Craft Beer

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.

Make like that funny love scene from "Lady and the Tramp" as Le Virtù (1927 East Passyunk Ave., 215-271-5626, www.levirtu.com ), a restaurant dedicated to the cuisine of Abruzzo, Italy, serves up Maccheroni alla Mugnaia, a single-strand pasta that is prepared and served uncut, stretching up to 60 feet. The pasta is made using only flour and water, then formed into a circle and gradually hand-pulled and manipulated into a longer, thinner loop which can be extended to the desired length.

MUNSTER, Ind. - On one of the most important days on the beer calendar, when fevered drinkers from across the U.S. travel to northwest Indiana to buy one of the world's rarest beers, the unthinkable happened. Cradling a box of his newfound bounty, a man in jeans and a black jacket dropped a bottle of the day's manna. The 22-ounce bottle of Dark Lord - a pitch-black, high-alcohol stout made by Three Floyds Brewing for release this very day - shattered, its black, frothy gold spreading across the asphalt.

Two downtown restaurateurs - Rob Wasserman (Rouge, 500 Degrees) and chef Michael Schulson (Sampan, Izakaya) - have ventured into the Main Line with the Saint James (30 Parking Plaza, Ardmore, 610-649-6200), an American bistro in Suburban Square. Chris Sheffield of SLDesign created an open, lived-in look, with a skylight in the foyer, wooden tables, leather- and wool-covered booths, and white brick walls. It's an amalgam of Pottery Barn and Crate & Barrel, with a dash of Anthropologie.

To complement a cheesesteak for dinner, Jeff Roberts of Haddonfield had his choice of a dozen beers on tap, both domestic and imported. Instead of a national brand, he ordered a tall glass of Farmhouse Summer Ale, made by the Cherry Hill-based Flying Fish Brewing Co. "It's a local beer, which I think is kind of neat," said Roberts, 51, a chemical engineer, seated inside P.J. Whelihan's Pub in Haddon Township with his wife and two sons....

OUT WITH the old, and in with the new - it's time for some new beer in the new year. Here are two for 2011.   A national survey for Samuel Adams beers claims that more than 60 percent of men prefer to toast with beer versus champagne, if given the choice. I think it would have been 100 percent if guys knew they'd get to pop the cork. Which is exactly what they get to do with Infinium , a fascinating new collaboration between the youngish (25 years young) Sam Adams and Germany's decidedly old Weihenstephan Brewery, founded by Benedictine monks in 1040.

This was the year of the mega-restaurant, the return of the French bistro, and the go-go days of the gastropub. The bacon was house-cured. The craft-beer lists became big. And women chefs, more than ever, made their mark on the city's kitchens. Cozy Philadelphia, long one of the country's best small-restaurant towns, found more than a few restaurateurs willing to gamble big on massive, multimillion-dollar projects from Center City to the Main Line. Georges Perrier and Chris Scarduzio presaged the still-growing luxury steak house boom with Table 31 in the new Comcast Center.

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.

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.

THE SHORT POUR Film Fest, to be held this weekend at the Great American Beer Festival in Denver, owes a big debt to the inventors of Steadicam. Despite imbibing ample, sudsy portions of their feature subject, dozens of film directors somehow managed to keep their cameras focused long enough to produce a watchable body of work. The festival, the first devoted to short films about beer, includes more than two hours of original live action, animation, music videos and commercials. "It's really opened my eyes to how much media coverage and attention there is on beer, even way beyond what we see in TV commercials," said the festival's producer, Jeff Moses.