But after the Steelers were eliminated from the NFL playoffs, I thought that I had a shot to convince The Drunk Yinzer (TDY) to visit, since TDY wouldn’t have any sports to look forward to (before the NHL resolved the lockout). I was generally concerned that they would travel to Birmingham Bridge and plunge into the depths of Monongahela.

Who else can sympathize with TDY and their recent depression regarding Pittsburgh sports? A non-Pittsburgher! More specifically, a Cleveland sport fan.

Cleveland embraces mediocrity and celebrates .500 seasons. The Browns have never made it to the Super Bowl. The Indians haven’t won a World Series since 1948 (second longest drought behind the Cubs). And the Cavs? I’d rather not discuss the Cavs right now. To top it off, the last time the Browns were in the playoffs, the Browns lost three times to the same team in the same season (I think a first in NFL history).

How do Cleveland fans deal with mediocrity and depression? Beer. Lots of it.

Thankfully, Cleveland is a drinking town with a football problem and without the Browns in the playoffs, Cleveland refocuses on the drinking.

I decided to share my wisdom with TDY and take the risk to invite them for a weekend in Northeast Ohio.  To encourage TDY to leave the safety of western Pennsylvania, I shared that one of the best places for tacos in Cleveland was having their weekly taco special on Friday that weekend. In addition, I informed them that another area of Cleveland, Ohio City, was ranked one of the best bar-hopping areas in the world (yes, WORLD) by USA Today. On top of that, the Ohio City area is relatively safe and TDY wouldn’t have to worry about being run over by an inebriated Steeler player speeding down Carson Street. If all the above wasn’t enough for them, our mutual friend Hurricane Spurious (HS) was in Northeast Ohio for the holidays and our other mutual friend, who was our Goalie in intramural Futbol (GF), lives in Northeast Ohio.

Needless to say, TDY made the trip west to glorious northeast Ohio.

On Friday night, we headed to my favorite taco place, Sachsenheim Hall. Sachsenheim is located on the border of Cleveland and Parma and is a German beer hall that serves quality beers at reasonable prices with phenomenal tacos. Yes, it is a German beer hall AND it serves phenomenal tacos. It isn’t any different than ordering a salad in Pittsburgh and receiving French fries and steak on it.

At Sachsenheim, you can choose beef, ancho chicken sausage, habanera bacon, blackbean & corn, saxon sausage, chipotle chicken and bacon, Italian carnival, chorizo, and/or venison tacos. The tacos may include lettuce, tomato and/or sour cream. On a sidenote, Sachsenseim is the last stop in the annual Taco thon in Cleveland. For more information, search “taco thon” on facebook.

To start, TDY and HS each ordered a 1 liter stein to accompany their tacos. It was the first of many orders of beer and tacos for TDY and HS.

I ordered a ½ liter Hofbrau Dunkel to accompany my order of chorizo and venison tacos. The chorizo tacos had a nice kick to them and ended up being my favorite taco. The venison tacos were unique and included hearty pieces of venison. The venison tacos were my second favorite at Sachsenheim out of all the tacos I ordered.

On top of great beer and phenomenal tacos is the reasonable price. TDY, HS, and I all paid around $20 each for multiple tacos and beers.

After a successful night at Sachsenheim, HS, TDY and I geared up for Ohio City on Saturday night.  Before experiencing what USA Today considers one of the best bar hopping areas in the world, we had lunch/dinner at B-Spot.

B-Spot is a burger restaurant owned by Iron Chef (and Cleveland native) Michael Symon. While being predominantly known for their burgers, B-Spot has delicious Lola fries (fries with rosemary) and a decent beer selection. Of course the group started drinking. I had a GL Christmas Ale to accompany my Fat Doug (burger with coleslaw, pastrami, swiss cheese and mustard) and Lola fries. HS ordered a few beers to accompany his specialty burger that included pepperjack cheese and hot peppers. As I learned in college, HS has an iron stomach.

