Celebrate Philly Beer Week in NYC!

So, ah, this is cute. SEPTA and Philly Beer Week have put out a special Beer Week pass that is an “unlimited, all-day, bus-trolley-rail pass that will be sold for $9 daily from March 6 until March 15.” Neat!

Only, as KYW 1060 reports and I probably should have noticed when I saw this pass go on sale (whoops!), it’s not exactly the skyline of Philadelphia in the background. It’s New York!

“It was designed in-house by one of our graphic artists. And I think people liked the look of the skyline but unfortunately didn’t take a really good look to see that it wasn’t Philadelphia. It’s a stock photo.”

Williams says that Septa is redesigning the pass, and new corrected ones are being printed at what she calls a “minimal” cost.

They’re actually going to fix it? Umm… good? I guess? Or is it: Boo, wasting money, bad!! I don’t really know. But at least

It is good that someone has found a way to combine two of my favorite things (good beer and making fun of SEPTA). Thanks, SEPTA. Let’s hope your tribute to Martin Luther King webpage has similar errors.

SEPTA’s “Beer Week” Pass Loses Its Way, Graphically Speaking [KYW 1060]

Let’s Break From Obama Stories For: Beer!

It’s a subscription site, so I can’t read anything more than the first two paragraphs of this Financial Times article, but those first two grafs are excellent:

The industry body that monitors the promotion and sale of alcohol has accused a Scottish microbrewery of marketing a beer that glamorises drugs.

“Shelves across the UK are being cleared of Speedball beer because it is promoting the illegal drugs mix that killed the Hollywood stars John Belushi and River Phoenix,” the industry-funded Portman Group claimed yesterday.

I think John Belushi is in heaven (or hell, wherever) going, “Man, I made a ton of funny jokes and all you guys remember is that I overdosed. And thanks for bringing it up, Portman Group, in your quote about a British beer brand’s name.”

Apparently, “shelves across the UK are being cleared” means the beer is being taken off the market, not that people in the UK are all buying it to show their love for speedballs. (More from Professor Dan!: A speedball is a heroin and cocaine mix, FYI. Sometimes amphetamines replace cocaine. Mixing an upper with a downer, same idea as a rum and coke. It strains the heart and isn’t advisable; mixing drugs is generally something one should not do on a whim. Quoth The Encyclopedia of Addictive Drugs: “[C]ombining stimulants with depressants can give the human body quite a beating.”)

I found another story on this thing, and it actually continues to be pretty funny:

BrewDog director Martin Dickie described the criticism as idiotic, saying the firm only produced 5,000 bottles of the beer to hit back at the Portman Group over its threat to ban three other BrewDog beers, which were later cleared.

Mr Dickie said: “The Portman Group were picking on us for no reason and we were fed up. It was deliberately slightly provocative to give them something to complain about so they can justify their existence in what they were doing to us and wasting everybody’s time and effort.

“This is a drink which, in the UK, had a release of 1,184 bottles and cost £3 a bottle, so Speedball is for those who enjoy a quality beer responsibly and enjoy a premium drink at a premium price. You can still buy 24 cans of strong lager for less than £10. That is the real problem here, not a small brewery producing a run of 5,000 beers which will mostly be sold in specialist beer shops.

“The beer is called ‘Dogma’ in America and that was what we always intended to call Speedball here after its first run had finished,” added Mr Dickie.

I also just really like the idea that, in essence, the people who sell one drug (alcohol) are preventing the promotion of a competitor. Hey, these are tough economic times.

NJ College Pres. Hates His Students

Earlier this year, a bunch of college presidents got together to form the Amethyst Initiative, which asked for a dialogue on our de facto national drinking age.

It turns out — and I know this is going to shock you — that lots of kids on college campuses drink. I know, I’m surprised too. Don’t these kids know the law? Anyway: College campuses have developed a dangerous drinking culture, perhaps in part due to the 21-plus drinking age, and these college presidents were all wondering if the federal government could reconsider its policy.

The reaction to this from nearly all political and media quarters was that of horror. The New Jersey Senate held a hearing yesterday and decided the solution is just a little more law enforcement. “We’ve got to tighten these laws up to deal with this unfortunate problem,” said said the committee chairwoman.

But a special award goes to Stockton College president Glenn Miller, who requested the police arrest his students more often:

There is currently no law forbidding underage drinking, said Miller. Instead, under state statute, underage drinking outdoors is against the law, but underage alcohol consumption behind closed doors is not illegal.

“I think we should refine the statute to make it an actual violation to drink underage,” said Miller, who also called for harsher punishments for those who buy alcohol for underage adults.

“We are dealing with a population of young adults aged 18 to 22 and they are learning, most for the first time, how to live as a responsible member of the community. Students will make mistakes — however, when a community member does not learn from their mistake or refuses to accept the mistake they have made, enforcement needs to be taken.”

Let’s say you’re a 19-year-old at Stockton College, and you drink on the weekends like everybody else at school. You’re breaking the law, sure, but you don’t throw up like when you were 16 and you don’t get really hammered much anymore. You’ve somehow managed to become a responsible drinker. There is nothing you need more than enforcement.

