Super weekend of beer in Chester County

If you follow the beer events calendar that I put up here each month and week, you likely noticed that this last weekend was stuffed with reasons to get out and great drink beer. The weekend was capped with the Super Bowl and throughout was filled with great weather.

Whittling the list down was no easy feat. If traipsing around the city was my thing, I likely would have stopped in at Bar Hygge for its first anniversary, or Devil's Den for brunch, puppies, and football, or Kite & Key for a Firestone Walker event with cookie pairings.

But I chose to stay home in Chester County and hit up two events on Saturday and one on Sunday. And before you sharpen the first dagger, yes, I'm including Teresa's Next Door in Wayne under my Chester County umbrella. What? Doesn't make sense? When I need it to fit the narrative, then #AlternativeGeography is what works best. It's less than a mile from the county line. It's a rounding error. Big deal, right? Everyone does it these days. End snark.

(Two gravity poured beers from the bartop.)

(Scotch Ale, Wee Heavy, Porter, Brown Ale, Amber Ale, and more.)

(Solid lineup of appropriate fare for Iron Hill's "British Invasion" event.)

(Scotch Egg.)

(Sticky Toffee Pudding for the incredible win.)

(Two of the most solid canned offerings from Iron Hill.)
As Iron Hill has continued to grow (see yesterday's news event if you're not yet familiar with their just-announced planned thirteenth location), I've continued to frequently comment about the consistent company culture fostered by the brewery and the restaurant ownership and management. It's evident talking with staff and observing the numerous events of a shapes, sizes, and stripes throughout the year.

I'd been to the "British Invasion" event at Iron Hill's Phoenixville location before. Each time, I was one of just a few at the bar in the early hours until more would slowly trickle in. This time, I parked the car in the ever-more-difficult-to-find-a-parking-space downtown Phoenixville and walked in to a nearly packed Iron Hill. All but one bar seat was taken and nearly all barroom tables were likewise occupied.

The brewers (Matt Gundrum and Will Mink) were joined by regional brewing manager, Kevin Walter and senior head brewer Tim Stumpf. Together with the service staff they put on a smooth and well-run, tasty event — even in the face of many dozens of flights being passed nearly nonstop across the bar. I've always gravitated to classic styles from the other side of the pond including well-made English and German beers. So this event speaks to me not only for my selfish satisfaction but also in gratifyingly that there are plenty others out there enjoying these beer styles as well. And trusting that events like this continue to open eyes in the mass market that there are plenty of great beers and styles apart of the latest fad beer.

Back on topic — For this event, the brewery rolled out eight beers including English-style IPA, Amber, Brown in addition to Wee Heavy, Russian Imperial Stout, Chocolate Stout, and the beautiful Pig Iron Porter and McMaster Scotch ale from bartop pins.

The kitchen stepped up its game as well going with the obvious Scotch Egg but then also throwing Welsh Rarebit, Fish 'n' Chips, Banger and Mash, Cottage Pie, and an amazing looking Lamb Stew. I found the strength to resist the latter and instead moved without pause to the Sticky Toffee Pudding. An incredible plate to finish off the event. If only I had some ABVs to spare, the Bedotter would have been the perfect pairing. But it was time to head over to Wayne and the Super Saturday event at Teresa's Next Door.

(Half of the goodies available at Teresa's Next Door's annual Super Saturday event.)

(Spot your favorite.)

(Always fun when bars "find" vintage verticals in their basements.)

(Excellent Nitro Velvet Merlin from Firestone Walker.)
Well-traveled and well-informed beer lovers (obviously any of you reading these words, no doubt!) know of Teresa's Next Door along the "Main Line" of Philly's western suburbs. Co-owner Andy Dickerson and bar manager Chris Peters have worked tirelessly to create relationships around the world that result in some of the most interesting and sought-after beers landing on the tap and bottle menus.

Each year, on the day before the Super Bowl, the bar puts on Super Saturday, an event that features big flavors of hops, sour, and barrel-aging. This past weekend, therefore, it was no surprise to find eight beers from Russian River, one from Cantillon, and several more from geek drool-inducing Founders and Firestone Walker. Not to mention, an favorite all-timer of mine, Captain Lawrence Rosso e Marrone.

After nearly ten years in business, the TND crew still pours plenty of care and love into the details of each special event, which typically include special food items to complement the beers on CO2, nitro, handpump, and from the bottle. When I arrived mid-afternoon, it was no surprise to find the Classic Gueuze from Cantillon already off the draft tower. However, plenty more remained as the initial crowd surged had mellowed into a steady buzz for the remainder of the day. Good thing I employed the car service option.

