Pumpkinfest at Bocktown

Bocktown Beer & Grill featured "Pumpkinfest" for their weekly Wednesday beer tasting this past week. Up for (free) sampling were various pumpkin ales and Oktoberfest lagers. My favorite by far was the Screaming Pumpkin Spiced Ale from Michigan Brewing Co. It is pretty much pumpkin pie in a bottle: very aromatic, very rich, with a strong, spiced pumpkin flavor. My next favorite was Weyerbacher's Imperial Pumpkin Ale, which was a bit stronger, but still tasty. We also sampled Buffalo Bill's "Original" Pumpkin Ale and Dogfish Head's Punkin' Ale - both of which are good, solid beers, but not as impressive as the Screaming or Imperial. We didn't try any of the Oktoberfest beers (since we had most of them before), except for the August Schell Oktoberfest. It had a strange - almost skunky - aroma, but had a malty taste that I liked quite a bit.

With over 400 different bottled beers, a solid draft list, and some of the best food you'll find at a beer bar or pub, Bocktown has quickly become one of my favorite watering holes in Pittsburgh. Too bad it is way out in Robinson, but beggars can't be choosers...

6th Annual Pig Roast

Since 2002, some friends of mine at Penn State have held a pig roast each September. It's such an awesome event that Tyler has an entire website dedicated to it. The past four roasts have been held at the Stimely cabin, tucked away in the heart of Rothrock State Forest. This year's roast was last weekend and while the turnout was a bit lower than usual, the food, fun, and beer was on par with (if not better than) years past.

Along with the requisite pig and roaster from the PSU Meat Labs, we acquired several kegs of good beer from local breweries: 1/6 barrel of East End Big Hop Harvest Ale, 1/2 barrel of Penn Oktoberfest, 1/2 barrel of Otto's Oktoberfest, and 1/2 barrel of Otto's Red Mo. Plus a 1/2 barrel of PBR to - inevitably - wash down our Sunday morning breakfast. I think this was by far the best selection of beer I'd seen in my 4 years of attending the roast. Both Oktoberfest brews were good, but my nod goes to the Otto's, which was a bit more flavorful.

I'm not sure exactly how many people we show up for these shindigs, but judging from the amount of beer consumed, we get a pretty good-sized crowd. Another indicator is the size of the beer pong tournament, which is always a lot of fun. 2005's pong tourney was one of the biggest and best ever, as seen in this video (click on "media keg").

Oh yeah, and the pig was especially good this year. Maybe it was the Scherba & Jamie signature homemade BBQ sauce, but I thought it was some of the best pork we've had in awhile. Next year we vow to get kaiser rolls, instead of the cheap hamburger rolls, since there is always room for improvement.

Only 359 days (don't forget, it's a leap year) 'til next year's roast...

Candy capers?

The PG's #1 most emailed story for the past two days: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07263/819111-100.stm

23 Reese's Peanut Butter Cups? Hot damn, those things are good! Hell, if I lost that many PBCs, I'd probably call the state cops, too!

Luckily Clarion County is far enough away that I don't have to worry too much about the snack shelf in my kitchen...

Zeno's

My favorite State College bar - Zeno's - has finally put together a nice website. Check it out.

Steel City Big Pour

Yesterday was the much anticipated 1st annual Steel City Big Pour at Construction Junction, located in Pittsburgh's North Point Breeze neighborhood. With your choice of two sessions (12-3pm and 5-8pm), it was an incredible festival of beer, food, music, and art. And if you ask me, it was worth every cent of the $30 entry fee. The second one had sold out, so we were lucky we got tickets in advance.

Adam, Leslie, and myself arrived at 5:30, having just gotten back late from a mountain bike ride. Construction Junction is basically a big warehouse, but the beer fest was confined to a small portion of the building. This festival was just as crowded as the State College Beer Expo, but at least the lines were considerably shorter. Inside the building was beer, food, and music; outside was porta-johns and hotmetalhappening, where they were making cool stuff out of molten iron.

Some of the highlights and favorites:

• We started off at Sprague Farm Brew Works, where they had a full-size working fire engine with a kegerator built in and four taps on the back of it to serve their brew. They even cranked up the siren and lights a few times during the night.
  
