It's here!  Sly Fox's annual goat race is all set to go for Sunday.  Anybody else going?

Ouch.  That’s all I can think right now, as my calves, knees, and quads are still recovering from the 4 (and for some, 6) miler that Bryan and Suz put together this past Saturday.  We met on the Art Museum steps bright and early and took off down the river, over the South St. bridge and continued straight up Spruce and Baltimore till we hit Dock St.  We were the most law-abiding runners ever seen in Philly—nobody complained at stopping for red lights (and even a few green ones).  We still made it there in time to put a pitcher or two away before the 6-mile runners arrived.  Pizza and beer were abundant, although almost everybody put away a few cups of H2O before partaking in the other refreshments.

Thanks again to Bryan and Suz, Mike and Rosemarie at Dock St., and all of the beer-enthused runners who came out.  Next year promises to bring more running (and more runners!).  It was definitely worth doing, and made for a suitable return to a healthy lifestyle put on hold for two week of solid beering.  I was thinking about posting a Beer Week wrap-up, but there’s no way to do it justice other than to say, "You really had to be there."  If you missed it, go ahead and mark off March on your 2009 calendars. We hope to see a lot of you before then! Cheers, —Andrew

Last night had PBC drinking brews from both of Philly’s famous divorcees, Philadelphia Brewing Company (PBCo from here on) and Yards Brewing Company.  There has been much speculation and rumor flying around, which the recent Philly Weekly article (Tanks for the Memories) did surprisingly little to clear up.  Here's what we discovered:

It turns out that Yards has not been bought up by a major beer conglomerate, as I had previously heard.  They are, however, caught in a contractual obligation to distribute their beer through a single distributor, which is going to make Yards slightly more expensive than we were used to (supposedly somewhere around the 25% mark).  The recipes, however, remain the same.  Or so I thought.  At the Bishop’s Collar last night, we tried both the Philly Pale Ale and the Tavern Porter.  Both tasted noticeably different from what I was used to and it turns out it’s because Yards is currently brewing in the Lion Brewery in Wilkes-Barre.  Different water, different equipment, different brewers—I’ll withhold judgment until they get their Delaware Ave location up and running (which, from what I hear, could be anywhere from April to June) on their own equipment and using real Philly water.  I still think they should be labeling it “Wilkes-Barre Pale Ale” for the time being.  And I’m still more than a little annoyed that one of the Yard’s guys at the Brewer’s Plate swore up and down to me that the beer I was drinking was definitely from their first batch produced on Delaware Ave.  I won’t mention names, but c’mon guys—do you think we won’t find out?!  [[One thing I forgot to mention--Tom Kehoe did set the record straight at Bishop's Collar.]]

PBCo, on the other hand, will continue to self-distribute their beer, dropping off their own kegs and cases across the city as they had previously as (old) Yards.  We met the brewers Josh and John last night at the London Grill, who are both the kind of guys I would expect and hope to see brewing at PBCo.  They share a great deal of the Barton's vision for Kensington, and it definitely shows in their beers.  On tap were the Kenzinger and the Rowhouse Red (which coupled with the Newbold IPA at Tap Room leaves only the Walt Wit left to find—let me know if you see the pencil tap handle!).  I definitely have a preference for the IPA (finally—an IPA that isn’t just about the hops!), but the knowledge that all of the PBCo beers you can find right now are straight from the first batch of each definitely adds a little special something to each glass.

Also at the London Grill was an Anheuser-Busch rep (sorry—I’m horrible with names once I have a beer or two in me) who set a few misconceptions straight for me.  He promised me that when AB buys rights to distribute a beer, they do not change the recipe or force any other changes on the brewer.  He said that beers like Hoegaarden, Stella, and Leffe (all of which they were handing out samples of) are brewed in the same towns using the same recipe as they always were.  AB’s sole purpose in distributing these beers is to provide a larger audience.  I still think that producing beer on the scale required to distribute world-wide leads to changes in the recipes and methods, even if the impetus for that change doesn’t come from external mandates…  But hey—with the amazing selection of Philly local beers, very rarely do I find myself reaching for a more worldly brew.

