HELLERTOWN, Pa. — For members of the Lehigh Valley Brewers Guild, the annual gathering can be described as their guilty pleasure.
Or, given the process at hand, their Guildy Pleasure.
And they hope to spread that pleasure of the craft beer made in the Lehigh Valley enough to make the Lehigh Valley a destination for beer lovers to visit.
- Lehigh Valley Brewers Guild met at Lost Tavern Brewery in Hellertown on Tuesday to continue plans for Lehigh Valley Beer Week April 29-May 6
- Guildy Pleasure, the official craft beer of beer week, began being brewed on Tuesday
- The brewers guild hopes to make Lehigh Valley a destination for craft beer lovers
Several of the 23-member Lehigh Valley Brewers Guild gathered Tuesday at the Lost Tavern production facility in Hellertown in preparation for the11th Lehigh Valley Beer Week, set April 29-May 6.
Local brewers and business owners observed the start of the brewing process of “Guildy Pleasure VIII,” the official craft beer of Lehigh Valley Beer Week.
The hazy, New England-style IPA will be ready to drink in about three weeks. It will be available on tap at most of the venues throughout Beer Week.
The immediate goal
The immediate goal of Lehigh Valley Beer Week is to hold a week-long celebration of local craft beer.
The overriding mission is to bring enough attention to craft beer in the Lehigh Valley that it becomes a destination for beer lovers to visit.
“We’re hoping to put the Lehigh Valley on the map compared to anywhere else, like California or Colorado,” said Jesse Albertson, president of Lehigh Valley Beer Week, and general manager of Pa. House restaurant in Hellertown.
“And the coolest thing about our breweries and in this area in general is that sense of community. We collaborate. We support one another’s restaurants. We talk to each other about how we can all do things better. It’s not a competition thing.”
Two distinct versions of Guildy Pleasure will be brewed. A single-strength, hazy IPA at Lost Tavern in Hellertown, and a double-strength IPA at Sherman Street Beer Company in Allentown.
“We do that because there’s such a demand for it,” Albertson said.
“What we’re trying to do with Beer Week is make the Lehigh Valley a mecca of craft beers."Tony Gangi, co-owner, Lost Tavern
The spirit of collaboration among guild brewers is foundational, according to Tony Gangi, co-owner of Lost Tavern.
“We all work together to help one another,” Gangi said. “We meet once a month to discuss what we can do better in terms of retail and service to customers. We don’t see each other as competitors.
“What we’re trying to do with Beer Week is make the Lehigh Valley a mecca of craft beers. We hope to get people from all over to come here and enjoy our beers.
"People take what they call a Beercation — a vacation to go to different places to try different beers. We want people to come here.”
'Making it the place we want it to be'
Surrounded by a large warehouse room of large steel vats, Lost Tavern brewer Evan Holland monitored the process.
“We’re in the middle of our brew day,” Holland said. “I’m collecting samples after collecting X-amount of liquid of wort into my boil kettle. Getting gravity and pH reading on it to see what our initial starting gravity, which is our attainable alcohol percentage is currently.”
Wort is an aqueous solution of extract made from grain, intended for fermentation by yeast into beer.
While the verbiage of beer brewing may be a bit complicated to understand, the mission of the Lehigh Valley Brewers Guild is not.
“When we started this 11 years ago, there were, like, two craft brewers in the Valley,” Albertson said. “Now we have more than 23.
“This is just a bunch of local business owners and operators getting together to say, ‘Let’s do this. Let’s make something cool in the Valley.’
"It’s about supporting the area we all grew up or live in. We’re about making it the place we all want it to be.”
