No matter your craving, Pittsburgh has a brewery or craft beer for you — plus a tour of all the best pours.
“There's just so many different ways to experience beer,” Pittsburgh Brewers Guild executive director Mel Larrick tells City Cast Pittsburgh, from taproom experiences and various brewing styles, to how modern beermakers honor the city’s nostalgia.
“The way that we've repurposed a lot of buildings… like Old Thunder, they're in an old post office. I think that's so cool,” she says.
There’s also Hitchhiker Brewing Housed in the old Fort Pitt Brewing, Eleventh Hour Brewing inside a schoolhouse, Grist House in an old meat packing facility, East End Brewing in a former telecommunications building, and obviously, Church Brew Works inside St. John the Baptist Church.
If you want to drink in some of these historical digs, the Brewers Guild has a new updated guide that will take you on a journey to over 42 breweries. Each page has the history of each brewery, amenities, and blank space for your tasting notes.
Plus, it works like a passport. Take your guide with you, get a stamp from each brewery, and you can earn prizes as you visit 10, 20, 30, and 40 breweries.
And if you've ever felt like you didn’t belong in local breweries, the Guild is trying to change that. Last year, the Guild passed a Code of Conduct to create a more inclusive and diverse industry. Now, all workers are “granted protection from discrimination and harassment.”
“This isn’t meant to be a judge and jury,” Larrick says. “We all make mistakes. We’re human. We’re all just trying to progress and grow as individuals.”
