Philly Beer Week, Part I

So I know blogging has been slow lately, but have no fear, its almost baseball season. Plus, we are in the middle of Philly Beer Week and there is much to discuss.

On Friday we went to the Joe Sixpack beer event at the East Falls Market. This was being touted as the kickoff event and it did not disappoint. The number of people was ideal as I rarely had to wait for any beer. Mayor Nutter was on hand, albeit 45 minutes late, to proclaim the start of the beer week and to tap the ceremonial keg. He's a bit shorter than I expected him to be, although I'm not sure what I was basing my expectations on. We got a chance to meet him, even if it was brief. The food was also pretty good, both the catering and the samples that the market stands put out. And there was, of course, the beer. It was all local and very few brought their standard brews. The highlights included the Iron Hill Russian Imperial Stout, the Nodding Head George's Fault and Victory's St. Boisterous. But my favorite of the night was the Triumph Rauchbier, a style that I love but is hard to find. Unfortunately for me, the Philly location does not make it, only the New Hope location. Although I did all I could to convince the people from Triumph that they should brew it at every location and as often as possible.

Saturday we planned to go into center city and go to either Good Dog or the South Philly pub crawl. But the weather was terrible and we had no motivation to leave the house. So instead we went to eat at Hikaru on main st. I was unimpressed overall, the miso soup and ginger salad were ok. The ton katsu was very different than any version I've had before and it was kind of boring. But afterwards we ventured to Flat Rock where I enjoyed a Founder's Old Curmudgen (very good) and an old favorite, Young's Double Chocolate Stout.

Sunday was a busy day, but for non-beer reasons. Therefore the only beer aspects of the day was a dinner of garlic and curry mussels at Old Eagle along with the Summit Marzen and Speakeasy Untouchable Pale Ale. Dessert was the Flying Fish Espresso Porter.

More to follow as the week progresses.