After departing B-Spot, the group headed over to GF’s house to watch some football and drink beer. The group enjoyed various beer (Schlitz, Killians, Miller Lite, etc.) at GF’s house that was leftover from GF’s holiday family party.

After leaving GF’s place, the group had at least two bars in mind for the night – Great Lakes Brewery and Market Garden Brewery. Great Lakes is, arguably, Cleveland’s most famous brewery.  TDY’s goal was to locate and purchase Blackout Stout ice cream. Unfortunately, Great Lakes was out of the ice cream but still had plenty of beer was ordered. The group enjoyed Cleveland Brown Ale (picture shown below), Commodore Perry IPA, Edmund Fitzgerald Porter, the Great Lakes milk stout, and Eliot Ness.

After having our fill of GL brews, we headed to Market Garden Brewery located near the famous Westside Market (similar to the Strip District in Pittsburgh) and founded by (among others) a former brewmaster from Dogfish Head. Market Garden has a large upstairs area and an even bigger downstairs area which includes the brewery. The group headed downstairs and sipped on Festivus Ale, Old School American Lager, Boss Amber Lager, and the Trouble IPA while discussing the fermentation tanks and the corresponding lines (#nerds4life).

The last stop of the night was Nano Brew (coincidentally owned by the same owners as Market Garden). Nano Brew is a bar/bicycle repair shop with a decent selection of various microbrews (I’ve heard it has great food too). It is smaller than Market Garden and, accordingly, less crowded.  I cannot recall what was ordered but I remember drinking some 9-10% alcohol beer (perhaps Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout? North Coast Old Rasputin?). So the next time you are riding on the near west side and need to fix your bicycle, stop at Nano Brew for a beer and the appropriate tools.

Overall, I think TDY enjoyed their trip to the North Coast and appreciated the various microbrews in Ohio City. I suggested a return trip to visit Sterle’s (a Hungarian style restaurant), Happy Dog ($5 hot dogs with innumerable topping choices and polka happy hour) and/or Sokolowski’s (a Polish cafeteria-style restaurant) with trips to Willoughby Brewing, Rocky River Brewing, and Hopping Frog, among others.

The SCRC Annual Brewfest is February 2nd at the boathouse at 101 Arch Street in Verona, PA. This event will house 12 amateur brewers from our local community. The event starts at 7PM and winning brewers will be announced at 9PM.

Purchase a $25 ticket now, and taste all 12 brews, with an additional voucher for 3 glasses then vote for your top three favorites. Only 125 tickets will be sold, so purchase today at www.steelcityrowing.org. Tickets are only available to 21 years and older.

This event is sponsored by Midway Beverage Co. and Ruffled Home Brewery. All funds received go to support all SCRC programming.

And we’re okay with that.

Drinks are usually the priority and our food selection secondary. It’s not that we don’t love good food. We go out of our way to eat the best Pittsburgh offers. We just don’t often combine it with great beer, especially after four or five, which happens more often than we like to admit.

But that doesn’t always have to be the case.

There is a growing number of fantastic Pittsburgh restaurants featuring a wider variety of beers (especially local) and creative cocktails along side food any Pittsburgher should cross two rivers for.

For New Years Eve, however, we decided to keep it casual and cook up our own food using whatever we could find at the local six-pack shop in each dish. Maybe we’ve watched too many Top Chefs. Maybe we’re just an intervention away from AA. Whatever the case, here’s what we cooked with links photos, beers and recipes when applicable.

HORS D’OEUVRES

Champagne Blueberries

Recipe: Blueberries + Champagne. Soak overnight. Serve.

Champagne: We’re not classy enough to remember/care.

Meatballs

For these little guys, we fudged together a sauce using the beer and a mix of BBQ sauce, ketchup, Worchestershire sauce, soy sauce and other potentially expired things found on that door in your fridge. Result? About what you’d expect from taking that approach. Upside? Drinking the whiskey each time you add a little bit more to the pot.

