Scott Smith is all in; you gonna see him?

I know you Pennsylvanians -- and some others -- know about Scott Smith at East End Brewing. I've certainly written enough about him. I mentioned recently that plans were underway for an expansion -- only because he really really needs it -- and the building's been found (a much bigger building at 6580 Frankstown Ave., not far away, a former telecom warehouse). You can read more about it here in Bob Batz's -- as always -- nicely detailed article in the Post-Gazette.

Two things leap out, besides the greatly increased capacity and the proximity to the current plant (had to stay close, Scott acknowledges, or he'd have to change the name). First, Scott and his wife Julie are mortgaging their home to raise most of the money, laying it on the line. (I just saw on his Facebook feed that he's off to sign the papers this morning.) Second, he's looking for small investors -- friends of good beer -- to help make the nut.

Here's the deal. They need about $250,000 more to cover the expansion (the $500K in the article is the whole thing; Scott has about half of that). They're hoping to get $100K from you, the drinkers, in what Scott calls a 3-year microloan. You won't make any money; you get paid back in beer. Or t-shirts, or cake mixes, or growlers, or whatever other stuff Scott's fertile mind has dreamed up (me, I'd get one of those Big Hop bike jerseys), because you'll get $10 vouchers to use at the brewery (or the growler store in the Strip). Details are all here, investing goes live next week, I believe.

Look, I'm not advising you to "invest." I wouldn't advise you to put money in one small brewery over another. But I would advise you to invest in a small, local brewery if you get the chance. I would, if there weren't obvious ethical issues preventing me. This is your local community, your local beer, and you get to be part of it. Will you make money? Well, no, not on this "investment," though you might on others; similarly, you might lose money. How much you stake is up to you, after due diligence. But the point is...you can be part of this. Which is pretty damned cool. So open your eyes (and your ears) and think about it. That's small brewing.

Brewery news: East End expands, farm brewery opens in New Jersey

Still want to tell you about my trip to Boston last week, but in the meantime, a quick post about  (relatively) local breweries. Pittsburgh's East End Brewing is expanding as soon as they ink a deal with the city's redevelopment authority, according to what Scott Smith told a Tribune-Review reporter here. Scott implied (or the reporter inferred, see the comments) that the increased sales from their growler outlet at the Pittsburgh Public Market pushed the expansion.

The building will have quadruple the space for brewing, increasing its capacity and leaving room for eventual canning or bottling lines. The tap area will be larger and heated, with access to a restroom that doesn't require customers to wind their way through an active brewery.

So that's great news. Meanwhile, from New Jersey, Jeff Linkous reports (at his Beer-Stained Letter blog) that a new brewery will be opening: Suydam Farms, in Somerset County, has debuted their Great Blue Brewing operation, and as you might guess from the parent name, they're going to be focusing on the local-sustainable angle, and growing at least some of their own hops. Great Blue (named for the herons that light in the area) is a nanobrewery, a cobbled-together collection of equipment (by their own admission!), and they're tweaking the mechanics after brewing their first 2-barrel batch, a "scarlet ale."

Initial plans call for distributing to a trio of select restaurants – Steakhouse 85 and Stage Left in New Brunswick and Sophie's Bistro in the Somerset section of Franklin. The three restaurants already buy produce and other commodities from Suydam Farms.

Great news: craft beer is still rocking on.

Get East End (Pittsburgh) beer in the White House for the Super Bowl!

Scott Smith, owner/brewer/damn near everything at East End Brewing, is a man with a mission. He's found out...well, I'll let him tell it, because he is a funny guy.

It seems that during a recent visit to Wisconsin, The White House placed a beer order from fellow Craft Brewer, Hinterland Brewing Company in Wisconsin, so that they could have some Green Bay beer on hand for the Superbowl.  Simple enough, but maybe you can already see that this act by itself, is not exactly a "beer-partisan" move.  Since Friday of last week, we're working to help correct that.

And here's where YOU come in...

HELP US GET SOME PITTSBURGH BEER TO THE WHITEHOUSE!
What can you do?  Well, if you're a FaceBook user you can climb on board the movement by going to http://www.facebook.com/EastEndtoDC and hitting the LIKE button.  (We're approaching the 1,000 Fan mark already!)  Then, share this with your circle of friends on Facebook, and help us grow the presence there!  And while you're on that Facebook page, be sure to check out the links to some of the local press we've gotten, and give a listen to my KDKA Radio interview from Friday of last week.  That's all on the Facebook Page.

