philadelphia

  • BeerMenus Philly, Now Live!

    By will
    on Jun 28, 09
    We now have just under 50 venues in the Philadelphia region. Stay tuned for more places, more updates, and more ways to find great beer. If you have any suggestions for places we should add, please let us know in the forums section. If you have any events we are missing please feel free to add them here. General feedback or technical problems can be directed here.

    Cheers,
    The BeerMenus Team

  • Brauhaus Schmitz Opens Today!

    By will
    on Jun 29, 09
    Looking for German beers? Rauchbiers, dunkels, kolsch, berliner weisse, you name it, Brauhause Schmitz has it. Check out their beer menu on their website for now. Hopefully soon it will be searchable and updated on BeerMenus.

  • BeerMenus Philly - Week 1

    By will
    on Jul 02, 09
    BeerMenus.com officially launched this week in Philly. Since launching the site in NYC from our Brooklyn headquarters a little over a year ago, we have received repeated requests to expand to other cities across the country and even abroad. During that time, Philly has consistently shown itself to be one of the premier craft beer centers in the country (you already know this).

    The participation by Philly's bar owners--before the site even launched--was phenomenal. And it is expected that BeerMenus/Philadelphia will quickly put BeerMenus/New York City to the test to see which City bests the other in terms of participation by bar owners and craft beer lovers alike.

    A big topic of conversation is how to keep ever-rotating beer menus accurate. To solve this problem, we enable bars to login and update their menus. The process of updating takes a bar under 2 minutes on average and can even be done on an iPhone or Blackberry. The skepticism about accurate menus has been completely silenced in NYC. Many bars update their beer menu every time they come upstairs from changing a tap line effectively making their beer menu 100% accurate (often more accurate than the print menu in the bar).

    We are just getting started in Philly. Now that the site is up and running, we will be recruiting many more bars to make updating their menus a part of their routine.

    We hope the site helps Philly's many knowledgeable and passionate beer lovers find better beer and in turn helps the best bars, restaurants, and beer stores get discovered.

    Thanks so much for the warm reception Philly.

  • Thank You Thrillist Philly

    By will
    on Jul 07, 09
    ...for the shout out today. You can read the article here.

  • Guide To Philly Brewpubs

    By will
    on Jul 12, 09
    Philadelphia Weekly recently put out a guide to Philly brew pubs. Check it out

  • Iron Hill Brewery @ Maple Shade Opens Today

    By will
    on Jul 21, 09
    It looks like they will be pouring the Hefe Weizen, India Black Ale, Belgian White, Vienna Red Lager, Raspberry Wheat, Pig Iron Porter, Light Lager, and the Ironbound Ale. You can check out the latest info on the Maple Shade blog

  • TJ's Restaurant And Drinkery

    By will
    on Jul 27, 09
    The most recent bar to start updating on BeerMenus/Philly is TJ's Restaurant And Drinkery. Their menu is full of new beers that were not previously on BeerMenus and it has a huge bottle list. Check out their beer menu and grab a beer at TJ's to thank them for providing you better information on what [great] beer they have.

  • Flying Pig Saloon

    By will
    on Jul 29, 09
    ...is now on BeerMenus. The Flying Pig Saloon has over 60 beers including many hard to find beers like the Avery Samael's on draft.

  • General Lafayette Inn & Brewery, Now Up

    By will
    on Jul 31, 09
    We are excited to see General Lafayette Inn & Brewery up on BeerMenus. You can see their full selection of beers brewed in-house including the newly released Biere De Cerises and the Griffin's Mild. Check out their selection here

  • New Places

    By will
    on Aug 02, 09
    We are excited to see our two most recent additions TIME and The Institute These places have excellent beer menus with hard-to-find beers on tap frequently. Check them out and support them for making it easier for you to find great beer.

  • Welcome Blue Ox Bistro

    By will
    on Aug 03, 09
    We are excited to see yet another bar on board Blue Ox Bistro

    We would also like to thank our most frequent updaters:
    TJ's Restaurant & Drinkery
    Flying Pig Saloon
    Grey Lodge Pub
    The Irish Pol
    Doobies Bar
    Fingers Wings And Other Things
    Tria Rittenhouse Square
    Tria Washington Square West
    Bridgid's
    Beneluxx
    Eulogy

  • New Places

    By will
    on Aug 06, 09
    We are happy to see the new additions of Isaac Newtons and The Drafting Room. The Drafting Room has the Russian River Blind Pig, a personal favorite and Isaac Newton's has some hard-to-find beers like the Oak-Aged Arrogant Bastard. Check them out!

