Close to a dozen people were outside East End Brewing on Washington Road at three minutes to 4 last Friday afternoon, waiting for their chance to be a part of local-beer history.
Scott Smith, Longuevue Drive resident and East End’s founder, chose the auspicious 4-4 date to unveil a continuation of the brewery’s You Are Here series, a five-and-a-half-year project that resulted in a signature beer for each of Pittsburgh’s 90 neighborhoods.
In moving beyond the city, it just made sense that the first suburb to be honored with its own beer would be Mt. Lebanon, defined brewologically (pretty sure that’s a word) as a 6.3 ABV hazy IPA, with Cashmere, El Dorado and Galaxy hops.
“Over the past two years of operating our Mt. Lebanon taproom, we noticed that hoppy beers were moving at an especially high rate,” said Smith. “Running out of a hoppy option on draft was not uncommon in the early days, and from time to time, we had to resort to can pours (audible gasp) to give our guests what they wanted. Nowadays, we plan for this additional demand with extra stock on hoppy varieties, so it was a natural step to put together a hop-forward recipe when it came time to release a beer called Mt. Lebanon.”
Initial response was pretty favorable.
“I’ve ebbed and flowed on IPAs,” said Seth Davis, Hillcrest Place. “This is an easy beer.”
Carl Pierce, Vernon Drive, was at East End with his daughter and son-in-law, Emily and Bryan Daniels. He likes the beer and loves the location. “I’m very happy they opened a place next to the T stop. This is a nice place to stop.”
“They picked a great beer for Mt. Lebanon,” Emily said.
Dave DiCello, Folkstone Drive, liked the beer enough to buy a couple of four-packs.
“It’s delicious,” he said. “Smooth, hazy, this is what East End does best.”
Smith recommends pairing Mt. Lebanon with a specialty pizza, the Capered Crusader, a thick crust with garlic oil, pizza cheese, a smear of red sauce, marinated red peppers, goat cheese, capers and fresh rosemary.
Currently, plans are for Mt. Lebanon (the beer) to be a one-time batch, Smith said.
“Draft and cans will be around for as long as they last, initially just at our Mt. Lebanon taproom, but it’ll soon show up at our Larimer Brewpub, and at our North Side pop-up beer garden along the bike trail, when it opens in a week or two. But we’ll see how well it’s received. It just might come back. Our brew crew really crushed it this time!”