Yearly Archives: 1999

LA-Z-Man’s way to live

Pace yourself tonight with that magnum of cheap champagne, and you’ll be rewarded with two straight weekend days of nonstop suds-sloshing action.

Tomorrow: Reduce brain function with a Mummers tune-up, then slip into a day-long stupor with 36 separate college bowl games.

Sunday: Remain comatose with another dozen or so NFL games that will decide which 8-8 team will lose … Read the rest

Brews of the Big 5: Where to go for post-game suds

Saturday doubleheaders at the Palestra – was there anything better in the world?

For the hoops head, it was heaven, and not just because you got to see the best from the city’s Big 5 – Penn, Temple, St. Joe’s, La Salle and Villanova. You had Guy Rodgers and Jack Ramsay and Howard Porter and Chris Ford and Chuck Daly … Read the rest

Beer war brewing

Hang onto your barstools, an Irish beer war is brewing in the city.

The first skirmish broke out yesterday at an Old City pub, where angry Gaelic bar owners confronted execs from Guinness, makers of the world-famous stout.

No suds were spilled, but hot tempers had a lot of neck veins bulging from ‘neath the cardigans.

The uproar was prompted … Read the rest

Floyd-damaged brewers recover

Just a few yards from the banks of the city’s scenic river, Manayunk Brewing Co. features a raspberry-flavored ale called Schuylkill Punch.

Until Sept. 16, head brewer Jim Brennan didn’t know how fitting that name might be.

That was the day Hurricane Floyd came through town and pushed the muddy Schuylkill into his brewery.

Within 24 hours, he had water … Read the rest

Brewed to make your head spin

The quest to brew the World’s Strongest Beer – a feat that probably ranks up there with the discovery of penicillin and the first broadcast of Monday Night Football – is over for 1999.

The winner: Boston Beer Co.’s Samuel Adams Millennium, a mind-numbing 20 percenter.

This is bittersweet news in my book.

Hitting two-oh is an admirable achievement and … Read the rest

Buying beer? You can do better

[NOTE: THIS COLUMN IS MISSING A CHART]

Flavor, shmavor – when it comes to choosing a beer for the weekend, nine times out of 10 it’s either advertising or price that makes up your mind.

You spend a few minutes traipsing around the distributor, eyeballing the dozens of cartons and scratching your head over the puzzling names. Brown ale, Irish … Read the rest

Adding a little body: Yards Oyster Stout

Brewers throw all kinds of crazy stuff into the mash tun.

They’re supposed to stick to four basic ingredients: water, malt, hops and yeast. But when you’re not looking, they’ll sneak in raspberries or honey or orange peels. I knew a homebrewer who tried pine cones.

And then there’s the guys at Yards Brewing in Manayunk. The other day, they … Read the rest

City of lights (and ales and lagers)

PARIS – Your eyes do not deceive you, mon ami. As the dateline sez, your People Paper beer correspondent has been dispatched across the Atlantic, to wine country.

No, I’ve not forsaken the grain for the grape. The byline, after all, is Joe Sixpack – not Pierre Carafe.

Nor is this some lame-brain editorial diversity scheme to reach out … Read the rest

And now, for a taste of piss

You write about drinking beer long enough, sooner or later you’ve gotta take a break, if you catch my drift.

You know, the pause that refreshes.

Go see a man about a horse, point Percy at the porcelain, release the dogs, open the floodgates, empty the bucket, drain the lizard, kill the grass, spend a penny, make number one, take … Read the rest

Labels to posters – It all adds up

Free beer – universally regarded as the two greatest words in the English language – is no longer just an impossible dream.

At one local microbrewery, it’s an advertising gimmick.

Dock Street Brasserie brewer Eric Savage came up with the idea as a way to market his modestly named Savage Beer and bring more customers into his Logan Square brewpub. … Read the rest