Beers of the Burgh hits all the right pints

Beers Of The Burgh is one of those festivals that is easy to love. Over 40 breweries from the Pittsburgh region were in attendance at this year’s event, and the beer was great.

The Pittsburgh brewing scene has been on fire for the past several years. That’s great news for craft beer fans in West Virginia because the state’s most heavily populated areas are no more than 3 or 4 hours away, making Pittsburgh a great destination for a weekend road trip.

Across the Pittsburgh region, new breweries are opening so fast it is hard for local residents to keep up, let alone the occasional visitor from West Virginia. That’s why a festival like Beers of the Burgh is so great. It gives you a chance to sample beers from just about every significant brewery in one convenient setting.

A Who’s Who of Pittsburgh beer

The 2,000 festival attendees were treated to a cornucopia of flavors. Attending the festival were the venerable brewing trail blazers like Penn and East End.

There were today’s fair-haired faves like Dancing Gnome, Hitchhiker, and Grist House.

There were super good breweries you hadn’t heard of but now can’t get enough of, like ShuBrew and Cinderlands.

There were breweries from the far suburbs, like Levity, Quinn, and Cellar Works.

There were breweries that just seem to get great flavors into every beer they make, like Brew Gentlemen and Insurrection AleWorks.

There were breweries that haven’t opened yet, like Big Rail.

Suffice it to say, this was an exciting beer event. For anyone who wasn’t familiar with the breadth of today’s Pittsburgh beer scene, it was a real coming out party. As a visitor from out-of-town, you couldn’t attend this festival and not want to get out soon to sample more Pittsburgh beer.

Beers of the Burgh illustrates the old and new

The festival venue at the Carrie Furnace heritage site added to the Pittsburgh vibe. While the massive old blast furnace illustrated the greatness of Pittsburgh of yore, the craft breweries in attendance showed off the new life and vibrancy of the today’s Pittsburgh. (Carrie Furnace is a former blast furnace located along the Monongahela River in the town of Swissvale. It was part of the Homestead Steel Works.)

Get out to the Burgh neighborhoods and suburbs

And while festivals are great for sampling, there is no substitute for getting out into the city neighborhoods, boroughs, and suburbs to sit a spell in a brewery taproom. Visiting the taprooms, one experiences the life these businesses are breathing  into the Burgh. Small breweries are truly leaders in creating new foot traffic out in the neighborhoods. Whether it is Voodoo’s taproom in Homestead, Dancing Gnome in Sharpsburg, Insurrection in Heidelberg, or Allegheny City on the North Side, brewery taprooms are full of people, full of life, and bringing renewed enthusiasm to their streets. No place is doing that better than Pittsburgh.

All aboard the Porter Tours brewery bus

While Uber and Lyft are readily available around town, another great option for getting out to some Pittsburgh breweries is Porter Tours. Porter is a brew bus that takes you safely to three taprooms, giving you three pints and a behind the scenes look into the Pittsburgh brewery scene. Especially for those less experienced in Pittsburgh beer, Porter is a great option.

Brilliant Stream sends a shout out to Porter Tours and a thank you for providing Beers of the Burgh festival goers (including this writer) with free transportation back and forth from Homestead Waterfront to the festival site.

Festival Website Link

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