Swillin' in Steel City

This past weekend found me venturing westward to Steel City for a gig with Solar Federation, my Rush tribute band. After a bit of discussion, we decided to make a weekend out of it. I mean, why not? It's about a 4-hour drive from Central PA and Pittsburgh definitely has no shortage of good breweries, so we could certainly keep busy during the down time. It was on. Sadly, our photogenic drinking partner Pleepleus didn't join us for this particular outing, as he is currently resting his little monkey liver for our summer beer-cation to Minneapolis, MN, and Madison, WI, for the annual Great Taste of the Midwest beer festival.

We made arrangements with my long-time friend and band-mate from herbie, Jay, to stay at his house in Cranberry Township on Friday night, which is situated about half an hour north of Pittsburgh proper. (Longtime followers of the Pour Travelers may remember one of my very first blogs about a Taste of PA beer sampling I conducted for Jay and then-fiancée Nicole's "Jack & Jill" party in lieu of a bridal shower.) Entering our destination into my new buddy BreweryMap.com, I was pleasantly surprised to find that our route would pass near a brewery that has eluded us despite numerous trips to (and around) Pittsburgh over the years.

The devil's been busy...

We'd been wanting to visit Helltown for a few years after first having their beer at Al's of Hampden quite some time ago. However, their hours have always been prohibitive (i.e. open 3 to 7 p.m. on Friday), and we'd always find ourselves driving through too early or too late to pop in for a visit. They've since expanded their hours slightly, but the are still only open 3 days a week. When we arrived, they appeared to have a healthy "happy hour" crowd congregating after work to unwind and prepare for the weekend. That's kind of why we were there, too. Nothing makes me thirstier than driving for three hours. When we're on a trip, my thirst for beer is directly proportional to the distance we must drive to arrive at said beer. I'm sure this could be quantified through some kind mathematical formula, but alas, I'm no mathematician. I mean, I count with my fingers. Thankfully, I like words, otherwise this blog would be littered with lots of statistics and scary numbers. No thanks.

Overall, Helltown isn't much to look at. It's basically a cluttered production brewery with a few lopsided picnic tables outside and a tiny gift shop with a restroom. But they are churning out some tasty beers. I also love the name of the brewery (obviously), which is most likely derived from 15666, the zip code of Mt. Pleasant. And again, my buddy Lord Lucifer makes an appearance in my favorite frosted, frothy beverage. All hail!

Everything in its place... right?

This isn't a place to bring the kids, although there were a few rugrats present when we arrived. Thankfully the weather was cooperating quite nicely for late July, and it was cool and breezy outside. Since there's no real bar, we ordered our beer from a tattooed guy wearing a Helltown shirt who liked he should be there. Since it was slim pickings with the tap list (about 5 beers) we both settled on The Rapture, Helltown's signature IPA. I ended up spilling some on my sneaker, and the server made a joke that he's notorious for squeezing 17 ounces of beer into a 16-ounce pint glass. He was telling the truth. Both glasses were filled to the brim with beer and nary a bit of froth was to be found anywhere. The Rapture is a pretty straight-up West Coast style IPA with lots of pine resin, some citrus, and plenty of balanced bitterness. It's a solid drinker any way you slice it. We both enjoyed it quite a bit and were surprised that neither of us had never checked it in on Untappd. So chalk up a new beer to boot!

Up next was Idle Hands, a DIPA in the same vein as The Rapture. Weighing in at 8% (vs. Rapture's 7%), this one boasted a more oily texture and alcohol presence amid sticky resinous hop goodness. Brewed with Citra, Summit, and Amarillo hops, I could definitely pick out Amarillo in the line-up with its pungent signature blend of citrus and cat box. While we liked this one as well, we both agreed that The Rapture was superior. 

Strolling the grounds at Helltown.

It was great to finally get to Helltown after multiple failed attempts. Deuane had told us about a recent Kriek they had released, but unfortunately they were sold out. Maybe next time. I'd love to try one of their barrel-aged beers in the future. Hopefully it won't be our first and last visit to the devil's neck of the woods.

Afterward, we grabbed some tasty turkey subs at DiBella's Subs and turned in for the night at Jay and Nicole's, which went something like this: Dos Equis > Cab Sauv > Cab Sauv > Cab Sauv > cheese balls > bourbon > bourbon > bed.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Outside Hitchhiker's Mt. Lebanon tap room.

After breakfast and some more catching up with Jay, it was time to shove off for a quick stop at Hitchhiker. Given its close proximity to the venue at which I would be performing later that evening, it was a decidedly convenient place to grab a pre-show beer or two. We'd first visited Hitch Hiker the previous Easter during a long weekend brewery jaunt to Pittsburgh (refer to Jammin' in the 'Burgh: Part 1 and Part 2), but it was a quick, down-and-dirty visit with just enough time for one beer each and a bowl of roasted nuts.

What's pouring at Hitchhiker?

