Tankard time

OK, so they’re not really tankards here, but Basil T’s in Toms River does a commendable job with its mug club dinner, that occasion when you can renew your membership for the year or sign up to become a member. This year's is set for 6:30 on Friday evening (find details here; look under menus on the left column; the dinner link is at the bottom).

(FYI: If you actually are looking for tankards, need the feel of pewter in your hands, The Ship Inn in Milford uses them in its club.)

If you’re a beer fan in the Toms River area, then you probably already keep a seat at Basil’s warm and a pint of Dave Hoffmann’s pub-brewed beer in front of you. (Dave, as many folks know, is also the owner of Climax Brewing in Roselle Park; being the brewer at Basil’s affords him a beer alter-ego.) But if you’re a beer trekker and the brewpub is a travel destination, then it helps to know this event is one of two with beer as the centerpiece that Basil’s pulls out the all the stops for. The other is their Oktoberfest, and both are worth putting on your calendar.

Cheers. See you there.

Draft Magazine swings and misses

Not to beat up on them, but Draft Magazine completely zoned out with this. How they followed this item and came up with New Jersey as the culprit is anyone's guess.

The NewJerseyNewsroom.com story is merely localizing a national story, and in this case, how a federal excise tax increase would hurt Garden State microbreweries, like other brewers nationwide. Sen. Bob Menendez was contacted for comment to further localize the issue and even said nothing is set in stone. Even a skim of the story would guide you to the conclusion of a national issue being localized.

Anyway this is our posted response to what Draft Magazine's Web editor wrote (FYI: We did minor style editing and fixes to our hasty writing on Draft's site):

Although we’re reluctant to defend politicians, we do have to take exception to this brief about the excise tax and reasons to avoid New Jersey.

Not to seem obnoxious correcting you, but it is the federal excise tax you are referring to. And while Sen. Bob Menendez of NJ is on the US Senate Finance Committee, Max Baucus of Montana is the chairman. And so far it is only talk of raising excise taxes. Also, as an FYI, the soft drink industry could be asked to pony up, too. This is all connected to Congress’ plans to overhaul the US healthcare system, so it’s improbable that a single state would be behind it.

The folks at the Brewers Association put out an action alert on this.

But meanwhile, there is another bill that proposes halving the federal excise taxes on beer. You’ll find information about that on the Brewers Association site, too.

Perhaps you’re confusing the federal measure with the New Jersey Legislature’s increase in the state's tax on liquor and wine. That budget measure excluded beer, and Governor Jon Corzine’s administration, although a bit ham-handedly, stressed that beer was excluded from the increase.

And again, not to seem rude, but your space is better spent calling on beer enthusiasts to write their lawmakers and register their objections to a tax hike, and not singling out a particular state for blame, which, in this case, is completely erroneous.

Again, we're not trying to beat up on Draft Magazine (although they did disparage New Jersey for no discernible reason, other than the apparent cliche of making Jersey the butt of a joke). But their interpretation of things is just so hopelessly flawed, totally mangled.

Craft Brewers Guild Festival on Saturday

The Garden State Craft Brewers Guild 13th Annual Beer Festival, as it's billed on the organization's Web site, is Saturday (1-5 p.m.) in Camden aboard the USS New Jersey. (Note to the guild: Not to be a pain, but it's time to update the festival announcements on the Web site. It proclaims 16 breweries, but there are only 14 members listed under the guild membership tab. Even when you toss in soon-to-open Iron Hill Brewery, which is expected to debut its beers in New Jersey aboard the ship on Saturday, that only makes 15. Plus, Krogh's in Sparta rarely pours at this festival.)

Also, it's a little unfortunate that the guild's site doesn't indicate a festival for the fall. But some guild members say there is the intention to repeat a fall festival, like the one in Newark last October. One of the observations that arose after that festival was attendance suffered because the planning came together late and there wasn't sufficient time to get word out.

Alas.

Hopefully on Saturday (which unfortunately is forecast to be rainy) the guild will have handouts about a fall festival, as was done last year. Still, it would beneficial to have a little buzz about it going on the Web site now, even if the planning has not totally gelled.

