Filling the Piazza at Schmidt’s this past Friday and Saturday, May 10 and 11, LivingSocial brought its first Beerfest to Philadelphia in three sessions. Whether you chose Friday evening, Saturday afternoon or Saturday evening, there were tents lining the Piazza, covering multiple tap handles pouring a wide selection of Philly’s favorite adult beverage.
The beer tents lined each side of the square, with a row of tents in the middle designated for hanging out and, for the first hour or so of Saturday’s early session, staying out of the spitting rain. Through rain or shine, the lines didn’t abate for the pleasant mix of breweries in attendance. There were the usual local purveyors like Stoudt’s, Weyerbacher, Victory and Prism, more often than not giving away their basic line-up in the form of lagers or summer ales. There were also plenty of breweries that don’t generally turn up at the fests in this area, such as Doylestown, Fordham, Old Dominion and the larger likes of Leinenkugel and Coors.
The most popular, however, was Lansdale’s Round Guys, whose line trailed halfway across the Piazza almost the entire event. The goal, of course, was to get a taste of their uber-popular Berliner-Weisster Weisster-Berliner, the sour-styled low-ABV wonder that was paired with either woodruff or raspberry syrup. It’s a shame that their other beer in attendance, the Sunrise Mill Saison, was being overshadowed by the Berliner, as it is a delicious beer.
The slight drizzle for the first hour on Saturday didn’t keep people from enjoying themselves, as there were plenty of games to offset the time in line for beer. Whether it was ping pong, a large version of beer pong, connect four or cornhole, the games were always full as the beer poured on and a cover band played throughout most of the afternoon. Once attendees got hungry, there were a bevy of food trucks parked outside to help soak up stomachs full of beer, including Vernalicious, Dapper Dog, Cow and the Curd, Li’l Dan’s and Sweetbox.
The event was a fun time for anyone who wanted to brave the slightly overcast weather to enjoy good beer and a few games. This wasn’t the beer fest to go to in order to sip on rare gems or chat with brewers—this was a larger-than-average backyard party with a better selection than usual. If LivingSocial does this again in the future and one were to attend with that in mind, it will be a great way to spend a few hours drinking beer.
Photographs credited to Ryan Hudak.