  • Welcome Kite & Key

    By will
    on Aug 10, 09
    Check them out to find beers like... the Russian River Blind Pig!

  • BeerMenus Philly Hits 100

    By will
    on Aug 18, 09
    We are excited to hit 100 places on BeerMenus/Philly. We would like to give a big thank you to our most frequent menu updaters. They are the ones helping you find great beer accurately and we hope you thank them by stopping by for a great beer.

  • Welcome Good Dog Bar

    By will
    on Aug 20, 09
    We are happy to have Good Dog on BeerMenus. Grab a bomber of Arrogant Bastard to kick start your evening or slow things down and savor the hard-to-find Smuttynose Abbey Single. See the full beer menu.

  • Thank You Felicia, of City Paper

    By will
    on Aug 25, 09
    ...for the article today titled Find the glug of your dreams on BeerMenus.com in Meal Ticket. We hope BeerMenus eases the burden on bartenders and we encourage you to continue to support the bars updating the most often who tell you exactly what they have accurately.

  • New Places

    By will
    on Aug 26, 09
    We would like to welcome our newest places Kung Fu Necktie, The Abbaye, and Octo Waterfront Grille. These places serve some great beer and we hope you check them out.

  • Welcome Ortino's

    By will
    on Aug 28, 09
    We are happy to have Ortino's Restaurant on BeerMenus. From sweet to bitter, strong to session, this menu has a beer you will like. Check out their beer menu.

  • Welcome Draught Horse

    By will
    on Aug 31, 09
    We are excited to have Draught Horse on BeerMenus. They have already brought new beers to the site with the Philadelphia BiBerry, a recent release from Philadelphia Brewing Company. Check them out.

  • Mystery Beer Weekend

    By will
    on Sep 02, 09
    I have done many blind taste tests on my own to experiment with honest beer evaluations -- no hype. This weekend Memphis Tap Room is making this an official event featuring 33 taps in 3 days, all unmarked. They have ballots you can fill out to guess what each beer is. From the organizers:

    *Starting at Noon on September 4, we’ll tap 3 rounds of 11 different styles of beer—33 beers total during the whole weekend! It’s up to you to taste them all and tell us what you’re drinking from the list of clues above. Haven’t been at the bar since the 1st round of kegs were tapped? Ask your server what round you’re currently tasting! Ballots must be turned in by 4pm on Sunday September 6 and will be tallied by a panel of not-too-intoxicated judges. The winner will be announced around 5pm.*

    More details

  • Welcome Belgian Cafe

    By will
    on Sep 03, 09
    We are very excited to have The Belgian Cafe on BeerMenus. As you may have noticed under the 'New Beers' section, they have a serious selection of vintage Belgian Lambics as well as great Belgian and American draft beers. Check out their full beer menu.

  • Welcome London Grill

    By will
    on Sep 09, 09
    We are excited to have London Grill on board. Check out the Stoudt's Willie Sutton Lager for an unusual find.

  • 2nd Annual NYC Beer Week!

    By will
    on Sep 10, 09
    NYC Beer Week 2009 starts tomorrow. NYC is an amazing beer town, I encourage you all to take advantage of this celebration of everything that NYC has to offer. Check out the events schedule and pick up a passport to get all of the amazing discounts. A special thanks to Josh Schaffner for putting this together.

  • Welcome Blue Dog Tavern and Blue Dog Pub

    By will
    on Sep 11, 09
    We are excited to have Blue Dog Tavern and Blue Dog Pub on board. Check them out and have a Weyerbacher 14 on tap!

  • The "Real-Time" Awards

    By will
    on Sep 11, 09
    We would like to personally thank all of the participating bars for maintaining their beer menus so well. Accurate information is critical when it comes to menus and we would like to give a shout-out to the two bars that have updated in "real time" from the day we launched. TJ's Restaurant & Drinkery and Grey Lodge Pub have updated the most often providing you with the most accurate information.

    Accurate information on the continually changing taps in town is incredibly valuable to the thirsty craft beer loving public, and we would like to thank everyone for providing this info. To promote these places, we are going to start a list of the "real-time" bars that have proven to be consistently accurate. If you are a bar owner that believes your menu is updated in "real-time," please leave a comment to get added to the list.

