Will you feel lucky this Friday?

What can it mean?

• Cigar City Humidor IPA
• Cricket Hill Reserve Series Brown
• Dock Street TBA
• Dogfish Head 75 Minute IPA
• Flying Fish Farmhouse
• Fullers London Pride
• Lancaster Milk Stout
• Manayunk Brewerytown Brown Ale
• Manayunk Hop Phanatic
• Nodding Head Marauder
• Philly Fleur de Lehigh
• Prism Bitto Honey
• Sixpoint Modern Rye
• Sly Fox 113 IPA
• Sly Fox Chester County Bitter
• Stouts Pils
• Stouts special bourbon barrel aged Scarlet Lady ESB
• Troegs Hopback Amber
• Troegs Javahead
• Victory Headwaters Pale Ale
• Wells Banana Bread
• Wells Bombadier
• Weyerbacher Verboten with camomille tea
• Yards ESA 

It can only mean one thing: Friday the Firkinteenth. Starts at noon, this Friday.

New Single Pot Still Irish Whiskeys coming

I just spent three days in Ireland, courtesy of Midleton distillers and Pernod Ricard, to taste two new single post still Irish whiskeys, Powers John's Lane and Midleton Barry Crockett Legacy. I had my Malt Advocate Managing Editor hat firmly on my head, so accordingly, my notes on the whiskey are on our magazine blog, here. I'll probably have the rest of the trip up here soon. In the meantime, for those of you who are jealous of the whiskey (and beer) samples I get...I did stop at Travel Retail in the new T2 terminal at Dublin Airport to buy a bottle of Green Spot. Because I've been waiting too damned long to have my own bottle, and I thought 28 Euro was a pretty good price. Slainte!

New York Breweries update nudges closer

I went to TAPNY over the weekend, had a LOT of great beers from some excellent new New York breweries (the top two awards went to breweries under a year old, Crossroads and Barrier (and well-deserved), and I enjoyed the hell out of the beers from Greenport, too), and saw a phenomenal level of support for the state's brewers. So I'm in final negotiations on a long-overdue update of New York Breweries. There are over 60 breweries in the state now, with the Finger Lakes region and Long Island leading the growth, and again, some truly excellent beers being made. Going to be a lot of travel, a lot of work, but I think this is going to happen.

Zythos in America

This may or may not happen at this event.

There are -- there will be -- a ton of Philly Beer Week events. It starts in 32 days. I have my own events, and I'll let you know about them soon. But I wanted to get this one out there, because it's really the kind of event that could almost only be done in Philly, because of our huge love for Belgian beers (and when, fergodssake, is someone gonna get smart and open a Brewer's Art-style brewpub in this town?!), and because of Tom Peters.

Zythos America      Saturday, June 11, 2011     Noon-3PM     $60

BELGIUM'S PREMIER BEER FESTIVAL COMES TO PHILLY! This is our third annual Zythos America and will be the best one yet. Stellar beer selection and lots of space for your comfort. We will offer over 75 Belgian and Belgian-style beers. The preliminary selection is now posted online. Do expect some changes and additions. These beers will all be top quality with NO CRAP to fill out the list.

Saturday afternoon from Noon-3PM. Doors open at 11:45. This will  be held at the Starlight Ballroom, 460 N. 9th Street. This venue has a capacity of 1,200 people, but we are limiting ticket sales to only 600 to ensure plenty of room to wander, sample and talk. Dozens of comfortable booths in which to relax and enjoy these amazing beers. The Starlight Ballroom has its own kitchen and will be offering food for sale.

Go to phillybeerfests.com for more information, beer list, and tickets. Tickets are on sale through the Starlight Ballroom's ticketing company, Ticket Fly. Tickets are very limited, so don't delay.

You've been warned. Get to it!

My first event in Lebanon County

Lebanon County is not a place I've been to very often. To be honest, it's mostly a place I've been through on the way to other places (though I did have a friend who went to Lebanon Valley College that I visited once or twice...30 years ago). It's pretty enough -- even more rural than Lancaster or Berks Counties -- but there are no breweries, and beer bars have only cropped up recently. So the only Lebanon County mention in Pennsylvania Breweries is the Quentin Tavern, just north of Swashbuckler.

Happily, this did not deter Mike McDonald at the Blue Bird Inn (not two miles away from the Quentin, in Cornwall) from reaching out to me recently about doing an event at his place (I'm pretty sure someone I met at a book signing said something to him; I vaguely remember someone saying "You should go to the Blue Bird Inn!" at a signing, and me giving them a card). We talked, I shuffled my signing schedule a bit, and we set up an event.

I'll be at the Blue Bird on May 21st, from 7 to 9, signing books and checking out their beer selection. If you're in the area, why not stop by and see what Lebanon's doing about joining the Craft Beer Revolution?!

Washington Crossing Beer Fest!

Washington Crossing National Historic Park -- Washington saved the Revolution in this small Pennsylvania town over 200 years ago; on a freezing, snowing Christmas night, he and his men crossed the Delaware River in Durham boats, slogged down to Trenton, and surprised a force of Hessian mercenaries. He followed up this surprise victory with a quick raid on Princeton, knocking the British troops back to winter quarters in central New Jersey and setting the morale and spirit of the army and the Continental Army ablaze.



We've apparently forgotten how important this was to our history. In the fall of 2009, budget cuts forced the closure of Washington Crossing Historic Park. Interpretive tours of the park’s historic buildings ceased. Bowman’s Tower -- Washington's lookout up the river, with a commanding view of the valley -- was shuttered. And the reenactment of George Washington’s crossing of the Delaware River – held without interruption since the 1950s – was cancelled. Local citizens took on the challenge, raised money and volunteered, and not only did the reenactment take place on Christmas Day, but the educational mission of the park has carried on.

