SPLASHING down a cold one in the tasting room at the new Forgotten Boardwalk Brewery, in Cherry Hill, you can’t help but wonder:Why wasn’t this place built on an actual boardwalk down the Shore?
The curved funhouse mirrors, the wheel of fortune, the Skee-Ball machines . . . the only thing missing is the smell of salt air.
So, I … Read the rest
IF STEVE HINDY looks a little uncomfortable on Monday when he and a panel of local brewers gather for a talk about the “craft-beer revolution” at Yards Brewery, don’t blame me.
The founder of Brooklyn Brewery is an experienced journalist – a former Mideast correspondent for the Associated Press – and he can handle the grilling I’ll dole out as … Read the rest
DON’T ASK for a pint of pumpkin beer at South Street’s Brauhaus Schmitz. One of Philly’s few bastions of Bavarian beer purity doesn’t serve the spice stuff because the Germans already have a perfectly fine autumn beer, thank you.
It’s Oktoberfestbier, also known as Marzen, that copper-colored beauty, rich in malt with a smooth body for endless guzzling.
“Personally, I’m … Read the rest
BUD LIGHT IPA: Don’t laugh – you know it’s going to happen.
What might’ve been a sacrilege just a year ago seems inevitable today. And when it happens, craft beer will have only itself to blame, as Anheuser-Busch Inbev laughs all the way to the bank.
Bud Light IPA is inevitable because neither “Bud Light” nor “IPA” mean what they … Read the rest
“DID YOU know,” Jon Lyons, a sales rep for New York’s Southern Tier Brewery, was saying the other night, “that the first person to run a marathon actually died at the end of the run? ”
Yo, I’m as big a fan of Greek tragedy as the next guy, and I’m somewhat familiar with the fable of the heroic messenger, … Read the rest
IF YOU haven’t gotten your tix yet for October’s Great American Beer Festival, in Denver, too late. The world’s largest beer-judging event is sold out.
But here’s an insider’s tip that will give you a taste of some of the champions: The last week of August is when local breweries deliver their bottles to Colorado for the medal competition. That … Read the rest
UP ON Tioga Street, in the vacant shadows of a postindustrial city, the sign above Kensington Pub declares, “Born Here. Raised Here. Still Here. ” Inside, there’s a life-size wall drawing of a guy pitching halfsies, the stickball game they used to play down the corner.
The bar is mostly empty on this Friday afternoon.
“Yo, what happened to the … Read the rest
FOUR YEARS ago, when she launched the first Sour Fest, at South Philly’s Devil’s Den, owner Erin Wallace was happy to offer a modest list of about a dozen sour ales, including the highly regarded likes of Petrus Aged Pale Ale, Cantillon Kriek and Russian River Consecration.
At the time, the existence of these quirky, tart varieties seemed nothing more … Read the rest
HERE’S ONE more for your beer-drinking bucket list:RAGBRAI.
It stands for the Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa. No, you don’t see the word “beer” in that title, but this seven-day, two-wheel tour can stand up there with Munich’s Oktoberfest, Philly Beer Week or a night in an Irish pub as a quintessential celebration of our favorite adult beverage.… Read the rest
DO NOT SHAKE your head in disgust or pity when I tell you that today’s column is about beer floats. Instead, grab some real ice cream and try one for yourself. Just pour half a bottle of any decent brew into a glass, plop in a scoop and dip in with a spoon. Believe me – it’s that simple.
True, … Read the rest