Words of wisdom from Lord Chesterfield

From the actual Lord Chesterfield, not the Yuengling brand. I got this in my A Word A Day e-letter this morning (a free service that I highly recommend as educational, fun, and engagingly weird at times).

Wear your learning, like your watch, in a private pocket, and do not pull it out and strike it merely to show you have one. If you are asked what o'clock it is, tell it, but do not proclaim it hourly and unasked, like the watchman. -Lord Chesterfield, statesman and writer (1694-1773) 

I present it not only for its worthy message, but for its messenger: appropriate this week, because Lord Chesterfield will be visiting Philly Beer Week. It's true, you can look it up with the Philly Beer Week iPhone app (which is not only cool, but it works, too: you can schedule ahead, you can search by venue, brewery, date, or type of event (would have been nice if you could search by Pay As You Go; just a suggestion, because these are the kinds of events it is easiest to drop in on by whim), or by GPS-determined closest to you). Yuengling is bringing Dick's daughter Jennifer Yuengling and an actor-portrayed Lord Chesterfield to town for some light-hearted meet-and-greet.

This is good news, and fun. Good, because A) it looks like they're putting some push behind this hoppier entry in their line, a clandestine fave of some for years, and that's good to see; and B) because Ralph Archbold needs some competition to keep him on top of his game!

Any Confessions?

By the way, I was just wondering...does anyone want to confess to being the anonymous tipster who sicced the BLCE on Memphis Taproom, Resurrection Ale House, and Local 44? Because if you were to man up and admit it, I'd have a smidgen of respect for you, even at this late date. If you don't, and it comes out later, I'll happily lead the charge to spread your responsibility far and wide.

I will not be taking any Anonymous comments on this post, by the way.

Doing anything Friday, Lehigh Valley?

There's a Taste of Philly beer event at the Allentown Brew Works in the High Gravity Room: this Friday, 7-10, beer and food from Tastykake, Amoroso, and Original Philly Cheesesteak. Here's the kicker: this is a 100% charity event. Every dollar from ticket sales goes directly to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. It's in memory of Jeff Fegley's brother David. Good cause, people, good beers:

There will be a minimum of 41 selections at this festival, with summer samplings of: 12 Allentown Brew Works beers, 6 Bethlehem Brew Works beers, plus  Weyerbacher, Manayunk Brewing,  Yards Brewing Company, Victory Brewing, and the Philadelphia Brewing Company.

The brewers down the road at Boston Beer are bringing beers (hope they bring the Noble Pils!), and homebrewers from Keystone Home Brew Supply and Lehigh Valley Homebrewers are bringing beers (you know: mad, cutting-edge, homebrewed beers!).

I can't make it -- not around -- but you can. $30 in advance, and you can contribute more if you'd like.

Pabst finally, almost, probably...sold

After years as the property of a charitable institution, Pabst Brewing looks likely to be sold to C. Dean Metropoulos. The Wall Street Journal reports that Metropoulos will be paying the Kalmanovitz Charitable Foundation about $250 million for the company, a collection of brands and employees that owns no brewing facilities (Pabst's brands are all brewed under contract). Here's the nut of the story for those who are not WSJ subscribers:

Investor C. Dean Metropoulos made a fortune building well-known consumer brands including Bumble Bee Tuna and Vlasic Pickles. Now, he is looking to wash them down with a Pabst Blue Ribbon.
Mr. Metropoulos, a 64-year-old executive known for invigorating brands, has reached an agreement to buy Pabst Brewing Co. from the charitable foundation that owns the company for about $250 million, according to people familiar with the matter. Although little known outside of food circles, he earned a fortune managing brands such as Chef Boyardee, Duncan Hines and Ghirardelli Chocolates. With Pabst, Mr. Metropoulos is showing his deal-making skills.
About 15 other private-equity firms, including Morgan Stanley's private-equity arm, had considered a bid, said people familiar with the matter. The purchase is in its final stages and has the financial backing of General Electric Co.'s lending arm, the people said.
Pabst Brewing is the country's fifth-largest beer supplier, according to industry newsletter Beer Marketers Insights Inc., accounting for 2.7% of industry volume last year. Pabst's blue-collar roots have made the brand-known among beer cognoscenti as PBR-a beer of choice for a generation of irony-loving hipsters from Portland, Ore., to Manhattan's Lower East Side.

It's just me, but if Mr. Metropoulos really wants to "invigorate" this brand...he should buy/build a brewery for it. Give Pabst a home, Mr. Metropoulos; give it back its soul. And maybe give it back some hops while you're at it.

Phoenixville Pub Crawl

Uncle Jack's plugging it, and so am I: the best event I missed at last year's Philly Beer Week...and I'm going to miss it again this year, dammit. The Phoenixville Pub Crawl is on June 5th, and features bars hosting brewers and brewpubs hosting...you. It was so much fun last year that Uncle Jack took a month to recover.