If you're a Twitter user, you can help spread the word there by Tweeting with the hashtag #EastEndtoDC. Or follow our progress on our Twitter feed at http://twitter.com/EastEndBrewing.  That's where this whole thing got started late last week, and where most of the updates are posted.

If neither of these websites are your thing and you "don't do social networking", don't worry, no problem.  You can still help.  Share this with your circle of friends, and send it along to your favorite news reporter for your favorite press outlet.  Any help getting the word out is still a huge help!

My hope is that someone knows somebody who thinks this story is worthy of some National press, which should get the RIGHT people's attention...and hopefully later this week, I'll be honored to load up some Black N Gold Beer to head out on the most important delivery run of this brewery's life. Thanks for all of your help and support with making this happen for us, and for Pittsburgh!

Cheers,
Scott

Before anyone squeals about playing favorites among the Pittsburgh breweries, I'd point out that Penn is already the "wager beer" that PA governor Tom Corbett has bet on the Steelers against the Packers with the Wisconsin governor (I have no idea what beer he bet; but Corbett's gonna be drinking it after the game!) and, well...Iron City is made in Latrobe. Church? Come on, Sean, get moving!

So...why not give Scott a hand on this, and do whatever you can to help get a Pittsburgh beer to our beer-loving President Obama (after all, the man needs something to soothe the pain of the Bears being at home in the snow...).

Western PA, Day 2

Yes, I'm still here, just got really busy with book signing and family life.

To pick up where I left off... I got up the next day, Sunday, then went to get breakfast. Sigh. Cranberry Township is a lot of things, but there aren't a lot of independent diners around. So, oddly, despite having gone to grad school at CMU back in the 1980s, and having been back to Pittsburgh on an almost annual basis ever since, I went to an Eat'n Park for the first time ever. Hey, at least it's a locally-based chain, okay? And the blueberry pancakes were pretty good.

Back to the room, did a bit of work that was hanging fire, suited up for the day, and I headed into town. It was a gray, raw, rainy day, and when I found a spot by the loading docks at the Strip (just about across from Kaya), I was unloading books in the rain. But it was all worth it: I got into the Pittsburgh Public Market and was knocked out by the great selection of local merchants and shtuff. I hustled down to the far corner where Scott Smith has opened the truly ground-breaking East End Brewing Growler Shop, and dumped my stuff. More about the growler shop shortly -- it was lunchtime. I got a recommendation: "Go up there to Sito's, get the wrap, they put an assload of stuff in there." And they did, and it was awesomely good. I wanted to get that plug in there because it was one tasty sandwich thing.

So, the growler shop. The way Scott explained it, the inkling came from a 2006 inquiry he made with the PLCB on another topic, in which they happened to mention, unprompted, that he would have the same ability to fill and sell growlers at an off-site storage facility that he did at the brewery. Busy as hell just staying afloat at that time, he didn't really think anything of it, but three years later he started thinking about opportunities, and that came to the top. It sounded like the off-site "stores" PA wineries are allowed to have, and that would be great, to get a growler outlet in a more consumer-friendly area than his famously out-of-the-way brewery, a place with more retail traffic.

It would be, but there was a PLCB odyssey to go through first. (Stop me if you've heard that one before...) Scott started going through layers and layers of bureaucrats, all of whom seemed baffled by the idea of an interpretation of the Almighty Liquor Code that actually made things easy for the brewer. "You'll need a license for that," he kept hearing, but like Virgil in Dante's Inferno ("This has been willed where what is willed must be, and is not yours to question.") Scott brandished the letter, saying "But I have a ruling from the Board." Because it was a letter direct from the actual Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board, not one of their lawyerminions, Scott won through, and has an off-site storage facility at the Pittsburgh Public Market: a lockable cooler with tap outlets next to a serving area with a ton of East End merch.

