WILK Friday BeerBuzz – 19 Oct 2012 – Victory Festbier w/Bill Covaleski

When I first started the Friday BeerBuzz back in April 2010, I wanted to focus our efforts on local breweries and feature some of our best local brewmasters.  We’ve had some amazing guests, but there were always a few brewmasters I’ve been unable to get on the show.  While I’m sad to report it has taken me over 2-years to get today’s guest to join us, I’m really excited to welcome him on the show….AND it was worth the wait.

The WILK Friday BeerBuzz premiered both Victory Headwater’s Pale Ale and Victory Summer Love in the Northeastern PA market so we were honored to be joined by Victory co-founder and brewmaster Bill Covaleski on the show today.

It was a lot of fun talking to Bill and it is clear that Victory Brewing not only makes some great beers, but that they are committed to sustainability of their local resources…especially their water.  It was cool to hear how Victory sponsors the Headwaters Grant each year and how they go out of their way to brew all of their beer in an environmentally-friendly manner.

Bill also was nice enough to give us an update on the NEW Parkesburg, PA facility as it gets closer to coming on-line.  I was amazed at the impressive stats for this new facility and I’ll be very excited to see what it means for Victory’s distribution, both in NEPA and elsewhere.

In case you thought we forgot, of course we sampled a beer today.  Because it’s still the perfect season for it, we chose Victory’s classic Festbier.  This beer is a typical German Marzen-style brew that uses German malts & hops, but it has a great sweetness and malty finish that makes you want more.  Festbier won GABF gold in 2007 so it’s no surprise that this is one of Victory’s best sellers, especially when it is paired with their wonderful brewpub food.  Try this one for yourself.

Finally it was a lot of fun talking about some of Victory’s new and exciting barrel-aged beer coming soon.  Bill gave us an update on Red Thunder, White Monkey and Oak Horizontal and I can’t wait to try them.  Of course it was also very fun to talk to Bill on the eve of our WILK Friday BeerBuzz Tour de Buzz trip to Victory brewing tomorrow.  Victory Festbier is a great beer and you’ll get to try one tomorrow if you’re joining us on the trip.

Thank you to Bill Covaleski from Victory Brewing, Nancy, John & Joe for yet another

fun Friday.

The Friday BeerBuzz…bringing good beers and good people together.

As always you can check out the video on-line at the WILK Friday BeerBuzz page by clicking HERE.