At long last, Lehigh Valley Beer Week makes its return starting this Saturday. As always, we’ve scoured the listings and come up with the best of the best to get your drink on at beer week. The events we chose include rare beer tappings, special pairings, and even a free beer festival. Here’s our picks for the week:
Friday, February 17th
So even though Beer Week doesn’t kick off until tomorrow, Keystone Homebrew is throwing one hell of an unofficial kickoff party tonight, dubbed “Make American Beer Great Again.” The *FREE* event will feature tons of brews from Bonn Place, Abomination, Weyerbacher, Sam Adams, Two Rivers, Colony Meadowy, Lost Tavern, Great Barn, and Yergey brewing, as well as a big selection of Keystone Homebrew beers. They’ll have live music courtesy of The Counterparts as well as light fare ad kombucha by Portch Tea. It’s going to be epic, and it’s free, so stop down tonight from 5pm to 8pm for some free brews.
Saturday, February 18th
Strange Brew is throwing down one of the most epic Avery tap takeovers we’ve ever seen anywhere, let alone just in the LV. There’s sours, huge barrel aged stouts, IPAs, wheat beers, and a ton more. Check out this filthy list: Apricot Sour, The Beast, Callypigian, Certatio Equestris, The Czar, El Gose, Ellie’s Brown, IPA, Lilikoi Kepolo, The Maharaja, Mephistopheles, Out Of Bounds, Pump{KY]n, Raspberry Sour, The Reverend, Rumpkin, Salvation, Samael’s Oak Aged, Tangerine Quad, Tweak, Uncle Jacob’s Stout (2016), Vanilla Bean, Xolotl, and White Rascal.
Roll out the Barrels at Two Rivers – the crew down at Two Rivers are releasing some special barrel aged brews to kick off beer week, and they sound awesome. At 2pm they’ll be tapping a Bourbon Barrel Cherry Quad, a Pinor Noir barrel-aged Quad, a dry hopped wild ale, and their recent bottle release, Sadie Green’s Peach Juice. Also on tap will be a firkin of cedar-aged double dry hopped Colonel Left Eye IPA, a new and interesting take on their flagship beer. They’ll also be selling bottles of their 2016 Great American Beer Fest Gold Medal winning beer, Six Fingers Sam, for in-house consumption.
Monday, February 20th
Strange Brew is at it again on Monday with a Neshaminy Creek tap invasion featuring some awesome variations, aged brews, and one-offs. They’ll have 2014 Concrete Pillow on tap, a beer that is brewed annually to commemorate Neshaminy’s anniversary. When this was released 3 years ago it was a limited 600 bottle run. They’ll also have Coconut Mudbank a limited version of their milk stout brewed with coconut milk, coconut cream, and ‘dry nutted’ with shredded coconut. Other treats include Dank Hill, their delicious Double Wheat IPA, Tamanend Helles, regular Mudbank milk stout, and a special cask of their JAWN IPA with blood oranges.
Tuesday, February 21st
Keystone Pub in Bethlehem is busting out some specialties on Tuesday to get keep the week rolling. Their Goose Island High End/Bourbon County Takeover will feature probably one of the only remaining kegs of Bourbon County Coffee in the area, as well as 2016 Bourbon County Stout and some of the easier to get offerings, Sofie and Matilda. If you haven’t had BCBCS, we strongly suggest you check out this event.
Strange Brew is back at it again on Tuesday with the 5th annual Hop Head Heaven event. This event features a dizzying amount of IPAs and a good amount that don’t usually make it to the Lehigh Valley. If you’re an IPA nut there’s no better place to be. Check out the list: Bear Republic Cafe Racer 15, Bell’s Hopslam, Brewer’s Guild Guildy Pleasure, Cave Haze NE-Style, Deschutes Fresh Squeeze, Dogfish Head 120 Minute, Fat Heads Head Hunter, Fat Heads Sunshine Daydream, Free Will Cloudy WIth A Chance Of Charcuterie, Knee Deep Hop Deranged, Levante The Chief, Levante Cloudy & Cumbersome, Levante Pannic Room, SingleCut Does Anybody Remember Laughter?, SingleCut Harry Doesn’t Mind, SingleCut Softly Spoken Magic Spells, Sixpoint Hi-Res, Sole Buice Jox, Sterling Pig Big Gunz, Sterling Pig Snuffler, Sterling Pig This Little Piggy Citra, Stickman Store Bought Is Fine, Stickman Very Easily Offended, Troegs Nugget Nectar (cask), and Yergey Hoptilietious.
