Where I'll be in two hours. Continuing his march into the pantheon of local beer gods, fine human being Matt Guyer of The Beer Yard has used his website beyond compare to put together a gathering of as many of his closest friends who have $20 to spare he can muster for a 2:00 p.m. sampling Eulogy Belgian Tavern, the new hot spot in Old City Philadelphia. Having not yet been there, I'm taking advantage of the opportunity. Come on down if you see this in time.

Where I'll be in September: Germany & England. So this email from Tom Dalldorf, my esteemed editor at Celebrator Beer News, arrived a week ago Friday. He'd been "invited to take a trip to visit some breweries in Germany and Fuller's in England." A press junket, every scribe's dream, but Tom can't go, nor can general manager Jay Brooks, since they'll be on deadline, putting together the next issue from the marvelous material provided them by their loyal staff. Tom naturally turned to his best writer to offer him the trip...and when that guy turned it down, I assume he kept working his way down the line until he got to me.

Mission accomplished. I accept.

We'll be leaving Thursday, September 4. Over the course of five days in Germany, we'll visit Erdinger Weissbraeu and Veltins for sure, with a trip to Augustiner also likely (although there's some mention of an alternative "river trip" in the sketchy itinerary I've received so far), then fly to London for a day and a half at Fuller's. We get back home on Friday, September 12.

Beer writing doesn't pay very well, but now and again things do work out right nicely.

Where I won't be in September: Kennett Square. While loyal readers of these ramblings may consider the great tragedy of it all to be that there will not be an LDO posting on Sunday, September 7 (unless I find a way to post at least a brief entry from Germany, which I'll do if it's possible and affordable, just because it would be cool), the big impact of this windfall is that I won't be able to attend the Kennett Beer Festival. That's sad enough by itself but even more so this year because I've been so involved in setting up the Connoisseur Tasting which is in many ways the centerpiece of the whole event. If nothing else, a couple of brewers who I enticed into participating in that might want to slap me around a bit.

Seriously, while it pains me to say it, I suspect my absence will be of little note and less consequence. Disturbing a thought though it might be, there will be those who may find that absence an improvement. You'll recognize them by their big smiles. The thing is, I grew up in Kennett Square and was looking forward to this return in, if not triumph and splendor, at least as a supporting character in a great beer drama. Of course, I could have turned down the trip abroad....yeah, right.

Jeffrey Norman, the Kennett Revitalization Task Force guy who got me into this in the first place, will easily fill my role as MC for the tasting and take all responsibility for anything that goes awry. He doesn't know it, but that latter was part of my plan in any case.

As for me, I figure I'll find a way to taste all the special beers either before I go or after I get back, with the possible exception of the Mushroom Stout from Dogfish Head, which is regretful. For one thing, when Jeff first asked me if I knew "a brewer crazy enough to make a beer with mushrooms," I just laughed and telephoned Sam Calagione. I feel a certain kinship to this one. And, while I understand this beer is likely to be more fun gimmick than a world-class brew, I did after all spend those childhood years living with the smell of manure in the air. I may have certain psychological needs here.

Methinks I'll perhaps need to dragoon someone into saving me a growler.

Where you can still get your LDO fix. the first installment of "Atlantic Ale Trail," the East Coast column I write for Celebrator Beer News is now available online. It's not as free-form or irreverent as what you get here, but any port in a storm, right? This column was an introductory one which ran last spring and summed up the state of Philadelphia area craft brewing. I also named my choice as the next "hot" brewer from the region. Saw the guy just recently, as it turns out.

What you should keep an eye out for. Look for a major announcement any day now--maybe a couple of announcements--from a local brewery. It'll be a surprise. As they say in the comic books, everything you thought you knew is wrong.

[Posted 12:00 p.m. edt]

24 AUGUST 03
Sly Fox changes direction. Obviously, the "major announcement... from a local brewery" that I told you to watch out for in last week's entry was the withdrawal of Sly Fox Brewhouse & Eatery from negotiations to create a brewery and restaurant in Phoenixville's historic Foundry building. That story first broke on the internet Thursday right here (or you can read the complete news release from Sly Fox here).

Since I am presumed to be "on the inside" of this story, I'm being asked questions about it, from both the curious and the cynical. Here are my answers.

