With only one month to go, Philadelphia beer drinkers are preparing themselves for the sudsy onslaught that is Philly Beer Week, the seminal 10-day celebration of “America’s Best Beer Drinking City.” Beginning on Friday, June 1 and running through Sunday, June 10, Philly Beer Week is loaded with hundreds of events including festivals, dinners, tours, crawls, tap takeovers and tastings throughout the city and suburbs. The first such event, Opening Tap, will be held June 1 at the Independence Visitor’s Center from 7:30-10:30pm.
For the first time, Opening Tap will include a VIP tasting session from 6:30-7:30p. The VIP session will include a special selection of beers paired with complimentary beer-friendly foods, as well as a souvenir glass and gift bag. If you can’t make the VIP hour, there will still be special beers for you to try during general admission: Brotherly Suds 3, the official collaborative beer of Philly Beer Week 2012, will be available, as will Dupont Speciale Belge, the collaborative beer between Brasserie Dupont and Iron Hill Maple Shade’s Chris LaPierre. The beer is Dupont’s first ever collaboration and will be exclusive to Philly Beer Week.
Directly before general admission to the Opening Tap tasting will be the ceremonial ‘first tap’ by Mayor Michael Nutter. After the Hammer of Glory (or HOG) makes its way through the streets of Philadelphia in a day-long celebratory relay, it will be passed off to the mayor to tap the first keg of Brotherly Suds 3. The tapping will be held outside on Independence Mall, directly adjacent to the Visitor’s Center, and is free to the public.
Once in for general admission, festival-goers will find over 30 local breweries offering tastings of their brews. The event will feature Philadelphia regulars such as Victory, Yards, Weyerbacher, Yuengling, Troegs, Stoudt’s and Sly Fox, as well as relative newcomers Neshaminy Creek, Free Will, Full Pint, Round Guys and Shawnee Craft Brewing. The event will also feature beer-friendly food from Max & Me Catering for purchase and live music from Flathead.
General admission tickets for Opening Tap are $40, while VIP tickets will be $75. Designated driver tickets will be $25 and will include complimentary soft drinks and a Philly Beer Week t-shirt. Festival-goers can also purchase a $100 package that includes VIP passes to Opening Tap and a guaranteed seat at Forum of the Gods, a round-table talk and tasting with some high-ranking beerlebrities, including Greg Koch of Stone and Colby Chandler of Ballast Point. Tickets to all events are available on phillybeerweek.org.
Be sure to download the Philly Beer Week iPhone app to keep up with all the happenings of the week. You can browse events by category, set favorites and reminders and even post to Twitter or Facebook right from the PBW app. Don’t worry, Android users—an app for Android phones is coming soon! And check back regularly for previews and recaps of Philly Beer Week events. It’s the best beer week in the world, and we’ll be there to cover it all!
Photos courtesy of phillybeerweek.org.
Del Frisco’s Goes Yard(s) with Beer Pairing
NOTE: This dinner has been rescheduled for late June. We’ll let you know when a date it set.
On Thursday, May 3, the much-lauded Del Frisco’s Double Eagle Steakhouse will step away from their usual wine dinners and team up with Yards Brewing Company to feature the restaurant’s first-ever beer dinner. For $99 per person, Executive Chef John Stritzinger will debut food not only paired with, but also prepared with select Yards beers.
“Philadelphia is a craft beer town and Yards Brewer is the perfect choice for our first ever beer pairing,” said Del Firsco’s General Manager Rich Furino. And the restaurant is diving right in, offering three courses preceded by a sampling of hors d’oeuvres, all paired with a classic Yards brew. The first course, Brawler Steamed Mussels with Grilled Local Kielbasa and Herbs, is even prepared with one of the brewery’s landmark beers in addition to being paired with it.
