Friday the Firkinteenth is a cask ale drinking frenzy that is bestowed upon us at the whim of the calendar, on every Friday the Thirteenth. To celebrate the most unlucky day of the year, the Grey Lodge Pub holds a 12-hour marathon where the goal is pretty simple: drink beer, see old friends, make new ones and keep coming back until you kill a firkin.
No matter how many by-chance Firkinteenth holidays fall in a given year, typically one to three, Grey Lodge Pub plans out 2 sessions of craft beer drinking mania that kills at least 26 firkins (1,872 pints, or just shy of 30,000 oz.) in 12 hours. Mike “Scoats” Scotese, the owner of the two-story neighborhood bar, started the event in 1998 with the goal of introducing people to cask beer from some local breweries.
The small event has since snowballed into a destination event with loads of local brew, usually of the special or rare variety, to help mark the occasion. People travel from all over the region highlighting the naturally paralleled increase in popularity of cask ale and Friday the Firkinteenth.
Of the modern cask ale selection, Scoats said, “Cask ale itself has become more widely found, so the barrels themselves are tinkered with or there are fruit or other additions to some of the beers. With others it’s nice to have a basic English style ale, and you put it on cask and it gets elegantly subtle.”
Some of his favorite cask ales from past years have been the Neshaminy Creek Croydon Cream Ale and Troegs Pale Ale, which he noted sounds boring on paper but was simply an excellently brewed beer.
For this November’s Friday the Firkinteenth, Scoats and the Grey Lodge crew lined up the firkins along the bar and started tapping right at noon. The early crowd made their way in, and the joint was packed before three o’clock. The sights upon walking in the pub were chaotic with people waving money to get the bartender’s attention, glugging back lightly carbonated liquid from plastic cups and peeking up at the chalkboard to see which kegs been kicked. Even with all that sidelined mayhem, there were a few die-hards keeping their focus on the seven active firkins, preying on whichever one on was on its last legs. When the bartender started leaning the firkin forward to draw out the last few pints, the crowd started flocking for the last pour with hopes of being the honorary drinker to kick a firkin and be awarded a coveted t-shirt.
With all the pandemonium of the event, let’s not forget about the absolutely unmatched beers that were on draft. For the early comers, the Lancaster Brewing Pre-flight IPA, which is dry-hopped with Simcoe, opened up the day with balanced citrus tastes of pineapple and hops. Also on the early shift, the Flying Fish Cru Brulee, a take on their Grand Cru with lacto and vanilla beans, poured with a thick head and a sweet, creamy flavor. Other notable brews during the day session were the Yards Grapefruit PPA brewed with Eureka hops, the Manayunk PB&J Crunch Porter and the Cape May Chai Tea Honey Porter.
Moving into the night session, an obvious standout was the Neshaminy Creek Chocolate Mudbank Milk Stout, which wholly benefitted from being on cask. The dark beer poured with almost no head and was immensely rich, thick and creamy. Another strong cask was the Sixpoint Diesel, which is dry-hopped with Columbus and Northern Brewer hops. The brewery describes the brew as part black-IPA and part stout, and on cask it comes through as shockingly dry, pungent and sludgy. Other notable brews, on the lighter side this time, were the bright Sole Electric Kush and the tropical Sly Fox Hop Project Equinox, both of which satisfied regular IPA drinkers. We wish we could have tried more of the odd selections, but Scoats reassured us that “there is no end of great beer.”
Friday the Firkinteenth may turn some people off because of its barebones nature, but others learn to love the rowdy environment. The bar accepts cash only for the event, and it can sometimes take awhile to elbow your way into the bartender’s view to call for a brew. However, the simplistic nature of an event like this is truly its calling card. Aside from the amount of breweries that want to be a part of it, Friday the Firkinteenth hasn’t changed much over 17 years and 32 events. And that is its charm.
Scoats says the event may evolve in the future, and mentioned that they may be getting pins, or half-size firkins, which would allow them to host more beers from more breweries as well as speed up the pace of the event. However, most importantly for the Grey Lodge Pub is the day-to-day and being a reliable, neighborhood beer bar. When I asked him if he was in it for the beer or the friends, he said “For me, it was never an issue of ‘let’s be local’ or ‘let’s be craft.’ It was always let’s be both.”
The Grey Lodge Pub is located at 623 Frankford Ave. in Northeast Philadelphia; phone:(215) 856-3591. Get updates on Facebook and Instagram.
- Photos: Jay Breslin