For this visit, we were joined by fellow Troegs compadre (and Schmoopie) Dalton, who happened to be in the area visiting some friends from college. They also joined us, so it turned out to be a nice group. Dalton is a big Seinfeld fan, so we enjoyed making references to the show and tossing one-liners back and forth. It was another lovely day to be outside, and luckily for us, Hitchhiker boasts a cozy little deck out behind its main tasting room with plenty of shade and a pleasant view. See? 

View from our table out on the deck at Hitchhiker.

And now, the beer. Brewslut immediately was drawn to a lactose IPA with tangerine called Whole Punch, while I was eyeing up a new release called Triple Shakes, an Imperial version of its standard The Shakes coffee porter. Weighing in at 11.5% ABV, it seems like the right beer to kick off my day. This big, burly fellow was conditioned on Ethopian Yirgacheffe and honey-processed Honduran Finca Californeo from 19 Coffee. Though it went down pretty easy, I did my best to take some time with it and sip rather than slosh. Whole Punch, on the other hand, was insanely chuggable. The tangerine character of this beer was insane, and the lactose sweetened the pot and provided a smooth mouthfeel. Overall, this NE-style IPA produced a strong citrusy punch with some residual sugary sweetness. Nicely done!

Triple Shakes vs. Whole Punch.

For round two, Brewslut settled on Agrio, a raspberry margarita gose brewed with wheat, coriander, sea salt, agave, and lime zest, then conditioned on raspberries. I opted for an IPA called A Place in Time. Brewed with oats and hopped with Mosaic and Simcoe lupulin powder, this beer offered a complex wash of citrus, mango, pine, and a hint of earthy blueberry.

After a relaxing ninety minutes or so at Hitchhiker, it was off to the office to earn my keep. The show was fun albeit lightly attended. Still, it was awesome to see many familiar faces, some of whom drove 4+ hours to see us perform. That always makes me feel swell. The venue (Crafthouse Stage and Grill) also had a pretty solid tap selection featuring 50 beers. By the time we finished playing, I was craving a Fathead's Headhunter, but alas it had kicked. So I settled for a Hop Nosh Tangerine from Uinta. And with that, it was time to head back to the Holiday Inn Express for some much-needed rest.

After a sweet free hot breakfast at Holiday Inn (not just muffins and shit; I'm talkin' mini omelettes, turkey sausage patties, bagels, cereal, juice, etc.) we decided to kill some time seeking out local coffee. Turns out Steel City Roasters is situated just one block away from our first stop of the day. Our server was super nice, and we enjoyed our nitro cold brews, while we waited for Voodoo to open at noon. 

We'd been fans of Voodoo since our first encounter with original owner and brewer Matt Allyn at Philly Beer Week shortly after he started Voodoo. We bonded over the band Primus (one of his beers, Wynona's Big Brown Ale, is a reference to one of the band's most endearing songs). Since then, we've become fans of the brewery and visited the main brewery in Meadville on our Drinksgiving 2013 as well as this particular site last year over Easter weekend. 

This time, we opened the place. To quote Clark W. Griswold, "First ones here... first ones here." Checking out the chalkboard, there appeared to be several interesting sounding beers in the "Seasonal Brews" column. I'll admit I'm a sucker for seasonals over year-rounds because there is typically more diversity in styles and flavors (although I must say I was tempted by Hoodoo IPA, which is fantastic). So, we settled on the Galaxy Pale Ale and Shatter Machine, the latter a lactose IPA brewed with mango and in collaboration with Magnanimous Brewing based out of Tampa, FL.

In chatting with the bartender about music (specifically our shared enthusiasm for Tenacious D), I learned that his girlfriend works at Crafthouse Stage and Grill, where Solar Federation performed the night before. As a matter of fact, she was smitten with my Star Wars/Rush mash-up T-shirt and asked me multiple times to sell it to her. Small world. 

We debated getting some food and, although the pierogies and sushi tacos sounded amazing, we were both still full from breakfast. We had plenty of room for beer, though! Up next was Tropical, a Berliner Weisse with passionfruit, pineapple and mango. This sounded so good that we each decided to order our own pour. The fruit wasn't overdone, which may or may not be a good thing depending on your view of the style. We both dug it, though obviously Brewslut was into it more than me. After all, it's her favorite beer style.

We rounded out our visit with a shared pour of IPL (that's India Pale Lager for those keeping score at home) hopped with Mandarina Bavaria, Huell Melon, and Hallertau Blanc. This combination lent a crisp melon character with tangerine and a hint of white grape. I thought this combo worked well on the blank slate of a lager as these all display subtle hop complexities and therefore don't get in the way of the lager yeast character. This was quite enjoyable!

And with that, it was time to bid farewell to Voodoo and ship off to our next destination. We exchanged some stickers with our bartender and moved on.

