We are packing up for our annual trip to the venerable Brewery Ommegang. Every summer they host and event called Belgium Comes to Cooperstown which is, in my opinion, the best beer festival east of the Mississippi. This year the VIP tickets sold out in 15 minutes! A big group of us are caravanning up from Philly and I’ll keep you posted on the haps.

Check out this cool video about fun stuff to do in Delaware. Cameo appearance by Brian Finn Head Brewer of Iron Hill Wilmington

Well the 2010 Iron Hill Twilight Criterium has now drawn to a close and I am happy to report that it was another great year of BBQ, Beer, and Bike Racing! In spite of the early rain, the course was in great shape and we had a blast watching the riders ‘go fast / turn left’ It was great to see everyone out for this killer annual summer event…and to share a beer with more than a few of you. I did hear some folks joking that it would have been a lot more entertaining if the course were wet…you know, lots of slipping sliding. The pro racers seemed plenty pleased about the dry track.

This was the sixth annual race. Overe 20,000 spectators lined the streets of West Chester to watch professional cyclists compete around the .8-mile circuit course starting and finishing right in front of the brewery (I even got to go on stage!). In addition to the Pro Men’s race, the schedule of events included an Amateur Men’s Criterium and an Elite Women’s Criterium. Also taking place was the popular West Chester Dental Arts Kids’ Race, which attracted over 400 participating children this year…most in much better shape than me!

It looks like we will be sponsoring for at least the next five years. Right on, ‘cause it was a blast. Check out the photos.

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Hey Gang, I just found this in my ‘Draft Bin’ I HAVE to post it ’cause of the great photo of Bob. Nice.

The annual Bradywine Valley Craft Brewer’s Fest at Iron Hill Media is in the can. Sorry to those of you who couldn’t get tickets…we sold out before the day of the event again! Media Youth Center is the benificerary of this fine event. The weather was great (not too hot).

Here’s Bob pouring Double IPA from 6 Liter bottle. (I can barley lift ‘em empty!) Check out all of the folks trying to get some of his sweet, sweet love. Every time he lifted it into the air the crowd went nuts!

Yesterday we installed a new 20 barrel fermenter at the Iron Hill Mapleshade location…more to come!

Beer week is over…and my liver is recovering nicely. Tons of awesome events, but check out this great review of Groundhog Baltic Porter over at the Beer Geek Blog. Nice photo of Jean and Dave too.

Friday June 11^th we will be hosting the Iron Brewer Tapping Party. Every year we host a special homebrew competition with our local homebrew club B.U.Z.Z. to see which Homebrew Master can brew up a great beer with some of our ingredients. This time around our winner was the one and only Dave Hausman. He will be on hand for the awards ceremony and official First Tapping of a firkin of his very own Groundhog Baltic Porter.   The tapping will be at 6:45pm followed by presentation of the official Iron Brewer Trophy. We will be serving some 3 liter bottles of R.O.S. (Super Secret Really Old Stuff from our cellar) Come meet Dave and try his beer. Light snacks will be served.  A complete Winners List along with blow by blow highlights is available over here at the West Chester Blog.  See you Friday! (check out the pic of Dave adding hops. Nice!)

Round 3! This Wednesday night we will be hosting Master Chocolatier Christopher Curtin from Éclat Chocolate here in West Chester for a Beer and Chocolate pairing Happy Hour.  Christopher and I will be giving out complimentary samples of our beer paired with his world class chocolate from 5:00pm-7:00pm in the bar here at Iron Hill. Stop by to learn about chocolate….and to taste this incredible pairing!! I can’t wait!

Well beer week is in full swing, and the Iron Hill Gang is wrapped up in all kinds of great beer events. More on these as they come along. One of the coolest IMHO will be at our North Wales location Thursday evening. The Uber-famous beer writer / designer Rand Mosher is coming to our place!!!

Randy Mosher is a nationally-recognized author and expert in the field of beer and brewing. He writes for virtually all the national beer and brewing-related periodicals, has lectured to audiences across the country, and has taught beer style courses at the Siebel Institute.

He is active in the leadership of Chicago Beer Society, the American Homebrewers Association, and the Association of Brewers. His interests in beer and brewing memorabilia combined with his experience as a branding and packaging designer specializing in beer and food have given him the tools to visually express the richness and exuberance of beer and brewing traditions in Radical Brewing.

He is also the author of The Brewer’s Companion (Alephenalia, Seattle, WA, Revised Second Edition, 1995), a brewer’s reference and recipe planning guide. Randy Mosher lives in Chicago with his wife Nancy

Randy will be doing a book signing at Keystone Homebrew from 5:30-6:30 followed by a talk on tasting beer beginning at 7:00pm at Iron Hill. (beer and light snacks)

You can get tickets to the event over at the Keystone Homebrew site. See you there!

WooHoo. Summer is officially here! To help celebrate the warm season we are loading the taps up with beer styles that include wheat all month long. The lineup for June will include Cherry Tart, Witbier, Hefeweizen,  Dunkel Weizen, American Wheat Beer, Roggenbier,  and our Raspberry Wheat. We will also be re-releasing Mohallo Apollo (You guys drank throught the first batch so fast I can’t believe it! We have another one in the works which will be out shortly). There is nothing like drinking a Hefe 0r Witbier in the sun on a sunny summer afternoon.

Come join us this Friday June 4th from 5:00p.m. – 7:00p.m. for our Wheat Drink and Be Merry Kickoff Happy hour! We’ll all be here enjoying the sun, the wheat beers, and some light snacks. As always you’ll be able to get a wheat beer sampler too if you like. MMMMmmmm.