Craft Beer

Craft beer in cans is a rising trend, but it's especially great for summer, when the can's lightweight portability and quick-chilling powers are perfect for a picnic road trip. So it makes perfect sense that Lancaster Brewing Co.'s first canned beer is a crisp kölsch that's perfect for the hot weather, too. An uncommon American rendition of the light golden ales made famous in Cologne, this is actually the second kölsch made recently by one of the region's German-centric breweries (with Stoudt's slightly fuller-bodied Karnival Kölsch being the other)

Scott Rudich got a text one November night from his pal Rich DiLiberto, who was in a bar drinking bad beer and listening to a bad cover band. "We should either start a brewery or a band," DiLiberto wrote. Rudich's reply: "Neither of us play instruments. " And so it was that the grains of Round Guys Brewery were set to steep. Of course, that dream would ferment for nearly 31/2 years before these two pharmaceutical workers would finally open the doors to their Lansdale brewery in early March, when Rudich could legitimately pick up the phone and say with a wink: "Hello, I am the yeast whisperer.

McGillin's Olde Ale House has already turned its taps over to the Germans for the month. Brauhaus Schmitz has plans to shut down South Street for a pig roast with an oompah band. And local Oktoberfest lagers, from brewers like Victory and Sly Fox, are currently flowing at watering holes around town. As Philadelphia embraces all things beer, it was only a matter of time until we saw the Hallmark-ization of Oktoberfest, with more celebrations starting earlier, getting bigger and lasting longer, and more local brewers joining the party.

As many as 30,000 beer lovers are expected to sip their way through the brewing bacchanalia that is Philly Beer Week beginning tomorrow, with more than 670 events across the region. There will be tastings of high-end craft beers, pairing dinners at gastropubs, even a 60-mile bike-and-drinking tour of local breweries during the 10-day celebration. More than 400 revelers made it to the Grey Lodge Pub's "Friday the Firkinteenth" in February. So how many will make the pilgrimage to Northeast Philly to quaff beer from firkins, the small kegs of artisan beer that drain by gravity, when Friday the 13th falls during the second annual Beer Week?

Small craft brewers have defied the nation's stubborn economic slump, unable to meet growing demand despite a pullback by consumers overall. Several brewers in Pennsylvania and New Jersey are out to fix that supply problem by building new facilities, doubling and even tripling capacity to produce lagers and ales, and adding small numbers of jobs along the way. Flying Fish Brewing Co. in Cherry Hill has paid $750,000 in deposits on equipment...

Saturday, Oct. 24 Brewer's Reserve tasting , featuring hand-crafted beers from Flying Fish Brewing Co., including Exit 4 American Tripel and Belgian Imperial Cru, and Iron Hill Brewery, including Heywood Tripel and 2004 Barleywine. Pay for what you drink. 1-5 p.m. at Iron Hill Brewery and Restaurant, 124 East Kings Hwy., Maple Shade, 856-273-0300, www.ironhillbrewery.com . Sunday, Oct. 25 Craft beer lovers singles night , featuring craft beer tastings, hors d'oeuvres, and entertainment.

I'M NOT A beer snob. As I drink my pint of expensive craft beer, I don't roll my eyes when you sit next to me and order a bottle of Corona or Coors Light, or whatever it is the beer snobs scoff at. I don't look at my drinking buddy and make some harsh comment. I'm not a beer snob. I like Sam Adams. I don't jump up and down like a madwoman and proclaim that Sam Adams beers are overly commericalized macro-brews fooling people into believing they're made with the same care as that expensive pint of craft beer in my hand.

Bruce Nichols, 62, a longtime champion of quality beer in Philadelphia and cofounder of Philly Beer Week, died Tuesday, Nov. 30, of leukemia. Mr. Nichols had started an annual dinner and beer tasting in Philadelphia with renowned British beer expert Michael Jackson in 1991 that lasted until Jackson's death in 2007. Philly Beer Week started in 2008, and now boasts that it is the largest beer celebration of its kind in the country. Mr. Nichols was chair of the nonprofit that ran the annual 10-day event.

Cans can be beautiful when they're filled with Pikeland Pils. This stellar golden brew from Sly Fox in Royersford has firmly established itself in my fridge as one of my favorite local summer beers. Sly Fox helped pioneer the craft beer world's recent embrace of cans, which are coated with a polymer to prevent that metallic taste. Brewmaster Brian O'Reilly's full-flavored pilsner, meanwhile, has also helped redeem the famed Czech beer style that has long been corrupted into "lite" oblivion by thin mass-market American pretenders.

For David April, the improbable road from Fishtown to GQ Spain started with a run and ended with a beer. A Kenzinger, no doubt. And a toast. "To the professor!" "To the professor!" echoed the endorphined crowd Thursday night at the American Sardine Bar in Point Breeze. To the professor? Is this Gilligan's Island? A brainy fraternity? No, it is the Fishtown Beer Runners' weekly homage to the scholar - Professor Manuel J. Castillo of the School of Medicine, University of Granada, Spain - who supplied them with a rather happy, not to mention hoppy, organizing principle.