Beer Week Events: DiBruno Bros. and Hawthornes

I went with my dad to the Phils game last night--two games in one week--and figured it would be a nice chance to squeeze in a couple of Beer Week events beforehand rather than shell out 7 bucks for beer at the game. 

Our first stop was DiBruno Bros., who were sponsoring a free beer and cheese tasting.  A distributor representing Stoudt's Brewery from Adamstown was pouring 5 selections.  Apparently Stoudt's is the oldest craft brewer in PA, "craft" meaning all-malt (Yuengling is older but uses corn, a cheaper grain, to supplement it's mash).  It's also the first female owned brewery.  On to the tasting.  The beers were as follows: Karnival Kolsch, Munich Helles, Scarlet Lady ESB, American Pale Ale, and Blonde Double Maibock.  The best beer may have been the maibock, but I got the dregs and it was a bit warm.  I like their ESB, too.  The DiBruno cheesemongers paired each beer with a cheese, I can't remember the cheeses.  They were generous with the portions, I wish they would have been a little more into explaining the reasons they choose which beers.  I could have asked, I guess, but the beer guy would explain the beer and then the cheese guys would just hand you a piece of cheese, maybe saying a comment but not much.  Still, a fun event, and who can complain with the price?

For dinner we walked over to Hawthorne's, a cafe/beer takeout joint with growler service.  Their growlers are cool bc/ they pressurize them so you can keep it in the fridge for a couple of weeks rather than a couple of days.  Their event last night was a Dark Horse tap takeover, with 16 taps from the Michigan brewer, apparently none of which have been in Philly before.  I had the Crooked Tree unfiltered IPA to go with my open faced falafel sandwich.  The sandwich was good, though my wife's hummus is better.  The IPA was very good.  If we had more time I would have tried their Belgian tripel.  I tried to get them to pour me a taste but they were not giving tastes of that beer to preserve it for paying customers.  Oh well. 

Another great night for Beer Week 2011.