Beer

IFIND IT REALLY sad that there are some people who are basing there decision of who to vote for on who they would rather have a beer with. If W. is re-elected, chances are he'll be drinking alone. Those of us in the lower and middle class probably won't be able to afford to buy a beer. People need to wake up and vote on the issues. Gore was a bore, but he wouldn't have made most of the country poor. Now is the time to atone for that mess of an election in 2000. Don't leave it to the conservative Supreme Court to "reappoint" W. Let's elect John Kerry and take our country back.

Beer is no longer the cloth coat of beverages, once associated with fast food and cheap dates, acceptable only at the beach, on the foul line, or in front of the television, according to Hal Rubenstein in Elle magazine. Beer has become as fashionable as high-topped sneakers. Currently, the most popular new beer in California is a light, spicy Mexican beer called Corona. What is unique about Corona, however, is how it often is served - with a wedge of lime pushed down the neck of the bottle.

Beer bonbons Beer and chocolate have long been classic companions. But they can now be savored in the same sweet gulp with this exquisite six-pack of brew-infused truffles from Christopher Curtin of West Chester's Éclat Chocolate. Crafted as a limited edition fundraiser for Philly Beer Week, Curtin tapped six outstanding local beers to flavor these confections. I especially liked the bright smack of Victory's Hop Wallop, the dark richness of Stoudt's Fat Dog imperial stout, and the fruity pucker of Iron Hill's Belgian-style cassis sour ale.   A pretty pilsner Sip your beer in style with this hand-blown Pilsner-style glassware from Simon Pearce.

THE Daily News editorial "Wrong Cure for Stop-n-Gos" (July 6) correctly indicates that the beer-to-go permit process violated the due process rights of storeowners because City Council commingled legislative and prosecutorial functions. But the editorial rationalizes Council's actions by using these businesses as scapegoats for many of the problems in the city. So it's necessary to provide the other side of the story. Your editorial states that granting a state liquor license to a store depends on Council's acceptance of a beer-to-go permit.

Sidled up against the polished cherry-wood bar, watching the bartender tip a tall, slender glass at a perfect 45-degree angle beneath the shiny brass spigot, creating just the right frothy head on the amber ale I had ordered, an image flashed through my head: Boy, had my beer-drinking come a long way since the days I sat with my college friends on a park bench in the median on Broadway, passing around a bottle of Colt 45 hidden in a paper bag. ...

GRATITUDE TO Harrisburg lawmakers reaching their long arms into the way the city does business is not something we welcome every day. In fact, the messages we send are usually the opposite: Whether it's the takeover of the city Parking Authority or Harrisburg's attempts to Big Foot our zoning authority over casinos, our usual message is "Go away. " But we're grateful for the new state law that puts some sense back into the process of issuing stop-n-go beer takeout licenses.

It definitely wasn't Miller Time in Yeadon Thursday night. Upset with a growing problem of teenage drinking, about 30 residents packed Borough Hall, wanting reassurance from council members that they and police would monitor the sale of beer at a deli on Church Lane. The residents are concerned about the proposed expansion of Span's Deli, at 706 Church Lane, into a convenience store with added seating for patrons. Although the deli has sold beer for about 15 years, residents said the expansion would add to an underage drinking problem in the neighborhood.

Phillies fans - well-known for their ability to boo losers - get a chance to bellow loud and clear about the food and drink lineup at Veterans Stadium. A City Council committee holds a public hearing today to hear fans' opinion of the ballpark grub. The lead witness is Joe Sixpack, the People Paper's voice of the beer-drinking public. Councilman Jim Kenney organized the hearing after the Daily News exposed the half-million-dollar suds-skimming scam perpetrated by the Vet's concessionaire.

Martha Warburton of Middletown said she was disappointed. Not angry or vindictive, just disappointed. She and her husband, William, had appealed to Judge Melvin G. Levy in Delaware County Court Monday to hand down a jail sentence for James Bewley, 25, for buying beer for four teenagers, including their 17-year-old daughter Heather, on the night of Aug. 9, 1988. Heather was killed later that night in an auto accident related to the teen drinking. Levy listened attentively to the Warburtons' impassioned plea and, after noting that Bewley, of the 300 block of South Providence Road, Nether Providence, had no record, sentenced him to three years' probation and a $750 fine.

"Sometimes the best wine for Thanksgiving is a beer," says Lynn Hoffman, professor of food and wine at Drexel University and a fan of good beer. "There are a lot of big, loud flavors at Thanksgiving, and not everybody likes wine enough to have a big, loud wine to go along with it. There are a lot of people who are just uncomfortable with the idea of wine. It not their family beverage. They don't drink wine . . . and Thanksgiving is not the time to educate them. " Hoffman proposes either a light-flavored beer to cut through the intense flavors of the meal and refresh your mouth, or a more intense beer that will stand its ground next to the richest stuffing you can put on the table.