Brew Gentlemen is pretty classy for Braddock, PA. I mean, if you look up the word "blight" in the dictionary, a photo of downtown Braddock would accompany its entry. Last time, I referred to this ghost town as "the saddest, most depressed town I've ever visited." This time, however, there was a glimmer of hope of gentrification. Some people frown on this phenomenon, saying it ruins a town's character. In this case, Braddock is in dire need of some kind of facelift. It was nice to see rows of brand new townhouses being constructed just across the street from Brew Gentlemen when we arrived. This is certainly a step in the right direction for this dying town.

But back to beer. We were surprised to find that the tap list had doubled since our last visit, even though it was very heavy on IPAs and Pale Ales. For obvious reasons, a DIPA named Atomic Goat jumped out at me. There was no way I wasn't getting that! I opted for the small 6-ounce pour size since this was an 8+% ABV beer. Like the majority of its hoppy offerings, this was hazy, soft and delicate with a bright aroma and plenty of citrus fruit with minimal bitterness.

Last time, we were wowed by the burritos we got from the food truck, so I had hoped there would be something equally as impressive during this visit. This time, we were greeted by Pittsburgh Tortas. I'd never heard of a "torta" before, but it sounded Mexican. Turns out a torta is a sandwich made with a crusty bread roll. It's almost like a taco but on a roll instead of a traditional corn or flour tortilla. We both decided on the Verde Chicken torta with tomatillo sauce, smashed black beans, melted chihuahua cheese, lime cilantro slaw, pickled onions, and poblano crema with a side of homemade tortilla chips. Yum-tastic!

For my next selection, I went with another 6-ounce pour of a DIPA called Golden Panda. Coincidentally, this one tasted a bit more exotic than Atomic Goat. While goats are clearly the superior animals, Pandas are easily more exotic. I mean, they're from Asia, right? I picked up on some lemony, herbal notes (lemongrass, perhaps) and a hint of sweet Vidalia onion (but not in a bad way, because I loathe onions... at least raw onions). Round it out with a hint of catbox and you get some idea of its complex flavor profile. Since brewing and ingredient specs are tough to find on BG's beers, I would venture to guess that they used Sorachi Ace hops in this beer. Maybe not exclusively, but it would make a loose connection with part of the beer's name (i.e. panda). OK, that's stretching it a bit, because Sorachi Ace hops originated in Japan and panda bears are indigenous to south-central China. Both could be described as Asian, though. Sorry... that's just how my brain works. Long story short, I preferred Atomic Goat a bit more for its simplicity. And the name, of course.

BG is known for its soft, hazy, minimally bitter IPAs, so I wanted to try something that wasn't a hoppy ale. It was basically a toss-up between a Porter and something called Saison du Mon. I went with the latter. Grainy and grassy with hints of lemon and flowering herbs, this clean, bright farmhouse-style ale was slightly dry and refreshing.

Meanwhile, our beer cohorts Deuane and Tristan were on their way back to Central PA from a Reds game in Cincinnati and wanted to meet up for a beer. They couldn't get to Brew Gentlemen in time, so Deuane suggested a new place in nearby Irwin, PA, called Quinn. I'd never heard of this particular brewery before, but we're always game to give a new place a shot.

We pulled into the parking lot about 10 minutes before Deuane and Tristan, so we secured a few seats at the small bar. This didn't pose too much of a problem, as there were only about three patrons when we arrived. Like so many West Coast breweries we've encountered in our travels, Quinn is situated in an industrial park amid a myriad of other disparate businesses. When we arrived and entered the building, the lay of the land reminded me of Race Street Brewery in Clearfield, PA (minus all of the eclectic decor). I was surprised by the roominess of the tasting room, with its decent-sized stage for live entertainment, assortment of seating options (long tables, high tops, bar), and big screen TV.

On to the beer. we scoped out the chalkboard, and nothing really jumped out at me. There was a Pale, DIPA, Black IPA, Red Ale, Brown Ale, Oatmeal Stout, etc. All pretty pedestrian styles. When in doubt, I'll always go with a pale ale, as they're not hard to screw up. Enter DesDemona Pale Ale. It was a fine pale ale; not flawed but not really memorable either. It kind of straddled the line between American and English styles, as it wasn't overly hoppy. This one features tried-and-true Cascade hops as well as the rarely seen Apollo variety, so there was plenty of citrus character, especially grapefruit. Apollo hops tend to be pretty "crunchy" with a hint of cannabis, but this beer didn't have that ganga-like dankness. Still, it was pretty easy drinking and proved to be a safe way to make first contact with this new brewery.

Quinn is tapping up some suds for the folks of Irwin, PA.

Brewslut got the Horsi Stout, which was an intensely roasty version of the style. It was quite dry, and I was surprised it was an oatmeal stout and not an Irish or export stout. I took a sip or two and that was enough for me. To finish up, we decided to share a pour of a DIPA called Lindencross. I wanted the black IPA, but Brewslut vetoed my suggestion. This turned out to be a pretty malty English-style DIPA with a bit of diacytl, unfortunately. She didn't mind it, but I was slow with my sips. Besides, I had to drive three hours home following our visit.

Although we enjoyed plenty of great beer and company over the course of the weekend, this had to be the highlight of the trip for me. Until next time...