Prior to the mussels, though, Yards’ Philadelphia Pale Ale will be paired with a variety of passed hors d’oeuvres: Tuna Tartare Wontons; Shrimp, Crab & Cream Cheese Spring Rolls; Duck Confit Pretzel Bites; and Chessesteak Dumplings. The second course and main course will offer Beer Braised Pork Shoulder & Sauerkraut, Yukon Gold Potatoes & Apricot glaze with the interesting pairing of the herbal and floral Poor Richard’s Tavern Spruce. Finally, the meal will end with Thomas Jefferson’s Tavern Ale and a Chocolate & Vanilla Flan with Caramel.
If you’re writing off Del Frisco’s as “just a steakhouse,” it’s apparent from the menu you’ll be getting more than you bargained for and probably a much more interesting meal than you had expected, so be sure to make your reservations. Dinners begin at 6pm on May 3, and will be held in Del Frisco’s private dining space. Only 50 seats are available, so make reservations soon because when you team a national institution with one on the local level, only good things can come of it.
The Road Home Finally Leads to Great Lakes
As much as I really, really like Philadelphia, I have to admit: Cleveland is my first and only true love. It is my place of birth, my always-hometown, and my favorite city in the country. Whether you consider Cleveland to be the Mistake by the Lake or The Best Location in the Nation, one thing about the city rings true, and has for almost 25 years: Great Lakes Brewing Company is churning out some amazing beer in the city I call home.
Nowhere is this more prevalent than in their Edmund Fitzgerald porter, which has exceptional ratings on the two top beer review websites RateBeer and Beer Advocate. As one of the Alström Brothers of BA said, “The brewers of GLBC cannot do any wrong … This is the proper way to craft a traditional porter. Drink and learn.” It is no surprise, then, that since I’ve been enjoying craft beer, “Eddie Fitz” has always been one of my favorites and is the first brew I thought of when trying to define a comfort beer.
It is with a little embarrassment, then, that with all of my trips to Cleveland, I’ve never been to the brewery. Well, that’s not exactly true—I moved away from Cleveland just as I was starting my foray into craft beer and never had a chance to appreciate the brewery. If I recall correctly, I visited the brewery some time ago with my uncle before a ballgame where I ordered the least offensive sounding beer from the menu, not knowing at the time all I was missing out on. Finally, it was with my recent trip to Cleveland over Easter weekend that I knew I would be able to rectify this grievous error.
My wife and I arrived a little after lunchtime, fresh from Cleveland’s popular West Side Market, and walked in to a full bar upstairs with a bit of a wait for tables. We were told we could try the cellar bar downstairs, which we opted to do—I wasn’t going to come all this way and be curtailed by a crowd, but I wanted to avoid it if I could. When we got downstairs, we were amazed at what we found. The lower level truly was a cellar: stone walls, brick floor and a wooden bar. Wooden barrels dotted the floors, and behind wrought-iron gates fermentation barrels sat readying more Great Lakes goodness.
We sat at the long bar and I immediately ordered a sampler of everything they had. Even though I’d had a good portion of it before, I wanted to get it fresh. And fresh it was, from the light Holy Moses White Ale and The Wright Pils to the heavier Wolfhound Stout and everything in between. The tasting included two beers I’d been looking forward to trying. One of them was the hoppy pub-exclusive Rally Drum Red Ale, brewed for the Cleveland Indians baseball season, while the other was their Hop Madness, a heavily-hopped low-ABV beer formerly named Quitness after the failure that is Lebron James. This beer, tagged as being best for drowning sorrows, contained the perfect amount of bitterness.
The real highlight of the trip, while still malty and cold, was actually not the beer. Despite not having any crazy one-off beers or specially aged offerings, the brewpub did serve up an outstanding Edmund Fitzgerald chocolate chunk ice cream that tickled us both. While I avoided the chocolate as much as I could, the ice cream itself was unreal—vanilla with rich, roasty undertones brought out by the beer. This is one of the few beer-related deserts where the beer wasn’t lost in the richness of the dish and you were able to taste more than just a small hint of alcohol somewhere. This ice cream brought out the real flavor of the beer and made an excellent end to our visit to the brewery. I didn’t have much trouble turning down a case of beer to take home, but when they said the ice cream came in to-go pints, I felt a pang of sadness over leaving it behind.
