Nine-day beer festival under way

The night before, waving from a chariot fashioned from the hostess stand at his Brauhaus Schmitz, Doug Hager had been the final-leg relay man, delivering the Hammer of Glory - the giant, keg-tapping mallet used to officially launch Philly Beer Week III.

And here he was on Saturday (in fact, he was up by 7 a.m.), unloading kegs of imported hefeweizen, pilsner, and kölsch - 40 in all - for a bierfest in the big beer garden behind the German Society, Sixth and Spring Garden.

If he was a trouper, he had plenty of company this weekend as what is now America's largest, brawniest toast (at close to 1,000 events in more than 150 venues) to craft beer got off, well, with a splash: Driving the big mallet into the tap of the inaugural firkin at a packed Independence Visitors Center, Mayor Nutter unleashed a gusher of foamy suds smack in the face.

The eager stuff was "Brotherly Suds," a special batch of hoppy, 6 percent ESB, brewed by Sly Fox in Phoenixville in a jovial collaboration of five top local brewers.

There were greater and lesser heroes, not the least of which were the beers, one of them a lemony, supremely refreshing, small-batch kölsch, brewed by Stoudt's in Adamstown, Pa., whose proceeds are earmarked for Alex's Lemonade Stand, the charity for children's cancer.

The nine-day festival has grown exponentially since three years ago - from a bigger-than-expected series of 300 dinners, tastings, and contests, to nearly triple that (in raw numbers, and the volume of folk whimsy) today.

The Hammer of Glory itself was relayed bar-to-bar like the Olympic torch - by roller skaters, wheelbarrow, skateboard and, finally, the makeshift chariot bearing Hager and his wife, Brauhaus co-owner Kelly Schmitz - from the Northeast's Grey Lodge Pub to Independence Mall.

By Saturday, Varga Bar was holding a pinup girl contest on a blocked-off stretch of 10th Street at Spruce; a city bike tour was rolling from local Yards, to Triumph, to Nodding Head, and Dock Street; a mechanical-bull-riding event was teed up for Thursday at Percy Street BBQ.

At the 19th Street branch of Metropolitan Bakery, you could buy a sour, special-edition Man Full of Trouble Dock Street Porter Bread (and porter-glazed popcorn). Kraftwork, the new gastropub in Fishtown, was adding tart Petrus Oud Bruin, a Belgian-style pale ale to the sorbet. And at Varga Bar, an almost Scotchlike Oskar Blues Gordon imperial IPA was selling briskly at $12 the six-ounce pour.