YOU FOUND US...Pittsburgh's MICRO-est microbrewery! If you're new around here, this site should get you up to speed in no time - and you can always come visit during our "Growler Hours", and we can pour you a taste to make up for some of that lost time. Hope to see you soon! Cheers, Scott

It's February 15th 2012, so I'm a little late in announcing this, as we usually like to talk about the beers BEFORE we release them, but this one got away from me.  The good news is that we've still got plenty of Illustration Ale in stock.

If you're not familiar with it, Illustration Ale is a beer we've brewed in conjunction with Pittsburgh's one and only Toonseum.  The Toonseum hooks us up with 6 amazing local artists, who each illustrate a one of a kind label for this beer, completely of their own design - aside from the mandatory stuff the Feds make sure we include.  Our label-handy pal Wayno "Curates" all of this for us, and he always picks a wonderfully diverse bunch of talented artists - so thanks Wayno!  Once the labels and the beer are ready, we throw an opening party at the Toonseum where you can meet the artists, taste the beer, and even take some home with you.  And 2 bucks from every bottle sold goes to support the Toonseum Gallery and it's programs.  Pretty cool, eh?

The Release Day/Opening was on Feb 4, 2012, and I'm sorry of you missed it.  Check out the coverage of how it all went down here.

The beer itself is a "Belgian Dark Strong Ale" of about 8.5% abv, brewed with dark malts and our favorite Belgian Farmhouse Ale yeast, which brings lots of spice, depth, and unique character to the beer.  Like all our BIG BOTTLES, this is a bottle conditioned beer, that also has a relatively high alcohol content.  So this means that you can put it away for a year or more, and it will continue to mature in the bottle, while you save it for a special occasion.  Or you can open it now and make today special.

From our six illustrators come the six Illustration Ale labels, shown here.  You can click on a label to visit the website each artist:

Like I say, if you missed the Release Day festivities, you can still find Illustration Ale in bottles at the brewery.  And starting this weekend, we are now able to offer them at The Growler Shop in the Strip District, thanks to an easing in PLCB restrictions on container sizes.  (Woo-hoo!)

But if you want to track down the work of these fine local artists, I'd suggest hitting them up through their websites.  Or, you may be able to land some of their published works by visiting your friendly neighborhood Toonseum.  I highly recommend it!

Cheers - Scott

I've been getting a lot of emails on this subject lately, so an update on this year's Gratitude Barleywine is probably overdue.  So, let's start off with the timeline...

• We brewed what we refer to as "this year's" Gratitude back on November 22nd, 2011 right before Thanksgiving.
• After a little over a month of primary and secondary fermentation, we bottled it the first week of the year on January 5th.  It worked out to be just slightly over 1,500 bottles, and it's been bottle-conditioning at the brewery ever since.
• Between the holidays, all the new bottle releases we've been doing, waiting on Gratitude artwork, and all our attention on our new brewery down the street, things haven't progressed much more beyond that.  But we're ready to move it ahead now.
• Still ahead: finalizing this year's the label design, Federal TTB label approval of that label, label printing x 1500, bottle waxing x 1500, and signing/numbering x 1500.  So as you can see, it will be a while before 2011 Gratitude is ready for release.  I'm guessing maybe 2 months or more.  Luckily, this beer keeps well - or so I am told.

RELEASE DAY: What I don't know, What I think we'll do, and What I know we'll do...

• No, I don't have a date for this yet.  I'd rather not announce one until we know we can meet it, but this page is where it will appear first, so check back in anytime.
• Right now, I'm thinking we'll do the release at our NEW BREWERY BUILDING.  Although the building is mostly just an empty shell, it's got one thing in abundance that we lack in our current space... SPACE.  In fact, we might even get all of our regular Brewery Growler Hours operations moved over to the new building by then too.  But all of this depends on knocking out a whole bunch of licensing work, building and occupancy permits, followed by the actual work to finishing out the new and improved East End Brewing Growler Room enough to get it functional.  And that's a lot to do, so we'll see.
• Yes, we have some older vintages of Gratitude that we will be releasing this year, but nothing any sooner.  There's not enough of many of years to do our usual "Stacked Verticals", but we've got a little from every year, every color, all the way back to 2005.  I haven't taken complete stock of what's here just yet though.
• We will definitely move through 100% this vintage Gratitude stock that we've been holding all these years for this very day.  (Okay, maybe I'll keep one or two of everything for personal sentimental reasons.)  The timing could not be better, since we really need all the cash we can raise to fund the rest of this expansion. 
• To sweeten the mix, I'm also going to bust out a small stock of oddball bottles from older beers we've released through the years that are still holding up well.  Namely, I've got a box or two of Toaster in my personal cellar that I think people might enjoy having.  And like I say, we can use the dough.