Eventually, you should make it a point to visit Cleveland. Despite the constant depression inflicted by the local sports teams, the city is brightening itself up in many other ways, especially in the food and drink sectors. A culinary weekend in the city would not disappoint, but would not be complete without a trip to Great Lakes for one of (if not the) best porters in the world and the ice cream crafted from it.
First Thing’s First: Try a Boilermaker
by Jill Betters
Theresa, our host for the evening at The Boilermaker, was interested in making sure we were mixing beer with booze right away. I liked her immediately. Bench-style seating and flickering candles mix well with the crimson curtains and burgundy accent walls while red light bulbs cast dark shadows on a mural depicting Trappist brewing. The vibe is right. It’s clear we were in a holy place of alcohol pairing.
Boilermaker, brought to you by those booze geniuses behind Farmer’s Cabinet, is like Farmer’s mature older brother; the one that has a real job and appreciates the finer things in life. While water is served in a mason jar, the white marble bar and oversize wrought iron chandelier are good reminders that you could easily sidle up in a suit. Conveniently located on 11th Street in Philadelphia, sandwiched between Walnut and Chestnut Streets, Boilermaker is easily accessible to public transit—something most patrons will likely be thankful for after lingering over their delightful concoctions. Alyssa, a bartender so pleasant I thought she might be midwestern, thought the ‘California’ boilermaker was a good choice. This pairing combines Bruery Saison de Lente with Rothman & Winter Pear and Hendrick’s Gin. “Sip the liquor then sip the beer,” she said. The biting acidity of the liquor was immediately smoothed over by bright citrus, Brett and sweetness of the saison. Mercy, I was tipsy after one. This place is delightfully dangerous.
After toying with the idea of creating my own boilermaker, I realized I know nada about the art of complimenting alcohols so I perused the tap list instead. Mantra: when overwhelmed, default to Terry’s jawns. I wasn’t disappointed with Cabinet Artisanal Brewhouse‘s Joy Division Series No Love Lost. This 7.8% ABV black farmhouse IPA was medium bodied and very drinkable, a standout in a style you don’t see too often. With 40 options on tap, I must admit the large format bottle list was surprising; Anchorage, Cigar City and Nebraska options overshadowed Russian River and Firestone Walker. This carefully curated selection is, ahem, not to be to be toyed with.
Boilermaker has a concise menu of well-executed comfort food. A double-decker Angus patty with cheddar was rolling in juicy grease in all the right ways. The molasses baked beans were a bit al dente for my liking but managed to avoid being overly sweet. However, I knew I needed some serious carbs to soak up the serious booze. The fries came out with a crème fraîche dipping sauce so good I considered asking for a pint to take home. Or maybe a jar? How ‘bout just a quart, else I’m putting this ramekin in my purse. And no, you can’t take me anywhere.
Having balanced out a little while soaking in the smooth scene, the ‘Maryland’ boilermaker came out–this one a match made in heaven between Stillwater Kopstootjie and Bols Genever, an exclusive Dutch maltwine. More water, please. It’s gonna be a long night.
Brews & Bowties Elevates Class and Raises Money
Thursday, April 5, marked the second annual iteration of Brews & Bowties, a dapper event presented by Rolling Barrel Events benefiting the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Gentlemen like myself get all gussied up in their Sunday best, sporting a bow tie, of course, while imbibing local brews, grooving to smooth jazz and noshing on fine eats at the Ethical Society of Philadelphia. The event, presented in conjunction with Mole Street Productions and Henry A. Davidsen Master Tailors & Image Consultants, is sure to appeal to those who have learned to dress like a grown up and enjoy beer like an adult.
