AS BEER-DRINKING dilemmas go, the lemon question is an easy call: Don’t do it!
I refer, of course, to the unfortunate trend of defiling a perfectly good wheat beer with a spongy hunk of citrus. It happens most commonly in bars that serve German hefeweizen, but the practice has spread like a bad case of crotch rash to Belgian wit … Read the rest
HEAVYWEIGHT BREWING, the tiny craft-brewery in Ocean Township, N.J., is biting the dust. Owner/brewer Tom Baker acknowledged the bad news this week, saying he’ll shut down his mash tun sometime next month.
I couldn’t help but notice that the announcement came as Anheuser-Busch disclosed it would be scooping up the crumbling Rolling Rock brand for a cool $82 million.
That’s … Read the rest
AFTER nearly 33 years and more than a million kegs of beer, Joel Derricks is still driving that rumbling, green-and-white Broyhan beer truck. Only instead of “Edward I. Friedland Co.” printed on the door, now it says “Kunda Beverage.”
In recent weeks, word on the street – mainly among Center City bartenders on the afternoon shift – was that we … Read the rest
MONDAY IS the start of American Craft Beer Week, an annual celebration of, well, beer. On the off chance that you forgot to get your favorite beer reporter a gift, I want you to do me a favor and mark the occasion in an appropriate manner.
And, no, you don’t have to run out and visit your nearest brewery. (Though … Read the rest
I THINK I KNOW why we haven’t gotten those space-age jet packs we were promised. It looks like the world’s great thinkers are too busy inventing stuff to make it easier for us to drink beer.
In recent months, we’ve seen reports of self-chilling cans from Miller, insulated bottles from Coors and fast-pouring spigots from Guinness.
Possibly the greatest among … Read the rest
THANKS TO “The Essential Reference of Domestic Brewers and Their Bottled Brands” (2nd Edition), I now know:
• There are four states without full-production breweries: Mississippi, North Dakota, South Dakota and West Virginia;
• Dragonmead Microbrewery in Warren, Mich., makes what may be the two worst-named beers in America, Earl Spit and Lancelot’s Cream;
• More breweries make American pale … Read the rest
IT’S EASY TO ignore industry awards for fine beer-making. After all, someone once gave Pabst a blue ribbon.
But here’s why you should pay attention to the raft of medals area breweries brought back from the World Beer Cup in Seattle last weekend:
The variety of awards, for eclectic styles ranging from Belgian sour ale to Russian imperial stout, is … Read the rest
The following appeared in the Daily News Op-Ed.
OF ALL THE worrisome scenarios about the future of Philadelphia’s two daily newspapers, the one I’ve read the most is that no potential buyer will continue to operate both of them.
I don’t pretend to understand the numbers, but if some investor decides he can’t turn an adequate profit by operating both … Read the rest
The Ivy Leaguers have been holding the Colonial-era landmark at 125-7 Spruce St. for more than a decade, and they’ve just let it sit empty, its playful outdoor sign fading in the sun.
This disuse of an important piece of American heritage is all the more evident now that the city’s Once Upon a Nation is running its Tippler’s Tour … Read the rest
GEORGE ORMSBY was barely 16 years old on April 7, 1933, the day that Prohibition died. Seventy-three years later, he still thinks the abolition of beer and liquor was a pretty good idea.
“All you have to do is look into some of the records during Prohibition,” said Ormsby, a plumbing inspector from Aston, Delaware County, who twice ran for … Read the rest