Jack Curtin’s LIQUID DIET

A beer blog long thought moribund (stories had it that proprietor had disappeared into a whisky bottle and was not coming back) has sprung back to life and one of today’s new posts, all bright and shiny, is about a review of Kraftwork, a relative new Philly beer destination which has received nothing but raves. The Big Guy makes some interesting points about how beer is at the very core of what Kraftwork does and not merely there to enhance the (apparently also quite exceptional) food. And he goes on to rave about the beer menu they have for customers because of its complete and thorough presentation of not only the beers currently on offer but those which will soon follow.

I must admit that , after I clicked and enlarged an image of said menu nicely provided with the story, I experienced some of the same sort of…I guess “dismay” is the proper word…expressed by some local brewers during the celebration of Philly Beer Week.

Where are the local beers? On a list of 25 beers on tap, only three are local–Stoudt’s Maibock, Philadelphia Brewing Walt Wit and the PBW collaborative brew, Brotherly Suds from Sly Fox. And on the accompanying list of what’s on order, only the latter two of those appear. I mean, there’s a PBR tap, for heaven’s sake, which seems really out of place and unnecessary; couldn’t that al least have given way to a brew from Victory or Yards or Troegs or some other local option?

Perhaps I am overreacting here—I am surely in that sort of mood at present—but I get the impression that there are fewer and fewer dedicated taps for local beers in some of our most renowned and popular watering holes these days and I wonder if Philadelphia’s reputation as a great beer town is becoming more a matter of “look what WE can get” rather than “look at what WE can make.”

I should note before I slink away to await the slings and arrows that I have not yet been to Kraftwork and in no way intend this to be a comment on or review of Kraftwork. Indeed, I have heard enough extremely positive things about the establishment to have it high on my list of “gotta get there soon” spots. Their beer list just struck me because, impressive as it is, there is very little that is “Philadelphia” about it.

I cannot think of a single person more fitting to wander through a graveyard with than beer historian Rich Wagner, nor can I come up with a better suited generic grouping to so do that homebrewers, so this event is pretty much perfection, which you don’t see much these days.

Warning, I may be one of the judges for the competition (people think I actually remember the original pre-Prohibition beers) so those of you who know and have annoyed me might want to attend in disguise. I am known to hold grudges.

Even running that risk, you gotta admit this looks like great fun, do it not?

The August Sly Fox Newsletter went out an hour or two ago and it has lots of stuff most of you already know but it sure pretty and worth a look anyway.

The new news therein is a list of the beers that will be pouring at Sly Fox Phoenixville Friday through Sunday; 26 are listed (four as cask ales) and they promise 23 of them will be available at all times until and unless you drink enough to kill more than three kegs, which I suspect might happen earlier than they think.

I am really psyched about McBane’s Summer Solstheis and another shot at 2009 Panacea and Dale’s 10K. You can find descriptions of those and any other beers which you are not familiar on the Sly Fox website  beer page. Maybe you’ll get psyched too.

*I’m looking to win the bad pun of the year award.

We all know that I never miss a chance to quote myself and so, admittedly after having been reminded by a Sunday morning email from Sir Richard the Spam-Hearted and having seen that the ineffable Scoats has himself chosen to bring something I wrote way back when up front and center on the Grey Lodge Pub website, I have updated the Beer Yard listing for some event that’s happening this week.

I commend the listing to you for its invaluable information and unforgettable prose.

Then again, I would, wouldn’t I? (see first sentence above)

I went, I drank, I mingled and I saw. I believe this sums it up better than words could ever do….

Special thanks to friend and neighbor Nick Johnson who risked his entire career by messing with a registered logo. They don’t hardly make ‘em like him anymore.

It seemed inevitable, am I right?  and okay, for tonight it’s only one bar. That will have to do.

Craft Ale House, 6-9pm, come and support Habitat for Humanity and help build the boy’s ego.

Those PLCB raids early this year are the gift pain in the ass that keeps on giving. From this morning’s Memphis Taproom email….

[RIP Mystery Beer Weekend]
This year would have marked the 3rd annual Mystery Beer Weekend at Memphis Taproom. The event was a fun one, each Labor Day weekend, we lined up 33 great beers, and made you tell us what you we’re drinking. People came out to win this game, and not only did the two winners prove themselves to be rather amazing, but so did everyone who participated. (Anyone who didn’t walk out the door in confusion and disgust gets an “A” in our book, really.)