While biking to the event from my home in Fishtown, I was able to keep it classy in my token blue blazer, purple gingham and Put This On edition bow tie. And while the white dress cycling gloves were the highlight of the outfit, that’s a story for another article. After grabbing my keepsake Ikea REKO tasting glass, I graced the grand room on the first floor of the Ethical Society with my bow tie’d presence. The jazz stylings of Luke Carlos O’Reilly and his trio agreeably hung in the air to set the mood. After running into the swimmingly excellent Amy Strauss from The Town Dish–who was nice enough to share some of her photos for this post–and her photographer, B., I commenced with the commencing and looked good doing it.
With commonly offered beers by the likes of Victory and Yards, I was pleasantly surprised to experience the unveiling of Cabinet Artisanal Brewhouse‘s American Nightmare. This uniquely well-balanced 8.5% ABV American IPA is brewed with the fugacious Citra and Amarillo hops. Also offered was their refreshing Marry Me In Goslar, a gose characteristically brewed with coriander and pink Himalayan sea salt. She’s quite the sessionable drinker at 4.2% ABV.
Another notable boozy contribution was Dock Street‘s Super Saison, clocking in at 10.33% ABV. After their rep offered plainly that “women don’t know,” I encouraged her to adopt such a motto to describe the punch this beer packs. Most women, and men, frankly, typically do not know the trouble they are signing up for when dutifully consuming this beer. Also on deck were two new beers offered by Narragansett for enjoyment during our warmer months. Along with their widely available Narragansett Lager, they offer a Narragansett Bock during the spring season and their crispy clean Narragansett Cream Ale is available year round. Both were impressive, enjoyable to drink brews that are also quite affordable. Easy on the palate and easy on the wallet!
The Philadelphia Brewing Company poured their 1892 Market Stout brewed to commemorate the 120th Anniversary of the Reading Terminal Market. It was pleasingly paired with ice cream from Zsa’s Gourmet Ice Cream. Also on hand from Zsa’s were chilly treats spun with Victory’s Storm King Stout and La Colombe coffee. The most impressive gastric offerings were certainly the tangy tuna tartare from Farmer’s Cabinet and the melt-in-your-mouth filet sliders from Del Frisco’s. I must admit, this slider made an appearance on my tasting plate more than a couple of times.
Enjoying interesting beers paired with delicious food and a smooth soundtrack was only part of the entertainment for the evening. For those unfamiliar with proper cravat or ascot raiment, Brian Lipstein from Henry A. Davidsen was on hand to offer bow tie tying lessons for all in attendance in need of a little help being as dapper as possible. The accessories for sale on hand from Henry A. Davidsen were absolutely tops. I was proud that I was able to refrain from purchasing anything more than a new bow tie and pocket circle, purchases surely driven by my gentlemanly imbibing thus far in the evening. If you’re interested in procuring a fine bow tie or two, choose Henry A. Davidsen for your formal accessories or perhaps the Cordial Churchman for nicely affordable accoutrements. And if you think that tying a bow tie may be too great a challenge, suck it up and get some class, will ya?
Event tickets were $60 for general admittance with a $30 option for designated drivers. Keeping in mind the event was designed to benefit a charity was important, as the entrance fee was a bit pricey considering the mostly ordinary beer offerings. And let’s face it, folks, that’s what I came for. All in all, if the only thing you enjoy more than a finely crafted beer is the hope that the ascot may come back into style, this is the event for you. Jimmy the Saint would be proud.
Photos are courtesy of Amy Strauss.
Beer City USA Polling Begins Sunday
Homebrewing and beer pundit Charlie Papazian will open his annual Beer City USA polling for 2012 on Sunday, April 15. The initial poll lasts until April 21and cities hoping for a spot in the final voting need 100 or more votes in the initial poll. Luckily for the Best Beer Drinking City in the USA, Philadelphia has already qualified for the final ballot.
The Beer City USA poll is a celebration of local breweries and local businesses, and Philadelphia has some of the best. With local breweries like Victory, Yards, Philadelphia Brewing Co, Sly Fox, Dock Street and Nodding Head leading the charge, there are plenty of micro- and nanobreweries popping up all around us. Round Guys just announced they were open for business; Forest & Main and McKenzies are pumping out great beer; Neshaminy Creek is set to open soon; and St. Benjamin Brewing just bought a location. The local scene is getting better by the minute.
