Greensburg Craft Beer Week pairs brews with food, music and fun - TribLIVE

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Greensburg Craft Beer Week is an opportunity for area brewers to showcase their new products and customer favorites. It’s also an opportunity to combine a glass or two with some food and fun.

This year’s event begins Friday and runs through Sept. 26 at breweries and other indoor and outdoor locations in Greensburg and surrounding communities.

Because of pandemic restrictions, organizers first considered making the week a series of takeout opportunities, said Jessica Hickey, founder of the Downtown Greensburg Project.

“People really want to get out and do something, though,” Hickey said. “There’s not that much going on, and people want to be involved in something. We’ll have a lot of outside events where people can pop in and pop out, and we’ll be abiding by all the (safety) guidelines.

“We said, whatever it takes, we’re gonna do it,” she said.

Friday’s opening event also will be the grand opening of the new Green Beacon Gallery in downtown Greensburg, kicking off at noon with a ribbon-cutting by the Westmoreland County Chamber of Commerce.

A celebration will follow until 9 p.m. behind the building at 235 W. Pittsburgh St., with craft beer from Invisible Man Brewing, live music and food trucks. Visitors in small groups may tour the gallery’s main floor to view artworks and other handmade products for sale.

The gallery joined in at the last minute, when its opening date just happened to coincide with the start of craft beer week, said gallery co-founder Phil Harrold.

“This is exactly the kind of thing that we want to be doing with the Beacon, connecting with other businesses to bring people enjoyable reasons to visit downtown,” he said.

Beer pairings

Following days will feature product releases; beer pairings with food, dessert, cigars and other spirits at various locations; and “Tap Takeovers,” during which one brewery will serve its own products, along with quaffs from others.

Among other notable opening night events are a food truck roundup at Quinn Brewing Co. in Irwin to benefit the Lamp Theatre and teacher appreciation night at Invisible Man in downtown Greensburg.

Shane Dunlap | Tribune-Review

Aubrey Perichak (left) of North Huntingdon orders a pilsner from guest bartender Melissa Bonifazi during “yappy hour” at Petagogy in Hempfield as part of the 2019 Greensburg Craft Beer Week.

A block party is set for 5-9 p.m. Sept. 19 on South Pennsylvania Avenue behind the Westmoreland County Courthouse, with beer tents, food trucks, a DJ, yard games and socially distant seating areas.

Another outdoor gathering is planned for Sept. 24 in the parking lot at Flat Tire Co. Bike Shop and Wellness on the Point in Greensburg. Starting at 6 p.m., Flat Tire will host a free kids’ mountain bike clinic and an all-ages ride along the Five Star Trail.

Engage your senses

Beer will pair with yoga at 6:30 p.m. Sept. 22 in St. Clair Park in downtown Greensburg, for preregistered participants only during Brew Zen: Outdoor Yoga for Beer Drinkers.

“We’ll start with a really small (beer) sample and some deep yoga breathing to take in the aroma, then swirl it to engage the other senses,” said Aubrey Worek, owner of FitnessEnvi in Greensburg, who will lead the session. “We’ll have small samples in the middle of the session and again at the end.

“We’ll use all the senses to embrace the experience. The purpose is not to get hammered, but to get a beer education and a yoga education,” she said.

Participants also will be able to enjoy a pint of beer of their choice at FitnessEnvi following the class.

Guests can test their hand-eye coordination after a sip or two during Puzzles and Pints at 7 p.m. Sept. 23 at 60 Minute Missions Escape Room in Greensburg.

An assortment of 500-piece jigsaw puzzles will be available for drop-ins, while preregistered teams of two to four can compete to see who can assemble theirs the fastest, said co-owner Brian McCollum.

Each team will work on a randomly assigned puzzle, though all puzzles will have similar themes and difficulty levels.

“You don’t even get the box for the first 15 minutes,” McCollum said. “We’ve found that really good teams can do a puzzle in about an hour.”

The top three teams will earn prizes and, McCollum added, “If they really like their puzzle, we can glue it together on the spot for them to take home.”

A $10 cover includes pizza. Sobel’s Obscure Brewery in Jeannette will be on hand with craft beer samples.

A complete list of events and participating breweries and businesses, along with a link to purchase a $20 commemorative screen-printed T-shirt, is available at greensburgcraftbeerweek.com.

Shirley McMarlin is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Shirley at 724-836-5750, smcmarlin@triblive.com or via Twitter .

Categories: Food & Drink | Lifestyles | More Lifestyles | Westmoreland