A talk with AC beer fest's Jon Henderson

Simply put, it's a monster.

That's what founder Jon Henderson calls the beer festival he's staged annually at Atlantic City's convention center, located at the foot of the toll road that pours hordes of gamblers and conventioneers into the city every year. 

With a boardwalk-like atmosphere that's candy for the senses, the festival looms big, not just in size, but on the calendar, too: Like a cherished holiday, you know it's coming; you get ready. 

And like the ocean that faithfully meets the shore just a few blocks east, the festival rolls in like a tide, with waves of beer fans, whose enthusiasm for craft beer can't be dammed, and an energy that spreads in a lot of directions (i.e. there's 2013 AC Beer Week, April 5-13, and a spinoff festival planned for mid-June in Scranton, Pa.).

It's big. 

Attendance has jumped nearly more than sevenfold since the inaugural year's draw; the floor space needed to stage the fest has swollen more than tenfold. It's one of those events that before the roar of the closing night fades, plans for the next year are under way.

And it's back.

Undeniably the marquee beer festival in New Jersey and arguably one of the biggest on the East Coast, Celebration of the Suds returns to the Atlantic City Convention Center for an eighth year with a trio of sessions spread over Friday and Saturday. The fest promises to unite craft beer fans with their favorite beers and introduce some new brews to the regional beer scene.

First year glass

'95 promo glass; event  wasn't held

Fresh from a business trip to Chicago early last month, Jon took some time to talk with Beer-Stained Letter about the festival's origins and its inaugural event in 2006 (the only year for glass souvenir samplers, and held 11 years after the planned-but-never-held AC Racetrack fest*). Jon also discussed where the event stands today.

BSL: Trace the history of the Atlantic City beer festival, the Celebration of the Suds ... This event goes back to before the current hot streak that craft beer has been enjoying. Back then in New Jersey all we really had was the craft brewers guild festival each June and outside, there was notably TAP New York and Split Rock. So New Jersey presented itself with an opening ...

JH: I attended some of those festivals – and I'm not belittling anyone – but I wasn't really impressed by how they were done. It was more like a cattle call ... Our goal was to be a little more interactive than a lot of the other festivals that were out there, instead of just come to a table and sip some beer, and go beer, beer, beer, beer. We wanted to have more of an experience. Seeing what everyone else was doing, I really thought there was a better way to do it.

BSL: What things did you bring to differentiate your festival?

JH: Part of it was, we didn't want to do an event that was distributor-driven. We wanted the breweries to have a complete buy-in, a say in what they were bringing. 

That was one part. The other component was the food and the entertainment. A lot of it (on the festival circuit) was a few concessionaires that really didn't do any pairings ... there wasn't a huge seminar component at the time, and nobody really educating about beer and how beers were made. So that was another thing we added. We said 'OK, let's create a format for education, an absolute format for discovery.'

BSL: What was that first-year attendance like?

JH: It kind of worked out well. Our first year, I think we saw about 3,800 attendees.

Outside 2007 fest 

BSL: What was it like to even get to that first year? It seems like your festival cleared a trail for future festivals in New Jersey. 

JH: We set the road for craft beer festivals, for beer festivals, to go in the state of New Jersey. If you noticed, the next beer festival that popped up didn't happen for three years after we'd been running our show. I think people thought, 'Hey, this is a great revenue opportunity.' ... Unfortunately, most of them still aren't done right. I'll be very candid and very open about that. 

Sorry, I'm getting off topic ... Paving the way, that's what we're on ... We spent some time with the ABC (state Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control), talked to a lot of breweries, and (reviewed) beverage law as it applies to New Jersey in the year that it took to plan it ... we had one-on-one outreach with the all the breweries. Instead of having a conversation with the distributor, we'd have the conversation with the brewery first, and ask, 'Hey, what would you like to see?' 

We really spent a year getting to know our advertising plan, the breweries themselves, feeling out what kind of experience we can create in Atlantic City. And Atlantic City, it's a huge opportunity for an event like this because we've got so many hotel rooms and transportation options. It was absolutely an opportunity to do this festival, but to also promote how responsible this festival could be done, you know, with the hotels and transportation options and things like that. 

