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I traveled with my friend Melissa to see the solar eclipse in April 2024. We would be going past
Pittsburgh on the way, and since she is from there, we made a long weekend of it.
Saturday April 6. We left around 6:00 AM and drove 4½ hours to western Pennsylvania, encountering some snow flurries along the way. Our first stop: Henry Lee's Deli, which friends of Melissa's own. She hadn't seen them in 12 years. We ate lunch and hung out for a while. The place opened in 2019.
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Next we visited Abjuration Brewing, which opened in 2017
and is located in a 1930s theater that still shows movies. Melissa doesn't drink but she had never
gone brewery hopping before. I sampled:
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We drove into downtown Pittsburgh, parked about a mile from the baseball park in order to avoid the game
traffic, and walked to Voodoo Brewing, which has
several locations. We were at their Pittsburgh Pub.
It was crowded because of the game.
Only one beer had a high rating so that's what I ordered: One Way Ticket to Midnight, a nice
12.8% ABV imperial stout aged for 41 months in E.H. Taylor bourbon barrels. It was $12.75 for 8 ounces
and it was worth it. We also ate some delicious poutine.
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Across the street is Southern Tier Brewing, which also has several
locations and was crowded due to the game. Their
Pittsburgh
location opened in 2017. Not one beer had a good rating. Southern Tier hasn't produced good beer since
it was bought by Artisanal Brewing Ventures. I ordered their 2XHAZE, which was so marginal that
I didn't even finish it.
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We walked back to the vehicle and visited two nearby breweries.
Late Addition Brewing + Blending had opened 3 months
earlier. I got their hazy IPA called Get in the Clown Car, which was fairly good.
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A block away is Four Points Brewing.
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By now the baseball game had started, so traffic lightened up. We drove to the
Strip District,
a large shopping area with food galore.
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We stumbled upon Helltown Brewing, which was
founded in 2011 and has 4 taprooms in southwestern PA. I got their
Interdimensional Pterodactyl, which was a pretty good 10% ABV NETIPA.
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Aslin Beer Company also has a taproom there, as well as several others
in Washington D.C. and northern Virginia.
Their Pittsburgh
location, as well as two of its others, has a kitchen called
Izzi. I tried:
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We then checked into an Airbnb. I crashed early for obvious reasons.
Sunday April 7. A beautiful, sunny, chilly morning. We took a morning walk...
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...and then went to a place called the
Grand Concourse
for their Sunday brunch buffet.
Melissa's friend Chanin, whom she's known since middle school, joined us.
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We parted ways with Chanin and then went to the Andy Warhol museum at noon.
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We then drove to a quaint little neighborhood...
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...and arrived at COVEN Brewing shortly after 2:00.
It's woman-owned and it opened in 2022. I tried
two beers, both of which were good.
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Next we went to Grist House Craft Brewery and got a flight. All the
beers were pretty good.
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Our last stop in Pittsburgh was Dancing Gnome Brewery,
where I'd been a few times in the past. I tried:
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The weather stayed sunny and beautiful as we drove two hours north to Ridgway, where her uncle John and
aunt Debbie have a cabin.
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We spent the evening with them and stayed over. John is a fellow craft beer lover, and the two of us
polished off these:
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Monday April 8. Melissa had an early morning walk and took this photo:
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We had a relaxing morning. It was nice to have some downtime after running around all weekend.
It was cloudy out, and the weather forecast for the eclipse was mostly cloudy skies with a chance of rain.
Since Ridgway was a tad off the totality path, Melissa and I drove to Chautauqua Lake in southwestern New York
in hopes of seeing the totality.
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Unfortunately it was cloudy there, so we could not see the totality, but we did
get glimpses of a partial eclipse when the clouds briefly broke several minutes before.
It was surprising how quickly it
got dark out during the totality. It was like a dimmer switch. Here are a few photos I took during the darkness:
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The drive back took longer than it should have because of some traffic snarls. John and Debbie said that
the clouds had cleared and they got to see the near totality, so perhaps Melissa and I
would have been better off staying put, but it was still cool to experience the darkness.
We had a great dinner of filets, corn on the cob, baked potatoes, and other stuff.
Tuesday April 9. We left at 8:25 AM and arrived at
Ever Grain Brewing three hours later. This place opened in 2016.
All the beers I tried were good.
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It was partly sunny and in the 70s -- the warmest weather of the trip. At about 1:15 we got to
B.C. Brewery. We met my friend Jim, who was the head brewer at
Duclaw for about 18 years and has been the head brewer at B.C. Brewery since 2018. He gave me samples of:
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Melissa dropped me off around 3:15. It had been a great trip consisting of a dozen breweries, nice food,
an eclipse, a museum, and great company.