  • Welcome Manayunk Brewery & Restaurant

    By will
    on Sep 15, 09
    We are pumped to have Manayunk Brewery & Restaurant on BeerMenus. Go on a pub crawl out in Manayunk and check out this place. More Manayunk spots to come very soon.

  • Growlers: Fresh Draft Beer At Home

    By will
    on Sep 21, 09
    Due to popular demand, we have put together a list of places that sell growlers. The Places that sell growlers list is by no means complete, but it is a starting point that we plan to build on. For those of you who are not familiar with growlers, they are 64 ounce glass resealable bottles that you can get filled up with draft beer at a bar or store. Some beers just taste better in draft form. To learn a bit more about growlers, you can check out our post from back in May called The American Growler.

    This is what a typical 64 ounce growler looks like:

  • Resurrection Ale House

    By will
    on Sep 22, 09
    Resurrection Ale House opens today with an awesome draft list:

    Brewer’s Art Resurrection Ale
    Stoudt’s Pils
    Slyfox O’Reilly’s Stout
    Cantillon Cuvee des Champions
    Schlenkerla Helles
    Dogfish Head Punkin’
    PBC Rowhouse Red
    Brooklyn Sorachi Ace
    Ommegang Rare Vos
    Lagunitas Lucky 13
    Ayinger Octoberfest
    Russian River Pliny The Elder

    On Cask : Yards Cape of Good Hope

  • Oktoberfest Beers Available In Philadelphia

    By will
    on Sep 27, 09
    Oktoberfests available in Philly:
    Flying Fish Oktoberfest
    Flying Dog Dogtoberfest
    Sprecher Oktoberfest
    Weyerbacher Autumnfest
    Bell's Octoberfest
    Stoudt's Oktoberfest
    Becks Oktoberfest
    Spaten Oktoberfest
    Warsteiner Oktoberfest
    Victory Festbier
    Paulaner Oktoberfest

  • Pumpkin Beers Available In Philadelphia

    By will
    on Sep 27, 09
    Pumpkin beers available in Philadelphia
    Southern Tier Pumking
    Bruery Autumn Maple
    Dogfish Head Punkin Ale
    Weyerbacher Imperial Pumpkin Ale
    Arcadia Jaw Jacker Pumpkin Ale
    Smuttynose Pumpkin Ale

  • Find your local GABF winners

    By will
    on Oct 02, 09
    This past weekend almost 50 thousand people convened in Denver, Colorado for the biggest beer festival in the country, which included 495 breweries. A central part of this festival is the competition that awards medals for the top three beers in 78 beer style categories. Below are the winners from the Philly area.

    Gold medal in the Bock category: Troegs Troegenator
    Bronze medal in the Kolsch category: Stoudt's Kolsch
    Silver medal in the American-style stout category: Troegs Dead Reckoning PorterM
    Bronze medal in the German-style Pilsner category: Troegs Sunshine Pils
    Gold medal in the Specialty Beer category: Dogfish Head Chateau Jiahu
    Silver medal in the Specialty Beer category: Dogfish Head Palo Santo Maron
    Bronze medal in the Specialty Honey Beer category: Dogfish Head Midas Touch

  • Find Wet-Hop, Fresh-Hop Beers In Philly

    By will
    on Oct 22, 09
    Lucy Burningham's recent article about fresh-hop beers made me extremely thirsty and it made me want to go on a pub crawl seeking out wet-hop beers. Here is a list of the wet-hop beers currently available in Philly and where to find them. Please note, these beers come and go quickly, so I would recommend calling ahead.

    Two Brothers Heavy Handed IPA
    Sierra Nevada Harvest Fresh Hop Ale

  • Counter-Pressure Filled Growlers in South Philly

    By will
    on Nov 03, 09
    According to Michael Kline's article today, there will be a new place in South Philly selling counter-pressure filled growlers. The place is called Hawthorne's and will be pouring 16 different beers for growler fill. The place is expected to open November 18th and offer a collection of bottled beer and food to-go. Chris Fetfatzes says that he has created a way to avoid letting oxygen touch the beer while filling the growler and claims growlers will stay fresh for 8 months. It is great to see people put in the effort to better serve growler beer. As someone who used to work at Bierkraft, which has been pouring counter-pressure filled growlers for years using their proprietary system, I am excited to see the setup at Hawthornes.