(Food trucks served Levante's Kegs & Eggs brunch event on Sunday.)

(Always good to have plenty of backup beers for the Super Bowl.)
Sunday morning came down at West Chester's youngest brewery, Levante Brewing Company. After a decadent Saturday and with a Super Bowl on the nighttime docket, it only made sense to refuel with a couple beers, tacos, burritos, and empanadas.

Similar to the joy of watching a veteran like Iron Hill continue to grow, it's just as gratifying to watch the bumper crop of young breweries that exhibit strong markings of those that should "make it" - such as Levante. Here at the beginning of its third year, the brewery has really its stride and is showing it in the quality beers, the passionate fans, and welcoming staff and comfortable atmosphere in the taproom.

Parents of children and dogs alike find Levante welcoming and the brewery's location off a busy road on the outskirts of West Chester in a low-rise industrial park makes it a perfect location for weekend beer events. No stranger to food trucks, nearly a permanent fixture adjacent to the taproom's rollup garage door, for the Kegs 'n' Eggs event, Levante had an enclosed outdoor tent for plenty of extra seating as well as not one but two food trucks.

Levante has been doing a house Saison for Split Rail Tavern in downtown West Chester for quite some time, so that was an obvious go to in crowlers for late night football viewing. They also do a Rye Saison — Reminiscent — which given my style proclivity I immediately checked out as well. Just a touch spicier and bit less sweet than the Split Rail, but both fantastic in their own right. Then, throwing ABV caution to the wind, the Coffee Shoppe Terminology called to me as the perfect brunch beer, regardless of clocking a solid 10.3% ABV inside the local coffee roasty and chocolatey imperial stout. So, yeah, that made its way into a crowler to go as well.

If Saturday had not been so decadent and if it was not still barely 2 p.m., I would have made my way further into the IPAs and sours currently on Levante's menu. And I would have asked more questions about expanding into available space in their building and timetable(s) for that. Plenty of good stuff happening on both sides of the bar at Levante. No wonder it's one of the regions most talked about young breweries. Oh, on that note, I should link you to Ale Street News' most recent issue where I wrote even more about what they have been up to in West Chester.

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© Bryan J. Kolesar and The Brew Lounge, 2017. All content is owned and uniquely created by Bryan J. Kolesar. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from Kolesar is strictly prohibited. Excerpts, images, and links may be used with advance permission granted and only provided that full and clear credit is given to Bryan J. Kolesar and The Brew Lounge with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. Contact Kolesar at TheBrewLounge@gmail.com

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Construction Update 10/15/2016: La Cabra Brewing Company in Berwyn, Pa. is set to open

(Eight to nine drafts to be available on opening day, October 25, with more to come in the days and weeks after.)
Let's get this breaking news out of the way first thing — La Cabra Brewing Company is cleared to open its doors to the public for the first time at 3 p.m. on October 25.

They've come a long way in the last few months and since I last visited a little over a month ago. Now all the powers-that-be have given had their say and the beer lines have been hooked up to the brite/serving tanks. All that's left are some remaining construction touches and final staff prepping.

I stopped by yesterday morning to find brewer and operating partner Dan Popernack and chef John Hearn busy at work but willing to take time to show me a bit of what's changed, give me an update on the remaining week's work, and slide a few tastes of beer and food my way.

They plan to open La Cabra's doors on Tuesday, October 25 as if it was just another day of business. This way, they hope to be able to gently break in the staff, work out any kinks, and give customers the smoothest introduction in the early days and weeks to one of the area's most anticipated new brewpub ventures.

While the second floor and mezzanine room will eventually be available for private party rentals, the entire facility (total capacity around 240) will be open and available for all customers to explore in the first weeks. There's a full bar on both the first and second floors and Popernack expects to have eight or nine of his taps flowing with a variety of his beers on opening day.

(Flights of great taste at La Cabra.)
My initial samplings confirm that there will be a diverse representation of quality beers for customers to look forward to both at the bar by themselves as well as paired together on the dining room tables. The Coquette (3.5% ABV) is a wonderful display of berries in a barrel-aged fruit beer. Should work well as a light refreshing interlude (i.e. not overwhelming with fruit) or in pairings as a breakfast or dessert beer.

Belma (5.7% ABV) is a Belgian Pale Ale that takes advantage of a new experimental hop from the Pacific NW. It helps bring out a light fruit character, strawberry for one, in a very drinkable Belgian Pale. Juno (4.8% ABV) is an American Blonde Ale with Rosemary and Lime that I expect to work very well with some entries on Hearn's Latin American-themed kitchen menu.

