After our time in Philly, we made our way east with hoagies and Tastykakes in tow, ready for any challenges ahead now that we had treats. And so we burned into Phoenixville a small town near Valley Forge and home to Sly Fox Brewpub’s second location. The original location in Royersford was recently sold to employees to help make some cash available for a production brewery soon to go into planning. You can read more about it here. But if you aren’t here for the brewing news where we travel, you’re here for the beer so let’s get to it. We started with a pint of Pikeland Pils and went with the lunch special for the day which was a chicken sandwich with BBQ sauce and too many other things to remember. The sandwich was good, and the Pils was prefect to wash it down. Sometimes food and beer just work together, and these two shared a sandbox well. The Pils is extremely light, but hopped well and has a pleasant bite and finish that is reminiscent of traditional German pilseners. Next I tried a few samples of different offerings, and of these the stout on offer stood out at only 3.6% ABV it was surprisingly light for a stout but seemed perfectly quaffable for a bright sunny day outside. I decided to make the move to the Gold Rush Lager, a CA steam-style beer that I was hoping would remind me of home. Living in San Francisco I’ve been spoiled by the widespread availability of Anchor Steam, and while the Gold Rush doesn’t quite match up with the king of commons it is a great example of the style. Medium amber hued and medium bodied this beer is right down the middle in every way, even the fermentation happens between typical temperatures. The balanced approach with the beer makes sense though, as the style doesn’t lend itself well to swings toward too much malt or hop, and this brew walks the tightrope successfully.
After our night spent in Phoenixville exploring Wegman’s we drove further west to Downingtown, home of Victory and some of the only PA beer I’ve been able to get in California. We sat down to a sampler of 10 different Victory beers and a pizza in the pub, and I promptly started making my way through the beers. The Lager was good, but not something I would order out at a bar, and Victory has so many other amazing offerings it felt like a bit of a shout-out to their roots which was cool. Golden Monkey was among our favorites, and a favorite of the area locals too – we ran into more people recommending this than any other Victory beer. Donnybrook Stout was our second low alcohol stout in as many days, and it fell just slightly short of Sly Fox’s O’Reilly Stout to me though it went well with our pizza which was a bit odd. The Festbier was fantastic – exactly what I wanted from the style with a sweet malt body and hearty hop presence. The Headwaters Pale stands out as both a great pale ale (which there seem to be few breweries left making, with IPA taking over as the beer of the decade) and as an awesome fundraising effort for the local water system Victory utilizes in their beer. The Weissbiers on tap were both good, though I couldn’t remember which was which writing this, I think we preferred the Summer Love ale to both. And we also tried two single hop ales, which while notable for the differences between the hops weren’t meant as independent offerings as much as comparison beers I think. The malt body for the beers was solid, and really made it possible to taste the differences between the varieties of hops.
After our tasting we took the short but sweet tour of Victory’s brewing operation – the tours are shutting down this Sunday the 3rd, so we were glad to be on one of the last public tours of the brewery. It was a short tour, understandably since they’re brewing as you make your way through the brewhouse – the turnover of beer has forced a move to 24/7 brewing which means the choice basically came down to giving tours as they brew or stopping them altogether. Personally I think they made the right choice ending the tours – you can tell walking through that the space is maxed out with production levels where they are, and getting a large crowd through the facility would be a huge headache. The tour was cool but short, and we kept our heads down and our arms inside the ride at all times.
After leaving Downingtown we headed back to Philly for International Reddit Meet-up Day, and r/philadelphia played host to some San Franciscans for an evening. On the 57th floor of Liberty Two we nerded out for a few hours, lost at scrabble, drank homebrew to our hearts’ content, and generally enjoyed our time with our fellow geeks. We got our geekdom out of our system in one fell swoop, and didn’t have to think about beer for a full evening which while not a relief certainly was welcome.
So cheers to Philly, r/philadelphia, and the brewers of Pennsylvania who kept us joyful for almost a full week – from Yards to Victory we enjoyed every minute!
Amber Waves Rally 