Philly Beer Week

We took a spin over the Ben Franklin bridge yesterday afternoon to Nodding Head Brewery and sat in on an organizational meeting for the first Philly Beer Week celebration.

Putting in the face time were lots of names in the Philly region’s craft beer scene (i.e. Carol Stoudt of her eponymously named brewing company; Tom Kehoe of the remade Yards Brewing, plus Flying Fish’s head brewer Casey Hughes popped in from Cherry Hill; more on the Fish in a minute).

We went to check out the storytelling prospects from a video standpoint, then beat a hasty retreat from Sansom Street (after downing three great Nodding Head beers: Bill Payer Ale, 700 Level blond ale, and All Night Ale, which is dosed with some espresso) to finish shooting B-roll of city landmarks for a promo project for White Dog Café’s Brewer’s Plate event.

But all of that’s not the point … The point is, Philly Beer Week, March 7-16, is just a couple months off, and things are taking surer shape. Check the web site, for the events. One thing we have our eye on is the planned real ale festival. Cask conditioned ales, poured from the hand pump … hard to beat. If you’ve ever been to the Great British Beer Festival, well, real ale is what it’s all about.

Philly Beer Week is as much a boast as it is an extended bash. It’s Philly claiming bragging rights as “America’s Best Beer-Drinking City,” a place where the bars and restaurants’ tap handles offer a cornucopia of styles and flavors. (Sadly, that’s something difficult to say about our home state, New Jersey.) So for nine days, the city’s laying it on the line with what is intended to be an annual event, with a mind toward proving the boast isn’t just the beer talking.

Busy, busy, busy
One thing to note about Philly Beer Week is that it comes amid a hopping beer schedule (no pun intended). The Philly Craft Beer Festival is March 1 at the Naval Yard. The Brewer’s Plate is March 9 at the Independence Visitors Center, and the Atlantic City beer festival is March 8-9. (All three are on our schedule, and we're still wondering how to do both the Real Ale Festival in Philly and the AC festival on the same day.) So little time, so many beers.

Klatch Porter
We’d like to think it was our recommendation last year to espresso yourself that prompted Flying Fish to turn out a 2008 rendition of its Imperial Espresso Porter (8% ABV), the brew that appeared last year as a salute to the brewery’s decade-plus of longevity. But we’d be fooling ourselves. Folks at the Fish knew this well-received beer (dosed with some Colombian roast) was too good to not make an encore. It’s out now, and in our fridge, in our glass as we type. It's a seasonal, so get it while you can.

Labor of Love
Like, the animated graphic above? We cranked it out today, using Apple’s Final Cut Studio suite. Cheers.