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Roy Pitz’s Brewing

Roy Pitz Brewing

Some say that Roy Pitz was the first person to open a brewery at the top of Mt. Everest while there are others that say he perfected the only way to brew beer with solely the power of thought. While these are (might) be just rumors, who is Roy Pitz?

Well, sadly there is no person named Roy Pitz and there’s still no brewery at the top of Mt. Everest, but lucky for you there is a brewery named Roy Pitz and the beer they make is pretty amazing. Roy Pitz Brewing Co. was founded in 2008 by longtime friends Ryan Richards and Jesse Rotz who became known as the team “Roy and Pitz” after some local Chambersburg lore. The name stuck and today Roy Pitz Brewing in Chambersburg, PA makes quality craft beer ranging from Daddy Fat Sacks, an American IPA to Lovitz Watermelon Lager, one of their first beers.

Both Richards and Rotz started their brewing careers as homebrewers and both attended the Siebel Institute, the nation’s premiere school for brewing arts, and both brew for the brewery they started still today. The first beers ever sold by Roy Pitz Brewing were the White Horse Hefeweizen and their Lovitz Watermelon Lager, which were surprisingly different choices for a new craft brewery.

This decision was less a want to buck the current system of IPAs, Stouts, and Pale Ales and more centralized on the recent hop crisis that affected many breweries. The hop harvest of 2008 was very weak, causing many brewers without contracts and even a few with, to be forced into using significantly less hops than they would like. This meant that for a new brewery like Roy Pitz that some interesting measures had to be taken. Instead of going for heavy-handed hop beers like their Daddy Fat Sacks they currently offer, they chose to do beers that required less hops but still had an amazing flavor.

Today Roy Pitz Brewing can be found in and around the Pittsburgh area in both bottles and draft. The current system at the brewery is now a 20-barrel brewhouse, much larger than what they thought they’d ever have back in their homebrewing days.

In 2013 Ryan and Jesse opened their bar and restaurant in Chambersburg to welcome the public into the brewery and serve them more than small samples. With the opening of the bar and restaurant Roy Pitz became a full-service brewpub, so to speak.
The Beer

Roy Pitz currently has three beers available in the Pittsburgh area in both bottles and drafts. The three available beers give fans of hops, malt, and even watermelon a Roy Pitz beer to call their own.

Best Blond Ale

Roy Pitz’s Best Blond Ale is a Kölsch that’s true to its roots. Brewed with all German ingredients, this beer has a generous helping of pale malt paired with crystal malt that gives it an almost wheaty aroma and taste.

The aroma features noble hops with some faint toasted bread in the background. The first thing you’ll notice after tasting the beer is all malt. The beer is malt-forward without being cloying or sweet and finishes with a slight hop flavor that is earthy and almost grassy, in a very good way.

Best Blond Ale is low enough in alcohol to be considered a session beer, meaning you can drink a few of these in a session and still live to tell the tale. Kölsch beers originated in Cologne, Germany and this beer sticks to this original style very well.

Food Pairing: Best Blond Ale pairs best with foods that are lighter in taste, including salads of any kind, fresh, lightly seasoned fish, and shellfish like oysters and shrimp.

Daddy Fat Sacks American IPA

Daddy Fat Sacks is an American IPA that’s full of flavor. The beer starts off with the aroma of sweet caramel and fruity hop resin, and moves into a somewhat sweet taste that includes resiny citrus flavor from the hops and a bitterness that comes up at the very end.

Roy Pitz wanted this beer to be a balanced, malt-forward IPA that wasn’t too bitter and had little lingering bitterness. They achieved this and more with Daddy Fat Sacks, making it a far more balanced American IPA than many others within the same style.

Food Pairing: IPAs tend to pair best with foods that have enough taste to stand up to the strong flavor of an IPA. This means salty and fried foods do very well with IPAs, but if you want the best experience, go with an Indian Curry. A beer like this one that offers a more balanced taste will go perfectly with a fiery-hot curry and will make you come back for more.

Lovitz Watermelon Lager

Roy Pitz’s watermelon lager is fruity, somewhat sweet, German fruit-aged beer that has just enough fruity kick to keep you coming back for more. Made with local watermelons, Lovitz Watermelon Lager is the perfect beer for summer.

One of the first two beers Roy Pitz ever made, and designed around the Hop Crisis, this beer has the taste and aroma that will remind you of a picnic or your family BBQ. Get this one while you can though, as it’s only available for a short time and only on draft.

Roy Pitz Brewing is proudly distributed in and around the Pittsburgh area by Vecenie Distributing Co.