John Harvard's Monroeville/Pittsburgh closes

Saw in the Pittsburgh Business Times that the John Harvard's brewpub in Monroeville/Wilkins Twp. has closed. Unfortunately, this can't come as a surprise to anyone; the JHBH pubs have been closing for the past few years. Too bad that this comes as the third western PA brewpub to close in a year: Hereford & Hops and Johnstown also closed. High materials prices? Sure. Tough economy? Uh-huh. But you gotta figure a corporate trend in there too.

One Guy in the news

Guy Hagner sent this link to a story on his One Guy Brewing operation in Berwick. He mentions extended hours during football season; I kinda have the hankering to go up to see a Bulldogs game and get some beers myself!

Update: For all of you who insist that Guy get a website...he has: www.oneguybrewing.com will now direct you to his page on www.mybeerbuzz.com. So no excuses!

Like I keep saying: Two Words

And those two words are Blind. Tasting.

Nothing shuts up beer geek (or whiskey geek) bullshit faster than blind tasting. It's hard work, it's educational, and yes, it can be fun. My thanks to long-time STAG reader (I can say that now, it's well over a year old) Steve Herberger for providing this link to an eye-opener of a blind tasting of four draft Irish dry stouts in Ireland. Ten fairly experienced tasters failed to do better than 1.333 beers ID'd correctly out of 4 (although the winner pegged all four stouts (I'd have to guess they were lucky, given those numbers)).

What am I saying? Stop thinking you can judge beers or whiskeys with complete impartiality. You can't. Like people bring all their old lovers to the marriage altar, you bring all your past drinking experience with you to a tasting. Make it more fair, and bring the blindfold.

Harvest Time

I drove over to Honey Brook Farm to pick up our CSA share today. It was a great morning, cool like September or even October, and the bounty was huge. Here it is, spread out on the counter: 18 lbs. of heritage, cherry, and slicing tomatoes; four eggplants, four peppers, two bunches of beets, two bunches of basil, a bunch of dill, two heads of garlic, four hot peppers, and the pint of blackberries in front that I went out in the fields and picked myself. And what a joy that was, just strolling down the lanes of blackberry bushes, hanging with fruit, so much that I could be as picky as I liked and only take the fullest, darkest, sweetest berries.

There are weeks when we get a lot of kale and chard, and I sigh, and long for spinach and strawberries and radishes. Then there are weeks like this when I can eat tomatoes to my heart's content (I had two huge ones sliced up with a can of tuna for lunch), and bless the good earth. This weather rules: bring on the Fall.

SBP: time to wake up

Time for me to wake up, that is. When your dormant project gets a mention in the New York Times, you better jump on it. Nice quotes from a lot of the people who are on top of making, importing, and selling session beers! I especially liked this from Don Feinberg:

“A bunch of guys talk in the market,” said Don Feinberg, a founder of Brewery Ommegang in Cooperstown, N.Y., and an importer for Vanberg & DeWulf there. “We’ve all been saying the same thing for about 18 months now, which is, enough of the high octane.”

Rock on, Don! If it were just a little easier to find these beers...I wonder if we'd see more sales. Sounds like the USDOT is putting on a DUI push: why not get behind that?

Wow. My world is expanded

I know you guys don't really care -- I hope you don't! -- but I just hooked up a new monitor, a 22" flat-screen. Wow. It's not quite as 'wow' as the 19" I got two years ago, which seriously changed how I worked (I was on a 15" before that, and editing got a lot easier), but this is pretty damned great.

Wow. Back to work.

Mayor Nutter Scores (for beer) Again

I just learned (from a friend at a PR agency, to be scrupulously fair) that Yards Philadelphia Pale Ale is going to be pouring at the Democratic National Convention tonight. Philly is one of six cities (or maybe 8: I found that number in a Boston bit) participating in "A Taste Of America's Cities," sponsored by Democratic mayors. The man who tapped the "kind-of" first keg at Philly Beer Week's kick-off event gave the nod to sending soft pretzels, cheesesteaks, and Yards Philly Pale as our taste. Leaving out the whole shouting match over which beer he picked (any Philly craft beer is good for all Philly craft beer), I'm just frickin' tickled. This is beer, from America's Best Beer-Drinking City.

Can we make Michael Nutter mayor for life? Can suburbanites vote for him?

Oktoberfest is coming...

...which makes this too cool not to share. A Google map of the beer gardens of Munich (with a couple little bonus bits). I may have to get a color printer after all.

The Real Mystery about Memphis Taproom...

Memphis Taproom is doing a uniquely challenging event for know-it-all geeks this weekend. The Mystery Beer Weekend will feature 33 different beers (3 each in 11 different styles), and folks will be challenged to identify the beers they're drinking. There are prizes for those who correctly identify the most beers. It all starts at 5 PM this Friday, August 29, and goes to Sunday afternoon at 4.

A new kind of event, so far as I know, but I would expect nothing less from the man who invented The Royal Stumble (picture at right is the Stumble, the kind of action which will not take place at Memphis!). I'm really bummed that I won't make this -- I'll be in upstate NY with the wife's family (all three brothers and families, and my marvelous CO2 tap, and the bikes). I dunno how this sidesteps the law about clearly marked taphandles, but I don't care, either; truly, I don't care at all. I just wish I could join the fun.



I've been thinking about "beer events" a lot lately, and talking to some other folks about them. This kind of thing, and the Stumble, and the recent Battle of the Brewery Bands at Stoudt's (where I judged, and had the fantastically fun time you see to the right), are great: new ideas, new ways for people to have fun with beer, get together over more kinds of beer, and think about their beer without getting stupidly wrapped up in it. I'd like to see more possibilities for talking over beers without having to yell, though, and the Mystery Beer Weekend looks like just that kind of opportunity. I trust Brendan to keep it light, keep it from getting geeked out -- because the man's got a talent for piercing geekiness.

So... enjoy yourselves, and drink my share. And Sandy Mitchell, if you don't come to Philly for this and put your money where your big "I taste blind at Max's" mouth is, I call you "weenie."

Deschutes Twilight Ale

Yeah, I was busy tasting over the weekend. Here's the last one, for now.

I’m chasing the twilight of summer here, finally getting to tasting the samples of Deschutes’s summer seasonal, Twilight Ale. It’s a golden-hued ale, clean and bright, with a snow-white cap of foam. The nose is fresh like just-baked bread when it reaches a cool temperature throughout, with a dash of grassy, lightly citrus-laced hop. The quaff is good and deep, just a bit maltily sweet before the hop-current cuts in. It’s not overdone – this is, after all, Deschutes, and I don’t recall a rudely hopped beer in the bunch – and leads the palate along to a clean-breaking finish that leaves just a bit of bitter behind it. This is really great outdoors beer, just the thing for enjoying with friends and scenery. I’m sorry the summer’s almost over, and with it, Twilight Ale.