It was really a lot of due diligence: getting to know our brand, getting to know our market, getting to know the customer that we're talking to, and what outlet do we utilize to get our message across. 

Birnam Wood from 2007

BSL: What were some of the challenges in terms of drawing crowds? Because 2006 versus now, even in such a short time frame, we're actually talking about two distinct time periods: When craft beer was growing but still had novelty. But over the past four years, there's this beer awareness; craft beer is exponentially hotter now than back in 2006. 

JH: We've been told this several times by distributors and local retailers, that our festival is very responsible for some of the boom in craft beer in our region. Because we've been doing it for a while, to the point now where we're 24,000 attendees.

Some of the challenges were really in marketing, finding who's that customer that we want to talk to. In our first couple of years we had targeted specifically not the general public, but more of a beer geek, really chased that beer geek following, listened to what that beer geek had to say ... Once that beer geek puts their two cents in, that allows us to educate the general public a little better. 

Taster cup from 2007

BSL: Let's talk about your festival space for a minute. What did you start with and where are you with it now?

JH: We started off with just 30,000 square feet. We are now at 380,000. 

BSL: Quite a jump ...

JH: Yeah, the festival is a monster. It's a million-dollar project. It's funny, I hear people say 'You must make a fortune off these beer festivals.' It's not actually the case. If you look at what goes into these things, our festival costs a little over a million dollars to produce. A lot of these other festivals across the country, if they put $50,000 or $60,000 into their festivals, that's a lot. 

But you have to look at the growth, the growth in the craft beer industry. It's literally a mirror for our festival because of the time frame in which our festival started. Growth in the craft beer industry, growth in awareness has absolutely grown our festival. I think it kind of goes hand in hand. Our festival grows because people know they can come to Atlantic City and discover new beers. 

2011 sand sculpture

BSL: How have the beers that have been served changed since 2006? Is there a wider reach across the country in terms of breweries and styles of beer?

JH: Our floor (space) is sold out. We're completely sold out. We're at like 109 breweries. We've always kind of struggled with some of the international beers. We wanted to be essentially an American craft beer festival. But there's a lot of cool international beers, and we thought, 'You know, it's not a true beer festival unless we're celebrating every aspect ...' 

(But) growth has been tremendous ... we've got the majority of the New Jersey breweries participating, because they know this festival is a good launching point for awareness ... A lot of breweries will use our festival as a launch.

Blue Point at AC fest

BSL: Let's talk about distributors for a minute. How have you seen their craft beer portfolios change?

JH: Their portfolios have grown out of the need for a lot these craft breweries to find their way out in the market. There's a lot of great craft beer out there. The problem is, there's so many that distribution gets tough. The distributors, for the most part, have done a great job of making sure that a lot of the products that we're serving at the festival, that are launching at the festival, hit other areas of markets where somebody with (limited) distribution can't pull off. 

The distributors are absolutely an asset to our show. They can help their brands get set up. They offer support. In a lot of instances distributors even help the guys who are self-distributing get set up and make sure they're comfortable at the festival as well. 

BSL: Among the breweries at the festival, how many have direct representation, have staff at their stations, talking about their beers versus, say, having to rely on someone sent by the distribution company?

JH: Ninety-eight percent. It's a requirement for our festival. I don't want people coming in and pouring beer and not have stock in the company, not have passion for the beer. And that's not to say that some of the distributors don't have passion. But they're not getting a paycheck from the brewery, or they're not the people who are crafting the beer. There's something to be said about that, when they're conveying a message to those who are attending. Nobody's going to talk about how much they love their new IPA other than the people who are responsible for putting it in your mouth.

Boak app debuted at fest

BSL: At a local level, the beer-producing landscape of New Jersey has been reshaped over the past few years. From where you sit, how do you see it, what's been the game-changer?

JH: The change is in some of the laws. It's helped a lot of these guys open and get their ball rolling. What's great is, some of the breweries we have in the state are really creative (people); they're creating some really, really cool product and putting it out there. From our awards from last year (the festival each year has a beer judging), our people's choice award went to Boaks Beer, our best IPA choice was Cape May Brewing. Right out of the gate, there's two award winners from New Jersey. That says something about the quality of beer these guys are putting out.