* 5 out of 7 years of Gratitude: Photo courtesy of Jason Harris. No bowling please.

HOW WILL THE SALES OF VINTAGE BEERS BE HANDLED?

• Short answer: I don't know yet.  
• My current thinking is that maybe we'll do a mixture of sales by Auction, by Wristband (first come, first served), and by Random Chance (either lottery or raffle).
• There's one thing I do know though: No matter what we do, some people won't get what they want, and some of those people will be upset  about it.  But that's just the nature of a limited release, and I don't see a way around it.  But I can say that we will do our absolute best to balance all concerns to make this as fair as possible, and we hope that you can understand this too.
• Oh, and here's a tip:  If you really want a 7 year old bottle of Gratitude for a nice price, buy a bottle of the new stuff and wait 7 years to open it.  That's what I do.

DOES THE END OF THE "ROY G. BIV" REALLY MEAN THE END FOR GRATITUDE?

• Yes.  And No.
• Yes: It's the last year for this PACKAGE of Gratitude, and probably the last year we will have to limit production of Gratitude to just 1,500 bottles + a little bit of draft.  Next year, it will be brewed on the new Brewhouse and we'll have lots more capacity.
• No: We'll still brew this beer once a year, but it will move to a form that we can do more than 1,500 times over without driving ourselves a little bit nuts.  Because we really need a significantly less ridiculous package for this beer.
• It is without a doubt my personal favorite of any packaging we've ever done here, and among my top 10 of any I've seen in the industry.  But as the weight of the work that goes into these bottles looms heavily over us, I've also come to hate this package a bit too.  And even when it's done, it's a fragile format, highly succeptible to moisture-releated problems, as some of you have seen with our "Ugly Label" releases of years past... And by then, it's almost time to start thinking about the next year.
•  I'm not sure what the new form will be like.  Maybe just a simple swingtop, maybe a 750ml as we use it today but without the overwrap, wax, signing, numbering.  Or maybe something completely new and different to us.  I'll add that to my list of things to figure out before next year.  Or by this Thanksgiving, as the case may be.

Okay, so that's what I know for now.  I'll update this when I know more.

...and here's that further update now.  Actually, it's an email reply I just sent to someone (2-21-12):

Cheers - Scott

Since it's such a rarity that we've got FIVE BEERS available here in BIG SWINGTOP BOTTLES, it seems like a multi-pack special is in order for those looking to pick up one of everything.  And it has been suggested that we call this little deal... (wait for it...)

FIVE GOLDEN SWINGS

Clearly, the person making these suggestions knows I can't resist a dumb pun, so you have Ryan in NC to thank for this - and you can also thank him for having that song stuck in your head all day.  Here's the beer list...

Bigger Hop IIIPA, Old Nebby Stock Ale, (the beer we can't call) Eye Opener Coffee Porter, Homewood Reserve 2011, and Smokestack Heritage Porter.

These beers range in price from 12-15 bucks a bottle plus a $3 bottle deposit.  So if you buy them individually, you'd pay $78 for the five-pack.  But for now, during the gift giving season, we'll knock that back to a nice round GOLDEN price of just 60 bucks.  

This pricing will be in effect until one of these beers runs out, which will in all likelihood be Old Nebby.

Happy Holidays everyone!

Cheers - Scott

Update 1-6-12: With the last bottle of Old Nebby Stock Ale being gone, The FIVE GOLDEN SWINGS has now sold out.  But we still have the other FOUR beers in this list available as singles.

I've been getting flooded with phone calls and email since Saturday, so I should probably post here that we've still got a BUNCH of these 3 bottled beers in stock, as well as the FOD Drafts... though, for the drafts, we have a limited number of tap to work with, so it may take us a bit to get your favorite beer up and flowing.

Since it's that time of year again, we're also back in stock on our BLACK STRAP STOUT Cake Mix, perfect for when you can't quite finish that Growler.  (Yes, I'm told people actually have that problem.)

See you soon - Cheers, Scott

This will be nearly identical to LAST YEAR'S release, so I'm lifting much of the same info from last year's event page... with some important updates:

As far back as I can recall, coffee has always been my SECOND favorite brewed beverage.  And it can take a lot of that second favorite to keep the first favorite flowing.  So, collaborating with my new favorite roastery has been a particularly enlightening experience.  (I was tempted to say Eye Opening there, but resisted...)

Aside from giving me a chance to learn a lot more about coffee, for me this beer has proven to be a pretty unique teacher, start to finish.  Combining two completely different beverages into one, while trying to maintain the integrity of each separately... well, I suppose that's what collaboration is all about.