MY FAVORITE BEER of Philly Beer Week 2013? I'll get to that in a few lines, but first, I asked my fellow elbow-benders, and their responses underscore two important features of Beer Week: 1. It's still all about bold, diverse flavor, with an emphasis on new brands. 2. All the naysayers who believe that no one will drink "big" (high-alcohol) beer in the summer's heat are just plain wrong. Just check out some of their faves; there's not a so-called session beer in the bunch: *  Allagash Coolship , a mouth-puckering, American-made spontaneously fermented ale. *  Yards George Washington Tavern Porter , aged in a bourbon barrel.

HOPEFULLY, what happened to Philly's most famous hammer doesn't start a "You can't touch this" policy. The Hammer of Glory, symbol of Philly Beer Week, was returned safely yesterday after it was stolen at a Beer Week event the previous day. The hammer, which had gone missing about 4 p.m. as it was being passed around for photo ops at the FestivALE, in Fishtown, was returned to Frankford Hall, said Joe Sixpack, a Daily News columnist also...

This is an excerpt from Craig LaBan's online chat of June 4, 2013: Craig LaBan: Welcome to our annual Beer Week/Brew-vitational Edition of the Philly Food Chat. Check out Brewvi coverage at www.inquirer.com/food to find out which of the 49 beers won Best New Beer, and also Best Pilsner, a focused category added this year. Two guests today: Steve Wildy (a.k.a. @Sommillionaire), beverage director for the Vetri family restaurants, instrumental in bringing Italian brews to the city at Alla Spina, and a Brew-vitational judge.

EVEN a year later, former game-show host Marc Summers can't explain the manic excitement that exploded over three wild nights during Philly Beer Week 2012. It was the return of his 1980s children's game show, "Double Dare. " Only, in the spirit of the festive week, the live show was called "Dunkel Dare. " The contestants were brewers, and the trivia questions and physical challenges related to beer. The crowd lined up for hours and rollicked inside as Summers gulped suds and dropped the f-bomb.

Buzz:  Hey Marnie, it's Philly Beer Week. Does that mean you whiners get the week off? Marnie: Not exactly, Buzz. Wine and beer have so much in common that most wine stewards are beer enthusiasts, too. For example, I'm particularly proud of Pennsylvania's German brewing heritage. I support our local lagers, weizens and bocks whenever I can. Buzz: I love German beer. Do you know where I can get a good maibock weizen lager dubbel pilsner? Marnie: Buzz, it sounds like you know as much about beer as you do about wine.

Along with the privilege of judging the Brew-vitational, I was charged with a task: To make a beer-drinking music mix that would be a soundtrack for sipping, mulling, and scoring the local brews placed before Craig LaBan, his six esteemed expert panelists, and me, the IPA-loving, craft beer-quaffing regular schmo. We listened to this 36-song list, which is called Drinkin' Thing, while we drank (and, as soberly as we could under the circumstances, judged). And you, Dear Reader, can listen to a streaming version by going to my "In the Mix" blog at philly.com/inthemix , where you'll find a Spotify widget to play it, and also an annotated list of all the tracks.

By 11 a.m. on a typical Saturday, Jared Littman, 37, a Queen Village resident, has already been awake for six hours. He's mostly been working on PhillyTapFinder.com , the craft-beer-centric website he cofounded with his wife, Kristy, in 2010. Day and night, e-mails pour in to Jared's inbox from camera-phone-wielding beer geeks and bar managers across the city and suburbs with news of the latest beer-list updates and most recently tapped kegs. He spends hours each day entering that fresh data into his site.

The "sour beast" was rising. When I'd first tasted it in the preliminary round of this year's Brew-vitational, the Inquirer's annual competition for local beers, my eyes almost crossed from the intense tartness of its barrel-fermented red fruit. But by the finals round, once we'd winnowed the 39 beers entered in the "new" beer category down to 10 top contenders, my taste buds had snapped to attention and tuned in to the proper frequency. And this sour ale aged in wine and whiskey barrels for a year-and-a-half with wild yeast and raspberries was suddenly an irresistible beam of bright fruit light.

OPENING TAP . . . the Philly Beer Week Garden . . . the International Great Beer Expo . . . Craft Beer Day on East Passyunk . . . the Haddon Pub Fest . . . the Varga Pin Up Block Party . . . Throwdown in Franklintown . . . the London Grill Dunk Tank . . . Philly Beer Geek . . . Fishtown FestivALE . . . whatever incredibly exotic beer dinner Monk's Café cooks up . . . These are among the can't-miss events of Philly Beer Week, the traditional, signature...

_ Practice good beer karma: Don't shove; there's plenty of beer. _ Carry a bottle of water. Don't waste valuable time and space ordering H2O from the bartender. _ Pick up the official Philly Beer Week keepsake guide at participating bars and restaurants. It's loaded with maps, events and beer information. _ Do a bit of pre-planning by searching PhillyBeerWeek.org's event calendar for favorite events, venues and breweries. _ Don't fret when you miss a great event. It's impossible to hit 'em all, so be content with your own beer karma.