The inaugural Pittsburgh Craft Beer Week is now official! Logos and a webpage make things official right? To say I’m psyched for this is a bit of an understatement as I’ve been involved on one of the planning teams for a few months. To see this growing from a small idea to what it is now, is incredible!

Last night was a who’s who of craft beer in Pittsburgh at one of the major planning meetings.  You should see more info coming soon on the website and also details of the newly created Pittsburgh Craft Beer Alliance  (which has already said to be “like a drunkard Justice League”). The week will be April 20-28, 2012 and will feature Pittsburgh finest craft breweries and craft beer restaurants.

Pittsburgh has an incredible food and drink scene that we want the world (and all of yinz) to explore.

That’s all I can tell you for now. In the meantime click the links below to connect with PCBW and if you’re on twitter start following the #pcbw tag.

Website: http://pittsburghcraftbeerweek.com/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pghcraftbeerweek
Twitter: http://twitter.com/PGH_BeerWeek

cheers!

One thing that I’m bad at is remembering the year. I kept thinking it was 2010 for some reason and have no idea why 2012 doesn’t seem far fetched. Maybe I have a thing against years with odd numbers? This past year was eventful personally but when it came to blogging it was kinda meh. Either way here’s a quick recap so my kids don’t have to sift through archives.

January 2011
Year started off great with the Winter Classic (even though Pens lost) and spending the first 2 weeks home with my new baby. I also decided that I would attempt to go a full year without drinking a Bud/Miller/Coors product. Not to be some elite prick but to see for myself how tough it would be. With the amount of picnics we attended and moments of weakness for going cheap I’m proud to say I’ve made it a full year and some days.

February 2011
Kept the busy pace with a quick trip to Baltimore to pick up the first of what would be many awards for a website I made. Even thought it was winter I was falling in love with the city. I will be going back soon. I also hit my mid 30′s while only suffering a minor “oh shit, I’m getting old” moment and Teaspoon got his first haircut while hitting the terrible 2.

March 2011
2 things happened, we got sick and I ate a lot of fish.

April 2011
My mom wanted to know why I didn’t invent Facebook, the internet or cure cancer. I had some views on the sale of Iron City which turned out to piss off a bunch of yinzers and Pittsburgh purists. Eh, it happens.

May 2011
Should I Drink That turned 5 years old on the 5th and we had a whirlwind bash in Boardman, Ohio as we took over the Big Tap In after party. We cracked open a 101 oz bottle of Double Arrogant Bastard that we have been sitting on for 4-5 years. It came with a padlock. Nuff said. I figured out how you can take a trip with Megabus to Erie (or Pittsburgh from there) and have a very low cost time. I celebrated national Craft Beer Week and if you haven’t heard me talk about it yet, am on the planning group for Pittsburgh Craft Beer Week coming in 2012. This month also was record breaking numbers as we raised money for March of Dimes which helps preemies such as my boys.

June 2011
After many years of hard work I graduated cum laude from college. It was incredibly stressful when I threw work and the family into the mix but the support was fantastic! I’ll probably have my student loan bills paid off when Teaspoon is starting school.

Yesterday was the 5th anniversary of my dad passing so I decided to take a drive up to Erie and toast the old man. What better way to salute the man who taught me hard work, discipline and dedication will take you places, not handouts and whining.

Usually at this time in Erie there would have already been a couple feet of snow but thanks to our friend Global Warming it was in the 40′s and raining. Mom and I drove up to the cemetery and as we got to dad’s grave I sat down a bag and pulled out a bottle with 2 glasses. Mom, looking really confused, asked me what I was doing. I smiled, opened, poured and said “celebrating dad of course!”

It was with him that I shared my first bottle of my first homebrew.

I don’t know where this hobby may take me but I couldn’t think of any better way to christen it than with the man who’s inspired me most.

Cheers pops!

Well there it is, the first batch. This was actually bottled last Wednesday but its taken forever for me to get back online.

The process for doing this was amazing because it couldn’t have been done without video conferenceing. I called sickpuppy over Skype and angled my laptop camera so he could show me what was what and what I had to do. He’s been homebrewing for almost 20 years so having someone with that experience at my disposal was a HUGE help.

The biggest pain of the process was the sanitation. It took what felt like forever to sanitize each of the bottles for a few minutes and then the instruments I would be using. I found out previously that I was going to be short on bottles so I picked up a case of empty 12oz for $11.99 at South Hills Brewing Supply (which is my new frequent stop).

The auto-siphon and bottle filler amused me constantly and while talking to sickpuppy and already I’m thinking how I can upgrade some equipment to make it faster. One thing that puppy had stressed to me was practice practice practice so I can learn my kitchen and my setup to see what works best and most effective. This is where Skype played a key roll also, he was able to see my setup and suggest what to move around.