Recipe: Made it up

Beer: Edmund Fitzgerald

Whiskey: Dad’s Hat Rye Whiskey

Fondue

[photo missing. Last seen wondering Bloomfield, PBR & cig in hand]

We used our go-to fondue but this was the first time using an IPA. The flavor of the 2x was present but subtle. More like 2 x 1/4 IPA or 1/2x IPA. Am I right?

Dippers: soft pretzels, baguette, Granny Smith apples, and broccoli.

Recipe: Beer, garlic, flour, cheddar, swiss, jalapeno.

Beer: Southern Tier 2X IPA 

APPETIZERS

Mac’n'Cheese

This mac’n'chesse recipe is easy and had the most pronounced beer and alcohol flavors (doesn’t really cook off) of any dish, making it one of the favorites. Swap in your favorite Abbey Triple. Will be cooking this one again and again.

Recipe from TheBeerCook

Beer: Weyerbacher Merry Monks

Stuffed Mushrooms

You can’t go wrong with stuffed mushrooms. They’re simple to assemble and cook and they provide a great canvas for using whatever ingredients you love, including beer. These guys turned out so good we almost forgot to take a picture before they were gone.

Recipe: TheBeerCook.com

Beer: Messiah Nut Brown

MAIN

Short Ribs & Risotto

Short Ribs

Don’t let the longer ingredient list disuade you, these ribs are as simple to put together as your favorite crockpot stew. Chop a few things, brown the ribs, simmer a quick sauce and let the low-and-slow method do all the work. Definitely follow the recipe’s tip that these are better the next day. We made them a day ahead of time, let the flavors come together overnight, skimmed the excess fat then reheated in the over to serve. The rib bones fell right out of the meat. We chose darker beers to complement the red meat. The extra leftover sauce makes for an excellent stew over mashed potatoes.

Recipe: Epicurious.com

Beer: New Holland Dragon’s Milk & Old Leghumper Porter

Risotto

Don’t fear the risotto. Roll up your sleeves, stretch your stirring arm and you can have a kick-ass risotto in 30-40 minutes with just a few ingredients. We chose risotto because it really takes on the flavor of the stock you use, making an obvious choice for mating with a good brown like New Holland’s Cabin Fever.

Recipe: TheBeerCook.com

Beer: New Holland Cabin Fever

DESSERT

Chocolate Stout Ice Cream

We used Harpoon Chocolate Stout in this recipe, but look forward to trying it with the recipe’s recommendation of Southern Tier Mokah or Creme Brulee. It can be difficult to get ice cream with any alcohol to harden up but this recipe worked out very well. We added too many chocolate chips and unfortunately masked the chocolate stout flavor.

Tips for next time: start a fundraiser to buy a Mexican vanilla bean, watch the eggs more closely to avoid the terror of serving scrambled egg ice cream, and leave out the chips.

Recipe: DrinkCraftBeer.com

Beer: Harpooon Chocolate Stout

Beerimisu

We could have chosen to make this on its name alone, but it’s also is great way to shortcut a traditionally more involved dessert without losing a ton of the flavor. Apologies to Breckenridge, whose recipe we used, whose beer we did not. Note: we adjusted the recipe a bit for quantity.

Recipe: Breckenridge Brewery

Beer: Tommyknocker Cocoa Porter

POST-DINNER BEER AND DRINKS

A miscellaneous collection of beer I can’t remember because, well, we are who we are. Instead, here’s a left-to-right lineup of all the alcohol we used in our food, from h’orderves to desserts. Happy New Year!

So tell us your favorite recipes featuring beer (or whiskey) in the comments below or @TheDrunkYinzer. We’ll be summarizing our NYE dinner in a later post and will be sure to give you credit for any recipes we use.

In related news, Braddock will also be the site of Tapped: Braddock, the latest pop-up beer garden in Pittsburgh being held Saturday, October 6th. We love this pop-up beer garden trend and have attended a few of the previous events around town. Great food and beer to be had, so check out the Facebook page for more details.