BSL: Beer festivals can be initiations of sorts for people who are new to craft beer, and that can be a big selling point. With veterans of craft beer, though, it can take a little more to draw them in. How do you keep the event fresh and make it speak to both of those groups of beer enthusiasts?

JH: The trick is in the programming. We've always had a good response from the breweries, our marketing campaign, how we approach the festival, how we approach the beer, you know, some of the different nuances of the festival. At the end of the day, it comes down to programming and entertaining people as well as introducing them to craft beer.

Tuckahoe Brewing

What we do every year is we try to create something fresh. Last year, we started with two big headline (music) acts; we saw that worked well, so we brought three big headliners in this year. On top of that, we're doing multiple cooking demonstrations, cooking with beer; we're doing beer and cigar pairings ... we'll have a variety of seminars ... We're bringing in chocolate infused with beer ... just little bits and pieces that keep people active throughout the festival but have a beer theme. 

BSL: What about Atlantic City itself. Atlantic City has a history of being a bit of a sideshow town, diving horses and dancing tigers, and Miss America on the calmer side of things. It even has a reputation of being a bit of a bare-knuckle town. How much of Atlantic City's flavor is in the festival?

JH: The festival has become one of Atlantic City's biggest and premiere events. There's not another public event in Atlantic City that moves the volume of people throught the city, as well as hotel rooms ... What the festival has seen is a really cool merging of flavor, for a lack of a better term, all of our participating restaurants are Atlantic City-based restaurants ... The city itself has really, really embraced the festival and what it has to offer. 

Turtle Stone crew

If you look at Atlantic City, you know as far as a destination for a beer festival, you can get here by car, you can get by boat, you can get here by air ... by train as well. There are 11,000 hotel room options; you've got taxicabs and jitneys. Once you park your car in Atlantic City, you really don't have to get back in it until you're leaving on Sunday.

The festival has found its home in the Convention Center – there's really no other place big enough to host it – but it's also helped Atlantic City, and it was really the start of Atlantic City showing that lifestyle events are the wave of the future. 

BSL: Let's talk about the festival crowds for a minute. How have you seen the face of the crowds change, so to speak?

JH: I've seen the younger faces, the ones 22 to 28, being a smarter beer crowd. This is what they're growing up with. They're growing up with options, and options are a great thing. They're tasting and understanding what goes into this product a lot better than the guys who drank Pabst and Busch and Bud. 

2012 music

BSL: The younger beer enthusiasts have never had to surrender an allegiance to those old brands before getting into the craft beers. They're flavor-seekers.

JH: Correct. And now what they're doing is finding all beers, and they can relate to all these beers because they're cooler. There's some syngeries between the brands and their lifestyles. (Craft brewers)  have given people such broad options to taste. It's not, 'Do I want regular or light' anymore. Events like this really play to that crowd, because of the options and they're not afraid to experiment with new beers, whereas with my dad, you couldn't get him to try anything but Busch.

BSL: So for the Atlantic City beer festival, how big can this thing get?

JH: I could put 30,000 people in this event every year. But we don't. We try to keep our ticket sales to a normal number so everybody's drinking beer, not waiting long in line; everybody's really taking advantage of all the experiences that are there without being shoulder to shoulder, uncomfortable ...

Each one our sessions will see between 7,500 and 8,000 attendees. We want to make sure that everybody has plenty of elbow room and that it's social. We don't want them packed into the hall. As it is, we use most of the entire Atlantic City Convention Center. 

Scooter fun

We've kicked around adding the Sunday back to the portfolio of the festival. But it's exhausting. Keep in mind it's a brewery-driven event, not distributor. Our breweries are wiped out by Saturday night. You talk to some of the brewery (people), they'll tell you it's cool to serve beer for a couple of hours, but at the end of the day, you're doing sessions with 7,500 to 8,000 people and you're talking and talking and talking about the beer. It's exhausting. 

Jams from yesteryear

BSL: What other ways has the festival extended its reach?

JH:  This year we've launched a kind of beer week, really to extend craft beer and the enjoyment of craft beer and celebrating it throughout the course of the week.