  • Wet-Hop Beers

    By will
    on Nov 05, 09
    I've found it quite surprising how few people seem to be as enthusiastic about wet-hop or fresh-hop beers as I am. To my knowledge, they really don't seem to get much attention other than Lucy Burningham's article a couple weeks ago. If you aren't familiar with the expression wet-hop or fresh-hop, I'd highly recommend her article.

    Earlier this week my brother Eric and I went on a pub crawl seeking out exclusively wet-hopped beers to celebrate the hop harvest season and to take advantage of this unique time of the year when hops are at their freshest. Eric pointed out that it may be my interest in gardening that makes me so obsessed with wet-hop beers. Either way, the combination of my obsession with hoppy beers and my my obsession with gardening makes this season the best time of the year for me. As with all food products, the ingredients are the most important part and beers made during the hop harvest season are some of the best you will find all year. In New York, my brother and I were able to go on a great pub crawl sampling the Sierra Nevada 13th Anniversary Wet Hop, the Speakeasy Big Daddy IPA Wet Hop, and the Victory Yakima Twighlight on a quick pub crawl in Brooklyn. I have made it to the Foodery to get a few beers that are tough to find as well. By far, my favorite two have been the Sierra Nevada 13th Anniversary Wet Hop and the Victory Harvest Pils.

    In Philly, you guys are lucky to have the Wet Hop Rodeo. On Saturday November 14th Johnny Brenda's will be pouring 9 wet-hop beers. The beers include: Victory Harvest Pils, Victory Harvest Ale, Weyerbacher Harvest Ale, Philadelphia Brewing Company, Harvest from the Hood, Manayunk Brewing Hop Harvest, Port Brewing High Tide, Sierra Nevada Harvest Ale, Rogue Wet Hop Ale, Iron Hill Wet Hopped Ale firkin. These beers come and go quickly so make sure to try one this season.

  • Fresh Hop Alert: Port Brewing High Tide

    By will
    on Nov 08, 09
    Track down the Port Brewing High Tide Fresh Hop IPA. According to Port: "While waiting for the tides to shift in your favor, might we suggest a High Tide IPA? Brewed only once each year to coincide with the Hop Harvest in Yakima Washington, High Tide IPA is made with 180 lbs of Fresh Hops per batch that are plucked from the vines and sent straight to our brewery. We skip the whole drying and processing stage which means the hops are ultra fresh and full of flavors we can't normally get. Like grapes, Hops are only harvested one time each year and as such, we make what we can when we get them."

    Find it here

    Read more about this beer

  • Hawthornes Opening

    By will
    on Nov 23, 09
    Just opened on November 18th, Hawthornes is a new beer boutique located in Bella Vista. This place fills growlers, a personal favorite form of drinking when not at the bar and they also sell bottled beer. Listed on their site right now they have a personal favorite beer the Russian River Blind Pig, as well as the General Lafayette Wet Hop Harvest. Sounds like a great addition to the neighborhood.

  • New Beer Stores In Philly

    By will
    on Jan 27, 10
    We would like to welcome Hawthorne's in Bella Vista, and the Whole Foods Market in Plymouth Meeting just outside of the city. These places both sell growlers and have great selections so check them out and grab a growler!

  • Growlers In Philadelphia

    By will
    on Feb 01, 10
    There has been a fair amount of buzz surrounding the popularity of growlers lately as a result of the New York Times article The New Old Way To Tote Your Beer. As die hard proponents of American craft beer, we at BeerMenus find growlers to be one of the best ways to enjoy beer. I wrote a brief history of the growler back in May '09 putting growlers in context a bit. We have since been cited in a Christian Action League article in North Carolina, which claims growlers make underage drinking easier. I'm not even going to touch that one. Nonetheless, we at BeerMenus love us some growlers and want to help people find them as best as we can. We have a list of places that sell growlers in Philly to get you started. If we are missing any, please let us know via email or in comments below.

  • Welcome Yards Brewing Company

    By will
    on Feb 12, 10
    We are excited to have Yards Brewing Company on board. Now you can see what's pouring right at the source.

