Michelob is on the Wheat beer beat with a new sampler pack and MillerCoors is coming out with a throwback lager. Even the dinosaurs are getting all freaky. More brands to misspell, more concepts to confuse.
Why can’t we all just get along?
Rich Nichols checks in on the topic for the second straight week. Good stuff, but I’m disappointed to hear that Philly Beer Week borders end at Malvern; all those folks in Phoenixville, Exton, West Chester, Downingtown and Kennett Square will have to change their plans.
And there’s this from Craig LaBan, answering a question on his blog:
Reader: What do you make of this whole beer raid situation? Maybe this will begin the overthrow of our Prohibition-era liquor laws.
CL: I think the situation is complicated: There are good reasons to have basic liquor laws - but the Keystone Kops execution (to quote Don Russell) really irked people, smacking of overreaction and control-state bureaucracy and even a little personal vendetta on the part of one anonymous complainant who apparently launched the whole thing. These confiscated beers were at other unraided bars, too. Overall, it’s a black eye for our liquor control apparatus to have so clumsily taken a swipe at our growing beer scene - one of the most vital engines for restaurant growth, not to mention urban renewal, such as what Resurrection Ale House has brought to the neighborhood south of South. In the end, the bad publicity may end up having a positive effect in terms of reform (there’s a hearing in April, says colleague Rick Nichols, who has followed this story in today’s column). But don’t count on the demise of the PLCB any time soon.
Since I’m tired of waiting, I’ve pieced together enough information from various sources to feel comfortable enough to post the promised news item over at The Beer Yard site.
The only thing I could not pin down but which I think might be the case is that the arrival of the one-off beer they create hereabouts might be timed to coincide with Philly Beer Week in June. That would make sense.
I assume that conjecture or any errors in the reporting will be corrected forthwith.
I used to work for a very wise man in my short-lived corporate life. He held a low-ranking title but wielded considerable power within the company. When they tried to promote him to a level commensurate with that power, he refused, saying, essentially, put me way up at the top of the heap or just leave me along. His reasoning? Once he’d been identified as the guy in charge, he’d spend most of his time either dealing with crap that had nowhere else to go or with people who, now that he’d been pinned down, would feel freer to confront or challenge him based upon their understanding of the company power structure.
I thought of him today when I read this in in Dan Gross’s column in this morning Daily News:
Daily News beer reporter Joe Sixpack, aka Don Russell, has been named executive director of Philly Beer Week. Russell, who has been covering the state beer-raids controversy along with the People Paper’s Bob Warner, will become the first staffer of the three-year-old nonprofit organization. He’ll oversee the growing number of events and programs that have made Philly Beer Week among the world’s largest beer celebrations. “For a Philadelphia boy with a healthy beer habit, this is a dream job,” Russell says. Philly Beer Week 2010 is from June 4-13 with the “opening tap” event at the Independence Visitors Center. Info and tix on the Philly Beer Week Web site.
I guess this merely formalizes what Don’s already been doing, plus puts some income into the picture, which is always good and congratulations are definitely in order, but he’s also just set himself up officially as the guy everybody gets to yell at.
Another item in that same Gross column caught my eye for a different reason…
Ad man Elliott Curson has embraced a recent insult from writer Buzz Bissinger by printing it on his new business card. “I never liked you. You aren’t any good at what you do,” is what Curson says Bissinger told him after the pair exchanged unpleasantries following a recent encounter at a Center City watering hole.
Now the quote appears on the cards, along with positive remarks that Curson says he got from clients such as Sen. Arlen Specter and former first lady Nancy Reagan. We asked Bissinger if he remembered the remark. The “Prayer for the City” and “Friday Night Lights” author replied: “I think what I said was: ‘I can’t stand you. I never liked you from the very first time I f—ing met you. You’re an arrogant little p—k and think you know everything. Plus you suck at what you do.’” Heavy.
Both Curson and Bissinger are brilliant guys but sometimes hard to take. I speak from experience in the first instance. Many moons ago, I threatened to throw Curson out of the 18th story window of my publisher’s office during a shouting match over the first issue of a magazine I was starting. “One more word.. ” I yelled and he finally shut up. He was brought in as a last-minute consultant and wanted to change the cover just as we were going to press. The sad thing is that he was right and we both knew it, but I couldn’t let him have his way without destroying any chance I’d have to maintain control of the magazine. The mess was entirely the publisher’s doing but it was pretty clear who would take the fall if I didn’t hold my ground.
Anyway, it was kind of nostalgic to see he still has the same effect on people.
I awakened this morning to hear Seamus O’Hara, founder of the brewery in Carlow, Ireland of the same name, on the WIP Morning show, directly from “Chip Snapper’s Tavern.”
Whoa? Talk about world’s colliding.
Seamus, a great guy, happened to be present at one of my more ignominious moments in May of 2005 when I slid on my stomach down a wet and slippery hillside in a cemetery near Carlow.
Since this is St. Patrick’s Day and it the embarrassment was set in Ireland, it seems only appropriate that we visit the scene of the crime one more once.
My life, as I wrote it, as I lived it.
What a line up!
