Brew

YO, POT HEADS, this bud's for you! That's right, I'm talking about marijuana beer. Stoner suds. Ganja brew. Miller Really High Life. It's commercially unavailable, obviously, due to federal drug and alcohol laws. But now that several states have OK'd the sale and use of marijuana for medical purposes, it's cropping up in private circles. There have been reports of California dispensaries selling behind-the-counter homemade pot beer at 20 bucks a bottle. And there's a growing discussion about home-brew recipes online.

There's a fine new Italian bean brewing in the local espresso scene now that Massimo Taurisano has traded Northern Italy's Hausbrandt for the slightly darker Miscela d'Oro from Sicily at his six Academia del Caffes and his 400 wholesale clients. The recent roaster change was due to the exchange rate and Miscela's desire for a competitive East Coast presence. The result: a half-pound $10 can, a great alternative to pricier competitors. I've come to love Miscela's more robust and chocolatey brew - first served locally at Osteria.

If most normal humans are made up of nearly 90 percent water, I am at the very least 80 percent coffee. Not only do I drink it from morning to night, loving the hot black spark perking through my body and mind, I've come to savor its myriad roasty flavors, the manual craft of brewing gear, and especially its culture of rituals - which can be oh-so-hard to change. Like most discerning Philadelphians, my ritual for more than a decade has been a cup of La Colombe, the city's "house brew," judging by the number of restaurants and cafes that have a pot of Corsica or shot of Nizza at the ready.

In a world where people sue McDonald's for serving coffee too hot, a Philadelphia woman has sued a Dunkin' Donuts for serving coffee she says was too sweet - so sweet it sent her into a diabetic coma. Danielle Jordan, 47, of Oxford Avenue near Langdon Street in Crescentville, filed a personal injury lawsuit against the Dunkin' Donuts on Frankford Avenue near Bridge Street and Northeast Donut Shops Management Corp. Jordan is seeking unspecified damages after she claims she ordered coffee with artificial sweetener on June 15, 2009, but the server put sugar into the brew, according to the suit, which was first reported this morning by the Courthouse News Service.

An 80-year-old Bridesburg woman discovered yesterday that her late husband had left an unsuspected legacy in their basement: chemicals brought home from his job at the nearby Rohm and Haas plant. Police said that Jean Dimperzio, of Stiles Street near Duncan, called authorities about 8 a.m. yesterday to report a strange odor emanating from her house. When police and Fire Department officials arrived, they discovered in the basement a witches' brew of old chemicals that been stewing since the death several years ago of Dimperzio's husband, who worked for the Rohm and Haas facility in Bridesburg, police said.

Next time you're sitting at the bar, spacing out as you peel the label off your bottle, consider the breadth of info at your fingertips. Your average beer label is full of facts, both trivial and pertinent. Check out the newest bottle on local shelves, from Yards. Yards Brewing Company is owned by Tom Kehoe and John Bovit, a couple of college buddies who have a thing for British-style ales. The name means nothing - it just sounds kind of English. They sold their first keg on April 18, 1995, and started bottling last month.

A controversial malt liquor was ordered off store shelves by the state police yesterday because the name of the high-alcohol brew violates state law, a state police spokesman said. Colt .45 PowerMaster, manufactured by financially troubled G. Heileman Brewing Co. Inc., of La Crosse, Wis., and distributed by Clement & Muller Inc., of Northeast Philadelphia, was targeted for removal because the name, PowerMaster, connoted the strength of the beverage. That's a violation of the state liquor code, said Lt. John McGeehan, head of the area's state police liquor-control enforcement unit.

Because seeing is believing, it would be difficult to find a how-to topic that didn't lend itself to the video format. Producers, recognizing the VCR's value as a teaching tool, have responded with instructional tapes covering the gamut of human activity. They teach skills as basic as dancing, and as complex as tapestry weaving. Video how-tos are so ubiquitous that it seems no topic is too arcane. As evidence of video's ability to plumb the obscure, consider two recent releases - one explains napkin-folding and the other demystifies home brewing.

At Tau Kappa Epsilon on the Penn State campus in State College, the brothers are probably toasting the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, thanks to a recent decision that got the fraternity off the hook on a a 1986 charge of serving liquor to minors. Unfortunately, the court's 5-2 decision is having a negative impact well beyond Happy Valley. The case involved drinking by minors at a party attended by undercover officers. The state high court overturned the convictions, ruling that chemical analysis, rather than testimony from arresting officers, is necessary to make the rap stick.

With permission granted from our better halves, the only thing cooler than a simple "guys' night out" is a "guys' night" splashed in craft beer. The hardest part in this brew-obsessed region, where the ale flows from South Street to South Jersey in stupefying variety - from hipster gastropubs to Belgian mussel bars, a German brat hall, and even a brunch spot awash in growler drafts - is simply choosing where to begin. Consider it scouting for "girls' night out," too. Great beer is a gift with equal-opportunity appeal.

