in the fall. It's a classic college town with great local shops, bars, and restaurants. And if you have time you could even visit the grave of longtime head football coach Joe Paterno. Wait, I'm being informed he's still alive and is still the head coach of a Division 1 program. Truly astonishing. If you want a good laugh, check out this radio interview he recently did. Terrible radio idea to do a phoner with an 84 year old guy who can't hear, but comedy gold.

Trailies:

Best Beer Name: Gotta go with Ol' Red Cease and Desist Wee Heavy Ale. It's a mouthful of a name, and every time I say "Wee Heavy" in my head, the accent is what I would think an old Scottish guy with 4 teeth would sound like.

Trippiest Label Art:  Troegs is the winner by far. 

Best Unintentional Comedian: JoePa. We love you Joe. We said WE LOVE YOU JOE. You know what, nevermind. Go recruit 18 year olds and make snarky comments at press conferences.  

Road Trips:

Besides spending a fall weekend in State College, there are good sites to see all over PA. If you like baseball or football and are near Pittsburgh. Catch a game at either PNC Park or Heinz Field. They are in a great location, overlooking the skyline and the rivers. If you are near Troegs in Harrisburg, the Appalachian trail crosses right through there, so if you are into hiking, you can't beat that. 

Music:

I couldn't find any bands that I liked that are from western PA, so here's a random recommendation. Throw some Spoon in your iPod. I have their album Gimme Fiction and it is part of the regular rotation on my commute. I don't know how to classify them, but I know I like them.


PA West Beer Trail Map

#2a - Pennsylvania, "The Keystone State" (East of Harrisburg)

Pennsylvania is a much bigger state than Delaware, much more populated, and more saturated with microbreweries/brewpubs. There are some major players in the domestic craft beer world, including the nation's oldest operating brewery. I'm already wordy as it is, so right now I'll just be looking at breweries east of Harrisburg so we can keep the word count to a minimum.

Beer Stats for Eastern PA:
Cities: Philadelphia, Reading, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, Allentown/Bethlehem, Lancaster
# of Microbreweries: 11 that have significant distribution.
# of Brewpubs: 25, some of which bottle and distribute locally.
Outdated and Annoying Alcohol Laws: Way too many to count.

My wife always says that she thinks it would be really difficult to be an alcoholic in Pennsylvania because of the difficulty and cost involved in getting alcohol. With few exceptions, you can only buy beer in beer stores, and you can only buy them by the case.

When I first moved here, I was staying in hotels during the week, so I wanted to pick up a six pack to enjoy while I watched TV at night. I went to the beer distributor and couldn't find a 6 pack anywhere. So I took one pre-packaged 12 pack out of a case and tried to buy it. The cashier looked confused. Our conversation played out almost like we were both speaking foreign languages; him telling me he couldn't sell the 12 pack by itself, me saying "I don't need a whole case. I want 12." We hashed through the situation using hand signals and a series of grunts and finally realized what was happening. I left beerless, because even a 22 year old kid can't drink a whole case by himself in 3 days (and not feel terrible about it.)

To make matters worse, I find that cases in PA tend to have at least a 15% mark-up over neighboring state's prices. There are two consolations.  1) There are literally hundreds of bars and beer prices at bars are very reasonable. 2) Since they lock you into buying a case, the breweries have been nice enough to offer variety packs so you can try all of their brews and not get stuck with 23 bottles of some beer you don't like. So that's good.

Plenty of great microbreweries have been started in PA over the last 20 years, all buoyed by the success of the country's oldest brewery, D.G. Yuengling and Sons. Founded in Pottsville in 1829, Yuengling is so ubiquitous in Philadelphia that to order it you just say that you want a "lager" and every bartender knows what to bring you. They aren't on the cutting edge of new beer flavors, but they do what they do very well and they distribute to 13 states, mainly on the East Coast. Although I could have swore they had a larger reach than that.

Victory Brewing is located in Downingtown and they have the widest distribution of any brewery in PA. Just about half of the states, including Alaska, as well as some international distribution. One thing I know is that they love hops. Hop Devil, Hop Wollop, Prima Pils, and Yakima Twighlight are all hop heavy. All good, but at some point I get overwhelmed by hops. I fell asleep on my couch one night while drinking a Yakima and only woke up due to the fact that I had poured half of the beer right on my chest. I know there are a lot of hops in that one because I think the smell was so strong that it what woke me. That's a weird situation; spilling something on yourself while sleeping. Because you wake up but it takes a second to process what you are doing and by then you're soaked. I just felt bad cuz I wasted a good beer. For me it's hard to choose between the Storm King Stout and the Moonglow Weizenbock as my favorite Victory beer.

Yards Brewery operates on Delaware Ave in Philadelphia near Northern Liberties but started in Manayunk in 1994. I've had four of their five signature ales and my go-to if I want to bring a good beer gift is the Brawler. The woman of the household approves the purchase of that one as well. The beer I think tastes the best is the Extra Special Ale, but I think the Brawler has more mass appeal because I think I like amber malty ales more than the general population. Yards gets around in the Philly area. They do most of the beer events around here and I think they are getting to the point where their distribution is about to take off across the country. I am just guessing, but I wouldn't be surprised. 