Yes, an addition to the main building would be necessary for Sly Fox to put in its bottling line (which they are in he process of buying from another local brewery) and that addition could not be built. My understanding at this point is that the impervious nature of the site upon which the Foundry sits was perhaps even more of an issue than the building's historical status. There were also financial considerations which came into play as negotiations proceeded. The cost of the outside restoration was higher than expected, leaving less money available for the inside work, which meant that it would have been unlikely the pub and restaurant could have been built as originally envisioned.

Yes, the parting was amicable. The Phoenixville Area Economic Development Corporation really was eager to have Sly Fox in the building but understood the brewery's reasons for withdrawing, and Sly Fox went out of its way to do everything possible to avoid causing any problems for PAEDCO in both its announcement and plans for removing the brewery equipment from the building by mid-September. And the parting was as reluctant as it was friendly. "We may hate ourselves ten years from now when we look back at this," Brian O'Reilly told me, "but we really had no choice."

Yes, there is another potential site being negotiated right now. The brewery and a new pub will be built in an existing building near Phoenixville. I was standing in front of that building less than 24 hours ago and it has, if not the grandeur and significance of the Foundry, certainly the size and visibility to be an excellent location. There are, for example, four loading docks already in place for deliveries to the prospective pub and to and from the new brewery. The impression I have is that the only thing holding up an announcement at present is the size of the space that Sly Fox will be renting.

And yes, I know a little something about what is planned for the pub and I suspect that it will turn out to be a very popular spot and a nice complement to the existing pub. But more about that later.

Hanging with the foodies. I think I've mentioned before that the October/November issue of Celebrator Beer News will be a "Food & Beer" issue. My column for that issue is due end of this week so I spent a good part of last week gathering the story. That meant hanging out at some of the area's better beer spots but spending my time with the folks from the kitchens rather than the ones behind the bar. Well, okay, maybe a little bit of time at the bar... The bulk of what I learned has to be saved for the column, of course, but I did pick up a few bits of news along the way.

Tuesday I spent an hour or so with chef Adam Glickman (and some fella named Peters) at Monk's Cafe, where a new draft system was being put in for the front bar. Next time you visit, you'll find six brews on tap up front rather than four, one of them a free-standing dedicated tap for Monk's Cafe Flemish Sour Ale. This beer is supposed to be exclusively available on draft at Monk's, but it appears a few kegs have slipped out to other venues due to inattention on the part of two distributors (no, not the Beer Yard). I didn't talk with Tom about this since I didn't learn it until late in the week, but I am led to believe he is Not Pleased.

Later that day, I went down to talk to "resident foodie" and co-founder Paul Kimport at The Standard Tap. The new kitchen is pretty much complete and the added dining area and upper deck are almost finished and ready to open. Both Paul and partner William Reed say mid-September. The floors in the new area had just been varnished and I couldn't get in there to see what's been accomplished in the two or three months since I first saw it, but the deck is looking good and will undoubtedly be a popular addition. Kimport and Reed have another project underway as well, but they're not ready to talk about that yet.

Wednesday, I got to a bar I don't visit nearly often enough, McMenamin’s Tavern in Mt. Airy. I remember first meeting P.J. McMenamin at the Dawson Street Pub seven or eight years ago. He'd just taken over the family pub and told me how much he wanted to turn it into a good beer venue similar to Dawson Street. Maybe a year later, as he was in the process of doing just that, I spent an afternoon doing a story about McMenamin's and had a great time listening to the loud and funny complaints of an old time regular who swore he would never set foot in the place again once Budweiser was removed from the beer menu, which was imminent. McMenamin's today has one of the better tap lineups in the region and P.J. went Dawson Street one better and also put in a good kitchen and made his tavern a popular dining destination too. Chef Larry Melissen and I talked food and then bartender Lori and I talked about other beer bars, a conversation which we'll get to in the next item down.

Thursday morning I went to my last interview, with Bruce and Beatrice Nichols, the folks who run Museum Catering Company at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. The annual Michael Jackson Beer Dinner they do as part of Philadelphia's The Book & the Cook food and drink celebration will reach its 14th year in 2004 and is, as far as I know, the longest running Jackson beer dinner in the world. An interesting tidbit I picked up during the interview is that Dr. Patrick McGovern, the Museum molecular archaeologist who analyzed the residue in an ancient vessel which eventually led to the creation of Dogfish Head's Midas Touch Ancient Ale, has been to China to do much the same with a 2000 year old goblet which is thought to have contained an early rice wine. Somehow, some way, you gotta figure Sam Calagione will be on the case.