Our first day sightseeing in Montreal, we headed up to the Mile End neighborhood of the city and checked out artisan brewery Dieu Du Ciel.  The unassuming exterior shouldn’t fool you.  This place featured 17 homemade draft beers and 1 on cask.  The Artisan certainly is apparent when you see the list of beers that seems to defy the ordinary.  A wheat beer brewed with Hibiscus flowers?  Several types of belgian beers?  An Imperial Black IPA?  Dieu Du Ciel covers a wide range.

A dizzying array of choices at Dieu du Ciel

We tried the Rigor Mortis, a Belgian abbey ale, which is a nice representation of the style without being overly sweet.  My wife enjoyed the hibiscus flower wheat which is a pretty intense shade of neon pink but not as sweet as expected.  Do yourself a favor and check the aroma when first poured.  I have never gotten such an intense floral aroma from a beer.  The real stars in my opinion were the Morality, a collaboratiion American IPA with the Alchemist (Vermont) which is slightly sweet and not overly hoppy and the Perle cider incredibly dry but just sweet enough that  this microbrewed cider sets apart from the crowd.

The neon pink color of the Hibiscus Flower Wheat

From Dieu du Ciel, we moved on to La Amere a Boire specializing in lagers brewed onsite.  The czech style lager, Elephant, was advertised as a lighter alternative to higher alcohol lagers.  Note that as the beer is advertised as 10′, this is the original gravity of the beer and not the serving temperature meaning that the beer is lighter both in flavor and alcohol content.  The best beer we tried here was the hefeweizen which had notes of lemon and other citrus on top of a basic wheat body.

Our last stop of the day, Cheval Blanc had a dark nightclub vibe and slightly better beer than our last stop.  I tried the Falconer’s Flight IPA on cask.  Made primarily with Centennial hops.  This IPA is easy to drink and not too bitter but with a convincingly dry finish.  The best IPA I have tried in Canada.  It seems that the Canadian brewers either do not have the hops or are reluctant to make a true American style IPA with all of the bitterness that entails.

St. Elisabeth's lineup of Boreale Taps

We managed to find three more nice surprises on trip to Montreal.  The St. Elisabeth pub doesn’t look like much on the outside, but a large draft list and one of the coolest beer gardens in all of Montreal awaits the visitor.  this one is definitely worth your time, whether you want to test the waters of various canadian breweries such as the house favorite Boreale or simply want to relax with a few friends and a few good beers.  The completely enclosed courtyard is covered with ivy and the waitress service is certainly efficient.  St. Elisabeth’s is a great place to sit and relax.

The many choices of Benelux

One of our last stops in Montreal was at the Benelux brewpub.  The names on the chalkboard seem to contain som American connotations such as “Cactus” IPA, “Armada” Brown, “Amok” Belgian stout, and my personal favorite : “Yakima” American pale ale.   There was little to disappoint us at Benelux; I started with the Yakima pale ale which was excellent and was hoppier than most “IPAs” that I had in Montreal.  However, somehow the Cacus fell short of my expectations being dry and slightly sweet but not very bitter.  Amok Belgian stout was the real surprise though.  More of a quadruple or dubbel sweet flavor than a traditional stout but with darker malts and a complex finish that is at first, sweet, dry and finally with a touch of anise flavor at the end.  The Amok is a sweet, dark dessert in a glass!

Don't let your taste buds run "Amok"

Our final surprise in Montreal was the beautiful afternoon spent at the outdoor terrace at the McAuslan brewery.  We also had a great time at the Montreal International Jazz Festival.  Two weeks of free concerts.  You can’t beat that!  Check back with us next time to hear all about our afternoon in McAuslan beer garden.

PGH Taco Truck was serving up some delish tacos. They were sold out of everything except chicken and steak by the time we showed up. Both tasted great paired with a mixed drink from Eric himself at the Wigle Whiskey table. This was the first time I had met Eric and it was great talking with him. He was talking the time to talk to each person he made a drink for. Definitely a passionate, fun guy who loves what he does. I believe we were enjoying some Wigle Whiskey with a dash of ginger ale on ice. Bar Marco was grilling up some damn good looking and smelling burgers. If I had more room I would have tried one.