But it’s not only the breweries. It’s the local businesses as well. The bars and pubs—and many higher-end restaurants—are all in on the secret that craft beer sells in Philadelphia, and the better you have, the better you are. New places are popping up seemingly every week, and each one knows not to shirk craft beer, because Philadelphia is a craft beer city through and through. Our local distributors get this more than anyone and have gone to great lengths to get us as much great beer from around the country—and the world—as we can handle.
Last year, Philadelphia came in 7th in the voting for Beer City USA with a mere 2.44% of the votes, compared to three-time winner Asheville, NC’s 46.68%. We’ve talked about why Philadelphia is the best beer city in the country before, and it’s time to start making our voices heard. Portland, San Diego and Asheville are all great places to drink, but none are like Philadelphia. And with those three cities amassing 72.48% of all of 2011’s votes, we need to show them that Philadelphia is not only a contender, but a winner.
Stay tuned for more information and pertinent links when they become available. Get out, spread the word, and be ready when the time comes.
Beer for Beasts Howls with One-Off Beers
On Saturday, March 31, I drove to Brooklyn with my wife and our friend Sean Mellody to attend the second annual Beer for Beasts event, a collaboration charity event between BeerAdvocate and Sixpoint Craft Ales in which all the proceeds go to the Humane Society of New York City. Not only is it a beer fest unlike any other, in which 40 or so home brewers were all able to collaborate with Sixpoint on special one-off beers just for the event, but Sean and I had a vested interest to attend, as we were some of the home brewers who collaborated.
Luckily, the event was inside the Bell House in Brooklyn—a concert and events venue with a bar up front as well as a large ballroom, complete with stage—as the day had started out misty and windy, the ultimate annoying weather combo. Inside the venue was nice and warm, though, with as many people as it could possibly hold packed into the small space and kegs of beer in every corner. Event-goers were shown a little good fortune, though, as the day became nicer as it went along—facilitating the attendance at the food trucks outside giving tasty samples as part of the event.
While it’s hard to complain about there being too many people at an event for charity, it was nevertheless a packed house with beer tucked away in hard-to-reach corners of the room. Most of the lines flowed smoothly, but getting through the crowd to the lines was another matter. The most difficult line, though, was at the bar in the front of the venue. All of the bar taps were switched over to the event’s beers and were supplemented with two or three jockey boxes pumping out more beers, making it the smallest space with the most being poured—not a recipe for a quick trip or a short line.
Other than the crowd, the event was a great time that not only helped animals but allowed many homebrewers to team up with a real brewery and serve their beer on a larger scale than most would have access to. And while some of the beers weren’t worthy of the lines, there were many that were—and some that made getting back in line for another sample a great idea. I particularly liked the Champignon, a nut brown ale brewed with chanterelle mushrooms to give it a nice funky, earthy flavor, and Up In Smoke, a smoked porter that was more rauchbier than porter and appealed to my love of all things smoked.
On the fresher side was the Konichiwheat Wasabier!, brewed with wasabi powder for an ultra-fresh, green and grassy flavor that counteracted many of the stouts around it, and the Pinky In the Brain, a saison spiced with green peppercorns and plenty of ginger, as well as a late addition of hibiscus flowers. There were also some delicious sour beers in attendance, particularly one called Sour Gripes—a farmhouse ale brewed with concord grapes—and Wine Yeast Wheat #1, which used a Pinot Blanc yeast culture provided by Red Hook Winery.
Of course, I would be remiss to leave out Mellody Brewing’s collaboration Motown Philly Molasses Porter, the only cask-conditioned beer at the event. It turned out exceedingly smooth with a slight bitterness that was offset by the sweet undertone of the molasses. Unfortunately, neither Sean nor I were able to make it to the Arab Spring in time, which was the sumac wheat from our brewing companions James and Brady of BrewDC.
