BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

OTB Bicycle Cafe

So far the word is about:

East End Brewery,

Sharp Edge Creek House,

Any other places or comments on these:

The Hop House,

Penn Brewery,

the Church Brew Works,

Valhalla Brewery,

D's Six pax and dogz in regent square. it's the usual go-to watering hole after mountain bike rides in frick park. tons of great beer

i don't think valhalla exists anymore. church is great, and they have good happy hours, and it's only 2 blocks from the bikepgh office!

Valhalla closed many years ago.

Big Jim's is conveniently located at the end of two bike trails. Not a super selection, but there are some good ones there, along with good, cheap food.

Buffalo Blues has a decent tap selection and advertises a Bike-Pgh discount (not sure on what - appetizers?). The food there is a bit underwhelming, though.

Double Wide Grill. Lots of outside seating, lots of places to lock up, lots of beer and lots of good food! Vegan friendly.

Church Brew is good but they have a lousy bike rack that is impossible to lock up to.

Church Brew is good but they have a lousy bike rack that is impossible to lock up to.

I just lock to the big railings in front of the door. I don't understand why people even make crappy bike racks. Must be way cheaper to make, because lot of people are buying them.

Double wide has a nice railing to lock to. OTB has a few bike racks and parking meters, and there are always a few bikes already there.

Discreetly, by the river.

otb is the one true option for biking and beer.

d's has the very best bottle selection in and around the city. they've always got a good tap selection, and the "beer cave" makes my mouth water every time i go near it. and there are usually several bikes locked to whatever's available at d's (not much).

double wide is another great stop. it's right off the south side trail, always has some great beer, and as rsprake said, is vegan friendly.

i haven't been to penn brewery since they reopened, but before you could usually count on some good ol' watery american style beer, decent german food, and live beer-swigging entertainment in lederhosen. good times.

kelly's in east liberty has a good mostly rotating tap selection, solid food, poor service, a few great bottles (e.g. samiclausen), good prices, and the best mac and cheese available in the city. oh, and probably the best jukebox, too.

i've never been to hop house, but a friend of mine who lives in ingram started liking arrogant bastard after trying it there (he's usually a yeungling drinker). anywhere that i can drink bastard, i'm happy.

hough's in greenfield is a pretty sweet place, too. good, inexpensive food, a solid tap and bottle selection that are perhaps the cheapest around, and a shuffleboard table!

i don't know much about the west end, downtown, or the north side, but there are plenty of places to grab great beer on the southside (smokin' joe's, fat head's) and in the east end (too many places to list in oakland, lawrenceville, and shadyside).

those are my thoughts. gosh, i guess i like beer!

Under the Bloomfield Bridge.

(on a slightly related note, am I the only one that thinks a "bicycle hash", aka, bicycle pub crawl, is an incredibly bad idea?)

oh, and: have you ever bought beer in pa? you might be in for a bit of a shock, if not.

you can get great micheladas (beer and hot sauce) on special at the cantina in lawrenceville. also, you'll meet a lot of cyclists drinking good beer at the brillobox

Go to East End brewery during their "growler hours" and sample right out of the tanks. ohhh. mmm.

nrogers, since you're new to pgh you probably don't know about the Pedal Pale Ale delivery ride, huh? quite possibly the largest beer ride on earth?

http://bike-pgh.org/blog/2010/05/21/700-ish-show-up-to-the-pedal-pale-ale-keg-delivery-ride/

erok, wow. that Pedal Pale Ale delivery ride looks great! Man looks like a good time.

BradQ, haha. that is hilarious. 40ounces perhaps?

HiddenVariable, I've never drank in PA. I live in Colorado, where beer is mostly hoppy/IPA microbrews and Colorado Kool-Aid (aka Coors). In PA it sounds mostly like Belgian, and German brews.

Lyle, a biking and drinking bash is an incredibly bad idea, if people are stupid about it. Otherwise, it is lots of fun to be had by all. You burn off the beer really quick peddling. So, you gotta keep drinkin'

I'm pretty sure HV was referring to the crazy laws and taxes that govern the purchase of alcohol in the state. Don't be shocked if you need to cough up $12+ for a 6-pack of microbrew.

Did Mr. Tierney organize a beer-crawl ride a few years back?

I've never thought of the Hash House Harriers as being, um, moderate.

HOUGH'S

Yea, I love Hough's. Over 300 beers, family run, great atmosphere. Food is a little hit-and-miss, but I've had a decent meal there. Lots of car parking on the street, not so much on the bike parking though.

rock room in polish hill, cheap cheap cheap

Hough's is getting a rack soon and there is a sign to lock up to right outside within view.

On the local beer front, picked up my first case of Full Pint Brewery tonight and it's gooooooooood.

nrogers, I think he was pointing out how terrible it is to try and buy beer here. You can pretty much only buy it from a distributor by the case. If you can get a six pack it's expensive and from either a bar or a unique place.

HiddenVariable, I've never drank in PA. I live in Colorado, where beer is mostly hoppy/IPA microbrews and Colorado Kool-Aid (aka Coors). In PA it sounds mostly like Belgian, and German brews.

i would say that pa is much like colorado, and most of the country, with its beer tastes. hoppy american styles dominate the taps at most beer bars. it's just the sharp edges (and me) that are more geared toward belgian styles (though sharp edge surely has more american beer than belgian). to a fault, in my opinion. there are just only so many ways you can vary the flavor of a good ipa, and they all start to blur together. it made me sad when the only place i could find jolly pumpkin beers (d's) took them off the shelf for a few more faces of american micros.

but yeah, as dwillen guessed, i was talking about the laws and prices. you can only buy six packs and bottles from bars, basically, and you're going to pay extra for that. cases, available at beer distributors, are generally cheaper than elsewhere, though, if you buy in volume.

Home Brew! It's what's for breakfast!

Anybody have a good scheme for haulin' growlers from East End Brewery on a bike? Or is it just a matter of a milk crate and bungie cords?

I've transported a fifth or two by using generous amounts of bubble wrap and panniers.

I kind of feel like I need to go to East End now. Thanks guys.

I hauled a growler home last night. I had a soft sided cooler type thing, shoved it in a cheap nashbar pannier and added a few ice packs. It tasted pretty good after that ride.

They sell carriers at the brewery, they're padded/insulated and have a strap.

+1 to the rock room. they even let you take your bikes inside.

Sharp Edge in East Lib/Friendship = good place to watch a game with hockey/football/soccer minded folks, but lousy bike parking. Only a few signs/posts, and a couple of smallish trees that can't take a ulock. Doesn't necessarily draw the cycling crowd in general, but pretty interesting and good food and kick-ass appetizer specials after 10pm .

This was a good one.

http://tinyurl.com/239td4e

Just spotted this over on Make

you can even see a video of it at http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/08/hopworks_beer_bike.html

(Cue the sound of Homer Simpson drooling.)