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Historic Rauchbier Preservation Day & Biergarten BBQ Weekend at Golden Age Beer Co. | July 23-26

July 23 @ 4:00 pm - July 26 @ 8:00 pm
GA RAUCHBIER PRESERVATION

Historic Rauchbier Preservation Day & Biergarten BBQ Weekend at Golden Age Beer Co. | July 23-26


We are blessed to have great friends, and among them, is the famed brewery Aecht Schlenkerla brewery in Bamberg, Germany. For six generations, the family of braumeister and owner Matthias Trum has dedicated themselves to the preservation of Bamberg’s historic rauchbier (“smoke beer”) by producing legendary lagers that blur the line between beer and bbq, using malts they smoke in house, predominantly over beechwood. Their beers are beyond iconic, and, together with another small Bamberg brewery, the equally renowned Brauerei Spezial, it is one of the last two historic rauchbier maltsters and brewers remaining in Germany.

Each year, Schlenkerla celebrates International Rauchbier Day on July 23rd. Golden Age is proud to join that celebration by serving Rauchbier from Schlenkerla, Spezial, and a special batch of pale Rauchbier that we have brewed ourselves for the occasion. Our kitchen is joining into the smoked fun with a menu of German Barbecue, which will feature smoked sausage, smoked pork belly skewers and more.

With so much great beer to drink and BBQ to eat, we decided to make a full weekend out of the celebration, extending it from Thursday, July 23rd through Sunday, July 26th. We will, as always feature live entertainment throughout the entire weekend, and, enjoy as much of the festivities in the biergarten as the weather permits.

To kick-off the festivities, we will be serving Golden Age Historiches Rauchbier from a gravity keg that we will tap at 4 p.m. on Thursday, July 23. Last summer, our Head Brewer Aaron Dahl had the opportunity to spend an evening at Schlenkerla, where he toured the facilities and dined with Matthias himself, and learned more about traditional rauchbier production methods from a brewer who has dedicated his life to preserving those techniques. In celebration of this year’s Historic Rauchbier Preservation Day, Aaron has brewed a beer dedicated to his experience at Schlenkerla. That beer is a pale, low-gravity lager featuring beechwood smoked pilsner malt and Munich malt from our friends at Sugar Creek Malts in Indiana. At just 4.5%, this historic rauchbier style is almost like a Märzen brewed for summer consumption, and, it is the perfect accompaniment with summer bbq.

We look forward to hosting you. As always, events at Golden Age are free to the people, with no cover charge or ticketing!

Prost!

Golden Age Beer We Love Lager.jpg

We love lager.

We started Golden Age Beer Co. because we are passionate about making clean and crisp lagers that are eminently drinkable.

From crisp Northern German and fragrant Italian-style pilsners to luxurious dunkels and Franconian rauchbiers to the easy-drinking, “lawnmower” American lager, we believe that, with their clean, subtle and eminently-drinkable finesse, lagers are the beers that bring people together, that cross divides, and that are both the past and the future of beer.  And so we brought a brewery that makes lager its primary focus to Pittsburgh and, more particularly, to Homestead.  Indeed, we believe that to do anything else would be an injustice to this community’s hard-working, steely heritage and resolve.  When this community rose up in 1892 to rebuff a barge full of armed Pinkertons, it was fueled by Homestead-brewed lager, while the very brewers who crafted that lager stood in solidarity with their steel-worker brethren on the banks of the Monongahela.  We hope that we can stand in solidarity with this community once more as it continues on its path to a new golden age.

Our brewhouse is well-equipped to produce the finest lagers.  We are fortunate to brew on a state-of-the-art 15 barrel BrauKon brewing system.  Bavarian-made and designed to manufacture the world’s most precise beer styles, this system provides our brewing team with the tools it needs to walk the tightrope to make perfect lager, which is defined nearly as much by its absence of imperfections as it is by its pursuit of perfection.  In what feels like a meeting driven by fate itself, we were fortunate to find a head brewer who is up to the challenge of working with a system that has a lofty reputation for precision and finesse.

Head Brewer Aaron Dahl

Meet Head Brewer Aaron Dahl

Head Brewer Aaron Dahl joined Golden Age in 2021 to oversee the transition of the brew house and begin working on recipe development.  Aaron comes from Chicago’s Alarmist Brewing, where he was the head brewer for six years prior to moving to Pittsburgh to head the Golden Age Beer team. In the past several years, Aaron has earned three medals in the Great American Beer Festival:  in 2018, the Gold Medal in the Hazy IPA category for “Le Jus;” in 2020, the Bronze Medal for the Pale Ale category for “Pantsless Pale Ale;” and, in 2021, the Bronze Medal in the American Lager category for “Midwest Royalty.” He has dedicated his professional life to beer.  And while he can produce some of the best IPAs and Pale Ales in the country, over the past several years, his passion — like ours — has turned towards lagers, and he is excited to run a brew house that is dedicated to and designed for the same passion.

Golden Age Beer Co. is located in historic Homestead, Pennsylvania, just outside of Pittsburgh. Founded by the same people behind Pittsburgh’s beer bars the Independent Brewing Company and Lorelei, Golden Age is dedicated to providing its community with an inclusive, accepting, safe and hospitable environment that focuses on people as much as it does great beer.

We are an equal opportunity employer that guarantees a living wage to everyone who works here. We welcome dogs and children.

Details

Venue

  • Golden Age Beer Co
  • 337 E. 8th Avenue
    Homestead, PA 15120 United States
  • Phone 412-205-3635
  • View Venue Website

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