According to Annie, the GM at Devil's Alley, there are still a few seats left for this Sunday's Craft Beer & Chocolate.  For those of you not going to the Brewer's Plate, this looks like a great (and cheaper) option for earlier in the day. $25 gets you a 5-course cocoa-tinged lunch with beer pairings from Unibroue, Stoudt's, and Clipper City.  Can't beat that.  RSVP by calling 215.751.0707 Download the PDF here

Don't forget--this Saturday is the Philly Craft Beer Festival, the official pre-kickoff event for Philly Beer Week.  Session 1 (the one most of us are going to) is now sold out, but it appears that tickets can be found at cost on CraigsList.  There are still tickets for the second session starting at 6 PM.  I considered going to both, but my liver tells me that's a bad idea.

I'll bring plenty of packs of Emergen-C--I've found it to be fairly effective at preventing the negative effects of over-sampling.  If you have multi-vitamins or at least a B-complex, take it with breakfast before you go.  With over 120 beers at 2 oz per beer, drinking one of everything comes out to be 15 full beers at varying levels of alcoholic content--not bad for $40.

I took a trip over the bridge this weekend with my old roommate Anthony and his girlfriend, Cristin, to Flying Fish Brewing Company in Cherry Hill.  It was surprisingly easy to get to, although that may have been because we were using Ant's new GPS.  Driving down their street, I was a little surprised that a brewery would set up shop right in the middle of an industrial park, but sure enough the logo came into view and we were there.  We followed the happy voices through the entryway back to the bar/shop where everyone gathers for samples.  We stayed hydrated thanks to Adam, Flying Fish’s Jersey sales-guy.  He kept the LoveFish flowing from the tap and had bottle after bottle of their standards moving from the fridge to our cups.

Of course, one doesn’t wander into a brewery without taking the tour, which we were lucky enough to catch the last one of the day.  They have quite a spacious, clean, and well-kept setup, with the flow of ingredients meandering along the circumference of the warehouse.  Their new bottling machine is capable of a mind-bending 170 bottles per minute (coincidentally, also the rate at which I consume beer) and can fill 750ml bottles, so look for special "classy" releases from them in the future.

I piped up with a few questions about how they were dealing with the lack of cheap ingredients.  It turns out they were able to seal in a few very good deals for their hops, so they won’t immediately be hurting.  Of course, the prices will go up (in one batch, $17k worth of hops became $76k worth…) but they’re going to try to absorb as much as they can before passing it all on to us.  They're not planning on cutting any beers from their list; if anything, they're hopefully going to come through with a few additions.

As for the beers, I didn’t try one I didn’t like in some way.  If I would say any of their brews were "must-drinks," I’d have to point to their Belgian Abbey Dubbel and Imperial Espresso Porter.  The LoveFish was even better (it’s their base Dubbel  brewed with cherries for Valentine’s Day), but bottles of that were long gone.  Six-packs of available beer run $8, but you’re limited to two per person.

I'd like to set up a tour for PBC to head over and visit.  April 1st is supposed to bring a new brew, which may be available at the brewery towards the end of March.  Maybe once we all sleep off Philly Beer Week, we can head over and check them out.

PS: One thing I couldn’t stop thinking about is all of the CO2 released during the brewing process.  I did a little googling to find that a brewery in Colorado has found a use for it.  New Belgium Brewery (which makes the Fat Tire Ale I came to like so much in Arizona) pumps the CO2 over to Solix Biofuel so that their algae can suck it up and emit biodiesel.  Beer waste becomes fuel—I feel like Homer tanking up at the ethanol pump: one for you, one for me…

Cliff may have introduced us to the Buffalo Theory, but Norm Peterson's known for quite a few little gems of wisdom as well. Here are some of the better ones:

Woody: Hey, Mr. Peterson, Jack Frost nipping at your nose? Norm: Yep, now let's get Joe Beer nipping at my liver, huh? Coach: Can I draw you a beer, Norm? Norm: No, I know what they look like. Just pour me one. Coach: How's a beer sound, Norm? Norm: I dunno. I usually finish them before they get a word in. Woody: What's your pleasure, Mr. Peterson? Norm: Boxer shorts and loose shoes. But I'll settle for a beer. Sam: What do you say, Norm? Norm: Any cheap, tawdry thing that'll get me a beer

Woody: Would you like a beer, Mr. Peterson? Norm: No, I'd like a dead cat in a glass. Woody: Can I pour you a draft, Mr. Peterson? Norm: A little early, isn't it Woody? Woody: For a beer? Norm: No, for stupid questions.

