"It's important to build our name, show who we are, and what we are making," he said. "This brings a ton of attention."
During Beer Week, everybody wins.
Bar stools get filled, the thirsty get great suds, and brewers get a direct connection to eager hop heads. There are highbrow events - educational seminars, tasting menus, and brewer meet-and-greets - along with more expected dunk tanks, wing-eating contests, and tap takeovers. There's even an arm-wrestling contest.
On Saturday Jackie Borelli, 26, had her first beer of the day at 2 p.m., while standing smack in the middle of 10th Street, which was shut down between Spruce and Locust for a block party outside Varga Bar.
"They should legalize open containers like in New Orleans, so you can drink in the street all the time."
The Bala Cynwyd resident and a friend had decided to build up their thirst by biking to Center City from City Avenue. The two had a front-row view of the beer pong tournament in progress and watched as young women signed up for a pinup-girl contest that was about to start.
Borelli and her friend were not going to kill their buzz by figuring out how they were going to get home.
"I think we'll have to put our bikes in taxis," Borelli said with a shrug.
Fun and beer may be self-evident, but there's a subtext here. Philly's Beer Week is about craft beers, the sorta-serious, small-batch, flavor-pushing, irreverently named brewskis that have taken the country, and this region, by storm.
Miller Lite aficionados won't find their favorite here.
On North 12th Street, just past Spring Garden, a neighborhood bar called the Institute was a little more subdued Saturday.
