The Church Brew Works - Dunkelweizen

I love everything about Pittsburgh. I love living here, working here, cheering for sports here, and most importantly drinking here. That’s why it is absolutely unfortunate that everyone around Pittsburgh loves the Church Brew Works when in actuality it is overrated crap at best.

Located in hipster Lawrenceville, the website gives a long and drawn out history of the area dating back to the civil war, but has nothing to do with beer so I just skimmed the first 20 paragraphs to finally find some useful information. Church Brew Works opened in 1996 from a converted old church that no one wanted to go to anymore. I do have to say the interior and atmosphere is pretty cool. Still has the all the old stained glass, organ, and all the other stuff you would expect in a church. That’s where the good ends.

I’ve eaten there once, and drank there on a few occasions. The food was subpar at best and every beer I had was the nothing to write home about. I don’t know how things could go so wrong. The few staff that I encountered was unknowledgeable and couldn’t explain a damn thing about the beer.

Now, to the beer at hand, the Church Brew Works Dunkelweizen. An insult to German beer makers by taking this name. I “enjoyed” this beer during a rain delay of the first place Pittsburgh Pirates (7/18/11, because that will probably change) It was dark in color and that’s about it. The smell was malty and pleasant, and tasted like skunk , but this was not skunked beer. The milk stout I had there in the past had the same after taste, maybe it’s the water or something. The superb website gave me no info on the beer, so we can assume there were no malts, hops, or grains used. And with that assumption no alcohol produced to mask the flavor. At $8.75 a pint it was a deal worse than trading Bautista a few years back.

Drinkability: 2/10

Taste: 3/10

Value: 2/10

Curb Appeal: 6/10

Overall: 3.25/10