Charity for the Animals (with beer!)

However you celebrate the season -- Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Solstice, New Year's, or just a secular feel-good-time -- this time of year traditionally brings acts of kindly charity. The economy has many people in terrible condition, and that's in the front of everyone's mind. But animals hurt too, especially in the cold, and our friends at the Khyber are making it easy, even tempting, to do something nice for them.

Firkins for our Furry Friends

Looks like it may be snowing cats & dogs tomorrow, but at the Khyber we've got something special planned. Saturday December 19th -- 1:00pm-8:00pm

A special fundraiser for our friends at P.A.W.S. (Philadelphia Animal Welfare Society, who care for abandoned and unwanted animals) featuring an array of cask conditioned bartop kegs of quality craft brews. $20 at the door gets you a bottomless cup of these delicious beers: Sly Fox Chester County Bitter, Stoudt's Fat Dog Imperial Oatmeal Stout, Yards General Washington's Tavern Porter, and a vintage PBC Shackamaximum Imperial Stout.

All proceeds go directly to P.A.W.S. to help them in their efforts to save Philadelphia’s homeless, abandoned, and unwanted animals. So come in, get warm, and help us help PAWS!
Brews graciously donated by Yards, Philly Brewing, Sly Fox and Stoudt's.

And might I remind you: the Sly Fox is a great drinkable session beer, the Fat Dog is an eye-opener, Tavern Porter has that lovely licorice bite...but the Shackamaximum on cask is the absolute shit. 'Nuff said.

Christmas Parties You're Invited To

Just got a note from Leigh at Resurrection Ale House about their Christmas celebration:

This Christmas season, Resurrection Ale House will be celebrating what's great about seasonal beer AND spreading the holiday spirit among those in need. Make no plans for Saturday, December 19, except of course to spend the day drinking excellent Christmas and Winter beers. The lineup includes Scaldis Noel, DuPont Avec Les Bons Voeux, SlyFox Christmas Beer, Ridgeway Reindeer Droppings, Troegs Mad Elf, and many more. All day, $1 from every draft beer you drink goes to Share Our Strength, an organization dedicated to making sure that no kid in America grows up hungry.

Good times, good cause. great beers. I know there are more out there: send 'em in!

All's Right With the World: may yours be right as well

We went to evening mass (St. Andrew's doesn't do midnight mass, for unknown reasons), and Nora and I sang with the choir. My parents are staying overnight for tomorrow's celebration. The children are settled in. Gifts have been wrapped and arranged under the tree. Santa's been left a Hop Wallop (the label looks a lot like him) and an opener. I've got a mug of egg nog blended with a mix of one part Bacardi golden rum, one part cognac, and 4 parts Jim Beam 7 Year Old, and it's tasting pretty damned good. Penderyn's curled up on Cathy's lap.

It's been a good year. We've had some fun here, and some great conversations. I've met even more of you, and New Jersey Breweries is off to a sweet start, out-pacing Pennsylvania Breweries. My thanks to all the brewers, distillers, bar and restaurant people, wholesalers, and public relations types who've been so generous with their time so I can write the stories my editors want (or the blog postings...which I assume someone wants). Most of all, thanks to the readers who keep things interesting, who ask the good questions.

Best wishes to all of you at Christmastide, best of luck in the challenging new year ahead. Remember: drink it because you think it's good, drink it because you support the cause -- and you think it's good -- drink it because it's interesting and innovating...and you think it's good. Fight any forces that try to take away your rights, your choices. Be fair, don't be a snob, be open-minded. Try new things. Discuss them. Spread the word.

Cheers!

Bethlehem Day

The kids and I always take a day before Christmas and go up to Bethlehem for a day of Christmas shopping along Broad and Main, and lunch at Bethlehem Brew Works. Cathy went along last year, and had so much fun -- shopping at the Moravian Book Shop is a joy -- she joined us yesterday, too. She's between jobs right now -- last day at old one was Friday, starting her new one in January, great timing! -- so no problem. We found some fun stuff for gifts (the indoor mall of shops in the same building with BBW has some great stores, including a long-time favorite, the Foo Foo Shoppe), ran into the Malt Advocate office staff at their Christmas lunch at the Apollo Grille (not really "ran into," we knew they were going to be there, and dropped in to say hi), had some coffee...and got stuck into lunch and a couple beers.

BBW had that kitchen fire recently, and is on a limited menu, but we still enjoyed our sandwiches. The lobster and crab dip could have been better, especially for the price, but everything else was real good. I had an oatmeal stout (nice, a touch on the sweet side, that cookie character) and the new Neuweiler Cream Ale (hoppy, and with a sharp cut at the finish that brisks things up for the next sip; it emptied pretty quickly). A very good day, despite the cold and slicing wind.

And Even More Bears...

As fate would have it, I just got an e-letter from one of my favorite bars anywhere, The Great Lost Bear in Portland, Maine. They're running a ton of Christmas/holiday beers right now on their big, beautiful tap system, and they're selling them for $2.50 a "pint" glass between 5 and 9 tonight. Oh, to be in Portland.

Don Russell's Christmas Beer book

I meant to get to this a LOT earlier...but things got busy. In a nutshell: if you need to get a GREAT Christmas present for a beerdrinker on your list -- beer drinker, beer fan, beer lover, beer geek, whatever -- buy them Don Russell's Wishing You a Merry Christmas Beer.

I read Don's book over Thanksgiving, when I was so sick I could barely breathe, thought I had pneumonia. Don almost killed me with some of the funny shit in this book; I got to laughing so hard I almost horcked up a lobe at one point. It's got fun writing (of course), it's got solid content (not just beer reviews, real holiday beer research), and the book is a gorgeous piece of production: beautiful semi-gloss cover, solid hard-bound book, sumptious color beer pix inside.

In short, this is a book I truly wish I'd written. If I were someone else I won't name -- older, maybe, and kind of...curmudgeonly -- I'd say that's why it took me so long to get to reviewing it. Truth is, I've been busy and very much involved in some other issues, and I regret the lateness of the hour. But look, there are signings tonight and tomorrow (Wednesday, Dec. 17 - 5 PM at Home Sweet Homebrew (2008 Sansom St., Center City); and 7 PM at Devil’s Den (1148 S 11th St., South Philly, and if you haven't been here yet, you oughta). Thursday, Dec. 18 - The Irish Pol (45 S. 3rd St., Old City). 7 p.m.), you can still buy the book through Amazon in time for Christmas, or buy it directly from Don (which I'm sure makes him more money!)

If the book's not enough... Don's put together a Christmas beer festival on Saturday, Dec. 27 at the Penn Museum (33rd & Spruce streets, University City) from 1-3 PM. Now THAT'S a great idea! You can, of course, get the book (and get it signed) there, too!

Bethlehem Brew Works re-opens

Case you hadn't heard, Bethlehem Brew Works had a small kitchen fire earlier in the week. The good news is, they re-opened today at 4 PM.

Whew. Now I can take the kids to Bethlehem for our annual Christmas lunch at BBW and shopping expedition in the shops and the Moravian Book Shop, a wonderful bookstore that claims to be the world's oldest continually operating bookstore (since 1745).