Brewing Up a Cure

D'ya like beer?
And no, not Coors Lite. If you drink that you should turn in your dignity and self-respect.
I mean good beer, small batch, micro brews, home brews, seasonals?
Well I do, so I started listening to the Should I Drink That?"Beercast"
And lo and behold when they had a contest to win 2 tickets to both Brewing Up A Cure and The Pittsburgh Brufest, guess who won?

October 17 was Brewing Up a Cure, which was held at the Pittsburgh Athletic Association this year. This was my first brewing fest of any kind and honestly, I had no idea what to expect.
We got our sample glasses when we walked in and hit up the silent auction tables to place some bids on some pretty cool basketed gifts, grabbed some food (burritos from Chipotle and chocolate covered bacon...seriously, it was good) and after checking out the awesome rockabilly band Highway 13, and finally meeting Doug Derda from the SIDTcast, we hit the beers.

This is the part of this post where I lose many of the 5 people who read this blog.

I'm not into homebrewing personally, not that I wouldn't like to be. Where and with whom I live makes it not an option in any way shape or form right now. I would like to try it sometime, and I can only hope that when I do, my beers are half as good as what I tried.

Brewing up a Cure is presented by the Three Rivers Underground Brewers, and man do some of their members do a damn good job.

Personal favorites included:

• Maple ESB (tasted like french toast, yummy) from John Ciroli from Hiding Nocis Brewing
• Cocoa-Nut Porter(coconut, chocolate), Nightmare on Hop Street and the Big Taste IPA ("randalized" over fresh Amarillo hops)from Bill Oates of Oatesenbrau Brewing
• Chainstay Stout (chocolate imperial), The Spinner (German Kolsch) and The Masher (A black IPA) from Jeff Paul and the Spinning Wheels Brewery
• The Green (IPA) from Justin Graham
• Harvest Ale, Big Hop IPA and Eye Opener from East End Brewing
  
• Great Pumpkikn Ale (pumpkin pale ale) and Double CC Harvest IPA from JP McCarty

Dogfish Head Brewing, Lancaster Brewing, Stone Brewing and Roy Pitz Brewing were all also there with an assortment of beers for everyone to try, and while all of them make fantastic products I mainly stuck to the TRUB guys so I could sample some new beers.

I had a great time there, and am encouraging all of my freinds to go to next years event, with proceeds going to benefit the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation its a worthwhile cause and an awesome night out.