The Brewer’s Ball, which raises funds and awareness for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, is this Friday from 6 - 9 pm on the South Side.  Enjoy some great beer and food while supporting a worth cause.  For those of you who don’t know about CF, check out my article on Brewing Up a Cure or the CFF website.  Cost is $60 and cocktail attire is required.

Paul Philippon is the founder of The Duck-Rabbit Craft Brewery. They say you can't trust a skinny chef, and I think the same holds true for brewmasters. If that's the case, this beer is good.

I was at 3 Son’s last week for the Founder’s tasting.  All of the Founder’s beers were excellent, and I definitely recommend trying any of their beers you find.  While there, I got the scoop that Duck-Rabbit beer out of NC will be available as of this week in the Pittsburgh market.  I have yet to try any, but it is supposed to be good.

The next TRBC tasting is all set for May 14th.  We are doing Spring Beers.  See MaltDaddy for details and to RSVP.  This is a great one to attend if you love Belgians and/or wheat beers.

A cold and long work hours have been keeping my postings down.  I wanted to give a shout out to a few events coming up in the next few days.

• Wed - Bark n Brews Animal Friends Charity Beer Tasting.  3 Sons Dogs and Suds, 6 to 8 pm
• Thur - Beer Wars.  A one of kind event only showing in theatres this night.  Get the details here.  I will be going to the Robinson showing.  Stop by Mad Mex for happy hour before the show.  I’ll be there, and Vecenie is doing some kind of promo with Stone, Dogfish, and Stoudt’s.
• Sat - Erie Brewfest.  I attended this 2 years ago.  I was definitely the only patron with one of those Baby Bjorn strapped to my chest.  It was a little loud for my 3 month old, so I had to step out early.  I would give this one an average on the rating scale.  It was very packed, food was so-so, and the beer selection was good but nothing you can’t find at festivals here in Pittsburgh.  If you’ve never been to Erie, this is about the only reason worth going.  If you go, show up early.  The line forms quickly, and it takes a while to get in.

Thanks to the smoking ban, all hip young beer drinking dads can bring the little one to the bar.

Yep.  Another Pitt basketball post.  You beer lovers are going to have to suffer through this for a few more weeks.  The game last Sat against Uconn was awesome.  I’ve been a season ticket holder since the Pete opened, and that was definitely one of the top 2 or 3 loudest games I’ve attended.

Seth Davis of ESPN just picked Pitt to win it all.  His quote:

While I always reserve the right to wait until the last possible moment to make up my mind, let’s just say it’s pretty unusual for a city to celebrate both a Super Bowl championship and an NCAA championship in the same year. This is feeling like one of those years.

Even better, here is quote from Blair, Co Big East Player of the Year.

 

Blair’s takedown of Thabeet set the tone for the growing disdain between the two. Blair approached Thabeet after he lay on the floor for a few minutes and asked if he was OK, but Blair did not receive a response from the 7-foot-3 giant.

 

Get off me!

 

“I went over to check on him, to say are you all right? Are we cool?” Blair said. “And he just walked past me. If that’s the way you want to be, then that’s fine. I’d do it again. Don’t stick your arm in there.”

 

I love it, bring on the Big East Tourney.

Pitt is one step closer to a number 1 seed in the Tourny.  This was such an exciting game.  Shame on you if you haven’t been watching this team.  Check out around 45 seconds in on this clip for one of the sweetest plays of the night.

The American Homebrewers Association has its annual Top 20 Commercial Beer survey out.  Basically, the ask members to list their top 20 beers and compile a list.  I decided to take a stab at it today from the top of my head, and the list surprised me a little.  

A creamy Boddington's

There are definitely some questionable calls here due mostly to nostalgia.   For example, Boddington’s was the first beer I ever had not from the big 3. My mentor at Lucent Technologies in NJ was  a Brit, and told me I had to try it.
 
The top 5 on my list could all be #1, and there is a big jump from 1-10 to 11-20. What do you guys think?  Am I crazy?

1.  St. Bernardus Abbot 12
2.  Bell’s 2 Hearted
3.  Dogfish Aprihop
4.  Piraat Triple IPA
5.  Stone IPA
6.  Russian River Damnation
7.  Unibroue La Fin Du Monde
8.  Duchesse De Bourgogne
9.  Franziskaner Weiss
10. Weyerbacher Old Heathen
11. Corsendonk Christmas
12. Jolly Pumpkin La Roja
13. Firestone Walker Double Barrel Ale
14. Troeg’s Nugget Nectar
15. Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald Porter
16. Southern Tier Harvest
17. Duvel
18. Penn Brewing St. Nick Bock
19. Boddington’s Bitter
20. Hacker-Pschorr Hefe

As in the Golden Arches!  Pitt BB recruit Dante Taylor was named to the 2009 McDonald’s All-American Team.  This is great news for Dixon and Pitt.  Here is a link to the article on the Post-Gazette.

When I’m not downing a Bigfoot at Fuel and Fuddle, you can find me in section 223 of the Pete.  No, this has nothing to do with craft beer, but check out these moves…

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