YOU THINK WE have a pretty good beer scene now? You should've seen this town back in 1879. Every neighborhood had its own brewery, and every corner had a saloon. In the preceding 30 years, more than 250 breweries had opened — many of them closing quickly, but others becoming national powers. A census by Western Brewer magazine counted an astonishing 94 breweries up and running. The city's population was barely half of today's, and yet it had 12 times the number of breweries we boast of in 2012.

TOO MANY COOKS may spoil the broth, but too many brewers never ruined the beer. The proof is all those fabulous one-offs featuring two, three or more brewery logos on the bottles. These so-called collaborative beers are made by beer-makers from competing breweries who share the brewhouse for a day in the spirit of artisanal camaraderie. That professional friendship is one of the important traits that makes craft brewing appealing to so many. Once again, Philly Beer Week will show off a bunch of collabs, including Speciale Belge, made in Belgium by Iron Hill brewer Chris LaPierre and by Olivier DeDeycker of the famed Belgian Brasserie Dupont.

SAN DIEGO — The loneliest guy at BrewExpo America had to be Ales Kopecky, a Czech farmer who came to the annual beer-making trade show to promote his old-world Saaz hops. The Saaz variety may be the noblest of the so-called "noble hops," providing the distinctive flavor and palate-cleansing bitterness to pilsners and other styles. Yet few brewers lined up to savor the aroma from the pile of dried hops scattered atop Kopecky's booth. They were drawn instead to the Hopsteiner booth, where the multinational company was showing off its new Calypso hops variety.

IT'S A MOONLESS Thursday night in North Wales, Montgomery County. Down a dead-end street just past the giant Merck & Co. pharmaceutical plant, tucked along the SEPTA R5 railroad tracks, a darkened industrial building attracts a young crowd. The unpaved parking lot is full, light sounds of live jazz seep from the rear door, and the air carries the familiar aroma of malt. Welcome to Prism Brewing's Tap Room, one of the region's best-kept beer-drinking secrets and, it turns out, a harbinger of a remarkable surge of suburban breweries.

City Council on Thursday showed the first signs of rebellion against Mayor Nutter's plan to reform the city's property tax system while picking up an extra $90 million in the process. Councilman Mark Squilla, whose First District in South Philadelphia could face some of the steepest tax increases from the switch, introduced a bill to keep the current system and tax rates for one more year. Squilla's bill and other grumblings from Council members emerged just days before Nutter administration officials are scheduled to testify before Council on their proposed budget.

More than 80 Penn State alumni, from near and far and in a variety of prestigious professions, will compete for three open seats on the university's board of trustees in one of the most highly contested races ever at the school. Many candidates were on campus Wednesday when ballot positions were announced. To be eligible, candidates had to secure 50 alumni signatures. Voting online begins April 10 and closes on May 3, with winners to take their seats on the 32-member board by July 1. Lawyers, academics, executives, bankers, a U.S. judge and a Baltimore, Md. investigative TV reporter are among those seeking a seat in the wake of a child sex abuse scandal involving former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky.

INQUIRER RESTAURANT CRITIC TOURPES, Belgium - Frost lingers in the Wallonian morning air as a group of sleepy Philadelphians arrives early to the cobblestone courtyard of Brasserie Dupont. The legendary farmhouse brewery, in the Belgian countryside a few miles from the French border, has agreed to collaborate on a special brew with a contingent of brewers and bar owners representing Philly Beer Week. To be poured at the Philadelphia festival this summer, it will be the first collaboration in the brewery's 166-year history - a fact that speaks both to the prominence of the city's annual beer celebration and its special relationship with Belgian producers.

In a back room at Appalachian Brew Pub in Collegeville, amid towers of plastic cups, a dozen tall, dark, unmarked bottles await a turn in the spotlight. One by one, the bottles are opened, poured, and studied. As noses dive deep into cups of amber brew, few words are spoken. One or two people close their eyes, analyzing, savoring, before they take a sip. The contents of each cup represent hours of isolated toil and, at this, the monthly meeting of the Stoney Creek Homebrewers Club, each member has the chance to get and give advice.

If you received a one-cup coffeemaker - or a box of coffee for one - as a Christmas gift, by now you likely have brewed through and tossed out plenty of those little capsules, and perhaps you've started to wonder about the environmental impact and the value of convenience. Turns out that many people have opted for such convenience: In the 12 months ending in November, nearly 46 percent of the dollars going toward the purchase of coffee or espresso makers went to single-serve machines, according to NPD Group, a market-research firm.

The mere mention of a truffled beer is enough to incite shudders and raised eyebrows. Even accomplished brewer Scott Morrison conceded that the "terrible" task of melding such a powerful savory flavor with beer brought trepidation: "How am I going to pull this off?" But with his recent return to Dock Street Brewing Co., he knew this first of several planned seasonal collaborations with the Four Seasons Hotel had to be ambitious. So Morrison didn't hold back, crafting a sturdily malted English strong ale, then sending it off to the hotel to be aged in used chardonnay barrels, after which it was blended with a measured dose of truffle-steeped vodka.