Cask Ale in May

There seems to be a lot of beer events happening in town this month. Here are a few venues doing cask ale for May 09 with a smidgen of April, in Pittsburgh’s South Side. To locate these fine pubs go to the Bars of the South Side on my site: pubnetwork.

April 29th (Wednesday) at Piper’s Pub will be meet the Yards Brewers. Cask Ale will be served from a firkin. For more on their cask ales see Piper's Pub. I am hoping that they have the Brawler on cask, 4.2%ABV.

April 30th (Thursday) at the Birmingham Bridge Tavern (no known web). On draft from the Yard’s Brewery in Philadelphia will be Thomas Jefferson Ale (8.0% ABV) & General Washington Porter (7.0%ABV). The BBT does not pull a beer engine but we may need more Yard’s ale. For the good of the country of course.

The meet the Yard’s Brewer night on Wednesday and Thursday is a Vecenie Distributor promotion. Ok boys and girls, what does the 1933 mean to you?

May 7th (Thursday) Piper’s Pub will introduce the Duck Rabbit Brewery from North Carolina. They are sending a firkin of the Duck Rabbit Coffee Porter that will be pouring. Somebody from the brewery will be in that evening for the event. Sorry, no ABV.

May 8th (Friday) Fat Heads will also place a firkin on the bar of the Duck Rabbit Porter. Fat Heads starts tapping the firkins at 5 pm so get in line behind me. In addition to the porter expect to see 2 or 3 others from the brewery. They make a milk stout, brown, amber and the porter. The Imperial porter may come this way too.

May 15th (Friday) is a non-cask night at Fat Heads but our friends from Oskar Blues (Dales Pale Ale) will be in at 6pm.

May 18th (Monday) will be a cask night at Fat Heads but we can meet the brewer from Victory Brewing. Not sue of the time so check out Fat Heads. St Boisterous Bock (7.3%ABV) and Braumeister Pils (?%ABV)will be on Tap and the Hop Wallop (8.5%ABV) on Cask.

Just a note for June 2009, the Penn Fest is scheduled for the first Saturday of the month. I already have my tickets. The Penn is located on the North Side and can be found at Penn Brewery.
MAY 12, 2009 PENN BREWERY UPDATE: The Penn Fest is being re-scheduled. If you have a ticket you need to take it to the brewery for a refund. They need the ticket as this is their way of keeping track of returns. Check their site to updates.

Pitt Students in London

I am looking for Pitt Students (or other college students) who have studied in London for a semester with the University.No need to call 911 as I am not looking for anything shady. I noticed on the Pitt web-site that students are given a travel pass for the time they are there but not for one week in March. I wondered what type of card you get and why none for the one break week. I think it would be better to be issued a travel card (monthly, seven, three and one day) which will give you unlimited travel in zone 1 & 2. I have to think that the guys at Pitt know about this but I don't know what pass students get while in London. So, how do you like studying in London? Way different than Oakland, uh?

Blue Dust

April saw the doors open at a new bar the entrance to Homestead's Waterfront. Blue Dust is on Amity Street at the stop sigh at the railroad tracks. It is rather elegant with a European cafe feel to it. Jerry Miller, who was one of the founders in introducing craft beers to Pittsburgh (I will have more on this in another post) is the owner. He has 26 craft beers behind him on tap. Included in this is my favorite, Kaiser Pils from Penn Brewery. Thank God. They are still getting a few details cleaned up so its cash only for the first few days. Soon they will take credit cards and the ATM inside will be working. They do have food. Hours are (yes, this is correct) Tuesday thru Friday 4:07 to 1:37, Sat 11:37 to 1:37, Sun 11:37 to when ever. They are closed on Monday. In time they are going to have a lot of bottles to go as well as growlers. The lovely Sarah Miller built the bar top. It is lovely too. Look for parking in the rear lots (I don't know if they charge) and some street parking. Ask at the bar if you have concerns.
UPDATE: They now have their own site here: Blue Dust