April 27th, 2010 Joe Sixpack
The big bike race will be ripping through Manayunk during the first weekend of PBW (6/5-6), and we all know how well beer goes with cycling (at least for spectators).
- The Old Eagle (Markle & Terrace streets, Manayunk) will be featuring Ommegang and Great Lakes during the weekend.
- And Coopers Brick Oven Wine Bar (4365 Main St., Manayunk) will feature a Sly Fox brunch on Sunday (6/6).
Watch for other events as other Manayunk restaurants and taverns begin posting events.
Posted in Philly Beer Week | No Comments »
April 26th, 2010 Joe Sixpack
We’ve got just under six weeks till Opening Tap. Today I’ll start (what I hope will be) a daily posting of the best of Philly Beer Week.
The CHF (315 Chestnut St., Old City) is a new participant in Beer Week this year, and it’ll be interesting to hear their high-tech take on the science behind beer flavors and aroma. Bonus: this is just two blocks from the site of Opening Tap, so you can stroll over afterward and share everything you learned at the Independence Visitor Center.
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April 3rd, 2010 Joe Sixpack
Yesterday’s column stated that all U.S. sake comes from the West - specifically Oregon and California. An alert reader from the Twin Cities sent along this link to moto-i, a sake brewpub in Minneapolis. Wow - that’s freaking cool, a definite must-visit.
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April 2nd, 2010 Joe Sixpack
Traffic around town is insane today (Friday). If you’re caught in a jam in the vicinity of I-95 at the Schuylkill Expressway, pull over for a cold one at Bell’s Beverage (Front Street, below Oregon, at the I-95 off ramp).
From 4-6 p.m., I’ll be pouring Wolaver’s & Otter Creek, including a couple specials. Like I tell everyone who stops in: It’s beer, it’s free. Do you need another reason?
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April 1st, 2010 Joe Sixpack
If you buy it by the case, a great bottle of beer will set you back two, maybe three bucks a bottle. A one-off 750ml will run you $20, maybe $30 tops.
Compare that to the cost of wine. If you wanted a wine of, say, the quality of $15-a-case Yuengling, it would run you about $10 a bottle. A Saranac-level wine goes for about $20, and a wine in the class of Troeg’s Nugget Nectar or Stone Ruination ($60/case range) will set you back at least $50.
Of course, a $50 wine is hardly the cream of the crop. For that, you’ve got to pay over a hundred bucks a bottle (or closer to $200 in a restaurant).
Now, I’ve heard some brewers lament the fact that they’re unable to charge more for some of their beers, that beer-drinkers are accustomed to enjoying great beer at a much lower price than that of wine. A brewery’s inability to charge $100 for a spectacular one-off, they gripe, is evidence that beer is a second-class beverage behind wine.
Not to diminish their hard work and product quality, but I absolutely cringe when I hear that talk, and not just because I can’t afford to peel off C-notes for the latest Belgian-influence West Coast hop monster. I shudder because that attitude gives up on beer’s unmatched asset of affordability. Like it or not, beer is the Everyman’s Beverage, and as a result it’s beer that they serve in ballparks and at NASCAR race tracks. It’s beer I’ll be drinking at my poker game tonight. It’s beer that’s the All-American beverage, that the President used to settle a racial quarrel, that Americans will be cracking open at Memorial Day picnics.
Wine?
It’ll never have that kind of standing in America, unless beer gives up that turf.
Why not? Because of horseshit like this, an insider’s acerbic account of what makes a $100 bottle of wine. Give it a read, but if you don’t have the time, the bottom line is that - even if the winery bought entirely new equipment every year and didn’t take a write-off - a $100 bottle costs the maker, at most, $28.25.
Posted in Winofication | No Comments »