1-day festival a potent addition to Greensburg Craft Beer Week

Kris Jon Fischer of Greensburg is disappointed when he goes to a place that serves beer and finds only major label brands on tap.

“I want to see craft beers,” he said.

That wasn’t a problem during the past 11 days, when the annual Greensburg Craft Beer Week spotlighted specialty brews from around the area available for sampling and swigging during a series of Greensburg-area events.

Fischer closed out the festivities on Sunday afternoon with two similarly named friends as they all attended the Weekend Wind Down at All Saints Brewing Company in Hempfield.

He chose Crimson Halo, an amber ale, and one of 10 craft beers on draft at the event.

Kris Guy Fischer, also of Greensburg, who has enjoyed a variety of alcoholic offerings at All Saints, selected the San Juan Diego Baja Red Mexican Lager this time.

“They do a very good job with a more general appeal,” he said. “At some of the other places, if you don’t like a very specific type of beer, then you might not find anything you like.”

He said he decided to come to the Weekend Wind Down after a Beer Week block party that had been planned Saturday on a section of Pennsylvania Avenue in downtown Greensburg was canceled.

The extreme heat that day and resulting band cancellations were reasons for dropping that event, according to Jessica Hickey, founder of the Downtown Greensburg Project and a chief organizer of Craft Beer Week.

But, she said, an inaugural craft beer festival, held the previous Saturday at Greensburg’s St. Clair Park, was deemed a success. There were 21 breweries participating and about 700 people attended, including more than 500 who purchased VIP tickets to get in early and enjoy a food pairing in partnership with Hempfield’s Live! Casino Pittsburgh.

“We’re definitely going to do it again next year,” she said of the festival.

She said next year’s Craft Beer Week likely will be scheduled again in June, after previous editions were rolled out in the fall. The changeup, she said, allowed brewers to feature different seasonal varieties of beer than spotlighted in the past.

“Why can’t we have a Beer Week in the fall and another in the summer?” suggested Mark Poole of South Greensburg, who attended the All Saints Wind Down.

The popularity of the Beer Week has grown along with the number of area craft brewers.

“We’ve definitely seen an increase in people who enjoy (making) craft beer and are looking to get into that scene,” Hickey said.

“The craft beer week is cool,” said Jeff Guidos, owner and brewer at All Saints. “I like what it does for the community.”

He was glad the week coincided with one of his Weekend Wind Down events, which are planned monthly to bring together fans of his beer along with others who enjoy spirits, provided on Sunday by Big Spring Spirits of Bellefonte, as well as wine and cigars, offered by Joey DiSalvo.

Guidos saw an uptick in attendance at other regular events at his brewery that fell during Craft Beer Week, as did Greensburg’s Invisible Man Brewing.

“The beer festival brought a lot of people into the city for a great event last weekend ,and all of the events that we did at the brewery this week were a lot of fun,” said Sean McLaughlin, co-owner of Invisible Man. “It’s refreshing to see people out and about in Greensburg again.”

On Thursday, Greensburg’s Petagogy pet supply store held a Craft Beer Week Yappy Hour, offering pet-friendly treats from the local Biskit’s Barkery and beer from Unity Brewing near Latrobe.

The turnout pleased Petagogy co-owner Ben Huber.

“We had about 20 dogs roll through, and we ended up with only three cans of beer left,” he said.

A percentage of sales provided a donation of more than $100 to local Wayward Whiskers Animal Rescue.

That same day, guest bartenders at Oliver’s Pourhouse in Greensburg, together with online donations, raised about $1,000 for Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Laurel Region. Aubrey Worek and Alyssa Siegel of FitnessEnvi together generated the most donations.

“They’re always good supporters of ours,” said Gabrielle Stewart, development and event coordinator for the Big Brothers Big Sisters chapter.

Even more important, Stewart said, at the event the nonprofit signed up a new “Big” to be matched with and mentor a local youth.

“We have 120 youth who are on a list waiting for mentors,” Stewart said. “These are kids facing some adversity, and we want to make sure they avoid risky behaviors.”