And let me tell you, they do a land office business. On a wet, cold Sunday, there were people lined up five-deep happily waiting to get growlers filled, sometimes six at a time. And quite a few of them were interested in books! It kept me pretty busy, and Scott kept me supplied with tasters (can't get enough of the Fat Gary brown ale), but all good things had to come to an end...I packed up, shook hands all round, and made for the door.

It was seriously raining now, and I had to make my to [two of the colleges in town] to pick up [four college students I happen to know]. Yeah, I'm covering up identities here, you'll soon see why. I took the kids to one of my favorite spots (and my late father's very favorite spot) in Pittsburgh: Max's Allegheny. It was hopping, the Steelers were at home that evening, and Max's runs a shuttle to the arena. They managed to stuff us into the basement, where I got me some hassenpfeffer and Kostritzer.

So, why I covered the identities: they filled me in on the Four Loko thang. Yes, everyone drank it (this was pre-ban by about two weeks); it was compact and easy to smuggle in under a jacket, and a can is four 'regular' beers. "Oh, it tastes awful," they freely admitted, but they were equally open about why they were drinking it: for effect. One of the colleges had a no-drinking policy on campus, even for students of legal age, and the effect, they told me, was that no one drank beer, because it was too bulky to smuggle in. Instead, it was 'handles' (1.75 liter bottles) of cheap liquor (rum seemed to be preferred), bags of weed, and Four Loko. Great policy! I tried to set them a good example by praising the taste and low alcohol content of my schwarzbier, but it's truly for naught, given the 21 LDA; Max's was clearly a better environment for drinking (and learning to drink) than a dorm where every drink was contraband, but what's logic in the face of dogma?

I took them back to their campuses, and considered just going to my hotel in Monroeville...but I had gotten a Facebook message from Steve Lander, a true alpha beer geek (and funny SOB to boot), that I should meet him at The Headkeeper in Greensburg. Well, I'd put Headkeeper's into the book on recommendation, so I felt duty-bound to check it out. Glad I went, though I wish I'd et a bit lighter at Max's: Steve was eating, and the food smelled fantastic. He'd been eating his way through the menu over a couple months and said it was almost all outstanding; this from a metro New York guy. The beer...well, no possible argument, the beer selection, draft and bottle, was exceptional. If I hadn't already had a couple, and had a 30 minute drive back to my room... But instead, I hung with Steve and talked geek for a while, and had a Schlenkerla Lager (always welcome), and finally did check into the Holiday Inn Express (I gotta start finding more non-chain motels...). And that was Sunday. Next day: breakfast with an old high school chum, lunch at Rivertowne, a visit to Full Pint (finally!), the Church, and Penn, and the big PA beer dinner at Bocktown... stay tuned.

(I'll get some pix up on this one as soon as my PC stops acting like Betty White; maybe I should try a Snickers...)

Western PA just suits me fine

Just got back from a fantastic book signing, beer drinking, brewery touring, 'Burgh loving tour of western PA. It started quietly enough when I left home Friday afternoon, headed for Mechanicsburg to pick up more books at Stackpole for the trip...when I hit a pothole on an exit ramp and popped a tire. Damn! Unpack the Jetta to get at the spare, read the manual to see the jackpoints (first flat in this car), jack it, spin it, lower it, repack, wipe off hands, and get back on the road, 20 minutes behind. No worries, they're still there waiting, and I stuffed 200 copies of Pennsylvania Breweries in the back.

I was still early to meet bro-in-law Carl (in town for a conference), so I zipped over to Tröegs to pick up a quick Pale Ale while visiting hours were still open. Said hi to Chris Trogner and publicity mahoff Ed Yashinsky, and then ran off to pick up Carl. We were early for Cathy and Nora's arrival at Appalachian for dinner, so we headed to Bricco to suck up some dollar oysters (Blue Points, yummy) and some drafts ($6 for a 10 oz. Guinness? Really? (Yeah, really, I have the receipt.) You ought to warn a customer on a price like that, grumpy old bartender). Then we did go for dinner, and I got that awesome pulled pork again, and had a cask Trail Blaze Brown (not so hot, just kinda bland) and a Broad Street Barleywine (quite a different proposition: rippling-smooth strong malt beauty). Bye-bye to the girls...and I hijacked Carl to Carlisle. Seemed appropriate.

