You may pine for this ale from Dancing Gnome
If a tree collaboration drops in the beer forest, does it make a sound?
Well, lovers of trees and beer will take notice of an interesting collaboration between Dancing Gnome brewery in Sharpsburg and Tree Pittsburgh, a nonprofit dedicated to restoring and protecting the urban forest.
At noon Saturday, the brewery will release draft and cans of Eastern White Pine India pale ale, the first in a series of beers celebrating local trees. Joe Stavish, Tree Pittsburgh’s education coordinator, worked with the brewery’s Chris Connolly to research and design the can labels, which contain so much information that they had to be doubled up, with a top layer that peels back to reveal one underneath.
As founder and brewer Andrew Witchey proudly told fans in his weekly email, “Think of a medicine bottle — ‘peel here for additional info’ — allowing us 24 inches of usable design space” that will be given to tree bios. The top label is a simple illustration, but open it like a little book, and you get more detailed illustrations (by Mr. Stavish) and facts about each tree.
You could say this is a natural progression for Dancing Gnome. Its 2019 Birds Series culminated on Dec. 21 with the release of Coopers Hawk imperial IPA. The series before that featured flowers, even though the beers celebrated hops.
Mr. Witchey tried to keep the hinged label idea quiet over the past year so he could be the first local brewery to use it. “I think it provides a cool space to do a little more than just brew a beer and let people enjoy it.”
The first tree beer is described as “typical DG” in that it’s a double India pale ale (8% alcohol by volume) that gets its “extra piney finish” from Simcoe and Chinook hops. The taproom will also sell Willi Becher (German style) pint glasses commemorating this and other tree beers in coming months.
Dropping Feb. 29 is Eastern
Hemlock, a 5% alcohol stout.
Mr. Witchey went on to note that he’s “super excited to continue [the series] through the year and help benefit Tree Pittsburgh and their excellent cause. I strongly encourage you to check out the website, see what they’re all about, and get involved however you feel comfortable.” The site is www.treepittsburgh.org.
“The cool part for me is I teach about trees all the time,” Mr. Stavish said. “This is like a little field guide on the can.”
He’ll talk more about trees and promote Dancing Gnome in a series of smartphone videos on Tree Pittsburgh’s Vimeo channel.
The two men will work together on other events including one around Arbor Day in April.
Barrel-aged beer fest
The sixth annual Good Wood Barrel-Aged Beer Fest will run from 2 to 5 p.m. Feb. 16 at Spring Garden’s Threadbare Cider & Mead, which is doing the event with sister Wigle Whiskey and East End Brewing. Other breweries involved include Bloom, Burgh’ers, Four Seasons, Hitchhiker, Hop Farm and War Streets.
Tickets are $50 at threadbarecider.com.
Both locations of Burgh’ers — Lawrenceville and Zelienople — have bumped up their environmental and social bona fides by earning the top platinum designation for sustainable practices from Sustainable Pittsburgh. They’re two of just 10 area eateries so far to do so. The other brewery, also in Zelienople, is
ShuBrew.
Explore the region’s breweries on the Post-Gazette’s interactive drinks maps at https://newsinteractive.post -gazette.com/drink-map.