*EDITORS NOTE: Promoters of a March 1995 Philadelphia beer festival, held at a now-gone convention site in University City, had planned to follow up with a festival at Atlantic City Race Course. Alas, for regulatory reasons, the event never got off the ground. The souvenir glasses from the Philly event promo'd the planned AC event.

Tripel checking

That big, pro-am Belgian tripel brewed at the Tun Tavern for the Atlantic City beer festival is coming along.

Tun brewer Tim Kelly (shown at left taking a sample on Thursday) projects the beer will come in around 9 percent ABV or a little higher when it finishes out fermentation.

Come Monday, Tim says he'll begin to step the fermenter temperature down, with filtration of the beer set for March 30.

The beer, brewed with Tim's guidance by homebrewers Vince Masciandaro and Evan Fritz earlier this month, will be served at the AC beer fest on April 1-2, as well as at the Tun Tavern itself.

Vince and Evan took first place in the homebrew contest sponsored by the Tun, winning the opportunity to re-create their tripel on the Tun's 10-barrel Newlands brewing system.

New deadline for Tun homebrew challenge

There's a deadline extension for the homebrew contest sponsored by the Tun Tavern brewpub and The Press of Atlantic City's At The Shore entertainment guide.

Homebrewers now have until Monday, Feb. 14 to drop off their entries at the Tun in Atlantic City.

Remember, the winner's circle includes a chance to scale up your recipe and brew it on the Tun's 10-barrel system under the guidance of brewer Tim Kelly, plus admission to the Atlantic City beer festival, April 1-2, at the Atlantic City Convention Center. The finished beer will be served at the festival and will be on tap at the Tun.

More details:

• Entrants must submit six bottles of their homebrew (or the equivalent of 72 ounces).
• All bottles must be clearly labeled with the homebrewer's contact information (name, phone number and email) and the style of beer.
  
• Entries must be dropped off at the Tun Tavern by Feb. 14. (The Tun is located in same building as the Sheraton hotel, across from the convention center. The phone number is 609-347-7800)
• Judging will take place Thursday, Feb. 17.

On the horizon

Like green shoots breaking through the soil of spring, beer events are popping up all over.

So here's a quick hit of calendar items to consider:

High Point Brewing holds its first open house of the year on Saturday (2-4 p.m.) at the brewery in Butler, and the makers of the Ramstein brand say on their Web site it's the debut of the 2010 edition of their maibock. Bring your growlers. We haven't heard back on our inquiry with owner Greg Zaccardi yet, so we can't say if there will be any Icestorm eisbock available. Also, the maibock was one of the Ramstein beers that Greg has been making plans to put in bomber bottles. When we catch up with Greg, we'll repost.

One other thing to consider, unlike Ramstein open houses of the past, the brewery plans to cycle attendees through in two shifts. The events have become so popular that a little crowd management has become necessary to ensure everyone gets a taste, a tour and the chance to have a growler filled.

The Brewer's Plate is Sunday at the Penn Museum in Philadelphia. Now in it's sixth year, this is very much a worth-your-time event, with beers from select breweries within a 150-mile radius of Philly paired with food from the city's great restaurants. Tickets are still available as of this writing. The premium ticket is a little pricey, $115, but the event benefits Fair Food, a nonprofit that promotes community sustainable/fair trade farming.

Climax Brewing, Cricket Hill, Flying Fish and River Horse are New Jersey mainstays at this affair, while Brian Boak is making his second appearance with his Boaks Beer brand of Belgian brews and imperial stouts, which a lot of folks remember are brewed under contract at High Point.

But the Jersey connection runs a little deeper: Tri-state brewpub Iron Hill will be there, and those who have followed Iron Hill know it was started by three Jersey guys who struck a mash first in Delaware, then Pennsylvania, and last year enjoyed a homecoming to the Garden State. Then there's Tom Baker's Earth Bread + Brewery, the phoenix that rose in Philly's Mount Airy section from the ashes of Tom closing Heavyweight Brewing in Monmouth County four years ago. Tom's reputation as an artisan brewer is still intact.

You'll find the full list of Brewer's Plate restaurants and breweries here.

