Pittsburgh getaway: Highlights and breweries to visit
Pittsburgh getaway: Highlights and breweries to visit
The Steel City, a quick four-hour drive from Rochester, provides an incredible assortment of breweries. Three will pour at the upcoming Rochester Real Beer Expo.
Pittsburgh features a really wonderful and vibrant beer scene. I love how the breweries really exist to serve neighborhoods.
It’s one of the major reasons I’ve worked diligently to convince some of my favorite western Pennsylvania spots to join us on June 8 for this year’s Rochester Real Beer Expo.
(Great news, we’ve got three coming to join us this year, including one newcomer. I am pretty stoked about this year’s brewery list and have shared most of the participants in two earlier newsletters.)
I would argue that the upper echelon of Pittsburgh breweries place it among the best destinations in the country. And it’s certainly convenient for us, because it’s a pretty easy four-hour drive to get there. (Pair it with a series of games at PNC Park, home of the Pittsburgh Pirates, and you’ve got the makings of a really, really nice getaway, especially since the Pirates are gonna shock the baseball world this year and win the National League Central division.)
If I were to write about all of my Pittsburgh favorites in one newsletter, it would surely stretch beyond 5,000 words. So here’s an abridged recap of some standouts and a promise to provide some more insight in the future.
Old Thunder Brewing, Blawnox
For those who have been around the Rochester beer scene for an extended period of time, there is little doubt that Deron Weet is basically the mayor of Rochester beer. (And I am not saying this to be an asshole or to poke fun at Deron — because those are both distinct possibilities.) Deron, the former regional sales representative for Lagunitas, is one of the Rochester beer OGs. He has one of the best palates in this area (as evidenced by his standing as a certified BJCP beer judge). He currently works as the upstate sales rep for Fiddlehead.
Not only is Deron a great guy, but he is also extremely generous. He frequently travels to the Pittsburgh area and has introduced me to some really incredible breweries from there. This is really just a roundabout way (which is also the name of a solid little Pittsburgh brewery) to say Deron has directly impacted this newsletter by introducing me to two of the three spots highlighted here.
Ask Deron to name his top five Pittsburgh-area breweries and Old Thunder Brewing will sit at the top of that list. And he’s not wrong. Old Thunder is a magical place.
It’s located just outside Pittsburgh proper in the borough of Blawnox and is housed in this gorgeously re-imagined and retrofitted post office. The space is absolutely beautiful. It’s one of those spots where you walk in and are immediately comfortable.
One of the best compliments I can give a spot is this: Old Thunder brews the type of beers I wanna drink all the time, beers I wish were always in my fridge. Its two flagships, False Kingdom American IPA and 340 Helles lager, are among the best I’ve had in those categories. Both of those were poured at the Expo last year, providing a wonderful introduction to this spot for attendees.
When we visited on a quiet afternoon, I had a beautifully expressive and satisfying hand-pulled English mild ale from the Old Thunder beer engine (cask). It’s a beer I frequently think about. Yes, I am a weirdo who daydreams about random pints I’ve enjoyed over the years. But that clearly says something about this place — it sticks with you.
Old Thunder co-founders Josh and Rob hung out with us at last year’s Expo and are gonna come party with us again this year. I am so stoked that they had such a good time last year that they’re eager to return this year.
Cinderlands Beer, Strip District
Cinderlands is another Deron Weet-provided suggestion. And its Warehouse location is right in the heart of Pittsburgh’s exceedingly cool Strip District (think of that area like a much more expansive version of Rochester’s Public Market). And like Old Thunder, Cinderlands features incredible depth and variety with its offerings.
Cinderlands has developed a storied reputation, which includes multiple medals from the Great American Beer Fest and World Beer Cup, for quality and innovation. Across its two locations, one of which is dedicated to wood-aged beers, Cinderlands offers an almost unbeatable combination of beer and atmosphere.
The Strip District Warehouse location is massive. It features multiple floors of seating, including a huge outdoor seating area, and an impressively glistening multi-story brewing system with a stack of horizontal lagering tanks and a library-like ladder system in place to reach some of them.
