The Third Annual Philly Beer Week, June 4-13, will mark its opening event, and many thereafter, with the pouring of BS1, created by an all-star quintet of local brewers as the "official" beer of PBW. The first keg will be tapped by Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter at the Opening Tap ceremonies at the Independence Visitors Center in Olde City at 7:30pm on Friday, June 4.

The brewing group, which calls themselves Brotherly Suds, consists of Stoudt Brewing's Brett Kintzer, Victory Brewing's Bill Covaleski, Yards Brewing's Tom Kehoe, Troegs Brewing's John Trogner and Sly Fox Brewing's Brian O'Reilly. They came together at the Sly Fox Brewery in Royersford on May 7 to design and make a hoppy 6% ESB brewed with the Ballantine yeast strain and hopped with Cascade, Centennial, East Kent Goldings, Nugget and Simcoe varieties. Hops were added three times during the boil and then the beer was dry-hopped with Nugget and Centennial. Five malts were used: British Maris Otter, British Pale, German Pale, German Caramel, British Crystal and German Roast.

"Brett and Tom formulated the grist, John and Bill selected the hops and I and the brewing staff contributed the brewing process," said O'Reilly, who also does another PBW beer every year with William Reed of The Standard Tap (this year it will be cask-conditioned Standard Porter). "Brian does a longer boil than any of the rest of us so that affects when and how we hop," noted Covaleski. "It's a synergy of all our brewing expertise and experience."

"The idea is that Brotherly Suds will be a group brew for every PBW from here on out," said Kehoe, "with one of us dropping out and a new brewer coming on board." O'Reilly said that he'd like to see a brewpub involved in the 2011 brew.

Following its release on June 4, BS1 will be poured at other events throughout the ten-day celebration, starting with being featured at Sly Fox Brewhouse & Eatery in Phoenixville the next day during the Second Annual Phoenixville Pub Crawl.