The two-thread nature of this beer is also reflected in our double-labels, though for an entirely different reason.  With all the recent concerns about the danger of high-alcohol energy drinks, coffee beers have taken a bit of peripheral damage, and the Feds legally forced us to keep the visual elements of this beer in two discrete, separate boxes.  But the good news is, they still let us brew the blend.  So although you can't pick COFFEE or PORTER in this case, you do have your choice of EYE or OPENER, or even BOTH.  Just not on the same label.

So with all this mixing and blending, why do something as one-sided as a release at the Brewery?  Just like last year, we're taking it on the road!

Thursday December 15th at 6pm, we're releasing this beer at a coffee shop in Squirrel Hill - slightly in advance of the other bottled FOD beers in the trio.  And no, it's not just any coffee shop.  It's the shop where Commonplace Coffee roasters have their Pittsburgh home, and as such, just might be the best place for coffee in this city.  You can decide that, but you can bet that this day, it will be the best place for Coffee AND Porter.  And since they have no license to sell beer there, we'll not be selling bottles of Coffee Porter at this event.  Because that would be against the law.

Instead, we're offering tickets at the door for a nice little "Release Party".  And once you buy your ticket, you'll get free tasters of East End Brewing's Coffee Porter, a chance to chat with the makers of both of these brewed beverages.  Stay for a little, or stay for a lot, but either way you'll take home a Parting Gift of one bottle of our Coffee Porter, and a half-pound bag of fresh-roasted Commonplace Sumatra Coffee - the same coffee that went into the beer!  And yes, you can buy more than one event ticket if you're the multiple Parting Gift type.

ALSO, we'll be making a special announcement that day about the future of GOOD BEER and Good Coffee in Pittsburgh, that you might find interesting.  But we'll be able to chat more about that over a few sips of your favorite brew on the 15th.

We've got just 550 bottles to spread around this time, so any that we don't sell at the Release Party, we'll hold for our Festival of Darkness release the following Saturday.

So, this is on...

THURSDAY DECEMBER 15th

6pm until Close (usually around 10pm)

Tickets are $22 each. (saving you a couple bucks from the price of the beer + coffee if you buy them separately)

The Commonplace Coffee Company

5827 Forbes Ave. in Squirrel Hill (between Shady and Murray, same side of the street at the Library) 

Or check out this MAP.

And yes, they'll be serving coffee without beer too...which I highly recommend.  I'll see you there!

Cheers - Scott

We're changing up our Growler Hours(tm) a bit for the week of Christmas and New Year's...

At the BREWERY Location:

• TUE 12/20: 5-7pm
• WED 12/21: 5-7pm
• THU 12/22: 5-7pm
• FRI 12/23: 4-8pm
• SAT 12/24: 11-3pm for Christmas Eve (just added!)
• SUN 12/25: CLOSED for Christmas Day

• TUE 12/27: 5-7pm
• WED 12/28: 5-7pm
• THU 12/29: 5-7pm
• FRI 12/30: 4-8pm
• SAT 12/31: 12-5pm for New Year's Eve
• SUN 1/1: CLOSED for New Year's Day

At the GROWLER SHOP in the Strip District:

• THU 12/22: 10-6pm (Additional Holiday Hours!)
• FRI 12/23: 10-6pm
• SAT 12/24: 9-3pm for Christmas Eve
• SUN 12/25 CLOSED for Christmas Day

• THU 12/29: 10-6pm (Additional Holiday Hours!)
• FRI 12/30: 10-6pm
• SAT 12/31: 9-3pm for New Year's Eve
• SUN 1/1: CLOSED for New Year's Day

Have a great holiday!

Cheers - Scott

It's nearly time... time to fully embrace your seasonal depression and turn to the only thing that truly understands you: BEER.  (Sheez, talk about depressing!  Turn some lights on in here and brighten up the place or something, okay?)

...and we've got quite a bit of beer here that will need your gentle embrace.  Some are in kegs as DRAFT-ONLY offerings, some are in BIG BOTTLES (with limited draft for the Growler Shop and select Tap Spots around town), and one (Illustration Ale) that is still in the tank taking it's own sweet time to finish up.  Since our cries of "FASTER FASTER" have fallen of deaf ears, we'll have to do a separate release for that one in a few weeks, at the Toonseum.  And yes, I know yeast don't really have ears.  It's not THAT dark in here.

In BIG BOTTLES, we'll have these 3 beers... prices do NOT include $3 bottle/Growler deposits:

This is the beer we aren't allowed to call EYE OPENER COFFEE PORTER, which actually has two different labels for the same beer. This is the 3rd time we've released this beer, but only the second time in bottles with Commonplace Coffee (we need to book another event at their Sq Hill shop for this beer!) and with labels from Wayno.  Batch size: 250 bottles of Eye, 250 bottles of Opener. $13.

