Stoudt’s Brewing Company hosted their first ever BATTLE OF THE BREWERY BANDS for charity and I was happy to attend representing Iron Hill. Iron Hill did not have an actual band in the battle of the bands…but hey, who’s counting? My good friend Casey Hughes over at Flying Fish Brewery has a great philosophy about beer events. He says all brewers should be at all of them all of the time even if they aren’t actually participating. (At least the ones he wants to go to) That sounds pretty straight forward, but you’ve really got to talk to him about it to get the real meaning. He has suggested showing up to a Not To Be Named beer festival in the Poconos in the uniform of his brewery with beer, a couch, beer, and a velvet rope. His dream is to set up his booth facing inward, rope it off, and drink without pouring for the entire event. I little out there, I know, but fun just the same. So I forked over my $20 and in fine Stoudt’s fashion I was treated to The Buffet: Sausage and with it. Lots of great craft beer was poured from the participating breweries and Ed and Carol Stoudt were gracious fun loving hosts as always. Highlights include Carol being sung to by a man dressed like Marylin Monroe, Ed singing…yes singing…a version of Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World”.  He changed the lyrics to “What Wonderful Beers” and everyone cheered. Nice work Ed!

Bands came on one after another with lots of local breweries representing:

Brewery Bands participating –chosen charity
Tröeg’s “Starsan” – Capital Area Greenbelt Association
Victory’s “Brewers Blues” – A Hospital in Philadelphia
Legacy’s “Brews Brothers” – Humane Society
Union Barrel Work’s “Sunset Limited” – American Cancer Society
PA. HomeBrew Club’s “The Yeastie Boys” – Hospice
Stoudt’s “Bad Strudel” – Relay for Life

The Celebrity judge panel included some friends:  Tom Peters – owner of the great Monk’s Cafe in Philly. Lew Bryson, Kevin Trayner – Ale Street News beer writer, Francine Scoboris – Berks County Living editor, and one wildcard from New England.

Top honors went to the band Starsan from Troegs. Starsan is HOTT, hot, hot, and are fronted by the lovely Future Mrs. Horwitz (Whitney Thompson, brewer). She helped them carry off the ‘Golden Keg’ and I am very proud. Yeah!

For the record, Brian O’rielly at Sly Fox had the idea for this event years ago…we kept talking about doing it and I’m not dissapointed that the Stoudt’s Crew got if off of the ground first. They did a great job and raised over $4700 for charity.