Beer for Beasts was an enjoyable and tasty way to spend an overcast day and help some less fortunate animals. It was fun to see my first brewing experience come to fruition and enjoyed by so many people, and we were all proud of Sean for coming up with such an excellent recipe. Be sure to grab a ticket early next year (they sell out fast), as there is no better way to try so many beers you’ll probably never see again.
Victory Beer Hall Goes LIVE! at Xfinity
Friday, March 30 will mark the debut and grand opening of Xfinity LIVE!, which means one thing to the thirsty attendees of Philadelphia’s many sporting events: a craft beer oasis in a desert of macrobrews. I recently had an opportunity to preview the venue before a rousing Flyers’ home win, and was pleasantly surprised with good food and craft beer. While Xfinity LIVE! will house plenty of options for pre- and post-game merriment, the clear attraction for anyone who reads this website will be the Victory Beer Hall, a traditional German venue offering a multitude of taps from not only Victory, but many of their local craft beer friends as well.
The venue, which is a joint venture between Victory, Comcast-Spectator and Entertainment Consulting International, will serve a wide selection of German food to be enjoyed at the long, beer-hall style tables. You can have these dishes—like sausage with sauerkraut and traditional soft pretzels—at a long bar up front, as well as smaller tables in an area off to the side and outdoor seating (with a fire pit) when the weather is nice.
There will be room for a good deal of game-day visitors, but the hall will be open on off-days as well. Guests may also be treated to live music, as a large stage was included at the back of the hall. Or, if that’s not your thing, the beer hall (and the rest of Xfinity LIVE!) has been outfitted with a plethora of Sony TVs, ensuring even if you’re not at the game you don’t miss a moment of action.
While the atmosphere is completely different from the Victory brewpub in Downingtown—think rowdy sports fans rather than neighborhood bar—the quality of the beer will be the same. And at a short preview on Saturday, we found the prices were in the $6-7 range. These are normal stadium beer prices, yes—but normal for your run-of-the-mill macro. Paying this much for a Hop Devil or Golden Monkey will be a welcome change from the usual offerings at Broad and Pattison.
Not only will you now have a selection of great beer when you go to games, but in the traditional German style they will also be served in pints (or tulips for the stronger beers) or in full liters, which will run between $10-13. This will be an excellent way to get your fill of beer before the big game, though we don’t recommend getting a liter of something like Golden Monkey—that could be dangerous. Some beers will be available by the 750m bottle, depending on availability, in the same price range as the liters.
Any craft beer fan who is also a fan of Philadelphia sports is bound to stop in at least once—and probably much more than that—before or after a game. And while the atmosphere may be different from the Victory brewpub, the beer will be the same and the selection will make the stop worthwhile. In the barren jungle of the stadium craft beer scene, the oasis of Victory will be a must-visit for anyone who prefers taste over temperature and quality over quantity. Consider this one a much-needed victory for Philly’s sports scene.
Sunday, March 26th marked Yards Brewing Company’s fifth annual Real Ale Invitational, an event that celebrates beer the way many think it was meant to be served: in casks. Cask-conditioned ale has been around almost as long as ale itself, and no city in America celebrates the style like Philadelphia. And in Philadelphia, no one does cask beer better than Yards’ Tom Kehoe. This love of real ale is what makes the yearly Real Ale Invitational such a success, and one of the most in-demand beer festivals in the city.
This year’s event, which featured 24 breweries and 28 cask beers (29 if you count Yards’ special VIP-only Alt Bier), was as well-run smoothly operating as any event in Philadelphia. By this point, Yards knows how many people they can comfortably fit inside their space and they don’t try to overdo it to sell a few more tickets—which wouldn’t be hard for this event. A few firkins and a port-a-potty were even set up outside to facilitate the crowd, lessening the strain on the inside of the brewery.
