Yearly Archives: 2004

Gen. Lafayette’s brewer quick to talk about Slow Food

AT THE END of the bar, with a frosty glass of beer in hand, few of us ever look beyond the frothy head of suds.

We sit around, trade lies and gulp pitchers with rarely a thought about where our favorite adult beverage fits into the grand scheme of things. It’s a time to relax, not worry. So we rarely … Read the rest

So many holiday brews, so little time

GOOD LORD, it’s Christmastime already. Hope Santa brings me a new bottle opener!

Every year the holiday comes faster. I say this not because I still haven’t paid off my credit card, but because I still haven’t polished off last season’s holiday brews.

If I look around enough in my basement, I’m sure I’ll find a few from the 1900s!… Read the rest

Bill would give an edge to Brit megabrewer

Under the guise of “modernizing” state beer laws, Harrisburg lobbyists engaged in some old-fashioned legislative greasing this week.

They came up with an amendment in the Sunday-beer-sales bill that would give British booze giant Diageo Guinness, Johnny Walker, Smirnoff) a huge cash windfall while denying the same savings to the state’s small brewers.

The amendment rewrites Pennsylvania’s arcane liquor law … Read the rest

Excitement is brewing over holiday ales

THIS TIME of the year, the buzz really kicks in, and I’m not just talking about the high octane in cold-weather beers.

The buzz is the excitement, the impatient talk that circulates among beer freaks over an assortment of highly desired, once-a-year, craft-brewed specialties. Though breweries release specialties throughout the year, the pace picks up during the holidays, when winter … Read the rest

The good, the bad, the profane from GABF

IT’S TAKEN me two full weeks to clear the cranium since the annual Great American Beer Festival, in Denver. The notes in my suds-soaked notebook attest to only one thing:

Too much beer and not enough hands.

The lasting image came during a post-festival showdown between East and West Coast brewers at a downtown beer bar. There, we were treated … Read the rest

When it comes to taste, it’s (Fuller’s) Pride over Bass

LONDON PRIDE is a world-class English ale, and I don’t mean one of those solemn, introspective tomes that goes down like a dose of Thackeray without Cliff Notes.

This is a pale ale the way Brits make pale ales. Smooth, lightly bittered, perfectly balanced – not hopped out the wazoo like those Cascades-addled pales from the West Coast.

Best of … Read the rest

Belgians honor Philly guys

A COUPLE OF Philly beer guys are now members of one of Europe’s oldest trade guilds.

At least that’s what bar owner Tom Peters and beer distributor Eddie Friedland assume happened earlier this month during much pomp and circumstance on Brussels’ Grand Place.

The whole event was in French and Flemish – not these homeboys’ first languages. There were hours … Read the rest

The best way to end summer: Have a brew

I HAVE NO sympathy for beer drinkers fretting about the end of summer.

Sure, now that the softball season is over and the lawn is mown, you’re crying because you don’t have an automatic excuse for draining half a case of ice-cold lager. But if you haven’t had your fill of summer brew by now, you just haven’t been trying.… Read the rest

Miller vs. Bud: Could light beer really taste good?

I REALLY WANTED to like the Miller Lite.

I truly wanted to sip the glass of fizzy yellow suds and declare, “I love this stuff!”

It would have been a complete betrayal of my beer-drinking principles, my long-held conviction that light beer is for people who don’t like the taste of beer. But under the circumstances . . .

The … Read the rest