We went to Cafe Bruges, where I started with a Rochefort 8 (note the appropriate glass!) and Carl got a Bavik. The smell of Belgian waffles was about driving us crazy, one of quite a few good things about this place. The others? A very nice selection of Belgian beers for such a relatively small town, an authentic offering of Belgian foods, and the stuff actually coming out of the kitchen looked and smelled excellent. And the very enthusiastically-beer loving women at the end of the bar were kinda fun, too. After a while we went over to Market Cross, where I would have had the Excaliber imperial stout on cask (!!!), only we saw that this year's Sierra Nevada Celebration was on, so we grabbed a couple of those, chatted with the waitress (always a fun crew at Market Cross), and headed back to Harrisburg. Carl graciously had offered to let me sleep in his room to make the next morning's drive shorter.

Because I had to head out at 8:30 to make an 11 AM signing at Otto's. After a quick bowl of oatmeal, I rolled up the Susquehanna on a beautiful morning. As many folks would comment on this trip, I picked a great day to drive across the state: about 50 degrees, bright sunshine, blue skies, and the last of the fall foliage painting the ridges. I remembered there was a tire place up the hill from Otto's, and called ahead; yes, they could do me a new tire while I was signing books!

I dropped off the Jetta and co-owner Roger Garthwaite gave me the tour of the new, improved Otto's Pub and Brewery, down the hill in the old Quaker Steak building. It was fantastic (and so much nicer than the QSL set-up). The decor is largely high-rez reproductions of vintage beer art, like the Duquesne poster featured to the left, but there are many more that are just incredible. Did you know there was a brewery in Renovo, PA, for instance? (Guys, be sure to check out the F&S skater chick; she was deemed too racy for the front room!) You'll love this new place.

Beer was, unfortunately, a bit tight. I had plenty of Black Mo stout, for sure, but they had just brewed the last batches at the old site, and were going to be rigging out/in the brewhouse into the new one. There's a tightly calculated amount of beer to make the switch, and if anything hangs up, well...there will be guest beers, right? Because the NEW Otto's location comes with a full liquor license, so they can do that! (It also comes with Chris Brugger, late of Tröegs, who I unfortunately missed seeing, and he knows how to crank it out.) All will be well.

The signing got off to a bit of a slow start, but soon people were pouring in, including my main central PA man, Sam Komlenic, whiskey and beer enthusiast and copy editor for Malt Advocate. Sam brought friends, some of whom I knew by e-mail, like Bill Hiergeist, who's been feeding me info on booze goings-on in PA for years -- and it was great to finally meet you face-to-face, Bill! Eventually, it turned out to be one of my best events ever: 33 books signed, and they were literally chasing me in the parking lot to get one more book!


Finally hit the road for Slippery Rock with my new tire. More great scenery across the roof of the state along I-99 and I-80, then slid down into Slippery Rock...and couldn't find parking on the street at North Country. There were people lined up halfway up the block, waiting to get in!

They were not there for me. Duh. North Country does a slamming business, and an hour-and-a-half wait at 4:45 on a Saturday evening is standard for them. No wonder: the food and beer are great, the place is very cool, and it's pretty much the only game in town for miles around. I was just happy to get a small table in the front and sign another 11 books (especially the one for a family whose 11 year old son asked some very perceptive questions; kid's headed for journalism). 44 on the day: a top 10 day for Pennsylvania Breweries!

As you can see by the beer board, North Country doesn't follow the current craft beer trend of "bash 'em with big beers," nor do they slip under the radar with session beers. It's right at the 5-6% middle, and it sells like mad. I stuck to the cask Stonehouse Stout all night, and had a nice bowl of curried vegetable soup and a dinner salad. No, wait, I had the Simcoe Pale, also, and it was beautifully aromatic but not overly bitter: excellent pale ale.

I rang up a Priceline hotel room in Cranberry Township on the iPhone during a slow period, so when things were done, I rolled down I-79 and parked it. Got a little work done, and called it a long, successful day. Tomorrow: the East End Growler Shop, Max's Allegheny, and my vicarious encounter with Four Loko.

"...this state's very first brewery-operated Growler Shop."

