Penn Brewfest Wrapup

Yesterday was the Pennsylvania Microbrewers Festival, held by Pennsylvania Brewing Company in Pittsburgh PA. It’s always a great event, this year there were 28 breweries attending. I was able to help out Scott Smith from East End Brewing Company, pouring samples and answering questions. Even though I didn’t have as much time to sample all of the beer that I wanted to, I got to spend some time talking with the brewers and other people in the industry something that I enjoy just as much as sampling beer.Out of the beers that I got to taste, here are some of the stand outs.Old Dominion Millennium This beer is an oak aged barley wine, and was one of my favorites at the festival.East End Brewing Blackstrap Stout on Cask Yes, I was pouring for this brewery, but this stout on cask was a very popular beer.Rodenback Grand CruOmmegang had a few bottles of this at the fest. Just the beer for when you have gotten complacent with Grand Cru’s. Just because most breweries do a similar Strong Dark Belgian, this one reminds you that you shouldn’t get too used to that. They really surprised me with this this beer, it was a lambic, the first sip was all vinegar to me, after a few I got used to it, and it was good, but man, it was surprising.Those were the three top beers that I got to try, I also enjoyed Marzoni’a Maibock the Great Lakes IPA. I had big expectations for the Penn Maibock, and it didn’t live up to them, I thought it had too much sweetness, at least for what I like in a Maibock.Over all it was a great experience even if I couldn't get to all the booths that I wanted to. I was also hoping that I was going to get the chance to interview a couple of brewers for the podcast but the opportunity didn’t really present itself, the environment was hardly ideal for an interview, let alone it be my first, it could of been ugly.Greg and I are working on content for Episode 1 of Craft Beer Radio but we aren't sure what we are going to use so I'm going to leave you wondering on what's going to be in the episode.