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What you see before you is a wonderful collaboration; it is a combination of three wonderful local Pittsburgh brewers coming together to create a wonderful product.  To be honest, my vote is still out on this "collaboration" thing going on these days.  I get what is going on here and agree with the idea; this was made for the inaugural PCBW.  Eight wonderful local breweries came together, split out into teams and made 3 beers (I got the chance to ENJOY two last night).  In general though, this collaboration effort that is going on in the market seems a little overwhelming to me.  I guess in a way it is nice to see breweries working together and sharing secrets.  And in another way, it is always nice to have a variety of options to choose from and really add ideas to the marketplace.  But isn't the market already loaded with a TON of IPA's and Wheat Beers and Imperial this and Double that's?  I don't know.  Its sort of like the "TAP OUT" events (I believe they are called where bars replace ALL taps from one brewery for a night).  I'm not sure how I feel about that either.  Fortunately / Unfortunately, I have not made it out to the mass market to partake in one of these events but yet I'm not sure I feel like I'm missing anything.  That said, if you are in Pittsburgh this week and find your way out to a local establishment - you may be missing out on some nice gems for this event.

I forced the family out to dinner last night to The Pine selfishly so I could partake in yet another PCBW event.  I think my wife was aware of this maybe and allowed  it to happen!  She must love me.  Last nights event had the brewer from Full Pint at the bar.  I sampled 2-3 of their beers and really enjoyed the White Lighting Sample.  That is not the beer I'm reviewing tonight.  I also had the PCBW Collaboration beer Cheeky Yinzer.  This was a full beer and very tasty, but again - NOT THE BEER I am reviewing tonight.  I'm hoping to get out tomorrow night possibly to drink the Yinzer again to be able to review before it is all gone.  Tonight, I review the Sour Mash Red Ale. 

Frankly, I saw this on the list and was a little nervous but excited about this.  The fact that it was a collaboration beer made by The Church Brew Works, Penn Brewery and Hoffbrauhaus was definitely a huge excitement.  The "sour" had me a bit nervous that it could come across a bit too powerful.  Well, this beer was poured in a nice snifter style glass and arrived to my table with a nice frosted mist on the glass.  From first glance, I wasn't sure if the frost made the beer look cloudy or if the beer itself was cloudy.  I decided by the end of the beer that it was definitely a light cloudy mild brown.  The smell had a light crisp fruity smell to it.  I got a small hint of vinegar smell wafted from the glass (very faint).  The mouth feel was light body and a little watery.  It had a sweet light malt light sour flavor to it.  It was a very enjoyable beer.  In general, I would hope that if they try this again they work on getting a little more sour out of the beer but it was a nice "mellow" sour taste for the masses to enjoy.  It was a really great starter sour mash type beer for anyone to enjoy a bit of different flavored beer.  This one ranks HIGH in my mind because of various factors; the PCBW Collaboration; the Sour Mash; the fact that it was mellow but there; the unfiltered look (almost homebrew look to it); and I'm sure I could find a few others if I needed to.

To recap, thank you PCBW for a great week of beer (even though I missed most of them).  Once again, The Pine did not disappoint my wife and I with the food we ordered.  And it was nice to see the owner coming around and checking on everyone to make sure we were all doing good.  And in general, if you can get out to get this Sour Mash Red Ale I would suggest you do it; while supplies last!