Brewery Tour and BBQ

[Jeebas]

So two different things are going on Saturday April 10th

"Brewery Tour"
I'm gonna head out to visit some breweries and get some growlers to enjoy later on in the evening. I decided on East End (it seems like everyone wanted to go there anyways), Church Brew Works, and Fathead's. Rivertowne Pour House in Monroeville just might be a brewery too far the more that I think about it. I'm gonna start at East End, then head over to Church Brew Works, then go to Fathead's. If folks want to meet me at my house I'm probably gonna be leaving there at 2 PM. Or if people want to meet me at East End I should be there around 2:30 PM.

I don't agree with some of the routes selected between locations, but here's a map of the three places - http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=East+End+Brewing&daddr=Church+Brew+Works+to:Fathead%27s&geocode=FStNaQIdUsI8-yErd7bZ2qq3BinjAx3G7O00iDFtRjE2Nwcgtg%3B%3B&hl=en&mra=ls&sll=40.445118,-79.942274&sspn=0.048859,0.077162&ie=UTF8&ll=40.446033,-79.942274&spn=0.048858,0.077162&z=14

And here are some details about the breweries themselves -

East End Brewing (Will only fill East End or Steel City Uni-Growler)
http://www.eastendbrewing.com/
Saturday Hours - 12PM - 5PM
Growler (filled) - $13 - 16
Growler Refills - $10 - 13
6923 Susquehanna St
Pittsburgh, PA 15208

Church Brew Works (Will fill any growler)
http://www.churchbrew.com/
Growler (filled) - $12 - 16
Growler Refills - A bit cheaper
3525 Liberty Ave
Pittsburgh, PA 15201

Fathead's Saloon (Will only fill Fathead's or Steel City Uni-Growler)
http://www.fatheads.com/
Growler (filled) - ?
Growler Refills - $15 Avg.
1805 East Carson St
Pittsburgh PA 15203

BBQ/Party
7:00 PM (and anytime after) - We're having our first BBQ/Party at our new place on Balph. We will have some snacks and will be grilling some burgers / hot dogs / whathaveyou. We'll have some beer (PBR or Yuengling most likely) but if you want anything fancy - BYOB. More specifically, if you got a chance to do the "Brewery Tour" - BYOG.  You're all invited to come on over.

[Bull]

Not a bad idea. Rock Bottom kinda sucks though.

[Corny]

North Country Brewing Company (1 hour drive) (waiting to hear back from them for more details)
http://www.northcountrybrewing.com/welcome.htm
Saturday Hours - 11AM - 12AM
Growler Fills -
Growlers - ?
141 South Main Street
Slippery Rock, PA 16057-1246

I'd like to make a trip to North Country Brewing. I enjoyed their beer selection. I hope they can do growlers.

[$1.50]

They're opening a rivertowne pour house on the North Shore by Bettis' Grille 36.

[Bull]

They have pretty good food. We stop at the one by my house on ocassion the monroeville one is the old parkway inn. That's the places I was trying to get you guys to go to for shrimp night.

[Jeebas]

North Country Brewing Company (1 hour drive) (waiting to hear back from them for more details)
http://www.northcountrybrewing.com/welcome.htm
Saturday Hours - 11AM - 12AM
Growler Fills -
Growlers - ?
141 South Main Street
Slippery Rock, PA 16057-1246

I'd like to make a trip to North Country Brewing. I enjoyed their beer selection. I hope they can do growlers.

They do fill growlers, I just emailed them and asked a few more questions because their price range didn't make sense

I really liked NCB every time I went there (it was actually further from T-Vegas than it was from Pittsburgh, but when I worked up there we went down there a couple of times other than the YORSP show). It just might be too far to do in a day along with stopping at other places as well. You would figure 1 hour (maybe a little less) each way + sampling some stuff would easily add up to 3 hours - folks might not want to go anywhere else by the time we got back from there. I would be down with it though.

[Jeebas]

Original info about the breweries reposted here -

So I had mentioned this to a few of you, but I was thinking of getting a group of folks together to go check out some local breweries on a Saturday in April. I was thinking of doing this Saturday April 10th as there's a Pens game (@ Thrashers) on at 7 PM that night. I figured we could go out to each of these places, sample some beers, and get growlers to take home and then go back to my place and BBQ, chill and watch the game. Let me know on here if you're interested and if that date works for you.

Ideally we would probably only be able to do three different locations, but I wouldn't be opposed to trying for four.

