East End Brewing Co. make creativity pay off as festival

East End Brewing Co. has always placed a premium on community. Local quality has always trumped national recognition for the small brewery, and its slogan is as neighborly as can be: “Buy a good friend a good beer.” At the beginning of this month, East End once again reached out to the Pittsburgh community, this time in the annual Festival of Darkness.

Though it sounds like a heavy-metal concert to rival Ozzfest, Festival of Darkness is actually a celebration of dark beer. For a mere $5 — all of which goes to support Light of Life Ministries, a local ministry that assists the homeless — lovers of good beer came to sample East End’s darkest offerings.

There is some disagreement within the small ranks of East End as to when Festival of Darkness started. Company founder and CEO Scott Smith admitted that even he had to use Google to find the earliest reference. It supposedly began in 2007, but there is still suspicion that the event goes back even further and no one seems to know for sure. In any case, an event that started with three beers on tap has grown to feature 12 and has become a marquee tasting for local craft beer enthusiasts.

Perhaps because of its bleak nature, winter has always been the prime season for big, malty, dark beers that warm the body and put a smile on your face. Smith seemed to buy into that idea, saying, “We’ve been, for a long time, in love with the notion of helping people with their seasonal depression by putting a whole bunch of dark beer into their hands.” Referencing the traditional association of dark beers with winter, as well as Pittsburgh’s recent arctic climate, Smith said, “[Dark beer] is a great way to carry you through the winter, a nice fur coat to carry into spring.” Despite its name, Festival of Darkness features a diverse selection of beers that ranged in style from relatively light Scottish gruits to imperial stouts the color of crude oil.

Mid-interview, an employee working behind the bar pressed a sample glass of East End’s Toaster Imperial Stout into my hands. True to its classification, the beer’s head was a deep, chocolate brown and light failed to penetrate through it even when held up to a bulb. It smelled of rich roasted malt with a lingering alcoholic sweetness that forewarned of an abusive sip, but, unlike many imperial stouts (which can feel like drinking a glass of thick paint), Toaster was smooth and forgiving. As I enjoyed the first of many morning beer samples, Smith said that Toaster was a Festival of Darkness veteran and, true to the brewery’s flexible timeline, it was either four or five years old, leading Smith the dub it “the fifth anniversary of our fourth anniversary.”

Next came a palate cleanser in the form of the decidedly light Honey Heather Ale. This beer, unlike Toaster, was no stranger to me, having had it at The Porch more than a few times. Still, its subtle herbaceous quality coupled with the sweet punch of Pittsburgh honey (courtesy of The Porch’s bees) made it delicate and robust all at once.

A beer that I had never sampled before was Lord Nordsberry Belgian Ale, East End’s take on a Belgian dark ale brewed with raspberries. Where most Belgian darks are thick and heavy, Lord Nordsberry — named for Nordy (not that Nordy), one of East End’s brewers, Nordy Siljander, — was anything but. Contrary to my expectations, the medium-brown ale was light and effervescent with a soda-like carbonation. The flavor of the raspberries came through but was not so dominant as to snuff out the malt, making this a well-balanced and easily drinkable beer. Unlike many of its Belgian counterparts, Lord Nordsberry was designed to be sessionable, with an ABV of only 6 percent. Easily my favorite beer of the day, I bought a half growler (32 ounces) afterwards.

Amid all of the quality dark beer flowing into my glass, there was one that the staff seemed particularly keen for me to try — Smokestack Heritage Porter. Normally I’m not so attracted to porters, seeing them as weaker versions of stouts and more susceptible to being ruined by the addition of sickly sweet vanilla flavoring (I’m looking at you, Leinenkugel). Still, as this particular offering was once considered the best smoked porter in the world by the venerable Beeradvocate.com, I figured a taste was in order. Happily, the beer lived up to its accolades with a big, chocolatey flavor accented by a heavy dose of hickory smoke. For any lover of dark beer, this is a must-have.

The surprise of the day came in the form of East End’s Chocolate Covered Cherry Stout. Normally when a beer advertises cherry as an additional flavor component, it is a clear sign to run. Most cherry-flavored beers taste more like cough syrup than cherry, so naturally, I had my doubts. But like all of East End’s beers, this one was a success. The cherry flavor, courtesy of Michigan sour cherries as opposed to cherry juice extract, operated in perfect harmony with all 44 pounds of Belgian chocolate mixed into  the batch. The result was a gorgeous chocolate stout with just a hint of fruit to keep its drinker interested.

While a trip over to East End is always a worthwhile adventure, Festival of Darkness exposed visitors to something more than a simple tasting. It was a chance for the brewery to show skeptics that a fun, experimental approach to beer pays off deliciously.