If you haven’t been to one yet, I highly recommend checking it out. Relaxing outside in a parking lot sitting on some comfy folding chairs sipping some local booze while munching on great local food can’t be beat in the summer. I had a blast and can’t wait to catch the next one.

Today, with the weather in the mid 90s, I ordered the Dogfish Head Festina Peche. This is a seasonal brew from Dogfish using real peaches. The style is what they call “neo-Berliner Weisse.” A Berliner Weisse is known by its extreme tartness. By adding peaches to the brew, the fruit flavor and aroma balance the tartness. Do not be worried if you start humming “Peaches” by Presidents of the USA as this is a common side effect….Movin’ to the country I’m gonna eat a lot of peaches.

Appearance:  A Hazy golden straw colored brew.

Aroma:  Peaches with the under tones of a weisse beer.  Mainly peaches.  Millions of Peaches, Peaches for me.

Taste:  The taste is still tart and hits you on your tongue right away. The tartness is quickly overtaken with the sweet peach flavor. They say they use hops, but I couldn’t detect them at 8 IBUs. My guess is a lite amount of fuggles or some other German style low A.A. hop.  The beer is good cold and slightly warm. The peach flavors are more forward at slightly warmer temperatures.

Mouth feel:  Crisp, clean, refreshing. Everything you want when it’s hot out.

Drinkability:  Easy and at 4.5% you can enjoy more than one. Millions of peaches peaches for free.

Check it out if you haven’t already.  It is a fruity beer, but made more interesting since the base style is the tart/sour Berliner Weisse,  which is a change of pace from many of the fruit flavored American wheat beers on the market today.

24 hours in a day, 24 beers in a case and 24 years of Deschutes Brewery’s “damn tasty beer!”  To celebrate this special occasion there will be live music, good food, barrel-aged beers, firkins of fun, give-aways every 24th minute and local’s specials on the pint-of-the-day, Bachelor Bitter! The beer that started it all!

I know what you are saying, “Jake, wtf! Who cares? We can’t fly across the country to the party nor can we get their beer here. Why do you talk about them so much?”  Well because they are awesome. And one day they will expand to PA. And maybe if we ask real nice and have a great craft beer event we can lure them to come to Pittsburgh. I mean they already attend Philly Beer Week, why not Pittsburgh Beer Week?  If you had the pleasure of trying their beers you understand my excitement.

In honor of Deschutes B-day, I will be enjoying their summer ale, Twilight. Twilight is a lighter, full-flavored, aromatic brew good on warm long summer days. In addition to the solid malt foundation, Amarillo hops are used for flavors every bit as intriguing as bigger, heavier ales. “A back porch, lingering sunset wonder.” Try pairing it with Salt and Pepper Grilled King Salmon with a Lemon Twist or Marinated Calamari Salad. Are you a home brewer? Check out how to make a clone Twilight.

Again, Happy B-day and congrats on 24 great years!  What’s your favorite Deschutes Brew?

Cheers!

This past weekend we headed to Ohiopyle for the 11th Annual Beer and Gear Festival. This makes our 3rd straight Beer and Gear. We always look forward to this weekend and it’s usually the first beer fest on our calendars. In our opinion it is one of the best beer festivals in the area. Combine the beautiful scenery of Ohiopyle State Park with great craft beer and friendly people/dogs and you have the ingredients for a pretty awesome festival.

As usual we arrived at the park Friday to get out and enjoy the outdoors. A few of us biked to Confluence, while others went on a long day hike. The weather was perfect all weekend. This hasn’t always been the case for us. Each of the past two years at some point or another it poured on us. Well not this year!

There is no ticket pre-sale for the festival, contrary to a few rumors we heard floating around Saturday morning. With that said, a pretty good sized line started forming well before the 3:30pm start time. Luckily we were one of the first ones in line. Again, like in the past, $20 got you admission, a free pint glass, live music (Half Bad Bluegrass) and access to every beer there. You really can’t beat that! Name another beer festival that is a better deal, I bet you can’t.