Two IPAs should please the hop heads. One is the Tabula Rasa, deemed a Session IPA, which will be different from batch to batch and always feature a single hop. The one I tasted (4.4% ABV) showcased the always enjoyable Mosaic. The second is Leo (6.3% ABV) that Popernack is still working to find the balance in malt and hops that he is most happy with. I think he's nearly there and this will be turn out to be a great go-to IPA.

(Sneak peek, and taste, of the excellent Crispy Pork Belly to be on the menu at La Cabra Brewing Company in Berwyn, Pa.)
Finally, the Cassiopeia (4.8% ABV) is an "Amber Kölsch" that Popernack is looking forward to making his own style and one that I'm looking forward to sampling more of. It definitely bucks the traditional Kölsch style guidelines but yet when I drank it along with the Crispy Pork Belly that Hearn brought out of the kitchen for me, I found myself not giving that a second thought. The roasted nature of the Cassiopeia worked nicely with the pork belly (great ratio of meat-to-fat -- very important to me) as I would imagine so too would the Roggenbier that Popernack says will be coming up in the near future.

Lots of intriguing promise awaits in Berwyn. Just a little over a week until we get to see the full production. By the way, in case you didn't pick up on it in my last update, if you're coming out from Philly by train, get off at the Berwyn station and simply cross over Lancaster Avenue that parallels the train tracks and you're there.

(First floor interior of La Cabra Brewing Company in Berwyn, Pa.)

(First floor bar of La Cabra Brewing Company in Berwyn, Pa.)

(First floor interior of La Cabra Brewing Company in Berwyn, Pa.)

(First floor interior of La Cabra Brewing Company in Berwyn, Pa.)

(Cemetery gates over the second floor bar at La Cabra Brewing Company in Berwyn, Pa.)

(Second floor interior of La Cabra Brewing Company in Berwyn, Pa.)

(Second floor interior of La Cabra Brewing Company in Berwyn, Pa.)

(Memento from the now-shuttered Fritz Lumber, since 1863, across the street.)

(Back door entrance of La Cabra Brewing Company in Berwyn, Pa.)

(Back staircase and brewhouse entrance of La Cabra Brewing Company in Berwyn, Pa.)

(Fear not, there will be available parking in Berwyn.)

(Soon there will be a much larger sign announcing the new La Cabra Brewing Company in Berwyn, Pa.)

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Construction Update: La Cabra Brewing Company in Berwyn, Pa. - 9/9/2016

(Looking south across Lancaster Avenue at the future home of La Cabra Brewing Company in Berywn, Pa.)
La Cabra Brewing Company is shaping up to be one of the Philadelphia area's most anticipated new brewpub ventures of 2016. With nearly all the licensing and inspection hurdles out of the way, it's construction progress and finishing touches that will pave the critical path to an anticipated opening date in late October/early November.

(In the brewhouse at the future home of La Cabra Brewing Company — Chuck Golder, GM, and Dan Popernack, Brewer and Operating Partner)
Dan Popernack (Operating Partner and, currently sole, brewer), Chuck Golder (General Manager), and John Hearn (Chef) are the three faces that will be most commonly seen at the two-story brewpub across from the Berwyn train station. They project to eventually have 30-40 staff covering the combined front- and back-of-the-house operations.

The kitchen staff will be turning out a menu that is being described as Latin-American, a cuisine that Popernack, with his South American travels and time lived in Spain, believes has plenty of untapped pairing potential with the beer world. Additionally, in his former life, he was a high school Spanish teacher. Golder has worked his entire career in food and beverage, most recently at Merion Country Club. With this team, Popernack reports feeling "blessed because both the left and right hands of the business are strong" and they "wouldn't be where we are today otherwise" and he "wouldn't be as confident as I am looking forward to opening" if it wasn't for the dependable experience across the board at La Cabra.

(Customers will have a second floor glimpse into the brewhouse at La Cabra Brewing Company in Berwyn, Pa.)
Popernack grew his brewing prowess from his Malvern home garage while he sought the perfect location for his business vision. After nearly two years of searching, he and the executive partnership group (comprised of six individuals in total that he says shares his same passion for the brewpub's vision) purchased the location at 642 Lancaster Avenue, former home of a futon business and a spot that they were assured "could never house a brewery".

