Pittsburgh Beer Fans (Monroe, Penn: house, buying, restaurants)

[Henry Bowman]

Heading to Pittsburgh for a couple days of R+R and looking forward to hitting some of the brew/restaurants in the area, including Penn Brewery and Church Brew Works.

Might head over to FatHeads as well.

Question though....

I know PA's beer laws are screwy with the distributor thing and I want to bring back some bottles of local brew for Christmas gifts.

Do the brew pubs sell bottled beer?

[greg42]

Penn Brewery bottles all theirs I think, and they sell six packs at the brewery (or growlers). Church bottles a couple varieties. Not sure why they wouldn't sell six packs there as well, but I don't know. Both are also available through local distributor channels too, which also means if you go to a "bottle shop" like D's in Regent Square http://www.ds6pax.com/ you should be able to get them and even mix and match your six packs.

If you're here during one of the right times you can get growlers of East End Brewing beers, either at the new Public Market in the Strip or their brewery: http://www.eastendbrewing.com/

[Henry Bowman]

Thanks Greg.

Do you know if those places will fill other brewery's growlers or are they still in the rut of only filling their own? I love to bring growlers of beer home, but can't keep buying proprietary ones for places I don't visit often.

There's a distributor in Monroeville right next to the Italian bakery that we stop at. I've had some success getting Church Brew there.

[fleetiebelle]

Church bottles a couple varieties. Not sure why they wouldn't sell six packs there as well, but I don't know.

Church Brew Works sells growlers, or at least they used to.

It's not beer, but you might want to check this place out, too: http://www.arsenalciderhouse.com/

[XRiteMA98]

Originally Posted by Henry Bowman

Heading to Pittsburgh for a couple days of R+R and looking forward to hitting some of the brew/restaurants in the area, including Penn Brewery and Church Brew Works.

Might head over to FatHeads as well.

Question though....

I know PA's beer laws are screwy with the distributor thing and I want to bring back some bottles of local brew for Christmas gifts.

Do the brew pubs sell bottled beer?

I am afraid you are late for Penn Brewery. Their St. Nickholas beer lasted one week and as of Fri they only had few cases with bottles left.
However there's this place on South Bradock Str in Regent Sq. where they have a huge beer selection and they sell beer in jugs. That makes nice gifts.
Another option would be to buy Hofbrau from any beer distributors.
I am not sure about the Brewery Chruch though. Maybe someone else knows.

[Johnny C]

Don't forget to stop at the Rivertowne Pour House Brew Pub in Monroeville:

Welcome to MyRivertowne.com

They sell growlers of their beer. They also have a location on the North Shore, but it has a much more limited selection of Rivertowne Beers.

[Aqua Teen Carl]

Originally Posted by Henry Bowman

Thanks Greg.

Do you know if those places will fill other brewery's growlers or are they still in the rut of only filling their own? I love to bring growlers of beer home, but can't keep buying proprietary ones for places I don't visit often.

There's a distributor in Monroeville right next to the Italian bakery that we stop at. I've had some success getting Church Brew there.

It is my understanding that in PA you can only fill growlers if the growler was bought at that site or has the company logo on it. Some people don't adhere to this (like some small bottle shops for instance) but every brewery and/or brewpub will.

You can always check out my favorite brewery in the area, East End Brewing. They sell large bottles at the brewery itself:

East End Brewing Company - BUY A GOOD FRIEND A GOOD BEER (tm)

[trotter_rej]

Originally Posted by XRiteMA98

However there's this place on South Bradock Str in Regent Sq. where they have a huge beer selection and they sell beer in jugs. That makes nice gifts.

That place is D's Six Pack and Dogs. D's Six Pax & Dogz | Beer X-treme Hotdog Supreme

[Henry Bowman]

Thanks all.

I definitely want to check out East End Brewery. I've read nothing but excellent reviews on their brews.

[Henry Bowman]

Interesting find:

http://www.eastendbrewing.com/files/...s%2010-407.pdf

Does East End also have a brew pub? If so, then it appears that it would be legal to refill a growler from another company.

Boy....I thought MD was backward (which we are in so many ways )