I’M WAY too busy with my beer to pay attention to other breeds of booze. But recently it has been brought to my attention that, because of its similarities to beer, I oughta write something about sake.
If it hadn’t been a pretty public-relations agent who advanced this dubious line of reasoning, it would’ve landed in my Deleted Items folder, … Read the rest
A MAN WALKS into a bar – we all know how that story begins. But how about: A Man Walks Into 365 Bars?
That’s the name of Marty Wombacher’s offbeat photo blog, launched in January to chronicle a year’s worth of barhopping in New York City. His praiseworthy goal: To visit a different bar every day for an entire year.… Read the rest
THE OTHER day, I pulled a 16-ounce can of Very Noddy lager out of the cooler, polished it off in a few gulps . . . and fell facedown on the floor.
That’ll teach me to read the label more carefully.
Very Noddy, it turns out, is a one-off “Imperial Schwarzbier” from Buckbean Brewing, in Reno, Nev., with a very … Read the rest
PLINY THE YOUNGER is one of those characters out of Roman history who, even if you weren’t dozing in history class, you’d have little reason to remember. He was a first-century lawyer known primarily for a letter that described the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.
But ask a beer freak about Pliny the Younger, and you’ll get a rapturous, tongue-wagging oratory: … Read the rest
By Bob Warner and Don Russell
Faced with anger, confusion and disbelief from beer-drinkers and the beer industry, Pennsylvania lawmakers are pressing for an explanation of recent State Police raids on bars and distributors, over allegedly unregistered brands.
The state Liquor Control Board posted a new list of legally registered brands yesterday, including several of the popular beers that were … Read the rest
By Bob Warner and Don Russell
Pennsylvania State Police have staged another beer raid, confiscating about a dozen cases from a leading distributor in Northeast Philadelphia and ordering it to stop selling several well-known imports, including Duvel, a popular Belgian beer sold throughout the Philadelphia region.
Agents from the State Police Department’s Bureau of Liquor Code Enforcement (BLCE) descended Monday … Read the rest
THE BEER, it is a-changin’.
There’s no better evidence of that than the fiasco that erupted last week when a phalanx of State Police barged into three local bars known for their beer selection and found themselves mouthing the words on an incomprehensible variety of strange labels with unpronounceable names.
You can just imagine Officer Krupke trying to pronounce “Cantillon … Read the rest
By Bob Warner and Don Russell
IT WAS ELIOT NESS and the Untouchables, as played by the Keystone Kops.
More than a dozen armed State Police officers conducted simultaneous raids last week on three popular Philadelphia bars known for their wide beer selections. The cops confiscated hundreds of bottles of expensive ales and lagers, now in State Police custody at … Read the rest
EVERY YEAR around March 1, a handful of French breweries release a special beer to mark the change of seasons. It’s called Biere de Mars, which is French for March beer.
There’s a bunch of hoopla. Cafés put up signs announcing the arrival of the malty, slightly hoppy brew from Meteor, Kronenbourg, Fischer and a few other breweries. It’s all … Read the rest
AT FIRST, THE expiration date on bottles of Boon Mariage Parfait looks like a typo: Best before 29-06-2027.
That’s not some Y2K mistake. The superb gueuze, a blend of Belgian lambics, is good till June 29, 2027.
Assuming you can wait that long.
In an age when Budweiser has set the freshness standard with its famous “born-on” date (good for … Read the rest