In less than three weeks, you can help preserve this historic site, a hallowed part of American history, by signing up for the Washington Crossing Beer Fest!  Check out the breweries that will be represented here. It's May 14th, 12:30 to 4:30, with live music and food (the music's free, food is extra), and beer samples from breweries far and near: $40, and that's going to benefit this historic park, a true landmark of American history. (It's a great place to start a trail ride, too, down the canal path to Bristol, or across the river and down to Trenton, take a look-round for Hessians maybe?) Get your tickets here!

Spitting on the head of Britain's national drink

I'll assume you've heard that beer is not allowed at The Royal Wedding™, yes? It was pissing me off more and more, and I was feeling more and more Paine at the very thought...when I saw this. Pete pretty much nails it, so go read. And no, I won't be watching a single second of The Royal Wedding™ unless some evil jackass puts a gun to my head and puts me through some reverse Ludovico technique...I'll be at a beer festival (TAP New York, to be precise), so watching the little bluebloods formalize their fornicating would be inappropriate.

Drinking Trappist Beer on Good Friday. Again.

Here I am, looking back four years, and it's so similar...didn't eat (I've got even less in my belly this year; a banana and one cup of coffee), did pheresis this morning, came home and cleaned, and I'm leaving to sing Good Friday services in about half an hour (warm-ups; services are at 3:00, of course)...and I'm drinking La Trappe Dubbel (a sample of the new stuff, provided by importer Artisanal Imports, thanks, Lanny!).

Because it's a fast day, and while I'm not drinking only beer through Lent like some folks (though my hat's off to him), I've built a little tradition around Trappist beers on Good Friday, and big beers tomorrow, before singing at Easter Vigil. The first is my own, the second grew out of the timing of Split Thy Skull, the pioneering Philly big beer event held at Sugar Mom's on Easter Saturday (and yeah, it's on for tomorrow)...well, actually, it grew out of one year when my wife's brother Carl showed up for Easter at the Trenton train station with a shoebox full of Dominion Millennium and we killed two of them on the way home...

Anyway! Here I am, on Good Friday, after the jumpstart I got from Palm Sunday and Holy Thursday masses (and Night Prayer last night...chant, it was marvelous, soothing, and left me floating on a cloud of faith and awe of my God and Savior), ready to go sing till I cry -- Good Friday is tough. And I'm banging through a 750 of La Trappe?

You bet. For one thing...it's really good. Fruit, chocolate, malt, spice, even a little hintsy bit of coffee in there, this is a stuffed suitcase of delicious -- and it's not fat or flabby.

For another? It's tradition. This is how you get through fasts. You don't eat, but you gotta keep going. If I tried getting through a music-heavy service like this -- we're doing selections from Stainer's The Crucifixion in addition to the regular stuff -- without food or big beer, well, you know. Probably nothing would happen. Ha! But I want this beer, this monk-inspired beer, and it's going to work for me. It always has.

Tomorrow? Any big beer will do, and I've got some cued up. Good Friday? Gimme monk beer. I need the spiritual inspiration, the beauty in my mouth and my mind. Off I go. God bless you all.

Cafe Negro Porter

Finally getting to a sample of Cafe Negro Porter I got from BridgePort...and you know, I wish I'd gotten to it earlier. This is black coffee, not a sweetened-up lattemochafrappawappa; it's a nice dry porter, with some bite to it, and a big rush of fresh-roasted coffee coming in about 2/3 of the way through. At 5.5%, it's not quite a session beer, but I could see drinking a few of these on a rainy afternoon at the pub. Nicely done!

Another Reason I Love Indie Business

My mother-in-law used to live in Dover Plains, NY, a small town east of Poughkeepsie. For years, she's been giving me a gift card to an independent bookstore in the area (Oblong Books, in Millerton and Rhinebeck, NY) as a birthday present. We love Oblong, I've been going there pretty much since we got married (it's half a block from where Cathy and I spent our wedding night), so it was a real nice gift, and gave us another reason to visit -- crafty mother-in-law!

But then she moved away from the area! I had this $100 gift card I didn't know what to do with. I finally figured out that it was good at affiliated indies, so I planned to get to the one in Doylestown...and just never got there, even though it's across the street from Stephanie's; go figure! I finally got there about two weeks ago, and learned that the program no longer existed: my card was now only good at Oblong...three hours away.

Crap. So I called the store, and they said, you know, we have a website. How do I use that? Not sure, we'll have someone call you. How about email? That works, so I emailed co-owner Suzanna Hermans about the issue. I had a personal response in under 24 hours: "Thanks so much for your email - we can absolutely take care of this for you!" She walked me through how to apply the card, and said if I wanted to, she'd take the order by phone. Sweet, I was in business.

That would have been great, but...when I finally got around to making the order late last night, I got everything selected, entered the information, and hit the Checkout button -- I got an internal server error. And when I re-loaded, the order was still in the cart, but my card showed a balance of $2 and change. Did the order go through, or not? I emailed Suzanna again.

I got her response an hour ago: send her the card number. I did, and in under 5 minutes, I had her personal response again: "Got it! Your books should be shipping today or tomorrow via USPS Media Mail. Thanks for your patience!"

Suzanna Hermans? Awesome. Oblong Books? Still a favorite, even if they are three hours away. Independent bookstores? Essential, wonderful, a treasure! Please support yours!