THE NEWLY RELEASED “Ambitious Brew,” by Maureen Ogle (Harcourt, $25), calls itself the “first-ever history of American beer.” It may be the first, but – because America was making beer 200 years before this book opens – I wouldn’t call it complete.
The Pilgrims brought ale with them to Plymouth Rock. The colonies’ first retail businesses were taverns, and the … Read the rest
UNLESS YOU happened to live in Berks County 30 or more years ago, Reading Beer might never have crossed your path. But you probably tasted something like it, because it was your basic, low-priced American lager, not unlike the hometown brew in Norristown, Rochester, Allentown or 100 other Rust Belt cities.
Like so many other local brands, it got bought … Read the rest
In 1999, HEATHER Stewart – whose husband, Al, owns Stewart’s Brewing Co. in Bear, Del. – came home from the Great American Beer Festival in Denver, raving about Alaskan Smoked Porter.
This is a rich, dark beer that almost always steals the show at the fest, the largest beer-judging event in the world. Visitors often rush into the festival hall … Read the rest
IN ADDITION TO copious consumption by more than 30,000 visitors, this weekend’s Great American Beer Festival in Denver features the world’s most prestigious tasting competition. In private rooms away from the commotion of the festival floor, more than 100 beer judges will snort, swallow and sort their way through 2,400 entries from 450 domestic breweries.
Tomorrow, in an hours-long ceremony, … Read the rest
A YEAR OR SO ago, the people who run Inn Flight Steak and Seafood Grilles in the northern suburbs decided to shake up their image. The chain had been a successful family restaurant for years, but the owners wanted to attract new, younger customers by re-creating it as a pub.
One of the first things they did was commission Yards … Read the rest
OKTOBERFEST, THE definitive autumn beer experience, begins tomorrow with the ceremonial tapping of Spaten in downtown Munich.
If you’re going to do it up right, you’ve gotta get your lederhosen and dirndls over to Germany and celebrate by guzzling from a stein in one of the traditional Oktoberfest beer tents.
But if you can’t make it across the Atlantic, there … Read the rest
TEN YEARS AGO this week, Joe Sixpack made his first appearance in the Daily News. That’s a lotta beer and a lotta words.
Getting a beer column into the People Paper was a tough sell at first. At least one editor wondered whether there’d be enough material to justify a beer reporter. I bought him off with two cases of … Read the rest
ATTENTION college freshmen: Now that most of you are unpacked and ready for class, it’s time to cover something that was overlooked during orientation. Namely, proper beer consumption.
And I’m not talking about the lies the dean of campus living spouted during his annual “Alcohol Is Evil” speech.
That’s the talk where, if he used the current government “research” materials, … Read the rest
SOME MOVIES were made to be viewed when you’re drunk. Feet up on sofa, pizza boxes stacked on the coffee table in a loud room with a bunch of friends, laughing at every silly joke because you’re all completely sauced.
I had a suspicion that “Beerfest,” the comedy from the Broken Lizard comedy team (“Super Troopers”), would be just that … Read the rest
THANKS TO a roundtable of women, I think I finally understand what’s behind the Men of the Square Table.
You’ve seen these ironfisted men featured in a series of Miller Lite ads, solemnly considering the proper comportment of the Y-chromosome set. Together, the likes of Burt Reynolds, Jerome Bettis and Aron Ralston (that rock-climbing dude who cut off his arm … Read the rest