Beer

A Delaware County teacher has been charged with furnishing alcohol to two of her students. State Police arrested Katherine Leigh Preusser, 33, an English teacher at Ridley High School, on March 23, after a car in which she was a passenger was pulled over and open beer cans were found inside. Two students also were in the car at the time, one of them driving, officials said. Preusser was charged with corruption of minors, furnishing alcohol to minors, drug possession, and other related crimes.

EIGHTY years ago this Sunday, the federal government enacted a law that targets beer drinkers with a mean-spirited tax on every bottle, every glass, every sip they take. In the decades that have followed this ignominious date, the law has taken billions of dollars out of our pockets, killed jobs, thwarted brewery expansion and threatened the middle class. Beer lobbyists today describe the law as "devastating" and "regressive. " They say it jeopardizes the entire industry. Just another example of greedy tax-and-spend politicians, right?

"I DON'T like beer. " You wouldn't believe how many times I have heard that. There are some people who just won't drink beer. At bars and restaurants, at tutored tastings, at casual backyard barbecues, I'll offer a stranger a bottle and you'd think I was spreading the plague. Here - I promise, it won't kill you. "No, I hate beer. " Dude, if you don't wanna drink, fine. You've got some personal or moral issues with alcohol, that's cool. I'm not going to force it down your throat.

B UZZ: What's the deal with Japanese wine, Marnie? Is it any good? Why do they drink it in little cups? Marnie: You probably mean saké, Buzz, which is often called "rice wine. " It's a Japanese specialty and, yes, the quality can be excellent. Buzz: Rice? I don't get it. Apple wine, raspberry wine, I get. Those are fruits like grapes. How do you make wine out of rice? Marnie: Saké is not a real wine, in the sense of being fermented from fresh fruit. Technically, it is its own distinct category within the larger family of fermented alcoholic drinks that includes wine, beer and cider but excludes stronger distilled spirits.

After years of working at a bank, Nancy Dillett of Meadowbrook, Montgomery County, lost her job in the late 1990s when her company was taken over by a rival. She spent the next decade raising her two children as a stay-at-home mom, then rejoined the workforce 18 months ago - as a retail clerk in a State Store. On Wednesday, Dillett, 55, who works at the liquor store in Jenkintown, told a panel of Democratic legislators that the state House's recent passage of a bill to phase out the State Stores left her fearful of finding herself without work once more.

IT'S OFFICIAL: Canned craft beer is no longer evil. We know this because Boston Beer, which once trumpeted that aluminum jeopardizes the flavor of beer, is finally canning its flagship Samuel Adams Boston Lager . The company said that it designed its funky-looking wide-lid can after consulting with a sensory expert who conducted an "ergonomic and flavor study. " The trendsetting brewery, however, is decidedly behind the curve when it comes to cans. Nearly 900 separate brands from 265 small American breweries are now canned, according to an authoritative database maintained by CraftCans.com.

The German-style beer garden Brü Craft & Wurst is expected to open March 23 at 1318 Chestnut St. (215-800-1079), enlivening the quiet block between Juniper and 13th Streets. The location previously was the Mitchell & Ness retail shop. Brü is actually two joints in one: a wood-clad bar with 32 taps carved into a tree, with table service, as well as a beer garden with bench seating, walk-up counter, an oversize garage door facing McGillin's on Drury Street, and a six-tap computerized beer system on the wall.

Selling out the brewery to Anheuser-Busch InBev is, in the eyes of craft beer drinkers, the equivalent of ditching Gryffindor for Voldemort and the Death Eaters. So it's no wonder Chicago's homegrown Goose Island has taken the beer-geek heat since its sale to the Bud Who Shall Not Be Named in 2011. The good news: since production of Goose Islands' mass-market brews (like 312 Urban Wheat) have been moved to Colorado and New York for a national rollout, there's more room at the original Chicago brewery for its more interesting efforts.

A woman was arrested at Parx Casino in Bensalem this month for smashing a beer bottle over the head of a fellow slots player who blew cigarette smoke in her face, according to police records. Dana Sarne, 30, of Morrisville, asked Paula White to extinguish her cigarette while the two were playing slots March 4, records say. Sarne said the smoke was irritating her asthma. According to the records, the two were in the casino's smoking section. White would not put out the cigarette, records say, and then blew smoke in Sarne's face.

News item: The Brewers Association has updated its Beer Style Guidelines, with definitions of 142 separate styles. The newest additions are Adambier and Grätzer. SO, THE authoritative organization of small American brewers has reached back a few centuries and turned up a pair of thoroughly obscure smoked European wheat beers for its comprehensive directory. They join a list of everything from Leipzig-style Gose to good ol' American malt liquor. I'm a big fan of style guidelines (heck, I wrote an entire book about 'em)