Bites of our Sole at House & Barn – this might be one of our favorite new events of the week. Sole Artisan Ales will be featured at the Barn for a night of paired beer tasting and tapas. Valley Milkhouse, a local cheese producer who we adore, will have specialty cheeses and butters as well. Joe Percocco, the brewer for Sole, and Stefanie Angstadt, the cheesemaker at Valley Milkhouse, will be on-hand to talk about their wares. Tickets are $50 per person and include four 5oz tastings of BuiceJox 2.0, a Mandarin orange DIPA, Naked Yoga, a Mexican Chocolate porter, GoodGood, a Double IPA, and Pain of Wisdom, a barrel aged barleywine.
The Tavern on Liberty is also hosting a killer event on Tuesday with 12% Imports and Bella Vista Distributors. For those not in the know, 12% has one of the most killer portfolios, so it’s no surprise that the taplist for this event is fantastic. On tap will be Urban Family Aristocratic Fantasy, Urban Family Imagined History, Stillwater Surround, Evil Twin Imperial Biscotti Break, Stillwater Phucket, Omnipollo Bianca, Off Color Dino Smores, Evil Twin Liquid Double Fudge, Evil Twin Bringing a Gun to a Knife Fight, and Against the Grain Citra Ass Down.
Thursday, February 23rd
Best IPA in the Valley blind tasting at Porters – We really like the premise of this event – five IPAs from Lehigh Valley(ish) breweries will be on tap and guests will be able to do a blind tasting of all five. You then try to guess which beer is which, and also vote on your favorite and at the end of the event a “best IPA in the Valley” will be crowned. Our only question is where’s the contender from Two Rivers?
If you’re in for a trip down to Quakertown area to nab some beers that aren’t available in the Lehigh Valley, Spinnerstown is hosting Russian River Day. This includes their sours and the closest Pliny the Elder you’ll find to the actual LV. While Elder won’t be tapped until 3pm, the other offerings will be available all day. They include: Pliny the Elder, Damnation, Supplication, Consecration, and Temptation.
Hijinx Brewing is going hogwild at Tavern on Libert on Thursday, busting out the biggest tap takeover we’ve ever seen them do. Seventeen different beers will be available for the third annual Hijinx Night: Liberty Pale Ale, Citrasqueeze, Tail Ale, Far Darrig, Barista’s Choice Nitro, Irish Stout, Pitch Penny, Kung Fu Gnome, Hatch Chile Beer, Wicked White, Bourbon Barrel Steal Your Face, Bourbon Barrel Dolle Streken, Learning Curve, 6’s & 7’s Barleywine, Morning Mayhem, Steal Your Face, and Prankster’s Porter.
Saturday, February 25th
9am. That’s when Strange Brew yet again blows minds with another ridiculous Stouturday. We’ll let the lineup speak for itself:
AleSmith Hammerhead Speedway Stout, AleSmith Mokasida Speedway Stout, AleSmith Vietnamese Speedway Stout, Almamac Barbary Coast, Dogfish Head Siracusa Nera, Dogfish Head World Wide Stout, Epic Big Bad Baptist Batch 66, Founders Lizard Of Koz, Free Will Ralphius, Green Flash Dia De Los Serranos 2016, Hardywood Gingerbread Stout 2014, Hijinx Barrel Aged Steal Your Face Stout, Nickel Brook Old Kentucky Bastard, Perennial 17, Pizza Boy Sunny Side Up w/Peppers, SingleCut Eric More Cowbell Nitro, SingleCut, Heavy Boots Of Lead, Sole Electric Velvet, Sole Swamp Witch, Stillwater On Fleek, Stone Xocoveza 2015, Terrapin Tart Cherry Wake ‘N Bake, Weyerbacher Sunday Morning Stout 2016, and Weyerbacher Tiny 2015.