The Atlantic City beer fest is March 20-21 at the Convention Center. In the past, we've been a little down on this festival. In fairness, we'll back away from some of things we don't like about Celebration of the Suds and be positive: Atlantic City is probably one of the best locations for a beer festival in New Jersey. AC is destination, and if you want to book a room, there's plenty of hotel space, not to mention enough glitz to occupy your time before or after your festival session.

The downside (we're not going to skip that completely) is, this is a monstrously big festival, and with that there's been long lines to get in and to hit the restroom; there's also been a little bit of rowdiness (sorry to rain on parade, but it's true). There's plenty of beer, a lot of which can be found at packaged stores with good beer managers. That said, this festival is a good fit for those who are just coming to craft beer, folks who are a few steps beyond that juncture, or people who love the buzz of a big crowds in a gambling mecca.

Look for Boaks, Cricket Hill, Flying Fish and River Horse to be poured, as well as Hometown Beverage, whose light lagers are contract brewed by the Lion Brewery in Wilkes-Barr, Pa. The Tun Tavern brewpub, located across the street from the festival site, is also on the bill. The Tun will be pouring the dunkelweizen made as a tie-in At The Shore and The Press of Atlantic City.

If you're looking to hit the Tun for dinner after the festival on Saturday, make reservations. It's still a recessionary climate these days, and you might get a table without calling beforehand. But over the years, the Tun generally hasn't accommodated walk-ins for looking for dinner. Not to be a buzzkill, but if you go there for just drinks or whatever, please do everyone – yourself included – a big favor by not showing up drunk. If the Tun is too crowded (and it gets crowded post-festival), try Firewaters at the Tropicana casino. You'll find a wide variety of craft beer on draft and in the bottle there.

On March 27, Pizzeria Uno in Metuchen holds its fourth cask ale festival at the brewpub on Route 1. Brewer Mike Sella has done a great job assembling a rack of casks from breweries around the region for this pay-as-you-go event in Uno's comfy pub atmosphere. Cask ale is a real delight, and this festival, which begins at noon, has generally lasted as long as the beer flows, meaning it could run a second day.

Lastly, even though it's a long way off, the Garden State Craft Brewers Guild holds its 14th annual festival on June 26. Once again, it's aboard the USS New Jersey battleship museum, moored at the Delaware River waterfront in Camden. More on that festival later.

AC beer fest: meh

It’s Saturday and Sunday (with a VIP beer judging tonight), and we’re of two minds about this thing. We’ve been to the first three but we'll skip the fourth annual edition of the AC beer fest.

For our tastes, it’s just too big, and it if last year was a measure of the direction the festival is heading, it’s getting slovenly. A drunkfest. We’ll opt instead for lunch at the Tun Tavern and a pint or two of locally brewed, then hit Firewaters inside the Tropicana casino.

And if you’ll pardon a sort of drawn-out analogy, this festival has become like being in on the ground floor of a great band, watching 'em rise, win critical acclaim, release one or two commercially accessible albums and a few successful tunes, and BAM! ... they’re playing arenas, you can’t get tickets like you used to, and the lines to get in run longer than the Nile.

Except with the AC beer fest, the long lines at the turnstile have always been there, and there are sundry other issues the promoters have never quite bothered to solve.

We will say this, at 35 bucks for an advance ticket, AC is still an OK buy, comparatively speaking; tickets for day of event are 45 bucks, and the Saturday evening session has sold out. We should also give AC some props for drawing beers that the Philly Craft Beer Festival couldn’t this year (although there was some inside baseball going on with the Philly event, so for instance, Troeg's was missing). But honestly, a good liquor store has all of the beers at these fests anyway, making for few surprises for the taste buds.

Which leads to the next point: If you’re new to craft beer and better beer, you’re likely to have a good time in AC, despite the painfully long lines. It's not much of an event for discriminating tastes looking for something special or interesting. We’ve been to three of them, groused about the issues of the first, patted backs for good some changes in the second, but saw the third just get too sloppy. Ultimately that’s bad for good beer’s image, we say.

