United Nations of Beer

Philly Craft Beer Festival

by Andrew Schanel
(Beer Delegate, NJ, USA)

Philly Craft Beer Festival 2007

Although Philadelphia is not in my territory, I would like to report on the Philadelphia Craft Beer Festival which occurred on March 3rd, 2007. It was an awesome time.

I'm glad we showed up a half an hour early for the Festival. When my girlfriend said "Let's get in early before everybody so that we can sample all of the beer before them", I thought she was joking.

It turns out this was far from a joke. There were 1,500 people waiting patiently in line and we were about 30th and 31st, respectively. We were inside and drank beer for a good hour before the 1,500th person walked in. By the time we had made a round of the entire floor of the Philly Craft Beer Festival, we were elbow to elbow with people in some spots and I had to practice the art of carefully moving through the crowd without spilling beer on anybody and without losing my girl.

The Philly Craft Beer Festival was held in a cruise terminal station at the South Philadelphia Naval Yard, a monster of a structure with a very high ceiling and one long corridor, stacked table to table with brewers, clothing vendors and beer gadget purveyors. Each brewer brought two or three sample beers and there were about 50 brewers present.

Since I don't have a bottomless stomach, I had to pick and choose which beers I would try. Having my girlfriend with me helped out a lot, because we would never try the same beers as one another, we ended up sharing our samples with each other.

There were a few standouts to me among the participants. I really can't go into incredible detail as we tried so many:

Nodding Head (Philadelphia) – this local brewpub brought along Grog (it resembled a heavier brown ale, but not quite a porter in style, not true grog which is rum and water, by the way) and the Harvest Ale IPA which was an average taste.

Victory (Downington, PA) – Victory are known for the extreme use of hops in their beer. I believe they brought along the HopDevil Ale and Altbier. The intense hop flavor and aroma really comes through in all of their products.

Yards (Philadelphia) – I have to include Yards, because it is the only brew I did not share with my lady. After one sip of her Saison, she abruptly turned to me with a scowl and exclaimed: "This is disgusting." I'm no expert on the Saison style, but it did have a funky, overly-yeasty, rotten fruit taste. As I understand, often Saison does taste that way. But let me say this for Yards – I am a huge fan of the Love Stout – and I will get to that in another review!

Ithaca Beer Company (Ithaca, NY) – Possibly the Philly Craft Beer Festival's most memorable beer of the day at was the Finger Lakes Apricot Wheat. (Click for my full review.)

Rogue (Newport, OR) – Rogue and Anchor were the two west coast reps at the Philly Craft Beer Festival. Rogue had the busiest tasting line out of all the brewers. Earlier I said each brewer brought two or three beers – not Rogue. There must have been seven or eight 22oz bottles on the display table. I've had Rogue beers many times before, and they brew a couple of my all-time favorite beers. so I'm no stranger to them. However, they did have one beer I've never seen before – Morimoto Black Obi Soba Ale. I believe it was a limited release.

Some of the other brewers there that I remember (my apologies to the omitted): Stoudts, Brooklyn, Flying Fish, Boulder, Troegs, Lancaster, Cricket Hill, Triumph, Sly Fox, High Point, Appalachian. As noted, most of the brewers were from PA, NJ and NY with a few here and there from elsewhere.

After we left the festival, we took a ride over to the Eulogy Tavern on Chestnut Street. If you're into Belgian beers, then this bar is glorious. I counted nine Belgians on tap and a huge beer menu. I had a pint of Delerium Tremens and a Kwak beer.

I can recommend a visit to the Philly Craft Beer Festival the next time you're nearby and it's in town.