Septembeer GOOD BEER News: festivals, five firkins, (local) food, flotation, and FOUR NEW BEERS...I see a trend here!

[Scott at East End Brewing]

Happy Hop Harvest GOOD BEER Fans!

There's a chill in the morning air, the leaves are turning, and
Harvest time is upon us. Not only does that mean a bunch of freshly
harvested produce from your favorite local growers, but also lots of
fresh Harvest Ale in your favorite local Growlers. Leaves aside,
September is turning out to be quite the month for craft beer in
Pittsburgh. So many beer dinners, beer festivals, Oktoberfest
celebrations (yes, they're really supposed to start in September) new
beer releases, and random tasting events... too many to count let
alone attend.

Rest assured, we're doing our share of the heavy lifting here too,
which is why the newsletter timing has slipped again, but
hey...priorities, right? Small price to pay for a record FOUR brand
spankin' new beers we're releasing here - and 3 of them this Saturday!

So I say we make it official. I'm calling it... "Septembeer" is
officially Pittsburgh's CRAFT BEER MONTH. We'll give the rest of the
area a minute or two to catch up, and until everyone else is on board,
we'll just try leading by example and see what happens. For
example...

1. EYE OPENER COFFEE PORTER:
You probably read about this special Big Pour Brew at length last
time, so let's just say that if you're at the fest on Saturday, look
for the big caffeinated release to happen at the halfway point in the
session at the East End table. If you're not hitting the fest, fear
not. There will be a SIMULTANEOUS RELEASE (aren't they always the
best kind?) at the brewery at 1:30pm, so bring your Growlers in
folks! You're on your own for a post-release smoke, but we can offer
you some Rachel Carson Blend coffee if you like.

2. SESSION ALE #28 (or is it 29?): "BEST DRESSED CHICKEN":
Apart from the colorful name, this is a beer I've been looking forward
to for a while - and we've been trying to get it brewed for a while
too... (damned fresh hops!) It's a Best Bitter, which means it's a low-
gravity, English style ale, with a well-dressed balance of hops and
malt character to hold your attention all afternoon. On tap starting
TONIGHT.

3. BIG HOP HARVEST ALE:
This is what we've been killing ourselves for over the last couple
weeks. Each year in late August, there's a small window where I can
get my hands on Locally Grown wet hops - I clean out all there is to
be had right in Portersville, PA, and then we get the mother lode
shipment of 250lbs of them from New York State, that we share with the
guys at The Church Brew Works and The Rivertowne Pour House... well,
we keep most of it for ourselves, and that can be challenging.

Fresh Hops (or "wet hops" as they are also known) are the un-dried, un-
pelletized form of the hops we use all year round, but they have a
shelf life of just a day or two before they start to turn. So this
year with 2 of us on the brewhouse, we embarked on a 48 hour, round
the clock, marathon brewing session to produce a record 6 batches of
Big Hop Harvest Ale. That's 55 barrles, 110 kegs, or 3,400 Growlers
worth... in other words, LOTS. And it has to be a lot, since the hops
are all picked and dried, it has to last us all season long.

We're working as I write this to maybe get some on tap for this
evening... but Saturday for sure!

4. BIGGER HOP:
We talked about this one last time too, but now the beer has been
bottled, and is conditioning (carbonating) while we await approval on
the label... seen here: http://www.eastendbrewing.com/node/724
Watch the website, the Twitter feed (http://twitter.com/
EastEndBrewing), and this newsletter for a late-breaking release
update.


STICKER CONTEST IS KINDA STUCK:
Thanks to everyone who posted entries to the EEBC Sticker Contest -
you know the one where you can win some vague amount of beer? While
we still have all the posted entries from the website, we seem to be
having some issues displaying those entries there for all to see. So,
until I can get some time away from our ridiculous brewing schedule to
fix this(again, priorities...), we're extending the contest
indefinitely until I can sort it out. So feel free to continue
posting new entries as comments here: http://www.eastendbrewing.com/node/715,
and hopefully in a bit, I'll have it nailed down, and come back at you
with some specifics on what you can win for putting your artistic
skills to work!


9/11/09 FIRKIN CRAWL ON CARSON ST. TONIGHT!
You may have missed out on the Big Pour tickets, but you can still get
in on the action tonight on Carson Street as we've got 5 bars tapping
5 firkins up and down the street all evening. We're at the end of the
crawl with a Black Strap Stout firkin at Over The Bar that's been
infused with more of that Rachel Carson Blend coffee... just to give a
little preview of what the Big Pour Brew will be like. But check out
all the other offerings, and I hope to see you there (if I can make
it)...This is a Steel City Big Pour pre event.
5 firkins -- 5 Bars-- 1 night:
5pmPipers Pub: Erie Brewing's Misery Bay IPA
6pm-Smokin Joe's: Troegs's Nugget Nectar
7pm-Doublewide Grill: Bell's 2 Hearted Ale
8pm-The Library: Church Brew Works's Rhinelander Rye (Wet Hopped)
9pm-Over The Bar: East End Brewing's "Silent Stout" (Coffee Infused
Black Strap Stout)
*-Times are estimates - they may be tapping things earlier than listed
here.

9/18/09 ENRICO'S BOAT TRIP: If you've been to a meet-the-farmer gig at
Enricos, you have a sense of what the epic spread of food will be like
at this elegant little cruise. Of course, there will be a WHOLE BUNCH
of East End Beer on board too, so bring your friends... you may even
qualify for the Group Discount tickets! Go to http://enricobiscotti.com,
and pull up their events page. I just wonder how Kate is going to
load that wood-fired oven on board.

9/30/09 HARRIS GRILL LOCAL FOODS DINNER:They're at it again, tooling
around every nook and cranny of their immediate vicinity, foraging for
stuff to turn into tasty treats that go great with beer. These
usually sell out, so step lively folks! Here's the info - just page
down past the bacon-ey stuff, and you'll see that it's even veg-
friendly. http://harrisgrill.com/UpcomingSpecialEvents.htm

RECENT LOCAL AND NATIONAL PRESS:
If you check out the latest issues of DRAFT MAGAZINE and ALL ABOUT
BEER, you'll find a piece on limited edition beers (like Gratitude),
and a whole big writeup on the Pittsburgh Beer Scene (including of
course, East End Brewing). This isn't really so fair, because the
rest of the country just gets the articles in these fine beer
publications, but as Pittsburgh area locals, you get the beer too.

Also, big thanks to Pittsburgh Magazine for choosing us as
Pittsburgh's "Best Green Beer". Too bad we missed the big Best Of
celebration for all the winners, but again... (okay, I'll stop whining
about being busy brewing beer now, okay?)
http://www.wqed.org/mag/features/0909/best-and-worst-of-pittsburgh.php

That's it for now, though I'm sure I've forgotten lots, but you can
remind me tonight or tomorrow at the Big Pour!

Cheers,
Scott


BUY A GOOD FRIEND A GOOD BEER (tm)
www.EastEndBrewing.com