The Most Wonderful Time of the Year: Philly Beer Week [Guest Post]
First of all, I would like to thank Paige for the opportunity to add to her wonderful blog here with tales of my favorite time of the year, Philly Beer Week, in America’s best beer drinking city, Philadelphia. My name is Ryan and I have a blog called In Search of Beer, where I get a little more in-depth with my love of the beer scene here. For now, I’ll just give you a little sip.
Many have probably heard about Pennsylvania’s problem with buying beer to take home: you have to go to a beer distributor, and you can only buy beer by the case. Since this is mostly true (we won’t get into semantics), it has driven the average drinker to the bar to get their beer, and the bars know this. So the city has become a breeding ground for bars trying to get your business, and they do this with the best selection of beers possible, as well as amazing bar food to go with it. New York has its fancy restaurants, LA has its street food, but Philly has mastered the gastropub as no other city has.
The rest of the week features all manner of events, and anything you could possibly want related to beer. From beer dinners to tap takeovers, beer fests and homebrew competitions, extreme beer, rare beer, and a collection of brewers who fly in to hang out with their fans (this year’s highlights included Dogfish Head’s Sam Calagione, Firestone Walker’s David Walker, Wells & Young’s Jim Robertson, Port Brewing/Lost Abbey’s Tomme Arthur, and Allagash’s Rob Tod amongst many others), there is really no stone left unturned. Every kind of beer is represented (especially sours—Philly loves sours) and even the hardest to find breweries show up for the celebration (Funky Buddha always makes an appearance each year).
All photos are courtesy of Philly Beer Week’s official photographer, Stephen Lyford.