Writing this ship, Part II (all over the place, part 1)

If you keep up around here at The Brew Lounge on a regular basis, this may be an easy post to get through. In my continued effort to clear the backlog and bring us all up-to-date around here — and, in part, make amends for my perhaps perceived absence — Part II here focuses on a bunch of miscellaneous TBL activities from July 2012 through December 2012 mostly focused from New York through Delaware.

July
  - There was Ommegang's BCTC as has come to be a summer tradition since 2004. Of course, I wrote about it here at TBL as well as over at After Hours. They were both popular features and definitely gained some traction over there at TWT. Check 'em both out if you had previously not. Jury is still out whether I'll be making the trek again this year. The streak may finally be broken.

  - Also in July was the excellent Russian River beer dinner at the lovely Yardley Inn along the banks of the Delaware River. I wrote about it, as well, over at After Hours. I can only imagine that it was probably the only beer dinner where Russian River's beers were featured where there was a table that did not touch a drop of the five excellent beers set in front of them. They were close-minded wine people, whaddya want?

August
  - August brought an invitation to an excellent venue for a beer festival in Doylestown I'd not yet been to in the past. Certainly not your typical festival at not your typical place with not your typical beer festival people. I recommend keeping your eyes open for it this year if you've also not been.

September
  - You probably know that Sly Fox is up and running with their new production facility (and Tastin' Room) in Pottstown, Pa. The land around the brewery creates the perfect space for outdoor events. In September, they moved their Kan Jam from Phoenixville to Pottstown and added some excellent live music all day long.

  - Every year, the reputation of Yards' Smoke 'Em If Yous Got 'Em event seems to grow. It helps that craft beer lovers are finding their way to these unique beers more than ever. And, that there's excellent professional and amateur barbecue served up along side.

  - That was in September. So was the Dogfish Dash in Milton, Del. Good thing I do this running thing, especially when the the decadent Yards event was the week before.

October
  - As I was gearing up for the Harrisburg Marathon in November (well, actually, for the NYC Marathon, but I think we all know what happened there), there was one last beer dinner to squeeze in that'd been on my mind for quite some time at Anthony's Coal-Fired Pizza. Here's the recap of a dinner at their Horsham, Pa. location with Victory Brewing Company as the beer pairing companion.

November
  - Not much to share with you from the beer world in November as I finished training for what would become my new all-time best marathon finishing time at the Harrisburg Marathon. But, as I can recite, to the second, each of eight marathon finishing times, I can also tell you the first beer I had after each marathon. Typically, I aim for something local to complete the association of the the race, the place, and the beer. In this case, it was a post-Marathon lunch and beer at nearby Tröegs in Hershey and the beer was a Scratch #78 Fresh Hop Ale. What they're doing at the brewery simply adds to making Hershey the Sweetest Place On Earth. If you haven't been, add it to your short list.


December
  - December, like November, was a fairly quiet month for me in terms of getting out into the beer events circuit. One that I wouldn't skip, however, was the Sly Fox Anniversary breakfast. It was one of several things that I would find over many of the last several "lost months" that went undocumented here in the pages of The Brew Lounge. While there are many beer events that can justify taking vacation time from work, breakfast with the Sly Fox folks is one that will both entertain and nourish you. I've added a few pictures here for your enjoyment.

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A beer festival at Mercer Museum & Fonthill Castle in Doylestown

Mercer Museum & Fonthill Castle Beerfest (link to the full gallery of pictures)

It was called Eat & Drink Local and the beer festival at the Mercer Museum/Fonthill Castle on 8/17 certainly lived up to the name. It was a celebration of local food and beer (a wine and a rye whiskey thrown in for good measure as well) for 200 ticketed attendees under a large event tent on the grounds of Henry Mercer's former home and current museum that houses items from daily life in pre-Industrial Revolution America.

In fact, it was a great venue at which not only to drink locally-produced beers, but beers that most had never heard of before that night. Even I was stumped on a couple of the new guys that were set up to pour their beers.

There were the big guys (relatively speaking, of course). Weyerbacher, McKenzie Brew House, and Victory were pouring recognizable names like Imperial Pumpkin, La Fling, and Summer Love, respectively. Keystone Homebrew was also in attendance pouring a handful of beers and a wine from members of their club.

Then there were the recently new or about to be new Bucks County breweries. Round Guys (Lansdale), Free Will (Perkasie), and Vault (Yardley) are all names that are beginning to become a bit more recognized around the area at festivals and watering holes alike.

Then there the really new guys, some of whom are still looking for that special location to call home. Outta Hand Brewing and Great Swamp Brewing were two that frankly had me stumped. Prior to heading out for the festival I'd done a bit of sleuthing around to find that Outta Hand doesn't have much info at all about them floating around online. They're a couple of home brewers (Matt Kennedy and Joe Moran) with big dreams and over at Carolyn Smagalski's site there's a reference to them and a Steve Bischoff. I cleared up that he has absolutely no relationship with the brewery. They were quite frank in saying that they actually have no clue who he is. So if anyone knows Bischoff, you might like to tell him that if anything that ever goes bump in the night at Outta Hand, it will be blamed on him. It's just easier that way!

Great Swamp, though, is a little farther along with their plans. David Johnson is in the process of securing capital and a location somewhere along Broad Street in Quakertown to open his place to serve his beers to the public.

This was a unique festival in a few ways. The representation of mostly all very local breweries was one. The demographic was another that made the festival quite unique. With rough estimates at over half of the attendees coming from the museum's membership base, the average age skewed slightly older and certainly did not resemble the typical beer geek festival. Yet, in what really should not be all too shocking, this diminished in no way the thirst for new and interestingly tasty beers.

Here is one area that many folks in the business of selling beer should learn well from in formulating marketing plans. As craft beer continues to take a greater foothold in the consciousness of beer drinkers, we may be surprised by just who the future demographic might be comprised of. For example, while chatting with the McKenzie Brew House guys (Ryan and Nate), a couple likely pushing into their late 70s approached and asked about the beers and got their samples. They were conversant enough to ask questions about the beer and brewery that they previously knew nothing about and appeared happy with what they tasted. Not exactly the young hipster demographic that often comes to mind at beer festivals, right?

Goes to prove that you never know where you'll find your next beer enthusiast — and to never judge a book by its cover. But, that lesson goes back decades doesn't it? And, applies to much more than just beer.