Then there’s this: With these big festivals coming year after year and few changes to distinguish them from one year to the next, you have to wonder if they’re starting to see their up and over on the evolutionary chart, in jeopardy of dying off in favor of something more refined, adapted to the market, times and discerning tastes.

Brewers (the ones who actually make the beer and are indispensable) are more than a year beyond being pissed off about being taken for granted and asked to give away the beer or swap it for booth space. Who could blame them? They pay too much in taxes, rent and raw materials to be enabling someone else’s vision of box office gold. And as a lot of brewers have been saying lately: The ice guy gets paid, so pay us.

Bottom line: AC beer fest, plenty of beer, a lot of it great, and some folks will like it. But for our tastes meh. We’re thinking these days, smaller, more intimate events – especially ones paired with foods chosen specifically to complement the beers – are the way to go.

Meanwhile, brewpub Pizzeria Uno (Metuchen/Woodbridge, located along Route 1) is holding its second cask ale event on Saturday, March 28.

Brewer Mike Sella is still putting the finishing touches on things, so we can’t tell you the lineup yet. However, the previous one in September featured casks from Climax, Chelsea Brewing, Captain Lawrence Brewing, Troeg’s, Weyerbacher, and, of course, your host, Uno,

There was no cover, and it was pay as you go, meaning you bought a full pint of beer. And if you can’t make it on the 28th, swing by on Sunday, because the casks will be there as long as there’s something in them to pour.

Recommendation: If you don’t already have a ticket to AC, save your money, wait a week and hit Uno’s. Why? Because it’s cask ale, a great way to enjoy beer, and you’ll get full pints. Plus, Uno has good bar food. It’s definitely the better deal. And if you think you still need to see all kinds of brands and spend some more cash, there’s a Joe Canal’s packaged goods store on Route 1 just a stone’s throw from Uno. Practically every brew on the AC lineup is in their cold box, and some great ones that aren’t.

Here a beer, there a beer

And this weekend, everywhere a beer. It’s busy in just about every direction of the compass

Westward ho!
Philly Beer Week officially starts Friday evening. Don Russell whose new book, “Philly Beer Guide” was just released, leads a sampling of 22 locally produced craft beers at The Markeplace at East Falls in, of course, Philadelphia.

But wait there’s more: Flying Fish’s head brewer, Casey Hughes, is packing a firkin of ESB for a meet-and-greet at the Good Dog Bar.

Check the Philly Beer Week site for more events. And trust us, there’s plenty more for the next nine days.

Meanwhile on this side of the Delaware, you have a couple of options to sate your beer wanderlust: maibock and lottabock, er uh, lots of beer.

North by northwest
Friends of the blog High Point Brewing (Butler) debut their maibock (draft only) on Saturday with a ceremonial Austrian oak barrel tapping at 2 p.m. We were at their Oktoberfest barrel tapping, so we can tell you for certain it’s great beer served up with good fun. Bring a growler. Also look for High Point's winter wheat beer at Dawson Street Pub in Manayunk, Pa., on Monday (March 10th) for the doublebock bonanza, a Philly Beer Week event, and at the Long Island Spring Beer Fest March 29 at Nassau Coliseum. (From left: Tina, Greg and Capt. Mike)

Goin’ South
Want some action? Head to Atlantic City, the Celebration of the Suds for 2008. AC’s two-day beerfest has grown year to year, pulling in crowds from all around (last year, we ran into a lot of people who came down from New York). Flying Fish and River Horse this year join the Tun Tavern as Jersey-based brewers pouring at the festival. Speaking of River Horse, the Lambertville brewery debuted a Belgian Double White wheat beer (7% ABV, spiced with orange, corriander and lemon) at the Philly Craft Beer Festival last weekend. From what we saw, it was the pick of those in the crowd who stopped by River Horse's station.

There’s plenty of entertainment and, of course, beer. We didn’t see Hi Point Pub (an Absecon bar/eatery tucked just off Route 30) listed as one of the vendors, but if they are there, stop by their booth and sample their crab bisque. You’ll be glad you did.

And finally, video of the Philly Craft Beer Festival is being distilled, er uh, edited and should be up by Friday. Here’s a fast-grab teaser.



Cheers …

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.