Upside-Down Pear

Last night, Nat and I went to the “Traditional German Beer Party” at the Carnegie Museum of Art. It was probably not actually a traditional German beer party, if there even is such a thing. What it was, though, was good: the museum has a display of German Expressionist prints, and they had their tour guides stationed in that gallery with tons of information on the artists and printmaking techniques and whatnot, and downstairs in the lobby they had food & beer from Penn Brewery.

Penn Brewery is a local craft brewing company, specializing in German-style beers, and especially in Munich-style beers. They had six beers available for tasting, and in addition, as museum members we got a “guided tasting” from the founder of the brewery. Some of the beers I had had before, but some were new to me; I am particularly fond of both Penn Gold (a Münchener Helles) and Penn Dark (a Münchener Dunkel). I also tried their Crew Lager, which is made with two-row barley, giving it a mild and pleasant taste, and stole a sip of Nat’s Kaiser Pils, which I hated violently. Hops and I have a mutual non-aggression treaty in the best of times, though, so if you are fond of IPAs or other hoppy beers, you may find the Kaiser most agreeable.

Where there is beer, there must be food, and Penn Brewery provided pretzels, cheese, meatballs, wurst and schnitzel and mustard and potato pancakes and whatnot - all very tasty, and I think all available at the brewery restaurant. All in all, it was a fantastic, fun evening. The museum staff said they never did events like this, so I hope it was successful enough that they’ll do more of them. I know I’d go.