SMOKESTACK HERITAGE PORTER: This is our Smoked Porter that we've been brewing for a few years now, using a combination of Rauch Malt, a wee bit of Peated Malt, and a bunch of other more common malts you'd find in a well-made Porter.  With all of these bottled beers, we tweak the labels slightly each time around, and this one sports a "bottled on" date as part of the image that Wayno created for us.  You probably knew he did this one, but I bet you didn't know that Mrs. Wayno gets the credit for naming this beer!  She even has a name of her own, and it's Kim. (Hi Kim!)  Batch size: 1,000 bottles. $12

HOMEWOOD RESERVE starts out as our Black Strap Stout, and is transformed into HOMEWOOD RESERVE by long term aging in Bourbon Barrels.  This time around, we kept it in oak there for  about 9 months, and I think it's our best version yet!  Batch size: 650 bottles. $14

This bottle release is during normal Growler Hours at the brewery on December 17th from 12-5pm.  Usual rules apply - no reservations, no over the phone/email purchases, and no frontsies.  And I'd say there's also no real chance that we'll sell through all of these beers on this Release Day.  But just in case, we're doing a 1 case limit on each beer for this day only... I suppose it could happen, and we'd certainly appreciate it (!!!), but I'd also be very surprised.

For our GBIP Investors: We're doing an informal Pre-Release of these bottles for you at the brewery starting December 10th at Growler Hours, and every day at Growler Hours until the regular release.  The only way to buy these bottled beers during this time is with your "BEER MONEY" Vouchers - and yes, you can give them to someone else to purchase beer on your behalf, like any other day.  No limits.

Also of note for our Pgh Public Market Customers: We'll be running a small amount of each of these bottled FOD beers in draft form over the next few weeks at our Growler Shop in the Strip.  They will show up suddenly, and probably run out even more suddenly, but if you keep an eye on our Twitter feed, you should get some notice.  Look for a different one each weekend...or just show up at the shop every weekend.  That works too!

In DRAFT-ONLY form, we'll have these 6 beers:

• Fat Gary Nut Brown Ale (always on tap) $10
• Black Strap Stout (always on tap) $12
• Snow Melt Winter Ale (on tap now) $13
• Milk Stout (It's back - yes, we saved some!) $11
• The Bitter End (yes, it's DARK this year. Crafty, eh?) $12
• Steelcut Oatmeal Stout (Stout + Oats + a bunch of American hops) $12
• ...possibly a 7th, in a few weeks.

Another Belgian Dark Session Ale may follow Illustration, but that won't be for quite a while, so let's not even count it, okay?  See you on Saturday!

Cheers - Scott

.

We've got some "Special Growler Hours" happening next week for Thanksgiving, so here's the plan...

At the BREWERY Location:

• TUE 5-7pm
• WED 4-8pm (Extended Hours!)
• THU CLOSED for Thanksgiving
• FRI 4-8pm
• SAT 12-5pm

At the GROWLER SHOP in the Strip District - no change to regular schedule:

• FRI 10-6pm
• SAT 9-5pm
• SUN 11-4pm

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Cheers - Scott

It’s a couple of days before Halloween, so what better time to formally announce that our Festival of Darkness™ has returned!  The days are getting shorter and the nights are getting long, so instead of letting that Seasonal Associated Disorder (S.A.D.) settle in too deeply, we’re here once again to help you cope… by releasing a staggering lineup of lineup of new Dark Beers. 

Okay, some on this list are new, some are year round everyday beers,  and still others are returning favorites.    But they all have one very important thing in common….  Here – this image should give you the main sense of what we’re talking about.  You may have to stare at it for 30 seconds or so to really “see” it.

NOTHINGTOSEEHERE.

Well now, I hope that wasn’t too depressing, as I’m certain nothing exciting happened at all.  But here’s the REALLY exciting part: Our FESTIVAL OF DARKNESS™ Beer List…

• Fat Gary Nut Brown Ale (always on tap)
• Black Strap Stout (always on tap)
• Milk Stout (draft only, was on tap, saving last keg for release day!)
• Snow Melt Winter Ale (on tap now)
• Steelcut Oatmeal Stout/Black IPA (draft only, Late Nov)
• Homewood Reserve 2011 (1L swingtops, some draft, early Dec)
• Smokestack Heritage Porter (1L swingtops, some draft, early Dec)
• Eye Opener Coffee Porter (1L swingtops, some draft, early Dec)
• Illustration Ale (1L swingtops, some draft, late Dec)
• Another Belgian Dark Session Ale may follow Illustration, since we have the yeast strain in house.

Right now, I'm predicting that the F.O.D. will hit full stride in Early/Mid December, with a TRIPLE bottle release day, and all F.O.D. beers available all at once.  But watch for updates in the usual places as we roll these out.

Cheers - Scott