Hello, Pittsburgh!

I'm headed out to Pittsburgh week after next to do brewery/bar visits for Pennsylvania Breweries 4th edition, and I've managed to book some events. Hope I see some of you there.

On Tuesday, November 17, at 6:15 PM, I'll be hosting an edition of Craft Beer School at the Theater Square Cabaret; it's all about my favorite topic, Session Beers. Details are here and here (sorry, they each have details the other doesn't!). Craft Beer School is the brainchild of Vecenie Distributing's Tony "The Beer Man" Knipling, one of the most dogged, determined champions of craft beer I've ever met, and -- believe it or not -- the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust. It's a short, fun session, about an hour, and we'll talk about the beauties of low-alcohol beer.

The next night, Wednesday the 18th, I'll be doing a barrel-aged beer tasting at Bocktown Beer & Grill, and they have corraled some excellent beers: New Holland Oaked Mad Hatter IPA, Stoudt's Scarlet Lady ESB through their "Brewser the Infuser" filled with bourbon-soaked oak, Great Lakes Oaked Black Out Stout, Erie Oaked Railbender, Arcadia Oak-Aged Cereal Killer, and Arcadia Big Dick's Old Ale aged in Pappy Van Winkle barrels. And we may have a few more amazings up our sleeves; still working on that. Expect a lot about the bourbon aging process and the secrets in the wood; I am a beer and whiskey guy, after all. I'll have details on this one soon; watch this space!

And if you're in the biz in the area -- bar or distributor -- Vecenie is throwing a craft beer pep rally Monday night (the 16th) at the Teutonia Männerchor, where I'll be talking about the whole craft beer revolution, where it came from, how it's doing, and where it's headed. Get in touch with them and come on out! (This is for retailers only; sorry, general public.)

Now it's over

We lost. Not "the Phillies lost." We lost. We're in this together, and just saying that makes me realize that after 45 years of not really giving a damn about team sports -- except for a brief flirtation during college when F&M's basketball team made it to the Final Four -- I have become a fan. Which is not a bad thing, and I am prepared to suffer as well as celebrate. Hell, I suffered in 2007, a little. God knows the Iggles have made me suffer (Lose to Oakland, kick the snot out of the Giants? Which team plays this Sunday, boys?)

But we had a good run this year, a great run, and it's a young team. 2010's going to be another great year.

Great job, Phillies!

You umpires, though...wow, did you suck this post-season...

Come All You Young Vegans (and old ones, too, Tom & Peggy...)

Just got this from the folks at Royal Tavern, who are celebrating their 7th anniversary:

On Wednesday, November 11th Royal Tavern’s week-long 7th anniversary celebration kicks off with a night for vegans and vegetarians. For one night only the blackboard specials will consist entirely of vegetarian and vegan items. There will be a specialty cocktail menu crafted from cruelty-free ingredients. Festivities start at 5pm and a portion of the proceeds will be donated to PAWS.

So I guess a bullshot is out of the question... Seriously, is Philly Veg-Central? I'm not at all vegetarian, but I love choice. Cheers, Royal Tavern!

Comment Spam Explodes

I've had comment moderation on for years, thanks to a couple real jerkwads who insisted on polluting the blog. But I've never had much problem with "blogspam," comments full of advertising and links to crapsites, and I just rejected them. I got maybe one every other week.

Yesterday, all of a sudden, I got twelve, and it's continuing today. So I'm considering adding CAPTCHA tech to the comment field; that thing where you have to type in the 'word' you see in a window before your comment will post. I don't want to do this -- it's a pain in your neck -- but neither do I want to have my time sucked up by rejecting a bunch of "Miley Cyrus NUD!" spam, you know?

So...will having to do that one extra step be a real pain in all your butts? Or is it no big deal? Let me know, and I'll factor that in before I decide. And who knows, this may just be temporary.

November is Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month

Nothing about beer, food, baseball, whiskey, or the PLCB here. I'd like to talk to you about pancreatic cancer, for two reasons.

First, this is Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month. Pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer deaths in America, and has the highest mortality rate of all major cancers. This year, an estimated 42,470 Americans will be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. 76% of them will die within one year of the diagnosis. Yet pancreatic cancer research receives less than 2% of the National Cancer Institute's budget. It's not a hidden disease. Patrick Swayze, Justice Ruth Ginsburg, Steve Jobs, Randy "The Last Lecture" Pausch all had/have pancreatic cancer; chances are sadly quite good that you know someone who did.

And that's my second reason. Next Thursday, November 12, will mark one year since my dad told me he had pancreatic cancer. As he said at the time, when he handed me the green folder with his diagnostic report in it, "There's no easy way to say this."

As I learned more about pancreatic cancer and its bleak prognosis over the next few weeks, "no easy way" loomed large in my mind. Our calendar seemed suddenly, cruelly short. We gained hope when we learned his tumor was small, more when chemotherapy and radiation -- including a clinical trial of a new regimen that my father undertook, painful and wearying though it was -- shrank it to the point of being operable. Our hopes were dashed when the surgeons found that the cancer had already metastasized, as pancreatic cancer often does. It is an evil, spiteful bastard of a cancer, and if I could reach into my father's body and tear it out by the roots and stomp on it, I would.

But...subsequent chemotherapy has been moderately successful; it has significantly slowed the advance of the disease (the main tumor is actually smaller). My father is in good health, considering that he's 80 years old and undergoing chemotherapy, and he's still doing yardwork and baking biscuits for the dogs. He wants to see Thomas graduate from high school this spring, and I believe he'll make it.

That's why I'm taking this opportunity to talk to you. I know it's not fun to read. But if any of you see this, and want to help, click on the banner up above. One of the most important things you can do is to write your Congressional Representative about HR 745, the Pancreatic Cancer Research and Education Act, which will direct and enable the Department of Health and Human Services to increase funding for pancreatic cancer research. And if you have your own causes -- something I thoroughly understand, and endorse! -- and decide to take a pass, no problem. I just wanted to do something for my dad.