It's that time again.  In case you didn't get the email or aren't on the mailing list (the sign-up is at the top of the right hand column) we're having our first February meeting this coming Monday at the Standard Tap in Northern Liberties.  If you're interested, check out their website at http://www.standardtap.com/.  Now, as a web designer, I have to say that if you'll scroll down on their page, you'll quickly come to the conclusion that red on olive is not a wise color choice if you're counting on people reading your site.  Also, a few moments spent on site layout and design pay themselves back in no time.

Site design notwithstanding, Standard Tap has positioned itself as one of the top bars in the city for beer connoisseurs.  It's taps are reserved solely for local beers (if you want more exotic beers, you can always head next door to the Foodery...), and from what I hear, the food can stand on its own.  I'll be trying the mussels and sausage, which comes highly recommended.

In keeping with their claim as the place to taste local beers, they completely flush every tap line once a week, scrub every fitting, and sterilize the whole contraption before hooking the kegs back up.  This means that the beer going into your glass is as close to what came out of the brewer's vats as your going to find without going straight to the source.

A major omission from the website is their current tap list, but a quick call took care of that.  We'll be looking forward to:

• Yards: Philly Pale Ale & ESA
• Sly Fox: Dark Lager, IPA, Phoenix Pale Ale, & Stout
• Legacy: Euphoria & Wheat
• Lancaster: Baltic Porter
• Flying Fish: ESB Ale
• Riverhorse: Hop Hazard
• Reading: Lager

Thanks to Rory for taking the time to read off the list--we should be seeing him Monday.  I'll see about throwing together some info on each of these beers.

Also, with Philly Beer Week coming up, we'll be pouring over the schedule of events to decide which are worth checking out and which we might have to skip.  It would be nice to pick one or two and try to get the whole group out.  Maybe we should order up a few more PBC t-shirts :)  Any way, shoot me an email if you can make it Monday night, or just show up.  Either way, it should be a great meeting.

I know I am...  It's just over a month until the craft beer fest on March 1st and I'm starting to scale the beer consumption back to refresh my taste buds.  I'm up in Syracuse for the weekend and there seems to be two decent breweries in the city proper: Middle Ages Brewery and Empire Brewing Company.  I'll try to swing by them both tomorrow for a quick sampling and see how they stack up again some of our Philly standards.

I can't wait to be back in Philly though--I just bought 2 VIP tickets for the Brewer's Plate on the 9th (a little birthday present to myself).  The bonus events seem to more than make up for ticket price, and the fact it all goes towards efforts to promote local food (and beer) will make the beer taste all the better.

Where's our next meeting going to be?  We still haven't been down to the Standard Tap, although Devil's Den is set to open soon and Tap Room's extra dining room should be finished any day now...  Send me your suggestions -- andrew@phillybeerclub.com

From Joe:

Hi all,

Philadelphia Beer Club is back!  The come back event will be held at Dock Street Brewery which is on the corner of 50th and Baltimore. The meeting will begin at 7:00 PM on Tuesday, Jan 22.   Associate brewmaster Mike Fava will be there to talk with our group about his role and to answer any questions about the brewing process. 

I know you're probably thinking that 1) 50th and Baltimore is far 2) I don't have money for expensive craft beer and 3) I don't know how to get there.   Well let me answer all of those. 

1) Yes, 50th and Baltimore is not in Center City.  It is a bit away from the action but that means NOTHING to the quality of the restaurant and beer.  Philadelphia has a funny kind of tradition where first a brewery comes in to a neighborhood, then the neighborhood becomes hip and trendy (think Northern Liberties and Yards). Dock St. is hoping to do the same around the 50th and Baltimore neighborhood. 

2)  Yes, craft beer is more expensive then Lager or Coors Light but you get something for your money.  You get TASTE.  You get hand crafted beer made from quality ingredients.  You get a well rounded experience in taste and atmosphere.

3)  You probably don't know how to get to 50th and Baltimore, but I do.  To make things easy, 50th and Baltimore is a stop on the 34 trolley which you can pick up at 30th Street.  Also, I will be driving there and can give people rides from the Drexel area.  Its not a bad neighborhood so biking and walking are also good alternatives.

So if you are interested in tasting qualty, hand-crafted beer, learning about how its made, enjoying a good drink with fellow beer lovers all at an easy to reach location in an upcoming neighborhood of Philadelphia, then join us at Dock Street Brewery on 50th and Baltimore on Tuesday and drink up!  Let me know if you plan on coming, so I can tell Mike and Dock St. how many to expect.

Also, if you know anyone else who may be interested in such an experience, forward this along, or send me their email address. 

Hope to hear from you and keep on drinking,

Joe