Jim Koch, the brewery owner whose familiar voice is as smooth as single-barrel whiskey, is on the phone after a day of meetings in Boston. A variety sixpack of his Samuel Adams beers sits in front of him, and he can’t wait to sample a few of them – quality control, you know.

“I’ll drink anything. I’m interested in any … Read the rest

So I’m paging through the latest copy of All About Beer magazine, the trade journal for people with too much time on their hands, and I must admit I’m stupefied by this business of rating beers.

Each month, the magazine painstakingly ranks more than 100 beers as part of a Buyer’s Guide prepared by the Beverage Testing Institute in Chicago. … Read the rest

A friend tells me he likes to attend beer-tastings because it’s the only time he can drink without raising a fuss from his wife. Somehow, he’s convinced her that, rather than boozing with his buddies, he’s educating his palate.

Maybe she’s dense or maybe he’s just kidding himself. But I have some sobering news for guys like that: The ladies … Read the rest

I wonder how many people attending this weekend’s The Book and The Cook event at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology have seen the latest Miller beer commercial.

Several hundred beer fans will be spending a Saturday afternoon in the middle of March Madness, sipping a selection of 14 Belgian-style ales during a tutored tasting amid the … Read the rest

Dark and creamy as coffee from the gods, Guinness Stout is not for everyone. For most beer drinkers, it takes three sips before you can really appreciate the taste.

Well, my first taste doesn’t really count.

It’s Friday night in Ardmore, sometime in the late ’70s and we’re looking for a place where disco isn’t on the juke.

Mark and … Read the rest

It is staring me in the face, this blasted bottle of Budweiser.

Thirty-two ounces in a caramel-brown bottle with a bright red label. The King of Friggin’ Beers, baby.

It’s been maybe 10 years since Bud last touched Joe Sixpack’s tongue.

But now, in the spirit of journalistic accuracy, I find myself on the brink of actually tasting this dreck … Read the rest

Cleaner streets, lower taxes, superior schools, more jobs, fewer psychopaths, greener grass, bigger malls, easier parking, safer neighborhoods — the suburbs can have it all.

Because the city has better beer.

And because we have better beer, we are superior in the one thing that really matters in life:

We have better taste.

I’ve felt this way for years, so … Read the rest

John the bartender was this lunatic who used to work at an old Center City tavern down on 15th Street. The bar was a grand oval, and at happy hour he worked it alone, like a one-man show on Broadway.

You couldn’t take your eyes off the guy, the way he performed. He’d stack his glasses in symmetrical rows, compulsively … Read the rest

But what if we run out here?

That’s the kind of nightmare that will wake you in a sweat-soaked fright, your throat parched with dread and your eyes spinning you dizzy with panic. No beer?

Sorry to begin the new year on such a downer, but that’s where all this pessimistic talk about the craft-brewing industry is leading. Some insiders … Read the rest