This weekend I was planning to do a bike ride to visit some breweries in Hazlewood, Homestead and Braddock. But, I hurt my knee in a walking-up-the-stairs accident and can't ride my bike for a few days while it heals. So, I decided to visit a different set of brewerires: ones that are close to the Red Line of the light rail network. Coincidentally, this is the only line that I haven't ridden before. This outing would take me to Allentown, through Dormont down to Castle Shannon, and finally to the edge of Bethel Park.
Pittsburgh's light rail system doesn't extend very far to the East, where I live. So, I started by walking to East Liberty Station and taking the P1 bus to get to Downtown. From Penn Station (the main busway stop Downtown) I went to Steel Plaza Station to get on the Red Line. The first stamp of the day would come from a tap room of Inner Groove Brewing, which is in Allentown, only two stops away from Steel Plaza. The trains runs with the cars and busses for much of the Red Line, so the "station" next to Inner Groove is just a sign on the sidewalk. I got a very good plate of goat curry with rice and beans from Leons' Caribbean Restaurant next door for lunch. It went nicely with the helles lager I was drinking.
I got back on the train at the same stop, and rode it to Potomac Station in Dormont. From here I walked a few blocks to Back Alley Brewing, which occupies the old municipal building. I tried a sample of a white stout that the bar tender at Inner Groove told me about, but ended up getting a pint of their house lager. I drank the lager and read my book for a bit before walking to Dormont Junction and catching the train to the next brewery.
I wasn't paying attention and missed the stop for the station that was closest (Overlook Junction) to the next brewery: Chimera Brewing. So, I had to walk about half a mile from the station right after it: St Anne's. I naively assumed there would be a sidewalk on the most direct path from St Anne's to Chimera and ended up walking in the shoulder of a pretty high throughput road the entire way. Chimera occupies a pretty big indoor space with two floors. There's also a big fenced in turf area in the front with corn hole and things for kids to climb on. You could very comfortably host a big event here. I had a pint of their kolsch and a red ale before walking back to Overlook Junction so I could take the train toward the final brewery of the day.
The last brewery of the day was Spoonwood Brewing and at the time of writing it's about a half-hour's walk from the nearest rail station, Washington Junction. I, again, naively assumed this walk would happen on a sidewalk, was wrong and ended up walking on the shoulder of another high throughput road... I was eventually able to cut through a nice park that had a bathroom and a water fountain, though. I may have engaged in some light trespassing while bushwacking through the woods at the edge of the park to avoid walking in the shoulder of another high speed road. Spoonwood has a huge parking lot, so I guess the main (perhaps only?) way they expect people to visit them is with a car. Oh well. It was pretty hot out this day (June 21), so the walk from Washington Junction to Spoonwood was reminiscent of the times I spent wandering around the suburbs of Las Vegas as a teenager. Reminiscent of the good and bad parts. At least I had sidewalks in Vegas. This didn't diminish my enjoyment of their cream ale while reading my book, though. On the recommendation of the woman sitting next to me, I also tried their chili pepper pale ale. The chili flavor is definitely dominant, at the expense of basically everything else, but it was a fun beer.
Overall, this was a fun outing :) If I do this again (e.g. with visitors), I won't include Spoonwood— it's too annoying to get to. I would instead replace it with a stop at Hitchhiker Brewing or East End Brewing in Mt. Lebanon. They are both much better situated relative to the rail line. I didn't include them on this trip for two reasons. First, they both have locations next to other clusters of breweries that I plan to visit. And visiting six breweries, waiting for a train between each, would have taken way too much time. The trip as-written took already took eight hours, and Cheerio was waiting for a walk at home. I need to visit the last five stations on the Red Line in order to say I've ridden the entire system, though. So, I'll probably stop at the Mt. Lebanon breweries on my way back from visiting those stations one day.
Here are some pictures I took throughout the day.