The final count was 36 12oz bottles and 4 22oz. Stated the whole brewing process at 5 gallons and ended at 4.5 so I’m pretty happy about that. Still no name for the beer and since this batch should be done carbonating next week at the earliest I’ll know then what I may call it.

Back at SIDT Studio B the brewing started to take shape. The fun thing for me was finally understanding the basics of the brewing process happening in front of me. Thankfully I did have someone with me because sickpuppy found an error with the instructions that were sent with the brewing kit and a quick call to Northern Brewer had it resolved. Thumps up for great customer service especially on a Saturday!

The whole process, including running out to find a thermometer which WASN’T included with the kit, took about 4 hours which was perfect. We wrapped up just as the sun set and it was time to transfer to the bucket.

There has been some serious bubble action going on the last few days and I’m looking forward to a gravity reading this weekend to see where we are. One thing the instructions didnt factor in was the need for more priming sugar so I made a run for that last night.

I like where this can end up going as a hobby. I don’t get to drink that much at home so expect to get some as gifts just so I can make a new batch.

We did also record a show when we were done so you can be expecting that soon. Until then I have a lot of reading to do and look into subscriptions

Click here to view the embedded video.

A couple months ago I decided that I needed to find a hobby that would be something I could do at home and be relatively inexpensive. Free time to leave the house is hard to come by these days and if I could do it while the kids were sleeping (wait, that sounds shady) that would be perfect. Enter… homebrewing.

A few things have played into why I haven’t brewed before; from the lack of space and time to the kids. Arriving as a housewarming gift, my partner in craft beer adventures, sickpuppy, bought me a starter kit from Northern Brewer. Next my good friend Phil said “You can’t just do it to do it, you’ll know when it feels right.” and he’s absolutely correct. I have that passion to learn now and both of those guys are fantastic brewers.

This Saturday also happens to be national “Learn to Homebrew Day“. Honestly I didn’t even know such a beast existed until sickpuppy told me about it. Since I’ve never done it before I haven’t really paid much attention to homebrewing news.  I checked around the Pittsburgh area but didn’t see anything scheduled (really shocked at this) but I did find out that the guys at Erie Brewing will host an event on Saturday from 9am-5pm at their brewery. For more information you can contact them at info@eriebrewingco.com or (814)459-7741.

So what will I be brewing? I picked up the Innkeeper kit and will be adding in some additional hops. The thing that is attracting me most to home brewing is that, like cooking, you can make any recipe your own plus I can can focus on making what I consider the perfect beer. This batch should be ready by Thanksgiving so I’ll have a treat to look forward to and maybe some gifts for family to try out. A name has been chosen (which is why we’re using additional hops) and I can’t wait to work on a label. You’ll find out soon enough what it will be called.

If you’re in Pittsburgh and maybe this weekend is too soon (or not) to get started here are some local resources that you can use.

Supply stores – This is where you can pick up your starter brewing kits and then the packaged ingredients to get started

• South Hills Brewing Supply (South Hills)
• Country Wines (North Hills)
• Porter House Brew Shop (North of Cranberry)

Homebrewing clubs – Groups of friendly people making great beer and always willing to help out the newbies. Everyone has an acronym too.

• Three Rivers Underground Brewers or T.R.U.B.
• Three Rivers Alliance of Serious Homebrewers (T.R.A.S.H.)

Click here to view the embedded video.

La Citrueille Céleste de Citracado is a collaboration ale between Stone Brewing, The Bruery and Elysian Brewing made with pumpkin, yams, toasted fenugreek, lemon verbena and birch bark.

If you still drink the beer your dad did then you’re probably thinking to yourself  ”wtf spoon, why can’t you drink beer flavored beer”.  To which I say “leave me alone mom”

How on earth would anyone think that toasted fenugreek or lemon verbena would be a good idea? Easy, you start with a few simple ingredients and think of what will compliment it from there. These guys had an idea of what hey wanted to bring to the table and I applaud them for not making the same tired pumpkin beer that seems to have taken over the shelves.

Will we see any of this in Western PA? Probably very limited since beer doesn’t make it past Philly often but never fear because I’m sure that if anyone close does get it in you’ll have to travel to Vintage Estate (which if I haven’t told you before is WELL worth doing and making a day out of it in this craft beer shrine).

If any of my readers are homebrewers what’s the craziest thing you’ve made. If anyone says Durian I’m banning you right now.

He has a long career of making root beer in front of him.

I need your help on something. “Should I Drink That?” is a finalist for the 2011 Podcast Awards and I need your help bringing the hardware home.  This is our 4th time in the last 5 years as finalists and have been honored that our fans have gotten us that far. Now its time to finish the job and here’s how,

1. Click the banner above or go to podcastawards.com
2. scroll down to Food & Drink and select Should I Drink That
3. go to the bottom and click submit