A place where everybody knows your name. Okay, Eulogy Belgian Tavern is not quite that, but it seemed damned close last Sunday when the Beer Yard's Matt Guyer organized his "field trip" to the relatively new Philadelphia bar and restaurant for 20 or so of his closest friends (here is a brief report on afternoon and listing of the food and beer served). We took over the entire upstairs room for a couple of hours; it was like a Main Line invasion of Old City, which is a pretty scary concept. The result was that most everybody knew most everybody else, or so it seemed.

The Cheers-like nature of the afternoon was evidenced by one of those neat little coincidences you'd be hard pressed to get away with in fiction. Tracy, a young lady sitting at our table, told us she'd recently moved to Wayne and was still trying to meet people and make friends. Somewhere in there, she told us where she was living and her apartment number, at which point Guyer, who was moving between our two long tables being the imperfect host, perked up and quickly moved to the other table and said something to a woman sitting there. She in turn waved to Tracy and called out (essentially) "hi there, I'm your neighbor in the apartment next door."

There's more--hey, isn't this supposed to be about beer?--as I hinted at above. When I was talking to bartender Lori at McMenamin's whilst sipping on a pint of Mad River Jamaica Red Ale, she asked if I'd yet been to Eulogy. When I said I'd been there Sunday for the first time, she said she had too. No, she wasn't part of the Beer Yard entourage, but she and her fiancee came in as Guyer and much of the upstairs crowd was now gathering at the bar. Turns out that Lori's guy and Matt had been bag boys together at the Wayne Acme back in the day. Not only did that reinforce the whole Cheers thing, it gave me this lovely mental picture of a gangly teen-age Guyer packing groceries. That's the sort of image that a man can call up for a chuckle on a bad day.

Speaking of the Dawson Street Pub... ...as we were a few paragraphs back, I got a chance to swing by there during my travels and catch up with Dave Wilby, the guy who served me my first pint of Yards ESA on a handpump and got me into this mess nearly a decade ago. After talking about it for a long time now, Dave is finally putting the outside terrace adjacent to the pub. Most of the work is done, a lattice fence is in place and he says the area will be open in September. Damn, there are a lot of things happening in September.

A poor beggar in the land of the Ruch. I went out to Victory Brewing Company Thursday to sit down with Jeffrey Norman and talk about the Kennett Brew Fest. Ensconced at the bar, of course, was Richard (Sly Fox Mondays, Victory forever) Ruch, whose photograph I captured for posterity and an internet project I have in mind for--when else?--September. I managed to erase that photo, however, while doing some other maintenance work on the camera. I guess this means another trip to Victory is called for--the sacrifices I have to make for LDO are almost too much to bear sometimes.

In any case, having fallen hopelessly behind in the tasting notes for our Monday night sessions, and knowing that Richard rushes to his computer to record that sort of information religiously for his BeerAdvocate.com buddies, I've asked him to send me links to his posts or copies or whatever and I'll make those available here in the future. I'll even see if I can get him to cover some of the very interesting beers we've had in recent week's that I let slip by. The incentive? Tomorrow night's beer. I got a good one for the gang this week.

[Posted 3:00 p.m. edt]

31 AUGUST 03
The Lew Bryson Book Party. Thursday evening was one of those hellish traffic occasions where overturned trucks, smashed up cars and all the nitwits who should not be allowed to have licenses combined to create your standard "you can't get there from here" kind of fun. Figures it would be the night Lew Bryson scheduled a book signing party at The Grey Lodge Pub. I swear, the man will do anything just to irritate me.

Nonetheless, The Big One, The Other One and I fought our way over hill and dale to the wilds of Frankford to see the big fella bask in the adulation of the multitudes and slap his soon-to-be-collectible autograph on copy after copy of New York Breweries. We also had a chance to check out the refurbishing of the Grey Lodge. The old booths which cluttered up the place are gone, replaced by tables, there's a new front door and a swell "New Orleans style" tile floor is in, or almost in. Nice.

The special New York beers brought in for the occasion were something of a disappointment, at least the draft ones. Saison de Brooklyn from, where else?, Brooklyn Brewery, was fine but Clarke's Armory Ale, which is brewed for Clark's Ale House in Syracuse by Middle Ages Brewing Company and purported to be "an overstrength ESB," had clearly gone south (and I don't mean from New York to Philadelphia). Olde Saratoga Lager, from Mendocino Brewing Company's Albany plant, was fine, but you gotta be more than that to ring any bells in this part of the country.