• Bocktown Beer & Grill - one of the few places in Pittsburgh with excellent beer AND food - was featuring their She Crab Soup. Having been born and raised in Maryland, I normally don't trust anything involving crab outside of my home state, but this rich and creamy soup was exceptionally good.
• Great Lakes Brewing Company - this brewery has a solid portfolio of beer, and Edmund Fitzgerald Porter is no exception. It's a dark, rich, smoky porter.
  
• Flame Barbeque - this seems like a Clem's-esque roadside BBQ pit, apparently located up the road in Shaler. Their pulled pork sandwich - albeit a bit salty - was one of the best I've ever had. Definitely try this place if you like BBQ pork.
• East End Brewing Company - local brewer Scott Smith only had to travel a few blocks to get here, and he brought a nice selection of beer. The Big Hop Harvest Ale (a variety of the Big Hop, but with fresh hops added) was on tap, as well as a cask-conditioned Black Strap Stout. The Harvest Ale seemed like "it wasn't quite done," said Adam, but I still thought it was pretty decent. The Black Strap on cask was delicious.
• Point Brugge Cafe - I noticed this cafe for the first time as I was riding to the Big Pour, and they had a really tasty roasted tomato/spinach dip for sampling. I think I will be paying them a visit sometime soon...
  
• Legacy Brewing Company - just like Great Lakes, they have a great lineup of beer, and their Hoptimus Prime is a hophead's delight (pardon the cliche). But stay away from it if you hate hoppy beers - like Leslie.
• Sharp Edge - this place is like Zeno's (yes, another State College reference), but roomier, smoke-free, and better food. And it's located within stumbling distance my apartment. They had some good cheddar/beer dip with pitas that kept us coming back all night.
• The Taste of New Orleans Cafe - they claim to be authentic, but regardless, they had some kickass jambalaya. "We ain't playin', we cookin!" was their motto. I need to familiarize myself with East Pittsburgh so I can pay these folks a visit.
• Last but certainly not least: Black & Tan ice cream from Oh Yeah! on Highland Avenue. These two scoops (one a Guinness-flavored ice cream and one a Bass-flavored, both made with the real thing) were the best I have ever tasted. Yes, even better than Penn State's University Creamery.

Plus, the kegerator art was pretty cool, and the band was decent. We were able to stay until about 8:30 before they started to kick us out. It was only the second beer fest I've been to, but it was (surprisingly) much more enjoyable than the State College one. It was the unique local food vendors who really made the difference. I can hardly wait for next year's Steel City Big Pour...

Colorado + Liquor = No Snacks!

My brother got me one of those page-a-day calendars last year for me. The theme is beer, and each day features - surprise - a beer from around the world along with a "Beer Fact". Here is yesterday's beer fact:

"Customers desiring beer nuts with their brew are out of luck in Colorado. Sales of snacks are forbidden in the state's liquor establishments."

Blasphemy!

Kennywood

At 11pm Sunday, I got a surprise call from Justin saying that he and Alyssa were coming to Pittsburgh that night and we were going to Kennywood on Monday. They got in at 2am and a few hours later we were on our way to the park, but not before stopping at Whole Foods to get food for lunch. We originally figured it would be cheaper to not get food in Kennywood, but I spent 8 bucks on a make-your-own salad by the pound and Justin spent 11. Still, it was worth it for a healthy, filling, and rather delicious salad. Our good friend Corey calls it "Whole Paycheck" instead of Whole Foods, but I say it beats the hell out of McDonald's.

Late in the afternoon we were getting hungry again and decided to go for the famous Kennywood Potato Patch Fries, totally negating any health benefits of the salad. Apparently the potatoes are freshly cut on-site, fried to perfection, and topped with things like "sharp cheddar cheese" (looks like cheese whiz to me), bacon bits, vinegar, etc. We chose vinegar and "seasoning salt", which is basically generic Old Bay seasoning. Unfortunately, nothing compares to the real thing, but the fries were still awesome. There is nothing quite like boardwalk-style fries with Old Bay and vinegar. Of course, just across from the Potato Patch stand is the corn dog and funnel cake stand, completing the trifecta of triple-bypass-inducing amusement park food. No corn dogs for us, but we did split a slightly overdone funnel cake that was quite satisfying.