Well, all it takes is one lousy PLCB complaint to scare us onto the straight and narrow path. That’s right folks, little did we know then, that according to the PA Liquor Laws, the part of Mystery Beer Weekend that made your beer a mystery was totally, gleefully, illegal. While it was fun to us, and hopefully to many of you as well, it apparently poses some sort of real threat to the survival of our society and possibly all of humankind.

A month of public scandal, the loss of great beer, and the sheer absurdity of so much endless red legal tape did not make us feel as low as it does to tell you that Mystery Beer Weekend is forever canceled. RIP Mystery Beer Weekend.

I suppose this means that Suzanne Woods reigns as the Mystery Beer Week queen forever and ever.

This was in my email today from Kevin Brooks of Old & Out of Shape Productions (a corporate name I can get behind) and I haven’t seen it mentioned elsewhere so….

As many of you know, I organized a Lambic seminar for Shelton Brothers last month during Philly Beer Week. It took place at the Penn Museum on the night of June 9th, it was moderated by Daniel Shelton and featured Armand Debelder (Drie Fonteinen), Frank Boon (Boon) and Jean Van Roy (Cantillon). Over the coming weeks I will be posting videos from this three hour event on Youtube. There are five videos up already and more to follow, check it out on the oldandouttashape channel . Thanks and have a happy fourth of July.

Enjoy.

About a month or so ago, the folks at Newcastle Brown Ale sent me a Newcastle DraughtKeg™, a 5-liter portable unit which uses an internal CO2 system and its own mini-tap and claims to keep beer fresh for up to 30 days after tapping. The idea, their PR people say, is that you can share “the pub experience” with friends wherever you are. I decided to share mine with my friends at The Beer Yard since the original email asking if I would be interested in their shipping me beer came through my email address there.

Side Note: I chuckle when I get the emails asking if it’s okay to send me beer. Really, it is. I’d like to see it mandatory, in fact, but that’s another issue.

To the right is lovable Mark Sauerbrey, Matt Guyer’s kid brother, pouring the very first pint from the keg, which I allowed him the honor of tapping. In doing so, he managed to send the first couple of ounces flying past his glass and onto the hindquarters of my dog, but having a dog smell like beer is not a problem here at Liquid Diet headquarters. Also, many Beer Yard customers and all the employees might not recognize Mark because he is smiling.

Yes, the beer does come remarkably close to what you’d expect from a pint pulled at your local. I cannot testify as to whether the beer would stay fresh for 30 days as the Beer Yard night shift killed it that evening. That’s the way we roll.

The DraughtKeg™ launched nationally last month and should retail for about $13, plus tax. The contents should come to around 10 pints (if you don’t spray some on the dog), so that’s a pretty good price. I don’t drink Newcastle much these days, but I can remember when it was exciting to find it on tap amidst all the Big Blands back before the craft revolution took hold.

Along with the keg, Newcastle sent a “Geordie Schooner,” a special glass “inspired by the brand’s English heritage.” Here’s the skinny on that:

Originally called the Wellington glass, it became so popular in the city of Newcastle that it was renamed the Geordie Schooner - a tribute to the local residents nicknamed “Geordies.” The city of Newcastle’s bartenders continue to serve Newcastle Brown Ale in the same glass, and now beer drinkers stateside can appreciate the tradition.

Finally, here’s Mark again. Many people warned me that his image would not show up on film (do we still call it film?) and it’s nice to prove them wrong.

The issue of how to keep track of all the events that will unfold during Philly Beer Week has been a steady thread on the interwebs for the last few months, including individual solutions to the problem offered here and here. The official PBW gang, on the other hand, has played its cards pretty close to the vest. Until this week, that is, when they finally revealed their hole card.

As you can see, their promised My Philly Beer Week has gone live and is built around a PDF file which can be used in various ways to create a list or calendar that will suit your needs. You can print out a PDF file for each day with the events you select to be listed or create a full calendar of such pages and add it your Outlook, iCalendar or Google calendar.

There will also soon be a My Philly Beer Week app available for iPhones, presumably because people and their iPhones are not already annoying enough.

When this was announced, Brian Kolesar immediately contacted me to announce that he is working with a cloning laboratory in South America to turn himself into a free “Human App” that can be downloaded by PWB attendees after they program it with the events they wish to attend. The app will work for eight hours daily if fueled occasionally by a beer of its choice. “I probably can’t get it up and working in time this year,” he admitted, “so the best I can do is promise to be around all day every day running from event to event help people keep track of where they want to go next.”

In the meantime, he’s also gone the added step of  listing some events occurring from June 4 to June 13 which are not on the official PBW calendar as part of  his monthly “What to Do” calendar for June.