The beer at Real Ale 2012 was top-notch, especially Manayunk Brewing’s Philadelphia Porter (always a favorite), Stewart’s Brewing Company’s Oyster Stout, and Yards’ own Bourbon Barrel Old Bartholomew Barleywine, an intensely smooth, yet subtly boozy way to start off the festival. Also a standout was Forest and Main Brewing Company’s Kinch IPA, a half-and-half between American and English IPAs that hoppy, yet balanced enough to please everyone who tried it. This is truly a brewery to look out for when they open soon.
Those able to procure VIP tickets found the extra expense well worth it, due in great part to Yards’ Alt Bier, a smooth, malty ale that fit perfectly in a cask environment. VIPs were also treated to an extra hour of trying beer with a lighter crowd or, if they so chose, a behind-the-scenes tour of the back rooms of the brewery with founder and brewmaster Tom Kehoe.
The crowd, though, was apparently not big enough to dissuade the people behind the tables from giving extremely generous pours, which was a pro and a con of the event. While it’s nice to be able to get a better taste of some beers, being poured a full mug of something like Fegley’s Brewworks’ Exploitation 3x (11.5% ABV), Brooklyn’s Blast 2x IPA (9.5%) or Victory’s Ranch R 
Double IPA (9%) did not bode well for keeping a clear head throughout the event. Which directly relates to the Invitational’s only other downfall: only one table of food. This caused the line for food to stretch across the room, dissuading many people who should have been tempering their beer intake with food from standing in line and waiting.
Minor complaints aside—if you can consider generous pours a complaint–the rest of the event went perfectly. For any fan of cask beer, the event is a must-attend, and VIP access should be high on the list. Though the event sells out every year—and quickly—there is never an issue with overcrowding and lines to the firkins of beer are minimal, making for a pleasant and enjoyable Sunday afternoon drinking beer the way it was meant to be drunk. The beers are always delicious and you’re sure to find some rarities and experiments in the generous pours, making the Real Ale Invitational a real treat for any beer fan.
Keep Your Beer Classy with Brews & Bowties
On Thursday, April 5, Rolling Barrel Events in conjunction with Mole Street Productions and Henry A. Davidsen Master Tailors & Image Consultants will bring Philadelphia the perfect event for all those trying to avoid the big crowds, uncouth guests and pretzel necklaces generally associated with big beer festivals. The second annual Brews & Bowties, held at the Ethical Society of Philadelphia, will benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and will allow attendees not only to drink great craft beer, but also learn, if necessary, the art of tying a bowtie.
The event will feature beers from all the local heavy-hitters, including Victory, Yards, Weyerbacher, Dock Street and Triumph—all served in a complimentary keepsake glass. There will also be hors d’oeuvres from the likes of Del Frisco’s and The Farmers’ Cabinet. Live music will punctuate your bowtie lessons, but beware—the dress code will be strictly enforced as cocktail attire (no jeans) and bowties are strongly encouraged. Not that a classy socialite such as yourself will need to worry about such a thing.
Tickets are $60—as well as Designated Driver tickets for $30—and all proceeds benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma society. Acting fast will be a necessity, however, as there will only be 300 tickets sold and the event is sure to sell out. If you do miss your opportunity, never fear—Rolling Barrell will be hosting the same event the following week on April 12 in Wilmington, DE at the Delaware Center for Contemporary Arts.
You can order tickets to the Philadelphia event here, or the Wilmington version here. Brews & Bowties is the perfect opportunity to treat your significant other to a nice night on the town, dressed up and eating and drinking high-end fare. It is the perfect opportunity, as the website says, to “learn a skill every gentleman should know at an event no gentleman should miss.”
If you’re not yet sure about attending, check out Rolling Barrel’s Brews & Bowties promo nights coming up: The first is Sunday, March 25 at The Farmers’ Cabinet from 7-9p, where they will be serving brunch until 9 and have happy hour drink prices on house beers if you purchase a ticket for the event on-site. Another will be held Thursday, March 29 at Triumph Brewing Company, who will have a live jazz band and will be giving out drink tokens to anyone who buys their ticket on-site. There will also be a third promo event on March 29 at City Tap House.