Here are a few of our highlights:

1. Blue Canoe Brewing; Titusville, PA – Last year their “Worst beer here” was a hit. This year they brought a Maple Bacon Pancake Porter. Yep, most unique beer of the day. Glad to see new and nontraditional beers being poured at festivals. This one was very easy to drink and was not too heavy on the maple syrup flavor. There was a bacon smokey flavor that for some was too much, but I thought it was just right (and I hate smoke flavored beer). The smoke flavor came from using REAL BACON, not from liquid smoke. And as always the guys from Blue Canoe were great to talk with.
2. Helltown Brewing; Mt. Pleasant PA – You may/should have seen their beers on tap around Pittsburgh the last few months. Maybe you have heard of Idle Hands D.I.P.A. or Mischievous Brown Ale or Insidious IPA. They had the longest lines and had the most people talking this year at Beer and Gear. Lots of people were walking around talking about Insidious. Insidious is one of the best East Coast IPAs you can find around town. I consider myself a hophead and am always looking for the next greatest IPA. Helltown did a hell of job with this one. Hops hit you from all angles. There is a strong citrus and earthy (piney) tone to the hop character, both found in the aroma and taste. If you find them on tap it is well worth trying if you haven’t. Towards the end of the festival they had a few bottles of a Belgian Saison that was really good. We also were able to hang out after the festival and talk with Helltown. Great group of people who are excited and passionate about what they do.
3. Morgantown Brewing; Morgantown, WV – They brought a change up of beers. Half way through they rotated taps and added some variety. Great idea and had a lot of people coming back for more. Kudos for the full pint pours at the end of the festival.
4. All Saint’s and Otto’s Apricot Wheat were both very refreshing for a summer afternoon.  Otto’s managed to outshine the offering from All Saint’s by giving a slightly more intense apricot flavor on top of an excellent wheat body.  All this accomplished without being overly sweet.
5. We had the accidental pleasure of meeting The Brew Gentleman after we spotted one of them wearing a Santa Fe Brewing t-shirt, which we quickly deemed our favorite t-shirt of festival. When we asked for a pic of the shirt for the blog, they told us they were from The Brew Gentlemen and filled us in a bunch of details about their new venture in Braddock. A great coincidence that made Beer and Gear 2012 even better.
6. Mountain State Brewing; Thomas, WV – A solid showering from Mountain State. They have a really solid Amber. I know Ambers aren’t sexy, but it should be noted it is a very solid, easy drinking beer with no off flavors.
7. Erie Brewing; Erie, PA – Let’s not forget about our friends from Erie. The Railbender and Mad Anthony were solid as always. They put together one of the better sampler cases and the cost is great for craft beer. Give it a try next time you head out to buy a case.
8. Victory Brewing;  Downington, PA (courtesy of Vecenie Distributing) – We are familiar with Victory’s standard offerings but it’s always exciting to rediscover some good brews.  On a summer day, Victory’s Headwaters Pale Ale quenches the thirst with just the right amount of hop bitterness and without an overly dry finish.  Headwaters manages to also avoid an excess of malty sweetness which is all to common for pale ales.  Our pick for best Pale Ale is Headwaters, the perfect beer for a touch of hoppiness on a summer day.

Other breweries present were: Flat Rock Brewing, Great Lakes, North Country, Full Pint, Church Brew Works, Rivertowne, Rock Bottom, Fatheads, Penn, Oskar Blues, Troegs,  Duquesne, Anderson Valley and TRASH.

We managed to meet lots of interesting people not the least of which was meeting up with Miss Beer and Gear herself.  Advertising the beer fest for Wilderness Voyageurs, she has been to all 11 of them!

Tim, Ms. Beer and Gear, Mark, and Jake

If you were at Beer and Gear this past weekend, what did you think?  What did you like?  What didn’t you like?  First timers, let us know if you enjoyed yourself.  As always you can talk to us by email, thedrunkyinzer@gmail.com, or by Twitter, @TheDrunkYinzer.

Empty glasses and an Ohiopyle sunset