Here's a map of all the locations below - http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=115332562324738327640.0004805ce4eb7a07c90ef&ll=40.461577,-79.920044&spn=1.563092,2.469177&z=9

Interested Parties So Far:
Paco - East End, Church, Fathead's
Nick - East End, Rivertowne, Fathead's
Bryce - East End, Church, and Rivertown (North Shore) or Sharp Edge
Sean -
Conley -
A few of my coworkers are interested as well

Unigrowler Locations
Some places only fill their own growlers or a Steel City Uni-Growler (http://www.constructionjunction.org/pages/growler) which from what I hear can still be picked up at Construction Junction for about $5. They can be used at a variety of locations around here, but these are the only places that actually brew their own beer.

East End Brewing
http://www.eastendbrewing.com/
Saturday Hours - 12PM - 5PM
Growler (filled) - $13 - 16
Growler Refills - $10 - 13
6923 Susquehanna St
Pittsburgh, PA 15208

Rivertowne Pour House
http://www.myrivertowne.com/
Saturday Hours - 11AM - 1:45AM
Growler (filled) - $15.45
Growler Refills - $12.50 (will fill any growler)
312 Center Rd
Monroeville, PA 15146

Yes, all locations carry the Rivertowne Beer. However, N. Huntingdon & Verona carry 1-3 Rivertowne selections at any given time.

As is such I recommend we make the trip to Monroeville instead of Verona.

Fathead's Saloon (waiting to hear back from them for more details)
http://www.fatheads.com/
Saturday Hours -
Growler (filled) - ?
Growler Refills - $15 Avg.
1805 East Carson St
Pittsburgh PA 15203

Penn Brewery (waiting to hear back from them for more details)
http://www.pennbrew.com/
Saturday Hours ?
Growler (filled) - ?
Growler Refills - ?
800 Vinial Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15212

Other Places to Look Into
These are other local breweries that I could find doing a quick search on Google Maps. Let me know if you guys can think of any others.

North Country Brewing Company (1 hour drive)
http://www.northcountrybrewing.com/welcome.htm
Saturday Hours - 11AM - 12AM
Growler (filled) - $15 / $20 / $45

Our growler prices are based on the type of growler you choose.  The $15 one is clear glass with our logo and it has a screw cap, the $20 one is amber glass with logo and screw cap, and the $45 growler is amber glass (a different shape) etched with our logo--it has a pewter “drunken man” handle and a ceramic cap with a rubber gasket and wire bale.

Growler Refills - $8 - 10 (will fill any growler)
141 South Main Street
Slippery Rock, PA 16057

Rock Bottom
http://www.rockbottom.com/pittsburgh/specials
Saturday Hours 11AM - 2AM
Growler (filled) - $9.95
Growler Refills - $7.95
171 E. Bridge Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15120

Church Brew Works (waiting to hear back from them for more details)
http://www.churchbrew.com/
Saturday Hours ?
Growler (filled) - ?
Growler Refills - ?
3525 Liberty Ave
Pittsburgh, PA 15201

[Bull]

So are you planning on going to all of these? because they are pretty far apart. That's a lot of driving...

[pnickers]

I think he was just making suggestions to start with.  North Country might be a good trip to make seperate from the rest of these breweries.  I'm trying to think of what there is to do up there once the weather gets a little nicer. 

[Tha_Professa]

You can rent a boat at Moraine State park

[pnickers]

Perhaps we could go see one of these games up there.  It looks like they are in the Prospect League now.  

http://www.theslipperyrocksliders.com/

but I digress.  

[Tank Decker]

you could go here...

http://www.johnsonshawmuseum.org/

[Jeebas]

So are you planning on going to all of these? because they are pretty far apart. That's a lot of driving...

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=115332562324738327640.0004805ce4eb7a07c90ef&ll=40.461577,-79.920044&spn=1.563092,2.469177&z=9

Yeah I know. North Country may have to be its own trip really... I think that hitting East End, Rivertowne and Fathead's would be doable in one day though.

Just post if you're interested in going and then post the 3 places you would like to go to (given that I dunno yet if Church Brew Works does growlers and Penn Brewery's restaurant might still be closed by then) and we then will figure out where everyone wants to go. Honestly I just put Rock Bottom up there as an extra - I'm not a huge fan and I imagine not too many other people are either.

[newefezziwig]

I'll bike some growlers back from East End.. neo-hippie hipster style

[pnickers]

East End, Church, and Fathead's.  Don't know about the suggested date.  My birthday is that Thursday, so it might be a fun thing to do, but Kim would def not want to do it. 

