Pittsburgh has always been one of my favorite cities to visit, because there’s so much to do there. Having lived in the Steel City for almost two years, I’m pretty familiar with most of the popular attractions.
Pittsburgh has always been one of my favorite cities to visit, because there’s so much to do there. Having lived in the Steel City for almost two years, I’m pretty familiar with most of the popular attractions.However, when I lived in the city I wasn’t as into going to breweries as I am now, so on a recent visit I hit up my buddy Hunter Homistek for some brewery recommendations.
We also found a great Pittsburgh Brewery Guide from DiscoverTheBurgh that helped us narrow down our choices.
My fiancee Angie and I made the four-plus hour trek to Pittsburgh on a rainy December Friday, and suffice to say that we hit up perhaps the best that the city has to offer in terms of beer – all in one night. Here’s a rundown:
Beer and hipsters seem to always go well together, and Cinderlands is located in trendy Lawrenceville, where there are just as many breweries as hipsters. Cinderlands also offers house-made cocktails and food, so it’s not just for beer nerds.
We sat at the bar around happy hour time and the place was busy but not overcrowded. We did notice that it was a popular place for growler and crowler fills, but that may have just been because it was around the holidays. Their tap list was had some varied offerings, but we tried the Test Piece Strata New England IPA, Lawless Walrus saison (a collaboration with Central State Brewing in Indianapolis), and Blazing Crude milk stout. All of the beers were very good, but the NE IPA really stood out for me.
After Cinderlands, we checked into our hotel and then ventured to Dancing Gnome in Sharpsburg. This place is a New England IPA lover’s dream come true. Over half of their menu consisted of hazy juice bombs, and all sounded so good that it was hard to choose. I settled on Pounce, a NE IPA with mosaic and citra hops, and Angie had Simcoe Jam, another NE IPA with simcoe hops. Both were great. For our second beer, Angie got a full pour of Pounce while I tried their Underscore Plum, a delicious fruited sour.
The beer at Dancing Gnome was worth the price of admission (which was free), and we also had some great pizza here. The atmosphere was a little loud with harder rock music, but it wasn’t so crazy that you couldn’t hear yourself. It’s a typical brewery with a big bar and plenty of high top tables, and we made some friends who lived in the neighborhood who sat next to us at the table that we had, and they gave us some great recommendations for what to do with the rest of our night.
After Dancing Gnome, we took a Lyft to East End Brewing Company in East Liberty, mostly because the neighborhood that we live in in Cincinnati is called East End. I had actually visited this brewery years before, but didn’t really remember much about it. East End is a no-frills brewery that has a bar (without bar seats), some high top tables, and some booths. They’re adding a kitchen so that should be something to look for in the future.
We ended up getting a flight here, which consisted of Monkey Boy hefeweizen, R&R Helles Lager, and Caution Slippy DIPA. I really enjoyed the Monkey Boy even though I’m not the biggest hefeweizen fan, mostly because it’s a drinkable flavorful beer.
Our last stop was Brew Gentlemen in Braddock. We hesitated a little because Braddock was a bit of a hike from where we were, but we made a great choice in visiting them. The atmosphere and beer stood out at Brew Gentlemen, and the place was definitely the highlight of the night. The taproom actually consists of a few different rooms, one with a bar and high top tables, one with low top tables, and an event space with low tables.
As I mentioned the beer at Brew Gentlemen was nothing short of amazing. We first tried a few short pours (they don’t really have flights) of Mexican Coffee Milk Stout, Kabuto DIPA, Kaizen IPA, and Deep Breakfast Milk Stout. All of the beer was good, but the Mexican Coffee Milk Stout was one of the best beers that I’ve ever had. It’s brewed with Losantiville Coffee from Deeper Roots Coffee in Cincinnati (love the Cincinnati connection), and has just the right touch of cinnamon and vanilla thrown in with the bitter coffee flavor to make a perfect beer.
—
Having lived in Pittsburgh I had been to a few breweries in the area before – The Church Brew Works, Fat Head’s Saloon, Penn Brewing, Rock Bottom – but the four breweries that we visited during this trip all really stood out.