WHEN THE BIG ONE drops, I suggest we all head to Philadelphia Brewing Co.’s massive 19th-century brewhouse in Kensington.
Have you ever seen the rock-solid walls and floors in that place? They’d hold up to all but a direct hit, and even if the rest of the city is a smoldering wasteland, we’d have plenty of beer for the apocalypse.… Read the rest
ON THE 300 block of Walnut Street in Old City lies the dichotomy of Prohibition.
At one end of the block is the site where Dr. Benjamin Rush, Declaration of Independence signer and father of the American temperance movement, had his office. At the other is a building where, a century later, bootlegger Joel D. Kerper bottled illegal gin for … Read the rest
THE INVENTION of pilsner 170 years ago this month might not have been the most important event in modern beer, but it was certainly the most imitated.
And defiled.
On Oct. 5, 1842, in Plzen, Bohemia (now part of the Czech Republic), brewer Josef Groll unveiled his creation. He’d been recruited to run Plzen’s new brewery after city officials – … Read the rest
RESEARCH AT Joe Sixpack Central is a never-ending occupation. Here are a few of my recent findings.
* Dundee Oktoberfest (Rochester, N.Y.): Dundee Ales & Lagers is one of those margin-dwellers that has been glomming onto the craft beer renaissance for years. Because it is priced cheaply (low $20s per case), it grabs a lot of drinkers who are after … Read the rest
I’M SITTING with Michael Ryan Lawrence at the bar of the Point No Point Republican Club on Orthodox Street in Bridesburg. “They put these cushions on the stools for some of the older members,” he explains.
We settle in with a couple of pints. He tells me his story.
He’s a former Daily News delivery boy, the son of a … Read the rest
IT’S HARVEST SEASON, and that brings thoughts of those amber waves of grain, of lively maidens dancing upon freshly sheaved bales, of strong-shouldered lads hoisting them onto horse-drawn carts while singing “Oklahoma!”
In your dreams.
The barley in your beer was likely sown by a robot and harvested by a computer-operated combine the size of a locomotive. It was air-dried … Read the rest
FORGET SOCCER MOMS and NASCAR dads. In November, the presidency could go to the candidate who attracts the most craft-beer drinkers.
Don’t laugh, because it appears President Obama’s re-election campaign has already taken note of an astounding phenomenon in 2008 election results – with the hope of a suds-soaked repeat in 2012.
It’s a stunning and previously unnoticed voting trend … Read the rest
LAST MONTH , San Francisco’s Toronado bar celebrated its 25th anniversary with T25, a commemorative beer brewed by California’s Russian River Brewing. The supply of about 100 cases of the strong, sour, barrel-aged ale, priced at $25 a bottle, sold out in three days.
Like many one-offs, it was here today, gone tomorrow . . . And then resold … Read the rest
YOU’VE BEEN a sloth all summer, letting your mate grill the burgers while you drink beer on the deck. Before the summer is gone, you owe it to yourself to get out and see the world, expand your horizons.
In other words, go drink beer somewhere else.
Here’s a bunch of destinations on the last holiday weekend of the season.… Read the rest
YOU HEAR ABOUT these collaboration beers by guys from competing breweries, and you can just imagine the unique creative process – the artistic inspiration, the sharing of ideas, the dynamic environment that feeds their invention.
But first things first.
“Are we measuring in Fahrenheit or Celsius?”
Tim Roberts, a longtime area brewer now at Yards Brewing Co., dropped by Iron … Read the rest