I can't be there -- Thomas graduates that day -- so stand in for me, willya? Head out to one of the suburbs' best beer towns for some good beer and good fun.

Hmmm...If Philly is America's Best Beer-Drinking City, and it is -- as I've said before -- a relatively small city in square miles with some of its best beer in the suburbs...what is Philly's Best Beer Suburb? Anyone?

Far as that goes, can anyone tell me what county in Pennsylvania has the most breweries? Anyone?

I am doing a Philly Beer Week event...

I'm going to be AWOL from much of Philly Beer Week: Thomas graduates from Holy Ghost Prep on June 5, so I'm not real focused. But I am hosting an event at the Grey Lodge Pub the next day, June 6th at 6 PM, the event that only the author of Pennsylvania Breweries could do: Scoats and Lew's Upstate PA Brewery Haul.

The "Haul" itself is taking place this Tuesday, when Scoats and I will go get kegs from ShawneeCraft, Breaker Brewing, Berwick Brewing (where we'll be dropping off some empties, too: this is a full-service beer run), Bullfrog Brewery (Terry's cutting loose of one of his precious sour casks for us, and some bottles), Bavarian Barbarian, Copper Kettle (bottles only; they don't do kegs), Elk Creek Cafe, and Old Forge. I think this will be a Philly debut for Old Forge; might be for ShawneeCraft and Copper Kettle, too, but I'm not quite as sure about that. One thing I do know: this is the only place you're going to see all of these together and be able to sample them at the same time.

I did deliver the PAB4 edits yesterday, by the way, and had a lunch with my editor, Kyle Weaver, that resulted in my sending him one quick addition to the book: Coakley's in New Cumberland served us a delish lunch (I had a Cuban quesadilla, Kyle had a generous shepherd's pie) and fresh, snappy glasses of Stoudt's Karnival Kölsch that really hit the spot on a surprisingly hot May afternoon. Coakley's: welcome to Pennsylvania Breweries!

Beer Raid Resolution!

Got this from Leigh Maida (Memphis Taproom, Local 44...hey, you know who I'm talking about!). This is the final upshot of the whole thing, the whining, grumbling, "we knew you were breaking the law, and here's your punishment" backhand from the BLCE:

YOU! You bad licensee, you! Can you imagine? It would be like selling Lehigh Valley 1% Lo-Fat Milk from a dispenser marked "1% Milk." The scandal! And this is, after all, from "An Internationally Accredited Law Enforcement Agency." What a pathetic whining.

Good news is, they're going to get the kegs back, and Leigh says when they do, they're going to blow it all out at $1 a glass! That's by way of saying thanks to everyone who stood by them through this ridiculous crapola. If you're not on the Local 44 e-mail list, get on it: that's where they'll be making the announcement.

All's well that ends...stupidly, I guess. Except I don't really want this to end. I want to grab this and beat the agency to death with it. Don't forget this, folks. We'll come back to it.

Summer Stock returns!

That's right, folks: I got six sample bottles of Stegmaier Summer Stock Lager in a big old box yesterday. I've been waiting to see that one for a while. I've got two bottles in the fridge chilling now. Keep your fingers crossed. (And yes, it does come in sixtels. Hello, backyard barbeque.)

Pennsylvania Breweries 4 done with edits

I just finished up the edits on Pennsylvania Breweries 4. I'm donating a copy to a homebrew contest as a prize (to be mailed in September) and wrote this description for a prize certificate: it sounded so good I thought I'd share it:

This latest edition has 74 breweries, almost 300 of the best bars in the state, lodging suggestions, nearby attractions for the road-tripping beer traveler, some history, and Lew’s rambling entertainments on brewing, craft beers, Pennsylvania regional food, the state’s best beer fests, and more. The 4th edition is 50% bigger than the 3rd, and almost entirely new material.

Damn! I want to read that myself! It really is almost all new material, too. I'd say it's more than 85% new. This is not just the 3rd edition with new breweries.

Hey, JOURNALISTS!

And bar-owners, too...could we get something straight? A "BREWPUB" is not a bar that sells beer, even interesting "micro-brewed" beer. A "BREWPUB" is a "pub" where they "brew" the beer they sell. It is a brewery. Don't brew beer at a place? Not a brewpub.

While I have your attention...If you have a bar, don't name it "The [somethingsomething] Brewery" or "The [somethingsomething] Distillery". Again, these are real types of places, more importantly, they are real types of places that your bar is not one of!*

Can we get this settled, please? Because you're screwing up my Google Alert, not to mention all the people who are walking into your place expecting fresh-made beer. Thanks.



(Tip of the hat to beer writer Don Tse for bringing that one up.)