Thanks for listening. You really are a great bunch of readers, and I appreciate it.

The World Series is Not Over

We're still watching, still fightin'. Bill Lyon had a great piece in the Inky this morning: "Start spreadin' the news: The Fightin's live." The Phillies have done an amazing thing: they made my wife, a life-long Yankees fan, into a Phillies fan. She's biting her nails on this.

Now all they need is one more not-so-amazing thing. They have to win three straight, two of them on the road after one at home. Why's that not-so-amazing? Might I remind you: that's exactly what the Yankees just did.

High hopes, brothers and sisters. High hopes. The Fightin's live.


Oh. Beer? I plan to have a BrewDog Punk IPA during the 7th inning stretch tomorrow. I'll let you know how that goes.

That's Pedro Martinez, ready and waiting for Game 6. Daddy's home, New York. photo by Ron Cortes, of the Inquirer.

Great column on why an increased beer tax just ain't fair

Tom Purcell has a great column in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (that's been picked up and re-published across the country) on why an increase in beer tax is a bad and unfair idea.

Here's part of it, a part I fully endorse (except the "beer-slugging" part...but I'd be a liar if I said I didn't knock back beers pretty heavily in college myself):

I'm not entirely against paying taxes to fund government programs. I like driving around on the wide-open highways that my tax contributions helped build.
I'm grateful for the government-backed loans that got me through my beer-slugging days at Penn State (to paraphrase comedian Frank Nicotero, I graduated with a 1.2 ... blood-alcohol level).
I'm happy for the government agencies that protect our borders, track down criminals across state lines and make sure our food and water are safe.
But higher taxes on beer? Why not increase taxes on hot dogs and apple pie while we're at it?

That's right, Tom. Take a look. It's a fairness issue.

WhiskyFest: Good News, Bad News

Just got the latest WhiskyNotes from Malt Advocate.

The good news: These new whiskies will be at WhiskyFest New York: Ardbeg's Corryvreckan (we tasted a bit of this at the Malt Advocate staff party in August; it's excellent), Hibiki (sampled this blended whisky from Suntory at WFSF, quite nice stuff), Pappy Van Winkle 23 yr., Parker's Heritage Collection 27 yr., Glenmorangie Signet, Glenrothes 1975, The Dalmore 1974, Glen Grant 10 yr., Glen Grant 16 yr.; and these exhibitors will be at WFNY for the first time: GlenDronach (again, some nice tastings at WFSF), The Wild Geese Irish Soldiers & Heroes, Amrut Indian Single Malt (tasted these at Binny's in Chicago: very good for their age), Finger Lakes Distilling (source of that rye we had at Man Full of Trouble), N. PALAZZI Spirits, Pierre Ferrand Cognac.

The bad news? WhiskyFest New York is sold out, so if you don't have a ticket, it's too late. Which is, after all, good news for Malt Advocate, and good news for the whisky biz.

Four Breweries

I visited PA breweries last Thursday: the new ShawneeCraft, Barley Creek, and the two Brew Works, Bethlehem and Allentown. It was a long day: drove up along the river to Shawnee at 7 AM, got back from Allentown at 6:30, about 188 miles all told. Good, though.

ShawneeCraft is an outgrowth of the Shawnee Inn in the Poconos, right along the Delaware river. Leo Bongiorno is the brewer (formerly of Butternuts, and, well, a lot of other places; he's been in the biz about 16 years), and yes, the stories you've heard of an ambitious barrel-aging program are all true (that's the racks in the taproom at right...but those are all empty, for now). Leo's doing some barrel-aging now -- bourbon barrel stuff -- but even that's just step 1: he's really doing that to get the barrels clear for bug innoculation (and to make some money, to be truthful). But that's going to take over a year till he's got some sour/brett beers ready; in the meantime he's brewing stuff like the pumpkin saison I tasted. It had an amazing volatile spiciness that floated high in the mouth, as energetic as ginger but different. Fresh-ground mace, he told me, and it was brilliant. They've got the brewery set up in an old ice hockey rink, and the taproom is the Gem & Keystone Inn, a nice snug two-story bar and restaurant up by the road. That's open now: stop by.

Barley Creek was next, and as always, it looked different from the last time I was there. The deck was fully enclosed for more seating and another bar (nice: underlit, creamy butter color, streaked like marble). I joined Trip Ruvane and brewer-for-life Tim Phillips at the bar and ran the taps -- Rescue IPA opened my eyes: forget what you thought you knew about IPA at Barley Creek. Woof. The chef made a little tasting menu, starting with the always fun Crane's Crazy Chip Dip, some sandwiches (a great veggie/pesto one, and roast beef with horseradish cream), and delicious garlic shrimp. Beers were clean (especially the light; impressive) and tasty, though my favorite Renovator Stout was not on (supposed to be on this week).

Brew Works... GABF medals, multiple batches of house-made 'lambic' (quite nice), bourbon barrel aging, 25.4 oz. cork-n-cage bottles (Hop'solutely and Rude Elf's Reserve), Boom-Boom Shrimp (don't ask, just eat, but have a beer ready), and the three-level+beer garden business of Allentown. Lots of change, and a lot going on here, and Beau's making some very nice beers.

More breweries to come...and more pix, when I get a moment.

Flying Fish Exit 1 video

Jeff Linkous ("Beer Stained Letter") does beer blogging and video. He just sent me this link to a video about the new Flying Fish Exit 1 Oyster Stout. He interviewed me for the piece (at Joe's Mill Hill Saloon, in Trenton; a good afternoon). Enjoy!