Philadelphia Beer Week 1

Philadelphia Beer Week is going on right now, and it is very, very awesome. I had heard about it coming, but didn't do the research to find out exactly what a "Beer Week" entailed. It wasn't until Thursday of last week, a mere 24 hours before the kick off, that I got a drift of things going down - about 1,000 beer events in 7 days dedicated to unique breweries from all over.

Thats why I - a beer bloggist - am blogging about the event half-way through it. Sorry.

I had 9 beers for relatively few dollars at a slew of neat bars I wouldn't have known about without Beer Week. There is a really helpful iPhone app that lists all the where's and when's of the event you can find on their site which I recommend.

Here's a list of the beers I tried out, and a brief bit of what I thought:

@ Rembrant's

1- Stone - Smoked Porter
2- Furthermore - Knot Stock

@ Kite and Key

3- Oskar Blue - Mamas Little Yella Pils
4- Sly Fox - Royal Weisse Ale
5- Troegs - Pale Ale
6- Sly Fox - O'Reilly's Stout
7- Stone - Sublimely Self-Righteous Ale

@ Cherry Street Tavern

8 - Flying Fish - Farmhouse Ale

@ Good Dog

9- Flying Dog - Snakedog IPA (Firkin)

@ Fado Irish Pub

10- Philadelphia Brewing Company - Kenzinger



Wow! What a day! This list reflects beers that I tasted, I didn't necessarily drink each one, so as to not get too useless. The Kenzinger was a mistake. I ordered a Harpoon IPA, and the waitress gave me what my buddy ordered... a small bummer, but it didn't dampen my mood.

The beer that blew me away was Stone's Sublimely Self Righteous. It was a dark American Ale that kicked so much ass. Kite and Key had a wonderful selection and was a good place to camp out for a while to get out of the heat.

Furthermore's Knot Stock was a surprise too. It had a very familiar taste that I couldn't place my finger on. When we looked it up later, we found it was actually Black Pepper. The taste made the beer really stand out from what I had tasted the rest of the day.

The Snakedog IPA was also notable - my first experience with a firkin.

I'll be stopping back for more this week. Thursday has some rare Dogfish Head 75 minute IPA bidness going down that I want to be a part of.

I'll hopefully get to writing reviews of each of these beers individually, but right now its too daunting of a task.