Craft Beer with Man’s Best Friend

, Craft Beer with Man’s Best FriendShadyside is a small neighborhood in the city of Pittsburgh, which over the years has become one of the go-to places for graduate students and young professionals setting out into the real world. It is a neighborhood in limbo where you can find an upscale restaurant next to a greasy pizza joint, and expensive clothing stores across the street from trendy coffee shops – making it an ideal place to live for those of us who are getting older but not quite ready to grow up. There are two things you’ll find everywhere you go in Shadyside: bars serving craft beer (more than a dozen in less than one square mile), and people walking their pups.

Just over 2 years ago, 4 friends got together and opened Petagogy, a small pet shop providing the best education and selection of premium and natural pet products in Shadyside. With the number of dogs in the neighborhood and the health-conscious tendencies of these young owners, the shop made a real impact. Yet these young entrepreneurs quickly realized how much time owning a business takes, leaving little free time to pursue the more carefree activities the neighborhood offers.

, Craft Beer with Man’s Best Friend“We all like drinking beer, but weren’t doing much of it because we were spending all of our waking hours at the store,” explained Cole Wolfson, one of the shop’s founders. “We had to come up with a way that we could drink at the store.” And so the Yappy Hour was born – a quarterly event that invites customers and their dogs to the shop to indulge in beer and dog biscuits. I was lucky enough to attend the most recent event with Copper Kettle Brewing Company, serving up a Cucumber Wheat beer to the humans while the pups did their best tricks to get a cookie provided by Brewery Dog Treats.

Brewery Dog is an innovative new business in partnership with Copper Kettle Brewing Company, Pittsburgh’s only brew-on-premise brewery. Brewery Dog uses spent grains (barley and wheat that have been steeped in hot water during the brewing process and can no longer be used for brewing purposes) along with other natural ingredients, such as cage-free eggs and all-natural peanut butter, to turn man’s favorite beverage into a fun treat for man’s best friend. Along with reducing spent grain waste and being the safest way to share a beer with your dog, the dogs seemed to love them and munched happily while their people enjoyed a cold one.

, Craft Beer with Man’s Best FriendThe Yappy Hour has been such a big success for Petagogy that they’ve been putting on this bark and beer event every quarter. “The only downside is mopping up the dog hair-caked beer spills in the morning,” said Cole. With about 40 dogs attending the event, I can only imagine! From a tiny bug-eyed pug and little puppies to smiley pitbulls and a 9-month-old black lab already weighing in at 105 pounds, all creatures big and small, 4-legged and bipedal had a great time!

A special thanks to all the dogs that let me pet them!

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