In fact, it will house two floors with multiple rooms and seating areas for customers, a full brewhouse, a basement with upwards of 100 new American oak barrels, and two bars running 12 CO2 draft lines, 1 local cider tap, 1 nitrogen tap, 2 handpumps, and a PA bottled wine list. Coming out of the brewhouse, Popernack expects to do it all up and down the spectrum of beer styles from big beers to easy-drinking approachable beers. His passion has shown through in barrel-aged and sour beers and admittedly will ultimately settle into a menu that is most well-received by the customers.

(Barrels will play an important role in the beer menu at La Cabra Brewing Company in Berwyn, Pa.)
Berwyn has been making a slow transformation from a town often seen as a drive-through from Wayne to Paoli along Lancaster Avenue (route 30). There's a recently new pedestrian bridge over the railroad tracks and continued development taking place (e.g. longtime Fritz's Lumber has been sold and will be cleared for future development) that La Cabra looks to be part of in making Berwyn a more walkable town of destination bars, restaurants, and shops. Maybe not ultimately like nearby Wayne, but much more than it was ten years ago. Between on-street parking, train station parking, and nearly 40 additional parking spaces being made available behind La Cabra, it's good to see that this important aspect is also being addressed.

I look forward to what thus far sounds like a very promising brewing establishment addition to the area. Considering that between Tired Hands and Iron Hill in Ardmore and Victory in Downingtown, the only other brewing entity along the "Main Line" is McKenzie Brew House, La Cabra should certainly have little trouble tapping into a thirsty beer crowd. And, in Berwyn, there's certainly space for them amongst an already diverse set of established restaurants and bars such as Fellini's (byo Italian), Tiramisu (unique Jewish-Roman), Berwyn Tavern (a down-to-earth bar), Casey's (similar to BT), 30 Main (live music), Nectar (upscale), and others.

Popernack sees this as an advantage and vows to "bend over backwards to grow in Berwyn and work with the community". He mentioned in describing the La Cabra vision how "gran vecino" is the brewpub's motto which literally translates to "great neighbor".

(You'll get plenty of reminders of what La Cabra translates to at La Cabra Brewing Company in Berwyn, Pa.)
Also, with regard to the name La Cabra which translates to goat in Spanish - that "goats are intelligent, persistent, and fun. And who can look at a goat and not say 'I'd like to hang out with a goat'?!" Which ties into another important concept to Popernack and the team - fun. "If beer becomes unfun," he says, "we're losing our critical advantage over other beverages."

Furthermore, he and the ownership group see value beyond the beer and beyond the profits - that is, giving employees a "positive environment in which to work" and "supporting charitable groups in everyday operations", something that he hopes to grow quickly into a standard program at La Cabra.

Lots of potential goodness brewing at La Cabra in Berwyn. Being nearly in my backyard has me excited for this to finally come to fruition and you can bet I'll be reporting back frequently as it grows.

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Writing This Ship: Part 7 - Speaking of Beer Writing

If you've been even half awake these last few weeks while reading my stuff, you should have gleaned that this Writing This Ship "series" has been all about getting some semblance of caught-up going on around here. So far I've been sticking to the plan of posting 3-4 of these per week with the ultimate goal of somewhere between 15-20 that take us eventually back to late Spring/early Summer timeframe when the Craft Brewers Conference/World Beer Cup and Philly Beer Week completely consumed and tsunami'ed me.

After sharing with you a couple days ago a bit of an update and an event announcement related to my book (translation: come out and see me at Open Book in Elkins Park next Thursday!), it got me to thinking about some other published material of mine that you might find interesting. The kind of material that is reaching for the mass/newbie market. But, that's important (before you discount it) because there's still a great big wide world of untapped and recently tapped consumers thirsting for more information about our favorite beverage. As my aim has forever been, this fits perfectly in my quest to continue spreading as much useful information as possible to help as many as possible feel comfortable learning about the sometimes simple, more often complex world of beer.

Case in point, for the past year on a quarterly basis, I've had an article published in the print magazine, County Lines. Headquartered out of West Chester, Pa., the magazine is a substantially color-filled stack of pages focused on the diverse Chester County. My beer articles have covered How To Taste Beer (Jan. 2016), Celebrate With Beer (Apr. 2016), and Beer Is Hot (Jul. 2016). The Oct. 2016 article yet to have a title has been submitted and covers the award-winning breweries of the region. It will be timely as it releases on Oct. 1 with the Great American Beer Festival awards being doled out on Oct. 8.

Over in the pages of Main Line Today, the June issue had a small sidebar from me covering three places along (loosely speaking) the Main Line with great bottle shops for backyard and beach beer to go. The Beer Shoppe in Ardmore, The Beer Store in Malvern, and Pinocchio's in Media each got props for doing what they do so well.

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