iron hill brewery's oktoberfest

Iron Hill Brewery and Restaurant recently celebrated their first-ever Oktoberfest celebration at their Phoenixville location, on Friday, October 1, fully equipped German beers aplenty, plates popping with bratwursts and Wiener Schnitzel, and even, German polka music and dancing!

Sure to be a great night out on Bridge Street, the Dish team (myself, included) decided an evening where local gents get donned in lederhosens was a "must-attend" in our books,  and we rolled out our red carpet to capture all the glamored Germanesque guests in their night's finest. (Scope out if we nabbed your mug, too, by clicking here.)

 Iron Hill's President & CEO Kevin Finn & I

On the same day of the festival, Iron Hill tapped the seasonal pumpkin ale, and we couldn't help but snap some video of us raising our pints to experience such a seasonal concoction. Although we are rather silly in the video, Head Brewer Tim Stumpf's concoction was a crowd-pleaser. As a light, but nicely spiced blend, the Pumpkin Ale is ideal for a fall session beer.

Brick Oven Bread and Cheese Shoppe, located in the same structure as Iron Hill, was also celebrating the German season, preparing gorgeous soft pretzels baked in their hand-constructed brick oven. They couldn't help but also encourage diners to devour their homemade pizza, and nothing is as perfect as a toasty round out of our town's famous oven!

More information about Phoenixville's Iron Hill Brewery and Restaurant, click here. More info on Brick Oven Bread and Cheese Shoppe, click here.

an abundance of brews at mccoole's fall beer fest

With a 43-beer checklist in hand, my friend, brother and I set out for McCoole's Fall Beer Fest in Quakertown, Pennsylvania. Packed with pumpkin pleasures I have yet to taste, aside seasonals including Oktoberfests aplenty, I was confident that I could tackle such a list in our four-hour session--no sweat.

Well, let's just say, I need to stop being so cocky. 43 samples doesn't sound like a hard task by any means, but after about half, many of the similar-conceptualized beers began to appear the same in taste. But that being said, I did pinpoint a bunch of favorites, and this was (of course) before my body was flooded with beer drinking silliness, as in, I swear I remember the exact characteristics of each swig.

As a fan of pumpkin beers done at their best, i.e. not overly spiced, right blend of flavors, I found that Uinta's Punk'n was bold in color and flavor, spouting an actual pumpkin taste, not a masked excuse for fall's favored forerunner. However, this Punk'n is incredibly crisp and thin, so if you're desiring a medium bodied beverage, this is not for you.

Other notables included: River Horse's Hipp-o-Lantern (another enjoyable pumpkin ale), Old Dominion Oktoberfest and Rogue's Double Chocolate Stout (like eating chocolate cake, no joke). For the full list of the beers offered during last weekend's beer fest, click here.

TorchBearer Sauces were also cozy at this fall's beerfest, and one of their sauce-creating crafters was smiling proud as he pointed out his cartoonish mugshot on his Zombie Apocalypse sauce (one of the hottest spiced sauces out there). While I honestly hadn't experience this mouth-scorcher, I did devour a couple mouthfuls of their black bean salsa, and MAN was it incredibly fresh! (TorchBearer sells at all PA-based Whole Foods and select Giant supermarkets.)

The enthusiastic male who invented "Puttle" was on site egging all beer fanatics to give his golfing game a go. Although I can't say I have a profound skill of golfing, I was able to nail the middle pin (main point of the game) in several swoops.

And, after four hours of hopping from one sample to the next, we couldn't deny that after all the slurps, Victory Village was by far teetering on the top of our lists.


For more information about McCoole's Beer Festivals, click here. There's two a year, so you get double the chance at not missing the next one!