No, we're not a coffeeshop.  The Acoustic Brew Coffeehouse is a non-profit, volunteer-run concert series.  We are a listening place committed to providing reasonably priced, quality folk and acoustic music in an intimate, smoke- and alcohol-free environment.  Begun in 1992, the Acoustic Brew was the idea of John Walls, who moved to central Pennsylvania from New England and who had been involved with the Nameless Coffeehouse in Cambridge, Mass.  In just a few years the Acoustic Brew developed a strong reputation, both among folk performers and in the local community.  Despite its small size, ABC has attracted quite a number of regional and national folk artists. 

Many performances take place at the Center for Well Being, a yoga and massage facility that the Brew rents for its concerts and that seats about 120.  The Center is located on Mount Nittany Road in Lemont, about three miles from Penn State's main campus.  It's about 90 minutes from Harrisburg; three hours from Pittsburgh; and four hours from New York City, Ithaca, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington D.C.  Larger performances are held either at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, the State College Area High School, Mount Nittany Middle School, and most recently the WPSU Studios in PSU's Research Park.

Central Pennsylvania has a thriving folk music community, thanks in part to WPSU, the public radio station at Penn State.  The Folk Show airs in two hours blocks Saturdays at 6:00 a.m., 1:00 p.m., 3:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m., and Sundays at 11:00 a.m.  Heard on 91.5 FM in the State College area, 106.7 or 91.5 FM in the Altoona area, 100.9 in the Bradford area, and 90.1 FM (WPSB) in Kane and northwestern Pennsylvania, the Folk Show has been a major factor in the Brew's success. In the fall of 2005, we began a partnership with WPSU to present concerts in their studio space and we will be doing so once or twice a season.