Philadelphia: The Nation’s Earliest Beer Drinking City.
So there they were, dozens of people drinking beer at what used to be a respectable neighborhood tappie at 7am of a Saturday morning in Philadelphia yesterday morning. And they were, most of them, wearing Hawaiian shirts.
Ho, Hum. Just another day in the life of the nation’s cleverest publican.
I awakened at 5:30am, turned and looked at the clock and decided I really didn’t need to get up that early, even for the annual 2008 Groundhog Day Hawaiian Shirt Beer Breakfast and Lucky Cat Night Beer Prognostication event at the Grey Lodge Pub. Instead, I tossed about fitfully for another hour and a half, then rose and semi-shined a little after 7, took care of the dog, checked in at the computer, showered, had my morning cappuccino and drove on down, just under 40 miles.
I arrived inside the doors at 8:20, ten minutes after the Founders Breakfast Stout kicked, thus keeping alive my dubious record of never having tasted this elusive and wildly praised brew. What I did have right off the bat was the first-ever Philadelphia Brewing Company beer, Roadhouse Red. A very strange beer it was, fruitier than expected and with a fruit note I couldn’t quite pin down (somebody suggested pineapple, but that didn’t seem right). I thought about it a bit and then remember that this was a prototype and the real thing would be brewed with a different yeast, different malts, different water and in a larger brewing system, so it really didn’t matter.
I took some photos for those who weren’t fortunate enough to be in attendance. This is what I call the Woody Set.
Okay, everybody in all the pictures has a beard of sorts except for Scoats, but we all know which guys we’re talking about, right?
That semi-lookalike is Roy. And yes, that is a groundhog (of sorts) in his pocket and, yes, he is glad to see you. Roy has a legend of his own in the beer industry and I tried to get a photo of him and Woody together but the camera wouldn’t work and I felt a cold chill across the back of my neck as I looked at the pair of them standing side by side. There are clearly some things that the minds and eyes of mere mortals are just not meant to experience. Be grateful. I took a bullet for the lot of you on that one.
S’all I got. Except this: it was a great time and if you have no other excuse except that you couldn’t drag your sorry ass out of bed on a Saturday morning to be there, then you probably aren’t nearly the cool beer guy (or gal) you think you are.
Just sayin’…
Dear me, Uncle Jack… You should have arrived earlier. Then you could have seen us at our coherent best.
I’m not sure I’d recognize most of you if you were coherent.
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Jack,
I don’t think arriving earlier would have afforded you the chance to see most people at their coherent best. I planned on going to this event for the sole purpose of the FBS but a few weeks before I stumbled upon some at Teresa’s Next Door in Wayne. I have seen it there more than once. I did however arrive early enough to get a taste again.