Allentown/Bethlehem Brew Works HopSolutely DIPA
Nodding Head Brewery and Restaurant 4C DIPA
Troegs Brewing Company Nugget Nectar
Dock Street Brewing Company Barrel Porter
Weyerbacher Brewing Co. Old Heathen
Elysian Brewing Co. Prometheus IPA
Bell’s Brewing Kalamazoo Stout
Stoudts Brewing Company Fat Dog Imperial Stout
Victory Brewing Company Storm King Stout
Wintercoat DoubleHop
Rock Bottom Brewing Co. Bitter
Triumph Brewing Company Irish Dry Stout
One Guy Brewing Brown Ale
Philadelphia Brewing Co. Joe Coffee Porter
Sly Fox Brewing Company Chester County Bitter
Yards Brewing Company General Washington Tavern Porter
Yards Brewing Company Brawler
Otto’s Pub and Brewery Red Mo
Flying Fish Brewing Company Exit 16
RCH Pitchfork Bitter
Wintercoat Mols Ol’
Iron Hill Brewery and Restaurant Pig Iron Porter
Stewarts Brewing Company Highlander Stout
Dogfish Head Brewery 75 Minute IPA
Manayunk Brewing Co. ??
That Manayunk beer looks particular interesting.
If this comes to pass, that whole Johnstown Flood tax thing would be a little more palatable.
I hear a that slew of local beer folks have been invited to Sierra Nevada Beer Camp, which is changing its focus somewhat to create classes of publicans and others from the same locale rather than all over the place. If local rep Patrick Mullin ever deigns to answer my request for names and information, you’ll hear all about it in a Beer Yard post which will be linked here.
Absent that response, I will, of course, make shit up.
Opening Tap basic info is now up at the Philly Beer Week website, Friday June 4, 7:30pm, at the Independence Visitors Center in Old City.
Two thoughts:
The Visitors Center sounds like a perfect venue but, given that when Brewers Plate was held there in 2008 there was serious customer dissatisfaction expressed about the “bottleneck” factor and the inability to move around, let’s hope the organizers have worked out a viable setup to avoid getting the whole week off to a bad start.
Update: Don Russell says “no sweat.”
I’m sure the mention of the Official Collaboration Ale of PBW caught a lot of eyes. I’ve been sitting on this for a while so I’m glad it’s finally out there. Not that I have a whole helluva lot, but as I understand it, it’s a collaboration in which six local brewers will participate in developing the recipe, which will be brewed by Brian O’Reilly at Sly Fox Royersford. There will be some draft, for that opening night and other major PBW events, but the majority of the brew will be bottled in corked 750ml bottles.
More to come…
What with all the PLCB talk keeping us distracted, here are few things which tried to slip under the radar but were captured at the border:
Blast from the past: Dock Street Brewing Company has brought back its Cream Ale, which won a Silver Medal at the Great American Beer Fest in 1992. Victor Novak, one of the original Dock Street brewers at the classic pub on 18th St., flew in from California to brew with present Dock Street Head Brewer Ben Potts (Novak is currently the head brewer for two TAPS Brewpubs in California and has earned GABF Gold and a Silver for his own interpretation). Cream Ale is a light, flavorful 5% Ale with a crisp malt profile and delicate fruitiness lent by both American ale yeast and a characteristic addition of dextrose (corn sugar). It will be available exclusively at the West Philly brewpub and for a limited time only with a special complimentary tasting session on March 24, 6-9pm.
McKenzie melange: The winner of the first Homebrew competition at McKenzie Brew House was Phoenixville resident Matt Tarklecki with his Belgian Dark Strong, Dark Night. Brewer Gerard Olson says they’ll be producing it on their 10bbl system in Glen Mills soon, and hope to have it on tap during the spring. Olson and Ryan Michaels are still bottling by and recently completed a batch of Saison du Bois, (Saison Vautour fermented in “one of our funkier wine barrels.”). It should be available for sale very soon. Another barrel aged beer—”a golden ale with Belgian candi sugar, a high dose of American hops and our English ale yeast, then dry hopped in the barrel with a bunch of Simcoe—has also been bottled but not yet named. “It falls somewhere between a funky IPA, a Saison and a Strong Golden,” says Olson. “We’re waiting for it to finish conditioning, but it should be available sometime in the spring.” Saison Vautour and Belgian Wit are now full time house beers, while Shane’s Gold has been cut to an occasional seasonal, and a new Bier de Garde has been brewed at Glen Mills. “Some of it made its way into an apple brandy barrel which we spiked with some Drie Fonteinen brett from local brett farmer, Jean Broillet of Iron Hill West Chester.” Finally, he added that “we’re brewing our French Country Spring Ale in Malvern today; an Old Ale is in the works, and maybe some more sessionable bitters coming up too.” I’ve said it before: those two guys are having way too much fun.
O’Reilly’s world: If there’s one thing it appears we can count on when the semi-annual U.S. Beer Tasting Championship results are announced, it’s that Sly Fox will come out very well. That’s happened again and you can read about it here, along with other local honors for Weyerbacher, Victory, McKenzie, General Lafayette and Lancaster.