  • A Tour Of Yards Brewing Company

    By will
    on Mar 09, 10
    Last week I was able to take a tour of the Yards Brewery to see their brewing operation as well as their recently opened on-premise bar/lounge area. Looking to get the full experience, I ordered the two different flights they offer - the Revolutionary flight and the Core Ales flight. Each flight offers a spread of 4 small samples so you can try all of their beers without getting too rowdy. In addition to tasting all beers available at the brewery, they typically have a selection of breads made by Wild Flour Bakery. Yards and Wild Flour Bakery have collaborated to make a variety of breads using spent grains from various beers at Yards. I was able to do a flight of the Thomas Jefferson Tavern Ale, General Washinton's Porter, Poor Richard's Spruce Ale, and the Extra Special Ale paired with 4 breads made from the spent grains from each of those four beers. It was pretty unique enjoying the various grains in beer and bread form at the same time. Check out this picture of the pairing:



    Spent grain



    Seating



    Photos courtesy of Brendan McNamara.

  • Welcome Cavanaugh's

    By will
    on Apr 07, 10
    We are happy to have Cavanaugh's on BeerMenus. Stop by for a crafty one and thank them for providing better information on what beer they have.

  • Philly Area World Beer Cup Winners

    By will
    on Apr 12, 10
    On April 6th and 7th, beers from around the World were judged as a part of the World Beer Cup, which took place in Chicago during the Craft Brewers Conference. According to the organizers of the World Beer Cup, "As consumer choices expand, the availability of information becomes more important. With this in mind, the Brewers Association developed the World Beer Cup® International Competition in 1996 to celebrate the art and science of brewing by recognizing outstanding achievement. This global competition ultimately creates greater consumer awareness about different beer styles and flavor profiles while promoting international brewing excellence. Every two years, a highly qualified professional panel of beer judges honors the top three beers in nearly 91 categories with gold, silver, and bronze awards. The World Beer Cup, often referred to as 'The Olympics of Beer Competitions,' is the most prestigious beer competition in the world."

    Local winners:
    Belgian-Style Dubbel: Iron Hill Abbey Dubbel (Bronze medal)
    Belgian-Style Tripel: Weyerbacher Merry Monks (Bronze medal)
    Extra Special Bitter or Strong Bitter: Yard's Extra Special Ale (Bronze medal)
    German-Style Sour Ale: Nodding Head Ich Bin Ein Berliner Weisse (Silver medal)

    For more information on the World Beer Cup and a list of the other winners, click here.

  • Getting Ready For Beer Week

    By will
    on Jun 02, 10
    Philadelphia Beer Week is the most impressive beer event I've discovered. The part I like the most about PBW is that the events are spaced out over 10 days and you can pick and choose from hundreds of events that interest you the most and you don't feel like you have to go on a 1-2 day bender assaulting your liver in order to appreciate it all the way you do at many other high profile beer events.

    The past couple years the organizers of PBW have shown the Country what a strong beer community Philly has by organizing beer weeks with the highest level of participation of any city. Last year the Philly beer community put together so many events I found myself wishing I could be in two places at one time so I wouldn't have to miss any events.

    This year the organizers stepped it up once again and created several great services to make it even easier to navigate the hundreds of events so you can schedule and plan your week perfectly so you get to the events you are most excited about and don't have any regrets.

    Create a beer week calendar using My Philly Beer Week you can browse events by type and neighborhood and add the events you are most excited about to a calendar. I personally am most excited to be able to browse by event type and see all of the brewmasters events. Drinking with brewmasters is what I like, but there are lots of types of events and you can find your favorites. Creating a beer week calendar (maybe something to do to keep busy while at that boring job of yours) will allow you navigate the hundreds of events efficiently and will allow you to organize and refine your list so you go to the absolute best ones.

    iPhone App This year there's a PBW iPhone App to make browsing on the go super easy. You can browse the same way you can on the PBW website, but it's really easy to browse on the go in case you need to make some game time decisions. Download the iPhone app.

    A big thank you to the people responsible for organizing this awesome celebration of Philly beer culture. We really appreciate your hard work.

  • Welcome City Tap House

    By will
    on Jun 29, 10
    We are excited to have City Tap House on BeerMenus. City Tap House has 60 taps, yes 60, representing every style of beer you could possibly want on tap. Swing by to thank them for providing better information on better beer. I think I will be headed over for a Shark Attack from Port Brewing.

  • Welcome Pub On Passayunk East (POPE)

    By will
    on Aug 17, 10
    We're excited to now have POPE updating their beer menu. Check them out and thank them for providing better information on better beer.