Pennsylvania's wineries get all the breaks. They get those nice roadside signs telling tourists where they are, they get to be the only wines sold outside the State Store System (although the State Store System repays the favor by largely ignoring them (of course they do: they're not part of the monopoly, so they must be punished!)), and they get to have winery stores, off-premise stores where they can sell their wines without the PLCB running the show. Up until now, Pennsylvania's brewers didn't do anything like that. Up until now, Pennsylvania's brewers were just selling at the brewery.

Up until now...or rather, up until last Friday, when East End Brewing opened their Growler Shop at the Pittsburgh Public Market in the Strip. They're filling growlers Fridays 12-6, Saturdays 9-5, and Sundays 12-4, from four taps: three of the year-round beers -- Big Hop, Monkey Boy, Black Strap Stout, Fat Gary, or the Session series -- and a seasonal. There may be more taps coming in the future, but for now, it's just those four; no bottles, no kegs. They also have East End shtuff: caps, shirts, glasses, and yes, Black Strap cake mix (how about some more of that coffee?). (Yes, if you've seen this post before...that's a new picture, and that really is the Growler Shop; thanks to Douglas "Father Spoon" Derda of Should I Drink That? for the pic!)

I like this idea. Local beer at the local market. What could be better? Well...local beer and your favorite beer writer at the local market! It looks like I'll be doing a signing at the Growler Shop on Sunday afternoon, November 14th. Hope to see you there!

Get on your bike and ride

East End Brewing's launch of Pedal Pale Ale, Scott's summer seasonal, traditionally begins with him delivering the first keg(s) to a surprise Pittsburgh bar location by bicycle...and he invites you to go along. Last year over 500 thirsty fans followed!

This year's Pedal Pale Ale Keg Ride is on May 14th. I'd hoped to go out for this one, but I'm doing a whisky tasting that night here in Bucks County, so I'll have to wait another year. You can go, though: here's the info, and a link to register.

East End shows Gratitude, flips you a Wooden Nickel

East End Brewing just announced...okay, Scott Smith just sent me an e-mail, same thing, that this Saturday, March 6, will be the release of both Gratitude 2009, his annual barleywine, with the colored wax and paper wrapping, and Wooden Nickel, the brewery's 5th anniversary beer, a saison. Gratitude will be available for sale, along with previous years (check out the details on Scott's "stacked vertical" packages here), cash only. Wooden Nickel will definitely be available for tasting, but may or may not be available for sale: labels are running late. and will be available for sale; thanks to Scott for this last-minute update. Doors open at noon.

East End Brewing Fights Back!

Small brewers of Pennsylvania: are you scared of grocery store beer sales? I like the attitude of your comrade, Scott Smith at East End Brewing, who won't let the prospect get him down: he's taking it to the grocers and selling coffee and cake mix! The latest from his always-amusing e-letter:

GROCERIES AT THE BREWERY? OH, THE HUMANITY!

Last month, beer was sold at a grocery store in Western PA, and something remarkable happened... small brewers still survived, local beer distributors that offer better beers haven't closed, and in general civilization hasn't crumbled. Just amazing. But while the long term effects of better access to better beer still remain to be seen, we're going to see if we can shake things up even more and give the folks at Giant Eagle and Wegman's a run for their money... and take the game to their field.

We've already sold through our batch of Rachel Carson Blend Coffee from LaPrima at the brewery, as well as (the beer that we can't call) Eye Opener Coffee Porter. And now our further encroachment into the "Fine Groceries" category continues with our Holiday Season release of our much anticipated Black Strap Stout Cake Mixes. Finally, the return of the best solution for that leftover cup of Black Strap Stout at the bottom of your Growler - make a cake with it! Or maybe that's not a problem for you, and you just need to pick up a second jug?

So, there. Take THAT grocery stores! Now we'll really see if civilization can crumble. I know the cake is nice and moist.

I do like a brewer with a sense of humor, and Scott's all that and a bag of crisps. Pretty damned good beer, too.

Whirlwind Tour Part 2 of 3 -- Wednesday

Picking up where I left off...

Wednesday morning I had another great breakfast at Pamela's (what can I say; it was close, it was delicious, it was reasonable, and it was served quickly) and made the short drive to Church Brew Works. Sean Casey was up on the roof -- literally, they're having the roof repaired, and he was up taking pix, some great ones of him sipping tripel with the skyline behind him -- while I was running the taps with brewer Brandt Dubovick. Excellent overall quality.

