Category: Column

The 3rd-fastest growing brewery in America has fewer tap handles than your average Hooters

Recent news reports naming Phoenixville’s Crowded Castle the third-fastest growing small and independent brewery in America in 2017 had me scratching my head.

How could a brewery that’s been open barely a year be among the fastest growing? Especially one that produces, perhaps, a mere 1,000 barrels a year, and sells it all in-house from 11 taps.

My money would’ve … Read the rest

A brave, new beer world

Ten years ago this month, my first book, Joe Sixpack’s Philly Beer Guide, was published. It was a compilation of everything I knew about the city’s beer scene at the time, from its earliest breweries to its burgeoning craft beer scene.

It took years of work, and I was plenty proud to present the most complete look at the … Read the rest

Beer is a family affair at Brewery Ars

Sean Arsenault is pouring a pint of Old Stoop Rye Ale. His wife, Erica, is making change at the counter. His twin brother, Andy, is sanitizing metal fittings from one of the fermenters. The tasting room is packed with couples draining pints and diving into plates from a food truck parked out front.

This is the weekend routine at Brewery … Read the rest

That thing at your feet? It’s not a pee trough

‘You know those urinal troughs on the floor at the base of bars in old-time taprooms?

Well, zip it up guys. Despite the common myth, the fact is those troughs are not, were not and never were intended to be used as urinals. In fact, the troughs are spittoons, a handy place to puh-tooey a wad of slobbery tobacco juice.… Read the rest

Star Trek beer? Make it so

Beer me up, Scotty.

And not just any beer will do. On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the landmark sci-fi TV adventure, Star Trek has its own series of brews produced by a small group of fans based in, of all places, Vulcan, Alberta.

In recent months, the group — which calls itself the Federation of Beer — … Read the rest

A friendship at Fergie’s

An Irishman and a Palestinian open a bar in Philadelphia…

No, this is not the start of a joke.

It’s the beginning of a beautiful friendship, one that grew over the next two decades and would come to define the spirit of one of the city’s most successful bars. Beyond the foamy pints and mixed drinks, the laughter and the … Read the rest

A roasty collaboration

They take their coffee seriously at Gran Caffe L’Aquila.

The Chestnut Street cafe and restaurant operates its own second-floor roaster, its co-owner is a medal-winning bean man, and the entire place has been modeled on the stylish grand cafes of the owners’ homeland in the Abruzzi region of Italy. On most mornings, the place is a popular destination for Italian … Read the rest

The sixpack is free, and it couldn’t have come at a better time

We made America great last week.

A populist upheaval swept aside decades of control by elitist power brokers who reaped the rewards of government while the people had borne the cost. But last week, the carnage stopped right here and it stopped right now.

That’s right: Pennsylvanians can now buy a sixpack at a beer distributor.

Amid all the commotion … Read the rest

Philly Beer Week in search of relevance

Philly Beer Week, which marks its 10th-annual celebration this June, announced this week that it’s evolving into a year-round organization called Philly Loves Beer.

The new organization is “devoted to raising Philadelphia’s global profile as a destination city for beer tourism… independent of a brewer’s guild or business association,” and will be the nation’s first nonprofit business league “dedicated to … Read the rest