On the other hand, three bottled brews from Southern Tier Brewing Company in Lakewood, NY (a new microbrewery Lew assures me we're going to hear a lot more about) were considerably better. The IPA seemed to be the favorite of the trio among the hordes of Lewbies, but I was more taken with both the Mild (which ran out early) and the Porter. Bryson was with me on the latter, I know, but Sly Fox's Brian O'Reilly mumbled something about it in brewer-talk that may mean it has faults I'm not smart enough to discern. Or maybe not.

The good news was that Lew improved the beer situation with a pair of growlers. One was Sled Dog Reserve Triple Bock from Wagner Valley Brewing Company, a micro which is on the same site as a winery. Man, talk about your ideal location... By coincidence, I'd tasted this beer earlier in the week. (see next item), although that didn't strike me until I got home. The second growler was Tommy Keegan's Mother's Milk Stout from the brand new Keegan Ales in Kingston, NY.

By the way, I sent off my review of New York Breweries to Celebrator Beer News this past week, along with the "food & wine" installment of "Atlantic Ale Trail." Both those, plus my delayed story about Mike Murphy and Rome Brewing Company, are slated for the October/November issue, due in a month or so. As we have learned, of course, whether all that actually happens is an open question.

Richard's Ramblings. As promised (threatened?) last week, I put the indefatigable Richard Ruch to the task of reviewing the beers from our Monday evening tastings at Sly Fox for a while. He had a helluva week to officially begin with, probably the best selection of brews yet, augmented more than a little by the contributions of our beer guest, Dave Rodriguez, one of Ruch's fellow Beer Advocates. Here (slightly edited) is what Richard had to say:

As usual, the normal suspects held an informal Monday sampling/tasting session at Sly Fox Brew House in Phoenixville, which started over five months ago. It has gotten better thanks not only to the beautiful weather we have enjoyed on the outdoor patio at the Fox, but also to the great brews that each of the attendees have brought. Attendance varies, but yours truly, Joe Meloney, Brian O'Reilly (except when he is attending weddings in CA) and Jack Curtin are usually there, as well as other local beer guys and girls. We usually have six to eight people on hand, but on occasions have had nearly 15 attendees. Fortunately, the Sly Fox management is cool about our sessions because we always buy some Brian brews and Fox food.

This week we were blessed by a visit by Beer Advocate's Ambassador of Good Will and Good Beer, BA's Beerfly Extraordinaire, Davo. He brought not one, not two, but three terrific brews. Brian brought two fresh brews back from the "Land of Fruit and Nuts" and one from the "Heartland of America" and Mr. Curtin added a truly fine Belgian brew. Here's the list (with the name of the person who contributed it in parentheses) and a brief critique:

Anderson Valley Poleeko Gold Pale Ale – 5.5% abv - a hoppy, flavorful brew (Brian O'Reilly)

Full Sail Pale Ale – 5.4% - a more maltier, but tasty brew (Brian O'Reilly)

Southampton Publick House Biere De Garde – 6.7% - Fruity sweetness with a delicate herbal flavor. Another fine creation by Mr. Markowski. (Davo)

Wagner Valley Brewing Sled Dog Trippel Bock – 10% - noticeably malty, with juicy dark fruit (sugared plums, dates, raisins, figs, and hints of apple/pear sneaking in), caramel-like decoction; a little thin on the body and the finish(Davo)

Buckeye Brewing Dopplebock – abv (?) – a truly bold, big brew. Malty, but stunningly beautiful balanced flavor with a refreshingly dry finish. (Brian O'Reilly)

Two Brothers Brewing Bare Tree Weiss Wine Vintage – 11% - This is one hell of a unique brew. It’s labeled a Barley Wine Style Weiss Beer!?!? The beer is simply striking in appearance. The pure white head of this creamy peach colored brew is impressive, leaving a thick lace in its wake. Champagne like carbonation keeps it fed. Milky, creamy mouthfeel of caramel, bananas and vanilla. Truly magnificent!! (Davo)

Brouwerij der St.Benedictusabdij de Achelse Trappist Achel Extra Brune – 9.5% - A very special, strong dark ale. It had a noticeably dark fruity flavor with a very pleasant, but not overly sweet, malty finish. An exceptional Belgian brew. (Jack Curtin)

It truly was a sensational selection of diverse, quality brews. After over 3 hours of some serious sampling and enjoyable conversation, there was some very happy souls that left to go home.