Philadelphia Brewing Co. operates out of a historic brewery that stopped production in 1939 and was restored by Philly Brew Co starting in 2001. I really want to like Philly Brew Co, but for some reason I am always disappointed by their stuff. The Walt Wit essentially turned me off to wit beers for a year or so. The Kenzinger and the Newbold IPA are nothing special. I will say that their Joe Porter (not named for the former Steelers linebacker) grew on me. At first I thought it tasted like stale coffee (I never said this would be a ringing endorsement) but I began to enjoy it the second and third time I tried it. Philly Brew Co. does tours, so go do one and have them prove me wrong.

Stoudts is in Adamstown, PA, and from the looks of it, I think it is the entire town of Adamstown. They have a restaurant, brewery, fresh food market, shop, and antiques mall. They even do weddings. If you lived there, you'd never have to leave except to go make money to spend at Stoudt's. They make really really good beer. That's my first double really endorsement. So take heed. I've probably had half of their normally bottled beers including the seasonals. My favorite is the American Pale Ale. Patriotism 1, India Pale Ales 0. If you are on the east coast, Ohio, Cali, or Michigan you can probably find their stuff somewhere.

Intercourse Brewery is located in Lancaster County and they distribute mostly in Eastern PA. They make 4 beers, of which I've had one (the Blue Ball Porter). That one is a slightly heavy blueberry porter. The only time I had it was on a seriously hot day at a tailgate for a concert and I thought it was well done, so I'd like to try it when I'm not sweating my face off.

Lancaster Brewing Co is right near downtown Lancaster, and they begun operations in 2001. I enjoy all their beers, but my wife loves the Strawberry Wheat, and I think my favorite is the highly potent Winter Warmer. Lancaster County has a high concentration of Amish and so the brewery makes their Amish Four Grain Pale Ale and the Shoo-Fly Porter to pay homage. I used to work out that way. The buggy's were everywhere including the Wal-Mart parking lot. The horses just chill outside while the people go shopping. Awesome.

Weyerbacher was founded in Easton in 1995 as a brewery and brewpub. Having since dropped the pub, they have expanded and are now distributed in 18 states, including most of the East Coast, Ohio, Nebraska, and Wisconsin. The last Weyerbacher I had was the AutumnFest and it was a solid Oktoberfest style.

Lion is another brewery from the Northeastern part of the state, being based in downtown Wilkes-Barre. It was founded in 1905 and became Lion Brewery in 1909. The main beers I've seen from them are Lionshead Lager and Lionshead Light, which are pretty straightforward beers. They also produce 6 beers under the Stegmaier brand name. Pretty broad distribution, and they claim to be the 15th largest brewery in the U.S. I have no means to (or desire to) fact check, so I'll believe them. They do a lot of contract brewing, which might explain why they haven't really expanded the Lionshead brand into other styles than lager.

Sly Fox has been brewing since 1995 and they run a brew pub to go along with distribution of their beers in NY, PA, and NJ. I've never seen their beers on the shelves, but I've had at least one in a bar in Philadelphia. I can't say anything about it however, so this paragraph is pretty worthless. 95% of people didn't make it down here anyway... Way too many words. Not enough pictures or exploding graphics.

The only brewery on my list that I have not tried is Spring House, which is located in Conestoga, right south of Lancaster. They have distribution in the eastern counties of PA, but I haven't seen any on the shelves just yet. I'll be keeping my eye out now though. It should be hard to miss as all of their 10 beers have cartoony and colorful logos. Only one is a full production beer year round and available in bottles, and that's the Seven Gates Pale Ale. The rest are seasonal and available in growlers and kegs, presumably at their brewery.

Trailies: 
Best Beer Concept: Weyerbacher Merry Monks' Belgian style Tripel. Anytime you can combine banana and cookie dough, I'm on board.
Best Beer Name: Weyerbacher Blithering Idiot. I've never had it, but at 11.1%ABV, I have to assume this beer makes you live up to it's name.
Best Label Art: Victory Brewing. Full of color and great designs. My favorite is the drooling 1840's style miner Horace 'Hop' Wallop, on Victory's Hop Wallop bottles.


Road Trips:
If you are into hiking, the Delaware Water Gap is a great part of the Appalachain Trail. Weyebacher and Lion are close by.
Philadelphia has a lot to offer, but if you had to do one thing I would recommend picking a neighborhood (Old City, Rittenhouse, Fairmount), walking around in the evening and then getting a great dinner somewhere. Tons of good restaurants in Philly. You can't go wrong. Yards, Philadelphia, Victory all do tours and are in or near Philly.


Music:
I'm not sure about the bands coming out of Lancaster or Scranton, but Free Energy and Dr. Dog are two rock bands from Philadelphia that I have been loving lately. Free Energy's recent album is called Stuck on Nothing, and Dr. Dog just released Shame Shame. Both are excellent.

PA East Half Beer Trail Map