When we visited last year, we were enamored with Cinderlands’ #DadBeer happy hour, where you can enjoy a mug of lager for a wildly low price. I dare you to find a better way to enjoy an afternoon. Plus, Cinderlands has incredible food.
Here’s a quick aside and love letter to one of my all-time favorite drinks: Cindi’s Hard Mountain Tea is a magical beverage. (I think I’m gonna say “magical” at least four more times in this newsletter.) I’m not normally a big fan of flavored malt beverages or these beer-adjacent alternatives. But that was before I met Cindi. Coming in at 6.5 percent alcohol, Cindi’s is a spiked iced tea. I would gladly have this one in my fridge at all times, if I could.
Cinderlands brought a half barrel of Cindi’s to the Expo last year and I am pretty sure it was the first beverage, beer or otherwise, to kick. I’m gonna encourage them to bring it again this year.
Dancing Gnome Beer, Sharpsburg
Dancing Gnome first grabbed my attention almost 10 years ago when I heard about this Pittsburgh brewery making incredible hazy IPAs. And then Cass and I visited the original Dancing Gnome location and we enjoyed the heck out of ourselves. The space was cozy and the hazies were surely among the best we’d had. Plus, its flagship pale ale, Lustra, is among the best easy-drinking, hop-forward beers you’ll ever have.
Dancing Gnome shuttered its first tasting room and opened a sparkling one just a few hundred feet away from the original in 2021. The new facility is so bright, open, and airy. It’s a really wonderful place to pull up a stool and enjoy a Saturday Premier League match.
I really, really enjoy how the brewery itself has grown and matured since its hazy, hoppy genesis. Where it once had a tap list with an almost overwhelming amount of IPAs, you’d now be hard pressed to find a spot with better variety and execution. Dancing Gnome excels at those traditional styles, the ones you wanna drink more than one of while enjoying a pleasant conversation among friends (as long as my surly 2-year-old roommate will allow it).
When we visited, I enjoyed a pint of crisp Pilsner and followed that up with a beautifully bitter West Coast-style IPA. Dancing Gnome also has a partnership with Blue Sparrow, one of our favorite food truck operators, for a permanent, on-site food truck (really it’s a bus). It offers a delectable mix of pizzas and dumplings.
And remember, this is just a brief, brief look at what makes Pittsburgh special. The scene down there is truly incredible and really worth a long weekend to explore. I’m already looking forward to the next visit.
Other Pittsburgh standouts: Brew Gentlemen, Lolev Brewing, Grist House Brewing, Hitchhiker Brewing, Trace Brewing, East End Brewing,
In 2016, I explored this very topic for the Democrat and Chronicle. But I encourage you not to search it out, because we wanna support striking journalists in Rochester.
But a friendly request and reminder: My former colleagues from the D&C are currently on strike. When I left the newsroom in February 2022, we were trying to negotiate a new contract with Gannett. Fast forward to now and my friends from the News Guild of Rochester are still fighting for fair wages, fair treatment, and the future of local journalism.
It’s absolutely criminal how shitty CEO Mike Reed and Gannett treat these local newsrooms. I was there for 14 years and I topped out at $41,000 in my final year. That’s absolutely ridiculous. Local journalism is so important to the future of local democracy. I am incredibly proud of my Guild friends here and will do whatever I can to support.
Don’t cross the picket line. Please don’t click on any D&C links. Don’t visit the paper’s website. And please don’t talk to any scab replacement reporters currently masquerading as D&C writers.
You can also donate to the Guild’s strike fund here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-unionized-gannet-workers-fighting-back.
Definitely second Dancing Gnome and Cinderlands, we loved both when we were there a few years ago. I think Grist House might have been my favorite though, at least for the IPAs. Also shout out to Strange Roots right around the corner which had some nice beers and the sandwich shop they share space with (Pittsburgh Sandwich Society) was fantastic.