Irn-Bru

For those who do not frequent Piper’s Pub on the South Side, you are missing an interesting drink and it is not a beer. Irn-bru is an orange flavored, non-alcoholic soft drink made in Scotland. First I have to say that I never tasted this as it has way too much sugar for me and would cost me another co-pay to my doctor. But for those healthy lads and lassies I want to make it known to you.

It has carbonated water, sugar, caffeine and quinine. It also has a trace of ammonium ferric citrate and who doesn’t go for that? But rest assured that this is not one of those dreaded energy drinks people are getting their kilt twisted over. Despite the fact that I am unable to drink this I enjoy their website and especially their ads. They think out of the can and run some funny ones. Unfortunately some of them are not suitable for public broadcast (they are not illicit, sorry to say). These are my favorite and can be found on their Ads that Never Ran section of the site. So pop on down to Piper’s and pop one open. Enjoy the ads on your smart phone and then call your friends. Once they find out you are not drinking beer they will not come down the you can drink in peace and enjoy the match.

Piper's Pub Good Hot Food

I stopped in Piper’s Pub the other day (Wednesday 4 August) for a beer and a bite to eat. I spotted an interesting item on the menu that I just had to have: Lamb and Chestnut Sheppard’s Pie. As Piper’s does food right I never expected a bad meal but when the server brought my plate she said what servers say across the country; the plate is hot. That was the understatement of the year. Not only was the plate hot, my food was hot for hours. That was ok because I could not eat it anyways. My fork was also hot. How hot was it? Too hot to handle, it was. Fortunately I had a beer at the ready and that saved my mouth. If you remember Matthew Modine in the movie, Full Metal Jacket, he thought the south was so hot it was Africa hot. I say that it would have been arctic cold compared to my plate that evening. Yes, they do food right and hot food is hot. Little did I know tat this would be the week of nuts, as I would be drinking a Pecan beer from Mississippi. That is in my next post above.

A buddy of mine from work finally made it down to Piper’s. He is from Kentucky and is of Scottish-Irish decent. I don’t remember exactly, but I know he loves Scotch Eggs. Piper’s has the best and he couldn’t wait to try some. His verdict was two thumbs up. Alas, he had them sans Colman’s Mustard, but there is always another visit.

Not a Trashy Beer

Jake Ocque was the winner of the home brew competition held organized by TRASH; the Three Rivers Alliance of Serious Homebrewers. It took place at the Rivertowne Pour House in Monroeville this past July. Rivertowne was kind enough to let Jake brew his beer with them, which has to a big thrill for any homebrewer. Well, I was happy to have some last night at Piper’s Pub. The beer, is a cask-conditioned English style Dark Mild coming in at 4.7%. After fist taking a few sips I took a look at the color. It is a dark beer and the color is brownish and not like Guinness or Mackeson; both of which are stouts. The head had some bubbles as it should have and it looked like a northern mild as I think it was. The taste was excellent and I picked up a hint of caramel in it and in the nose. It was faint and contributed to the taste. Most UK mild’s that I have had were very thin in the body to the point that they were anorexic. Jake’s had a better mild body to it. You knew that you were drinking a beer. After three pints I came to the conclusion that this beer should be on every publican’s order. Jake, you did good. You beer can stand with any in a British pub.

If you know me then you know I live for mild beer. My enjoyment of Jake’s beer continued long after my session at Piper’s. When I drink higher alcohol beer that has a greater level of hops I usually feel it the next morning. That doesn’t stop me from drinking it but I sometimes wonder why I do. Cask mild such as Jake’s left me refreshed the next morning. I seldom get a headache or hangover from drinking good beer. But I sometimes feel crappy in the morning and I don’t want to get out of bed. The lower alcohol with moderate hops makes for a pleasant morning for me. I for one am glad to be able to find beers like this at Piper’s. All the Pittsburgh brewpubs make mild at one time or another and I am glad that they do.

Cheers, to Jake, Piper’s and Rivertowne

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.