Craft Beer

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.

"I think we're witnessing the critical mass of craft beer in this town. " Looking around nearly four years ago when I scrawled those words, it seemed clear that Philly was enjoying a surge in neighborhood bars whose focus was good beer. We'd reached a tipping point in which it was too late to go back to the same old lager. The surge is only growing. Local 44, Kraftwork, Brauhaus Schmitz, Jose Pistola's, Kite & Key, the Institute, the Sidecar Bar and Grille, Lucky 13, Devil's Den, Beneluxx Tasting Room, Varga, a second Tria Cafe, City Tap House, the Wishing Well, the Irish Pol, the Woolly Mammoth, Terrace Taproom, Pub & Kitchen, MidAtlantic Restaurant & Taproom, Resurrection Ale House and Prohibition Taproom are among the city beer bars that have opened since that column was published in January 2007.

I'm all for giving the undereducated, over-Budweisered campus crowd a chance to learn their Tucher from their tuchus . But what happens to the fizz of the city's hippest trend when craft beer goes college-town corporate? The massive new 300-seat City Tap House is a fascinating test case. The typical Philly beer-bar grunge has been thoroughly supplanted here by a soaring Mission wood space outfitted with salvaged planks and hammered copper. Fire pits blaze at night on the expansive "green roof" terrace of the second-floor balcony at University City's mod new Radian building, where well-scrubbed Ivy Leaguers network around tasting racks of wheat beer and thin-crusted pizzas beneath moonlit high-rise dorms.

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.

He is installed now at the David Rockwell-designed showpiece called Nectar, its Buddha tapestry soaring, its sushi bar hopping, a rare moment of urban chic so far out the Main Line (in Berwyn) that you can almost hear the buggy wheels grinding in Lancaster County. It's an odd amalgam that chef-owner Patrick Feury, 46, presides over - the striking un-rural palette, the meticulous Asian-fusion plating, the bounty of some of the richest farm country on the Eastern seaboard. But you get the impression that not only is he comfortable - this chef who started out washing pots at 15 at a pork butcher's near his North Jersey home - but also that maybe he planned it this way, or would have if he could have.

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)

The East Coast Food and Wine Festival, to be held noon-5 p.m. June 26-27 at Hopewell Valley Vineyards in Pennington, N.J., will feature celebrity chefs Michael Colameco, Mary Ann Esposito and Barbara Seeling-Brown, and a banquet of restaurateurs, vintners and foodies. Tastings, tours, a farm market and much more are also planned. $35 advance, $40 at the door; two-day pass $55/$60. A portion of the proceeds goes to Share Our Strength, which fights childhood hunger. Call 609-890-7103 or go to www.slow foodandwinefestival.

The night before, waving from a chariot fashioned from the hostess stand at his Brauhaus Schmitz, Doug Hager had been the final-leg relay man, delivering the Hammer of Glory - the giant, keg-tapping mallet used to officially launch Philly Beer Week III. And here he was on Saturday (in fact, he was up by 7 a.m.), unloading kegs of imported hefeweizen, pilsner, and kölsch - 40 in all - for a bierfest in the big beer garden behind the German Society, Sixth and Spring Garden.

The night before, waving from a chariot fashioned from the hostess stand at his Brauhaus Schmitz, Doug Hager had been the final-leg relay man, delivering the Hammer of Glory - the giant, keg-tapping mallet used to officially launch Philly Beer Week III. And here he was on Saturday (in fact, he was up by 7 a.m.), unloading kegs of imported hefeweizen, pilsner and kolsch - 40 in all - for a bierfest in the sprawling beer garden behind the German Society, Sixth and Spring Garden. If he was a trouper, he had plenty of company this weekend as what is now America's largest, brawniest toast (at close to 1,000 events in more than 150 venues)

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.