Like most things in Philly, the newest tavern in town already has a history.

It’s 700, on 2nd Street at Fairmount Avenue in Northern Liberties. Nine primo taps, live music and a dart board.

Go back 12, 13 years, though, and Mr. Weg and I are on the second floor of this very spot. Instead of a softly lit pub … Read the rest

Only six more drinking days until Christmas. That means you’ll have to double up on Joe Sixpack’s annual 12 Beers of Christmas.

Cooked up by happy brewers as a gift to beer fans, these holiday beers typically contain added malt and spices like nutmeg and cinnamon.

Each is a satisfying alternative to eggnog and hot toddies, perfect for a cozy … Read the rest

Dear Santa,

How’s it going, geezer? Betcha didn’t think I’d catch up to you after that little stunt you pulled last winter at our annual poker game. You walked out of the club after running five straight pots and didn’t give the rest of us – the Easter Bunny, St. Patrick, the Tooth Fairy and me, Joe Sixpack – a … Read the rest

The single most frequent question beer-drinkers ask me (aside from how I convinced the Daily News to pick up my beer tab) is: Where the heck can I buy the beers you write about?

These people don’t actually speak in italics, by the way. But they are thirsty enough for great beer to whine about the sad state of beer … Read the rest

Tonight is First Friday, Old City’s uniquely loathsome evening of crowded galleries and cheap wine.

Yo, Joe Sixpack enjoys contemplating naked sculptures as much as the next art lover. But when you get tired of rubbing elbows with people dressed in black, find an excuse to slip out the door and head off to one of the neighborhood’s plentiful taverns.… Read the rest

The best part about attending the Great American Beer Festival in Denver is sampling brews from faraway points that, unless you had an unlimited travel expense account (hint, hint), you’d never otherwise taste. The worst part is knowing that, unless you can somehow make a road trip to East Japip, you’ll never get to taste ’em again.

That’s because many … Read the rest

DENVER  – Now we know why they call it the Mile High City.

Sample a few dozen one-ounce servings of America’s best beers and you, too, can reach a deceptively altered state of consciousness.

Thanks to my steel-trap memory and some barely decipherable notes, however, here are Joe Sixpack’s personal high points from the 16th annual Great American Beer Festival:… Read the rest

Welcome to the Great American Beer Festival.

It’s the world’s single-largest drinking event this side of Munich’s Oktoberfest: 457 breweries, 1,813 beers and more than 30,000 extremely serious, all-business, nose-to-the-grindstone conventioneers.

We’re talking three days of extensive, self-sacrificing research, if you know what I mean.

And for what?

For most of us, it’s to hone our beer-consumption skills.

But for … Read the rest

When the boss asked me to write about the secret of entertaining with beer, I asked her, Who do I look like – Martha Stewart? Grab a bag of pretzels and pop open a cold one!

Beer cuisine is, as it should be, simple. It is Everyman’s beverage. Unlike wine, it does not require a snooty sommelier to tell you … Read the rest

A full-size shuffleboard, a basement bowling alley, card tables, art-deco etched-glass mirrors and an odor of cigar-burnished woodwork give the United Republican Club of the 25th Ward the look and feel of a tavern from yesteryear. So it’s no surprise that the reg’lars at the Kensington club turned up a 20-year-old can of Ortlieb’s.

“For a long time, it was … Read the rest