I guess what I’m trying to say here is this: Yesterday, a Moorestown policeman pled not guilty to charges of having sex with girls and cows. While this was going on, the Senate was debating how to best fail at the impossible task of preventing all underage drinking.

Talk about fiddling while Rome burns. Or, I guess, fiddling while someone is diddling cows? Something like that.

Photo by cytoon used under a Creative Commons license

We’re #2!

Here’s something you might not have guessed: With Anheuser-Busch’s sale to InBev, the second-largest brewery in the United States will be Yuengling when the sale is complete. (Samuel Adams is #1.)

Incidentally, InBev makes such beers as Stella Artois and Beck’s, so a merger with Budweiser seems appropriate. Actually, I don’t remember if Beck’s is any good, but I do know Stella is freaking disgusting.

Update: And Crown Holdings (nee Crown Cork and Seal) makes most of the beer packaging in the U.S., too, right? it’s a Philadelphia party in the beer market!

Anheuser-Busch Sells [Foobooz]

Beer Truck Crash Fails To Spill Any Beer

Ha ha, a truck carrying Yuengling crashed on the ramp off I-95 at Woodhaven this morning, tying up traffic and not even spilling any beer on the road. Geeze, what’s the point?

Photo via David Swanson/Inquirer

Speakeasy Sports Bar What You Expected

Can we sum up this new sports bar in the old Zanzibar Blue spot in one sentence? Why, yes, yes we can. Suzy on JL Sullivan’s Speakeasy: “I kind of saw it as a university of sorts if McFadden’s was the high school.”

Excellent: Explaining the bar in just one sentence. She adds, “Not that this is a bad thing,” but I think we all know how we personally feel about McFadden’s.

Spreading the word about Philly’s new “Speakeasy” despite their deep affection for mass produced witbiers [I'll Have Another Stout]

Could Beer Be Easier To Buy?

KYW 1060 reports on the latest case the Pennsylvania Supreme Court is hearing: The Sheetz convenience store chain wants to be able to sell beer at its locations.

John Rafferty (R-Chester, Montgomery Counties) is chairman of the Senate Law and Justice Committee, which oversees liquor issues. He thinks the court will rule in favor relaxing beer sales: “I have a feeling that – and this is strictly a gut feeling – that the court is going to open the windows for us, and that there will be a more liberal ruling, if you will, widening the market for selling beer.”

Making beer easier to get? Who knew Pennsylvania could even do that? Hopefully the court will rule with that “gut feeling” clause in the state constitution.

High Court Ruling Could Make Selling Beer in Pa. Easier [KYW 1060]

Airport Actually #1 In Something

DRAFT Magazine — a magazine, apparently — recently ranked the top 10 airports for beer, and what do you know, Philadelphia International Airport ranked first, having 48 taps at several terminals.

Thanks to Jet Rock, Philly features the rare jewel of a big-selection airport bar in not one, but four terminals. The rock ‘n’ roll-themed restaurants in terminals B, C, and D pull 48 taps (24 in F) with a mix of local micros and big-brewery lagers.

The idea of a rock ‘n’ roll-themed restaurant sounds pretty terrible — ever been to Hard Rock? — but with 48 taps, there’s certain to be a beer you’ll like. It makes sense, though: Only a lot of beer could make PHL palatable.

PHL tops in hops [Food & Drinq]

Beer! Cheese! The End Of Prohibition!

Joe “Don Russell” Sixpack reminds us today that it’s the 75th anniversary of the end of Prohibition April 7. Personally, I’d like to celebrate it by arresting some marijuana smokers, but perhaps you’re a little more of a beer-and-cheese kinda guy.

And, hey, here we go: Suzy (a board certified Friend of D-Mac™) is holding a beer and cheese party tonight with Sly Fox’s Brian O’Reilly and “cheese monger extraordinare” Hunter Fike. Ha ha, cheese monger! It’s at DiBruno Bros. and starts at 6, and costs $45. They will have Pikeland Pils, the current greatest beer in the world, naturally.

After the jump, more beer fun with a recent 6 ABC segment on Joe Sixpack’s book and Philly’s status as the best beer-drinking city in the world, helpfully shown on April 1, a while after the end of Philly Beer Week.

More »

You Will Soon Know More About Cask Ale

Hey, so how’s this for a specific blog: Philadelphia Area’s Cask Ales.

The blog, by Kevin Rowe, is all about the “a beer brewed from traditional ingredients (malted barley, hops water and yeast), matured by secondary fermentation in the container from which it is dispensed, and served without the use of extraneous carbon dioxide.” That’s the CAMRA definition, and the site also helpfully defines CAMRA (”the Campaign for Real Ale, is an independent, voluntary, consumer organisation which campaigns for real ale, real pubs and consumer rights”).

Rowe updates apparently every day about what is on cask at different area bars. This is a feat more impressive than summarizing (PWD definition: not summarizing) the Daily News columnists every day; there’s also a list of all the cask ales available during Philly Beer Week.

Philadelphia Area’s Cask Ales