Then they took me downstairs: Church is seriously gearing up for production: more and bigger tanks (Sean seems to be collecting tanks), new bottling line, new six-pack holders (not sure why they're not buying kegs; "Draft drives bottles" is an industry truism). As Sean said when I left, "Thanks for visiting Pittsburgh's biggest production brewery!" Kind of shocking thought, but as of right now, he's right.

After that, I took it up the hill and down through my old Shadyside neighborhood to East End Brewing, where Scott and Brendan were hustling to get ready for some bottling. Scott showed me the new tasting area -- right inside the door! How's that for convenient? -- and we tasted some beers, and talked about what a hard worker Brendan was. Beer tasted pretty damned good, BTW.

Running about an hour behind, now, as I kept missing the turns my GPS advised (a combination of really loud music -- it was too nice a day not to -- and the GPS being terribly confused by Pittsburgh streets -- nice to know it affects machines, too), but I did finally make it to Rivertowne Pourhouse, where I was soon drinking samples with a very relaxed crew of brewers: Barrett Goddard, Andrew Maxwell, and Sean Hallisey, along with Mark Kegg, their partner (along with North Country brewer Sean McIntyre) in Full Pint Brewing. We worked our way through the lineup -- real good, even the damned fruit beers -- and started playing around, like the world's smallest black'n'tan you see to the right (note the sugar packet for scale). Full Pint is just waiting on a Dec. 1st zoning meeting, and they're so ready to go they might just head over after the meeting -- assuming it goes well, and they think it will -- and start brewing. Four of their own beers, and two each from Rivertowne and North Country, and yes, they're talking about doing a variety case with 8 beers from each of the three different breweries. How's that?

I finally walked out into the drizzle that was now falling lightly, and headed down to Hofbräuhaus. It wasn't an official visit, I just wanted to go again, in the daylight. Got a half-liter of Dunkel -- very nice -- and a bowl of cabbage and hax'n soup -- also nice, thick, if a bit salty -- and the oft-recommended sauerkraut balls, which were actually a big disappointment: mostly just doughy. Great place, great beer, amazing view of the river, but...where does one park, particularly when 'one' is the 600+ people this place can seat? There is no garage, there is no lot. I honestly can't believe this was approved. I'm all for the place, it's done well, but who planned this parking? No transit either, other than buses over on Carson Street and the rare Pittsburgh taxi. I don't get it...

Anyway, then I went to Bocktown Beer & Grill, where I had an event. Bocktown's a great little place; Chris gets some seriously rare and delicious beers in, and her new chef is just rocking it, we had excellent pairings for the barrel-aged beers we tasted. I got to talk a lot about whiskey, which is always a pleasure, and then we talked far into the evening. I finally, reluctantly, dragged my carcass down the hill to the hotel, and pretty much collapsed, exhausted, into bed.

Whew. That was a lot. I'll wrap up Thursday -- Rock Bottom Homestead, Marzoni's, and Otto's -- in a final post.

The Ugly American

I did go to Pittsburgh last December, a hellride of a 24-hour roundtrip that I will write more about, and soon, because I finally got to Point Brugge (and it was nice), and I stopped at Church, and I finally got to witness the tapping of the St. Nikolaus Bock at Penn Brewery (which may or may not have been the last time it happens; latest rumors/news prove things are still up in the air there, and I guess I'm just gonna have to go out and get the straight shit), and I kinda had a drunken walkabout with Vecenie rep Tony Knipling (thanks for getting me back to my hotel safely, Tony)...

But I also stopped at East End Brewing, and had a very nice visit with Scott (got to taste Snow Melt, which was delish, and most of the Session series he had available, also nice), and he gave me a bottle of The Ugly American. I cracked it open as a pre-Easter dinner libation - a liter's worth of pre-libation - and I can finally agree with Uncle Jack (it's there, about 2/3 down the page, and aren't you glad Jack started blogging?) that this is "one heck of a job" of brewing, a tripel with a huge addition of hops. It's likely not as sweet as it was, being bottle-conditioned and all, but it's still big and spicy, then crushingly bitter in the finish. Nice.

Wonder what excuse Scott will use to brew it now?