[Tank Decker]

Church Brew does growlers... $12 each

[Bull]

East End, Rivertowne and Fathead's and probably rock bottom may be doable. I was just concerned with all the driving, since the purpose of this is to drink... Seems like a lot of beer. But then again most places probably offer samples, I would imagine. They are all more like resturants then breweries though right? Fatheads  makes beer?

[pnickers]

I think I heard of Fathead's making beer, but nothing at all specific. 

[Gregor]

I don't think Fatheads brews their own beer, they just have a large variety on tap.

[pnickers]

According to the information I found on the interwebs, they don't brew in the Southside, but they opened a brewery in Cleveland.  That's cold blooded. 

www.fatheadscleveland.com

[Jeebas]

I don't think Fatheads brews their own beer, they just have a large variety on tap.

Yeah they have a brewery in Cleveland. And they pour those beers at the Southside location.

There are tons of other places around Pittsburgh that pour growlers of stuff that isn't theirs, but the whole point of this is to try local microbrews.

East End, Rivertowne and Fathead's and probably rock bottom may be doable. I was just concerned with all the driving, since the purpose of this is to drink... Seems like a lot of beer. But then again most places probably offer samples, I would imagine. They are all more like resturants then breweries though right? Fatheads  makes beer?

East End, Church, and Fathead's.  Don't know about the suggested date.  My birthday is that Thursday, so it might be a fun thing to do, but Kim would def not want to do it.  

The idea was to go to the breweries mid-afternoon (maybe meet up around 2-3) then go back to my house afterward (probably 5-6 depending on how long we all linger at the places). The bulk of the drinking (aside from sampling I guess) will be done at my place. Non-beer tourers are more than welcome to come to my house afterward as well.

Ideally I thought it would be cool for us to go to these places, each buy a different beer and then go back to my house and share with each other. But (I ain't Jesus and this ain't the Bible...) I'm not gonna try to organize that. People can go to however many breweries they like and buy however many growlers they like. I'm interested in hitting up the places I mentioned and possibly a fourth. As far as it being a lot of beer, I'm gonna have an extra fridge (for beer and pop) by then, so storage isn't an issue.

All of the places on the list are restaurants, except for East End, and they have growler hours from 12 - 5 PM at their brewery.

[$1.50]

I thought Fatheads beer was brewed by Troegs. At least I think that's what the sign in their dining room said last time I was there.

[Nye]

I don't think Fatheads brews their own beer, they just have a large variety on tap.

Yeah they have a brewery in Cleveland. And they pour those beers at the Southside location.

There are tons of other places around Pittsburgh that pour growlers of stuff that isn't theirs, but the whole point of this is to try local microbrews.

I ain't drinking anything that comes out of Ohio, even though the state has produced 22 astronauts.

http://www.cracked.com/article_18421_6-insane-coincidences-you-wont-believe-actually-happened_p2.html

[Shoval Manuts]

NCB does growlers, yes.  I got one last summer when I was done fishing at Moraine.  I remember it was kinda of expensive, somewhere around $20 or something for the Fire Engine Red or whatever it is.  But, they ding you for the growler, which I now have.

Side note, best sub shop, Bob's Subs is right down the street from NCB.

[roxy]

Side note, best sub shop, Bob's Subs is right down the street from NCB.

Yes, if you drive all the way up to North Country Brewing, you have to try a Bob's Sub.

[Jeebas]

NCB does growlers, yes.  I got one last summer when I was done fishing at Moraine.  I remember it was kinda of expensive, somewhere around $20 or something for the Fire Engine Red or whatever it is.  But, they ding you for the growler, which I now have.

Side note, best sub shop, Bob's Subs is right down the street from NCB.

yeah they got back to me and I updated the original post with the prices and also with who is down for doing this and which three they are voting for so far

[pnickers]

Were you a tour guide in a past life? 

[homesystem]

Or an events coordinator?

[Jeebas]

I actually just figured this out recently - I went from 4.5 years of booking shows, doing promotion, and organizing practices/recording sessions for the band and then in the last year or so - nothing. So I guess when I see a chance to organize something that I'm interested in I subconsciously jump at it.

Alas, every time I organize anything I am finding the same results as when I did the band stuff - people don't like being told (or even suggested) what to do, its a pain trying to get people organized and everyone loves to get off-topic.

[homesystem]

Ok, well then.. in interest of putting me on your list I'd go with East End, Church, and Rivertown on the North Shore (if it's open then).. and if not I'll throw out Sharp Edge (granted they don't brew their own beers, but I have a growler from there & it'd keep us contained in a nice little area.