Between 1996 and 2019, seven breweries opened in the strip District. In the early days in the 1990s these breweries were called microbreweries. Today these so-called microbreweries are not referred to is craft breweries. I never had an issue with a brewery being called a microbrewery because it reflected on the breweries size and capacity. I do not like to call a brewery big craft brewery but honestly I don’t know what else to call it. Book for me a brewery is a brewery. Bruce may be of different size or capacity but they’ll all make one product; beer. Not every company makes a quality product. Breweries are no exception. Some do a better job than others and sometimes the road beers very in quality. By using the word craft, it seems to me, and this is my personal opinion, that the word craft implies quality. Everyone has a personal taste and one person may enjoy a particular brand whereas another person made bought enjoy that beer. That doesn’t make the beer bad. It just reflects a person’s personal preference. But there are measures that determine if a beer is bad. Those measures are for another discussion.
There is a brewery seemed open in the strip that is advertising that they will be the strip District’s first craft brewery. Let me say first that I’ve welcomed this brewery as I enjoy all the breweries in western Pennsylvania and elsewhere. My commentary is the use of their reference to being the first. They are not. The southern breweries listed below predate this new brewery. The date next to each brewery is the year that they opened. The strip brewery, as this new brewery, was on Penn Avenue practically across the street. I am bored sure if the owners of this new brewery are aware of these breweries or if they are just using their advertisement for marketing. I could say that they will be the first brewery in the Strip after a long absence, but there were three breweries in the last eight years. Cinderlands just opened last year and are still in operation.
As I have said I welcome this new brewery with open arms and I wish them luck. I just want to make a point of preference that they will be the eighth brewery in the Strip. And this doesn’t even count the several breweries that existed here in the 1800’s. My commentary may seem picky, and I seem well noted for that, but the owners and patrons of these other breweries have to be thinking “did everyone forget about us?”
Three Rivers Brewery 1996
Valhalla Brewery 1997
Strip Brewery 1997, the third brewery to open in Pittsburgh
Sweet Water Brewery (Foundry) 1997
Aurochs Brewery 12012
Milkman Brewery 2014
Cinderlands Warehouse Brewery 2019
The new brewery coming to the Strip is Bonafide Beer Brewery t 21st & Penn Ave. The Owners are Christian G. Simmons (President of Pennsylvania Libations and formerly a co-owner of Four Seasons Brewery), and Travis Tuttle (Brewer/Co-owner of Butler Brew Works).
Welcome to the Pittsburgh family of brewers.