Anyway, here's what the 11th and 12th festivals in Camden looked like.

IF YOU GO:

• Tickets are 40 bucks and appear to still be available.
• Parking is available for 10 bucks at the garage across from Adventure Aquarium. Shuttle buses from the garage run regularly to and from the ship.
• Food concessions are on the ship. It's the usual fare, but at the past couple of festivals the vendor has been better than some you'll find at similar events.

Portrait of a Lone Hop in the Rain

Exit to ale, reprise

If you believe Toll Road News, there’s some frowning at the Woodbridge headquarters of the New Jersey Turnpike over Flying Fish and its Exit Series beers. If that’s the case, then the Turnpike Authority should lighten up.

From a chat with Gene Muller, Flying Fish’s president, it seems the fuss is a little overblown, but not without a PR dividend for the brewery. The static comes from fears over the potential for assumptions, albeit erroneous, that the Turnpike is behind the beer.

That’s funny, since Flying Fish doesn’t use the word turnpike on its labels or related Web site. And you can't get an Exit beer at the Molly Pitcher rest stop, nor an Exit 4 T-shirt anywhere but Flying Fish.

Also, the brewery isn't infringing on any trademarks. (You can’t trademark that highway-sign color of green; nor can you trademark the word exit; the shape of the Turnpike’s sign is trademarked, however.)

In the grand scheme of things, this is about the New Jersey Turnpike as iconography and pop culture. The Flying Fish series is an homage to something distinctly New Jersey. And last we checked, the Exit Series celebrates that slice of Jerseyana; it does not mock it, like so many comedians and a recent headline in Draft Magazine.

Still, in the face of all this gear grinding, the brewery’s Web site for the Exit Series now features a disclaimer now (pictured; click to enlarge).

Any authority concerns about drinking and driving were met with the reply that Flying Fish folks don’t condone drinking and driving (they never have; nor does any Jersey micro or pub brewery), and that they drive the same roads as everyone else.

(The dim view of roads and beer or wine or liquor mentioned in the same breath is a knee-jerk association to DUI, a propensity to see a dark side. The thinking person knows better, knows it's not fait accompli. It's unfortunate and makes you wonder when you consider this: Five years ago, Buena Vista Township in Atlantic County temporarily changed the name of its mint-growing section of Richland to Mojito. Why? Because Bacardi gave the town 5 grand for the promotion, and got a mojito sign along Route 40, the main highway through town. Last we checked, a mojito was made not with just mint, but rum, too. And this event went over with not a hubub, but feature stories written about it. Go figure.)

Gene did suggest the Turnpike shouldn’t be spending money on lawyers to swat at a small, taxpaying business. (A lawyer contacted the brewery to press the authority's concerns; there's no cease and desist notice that we know of.) Tolls pay the Turnpike’s bills; who needs a toll hike because the Turnpike Authority took a wrong turn down a legal dead-end?

In the long run, all of this attention proves beneficial for Flying Fish. Exit 11, the second installament of the series, is due out soon. News media from the surrounding region have been working the story. (Update: Channel 4 in New York did a somewhat dour turn on the dispute on the 6 o'clock news. Their written version has a lame headline pun.)

A day in the slow lane for the news outlets perhaps, but a grand avenue of exposure for the beer.

One final word: We’ve dealt with Joe Orlando from the Turnpike Authority, going back to our AP days. And while the Turnpike Authority's concerns are understandable, the tone and disparaging remarks in the Toll Road News story seem out of character. Even on the worst of days, i.e. bad news coming out of the Turnpike, Joe was always helpful and candid, never coarse. Hence, some doubts about Toll Road News.

Catching up

This is something we intended to do a month ago, but we never could find the results of the contest. Until now.

Here's the top winner of the American Homebrewers Association Big Brew 2009 YouTube contest (we won it last year.) Great job, cool animated intro.

Cheers and congrats to all the winners.

Sobering the numbers

If you read this, then you should also read this, and this. The latter should sober up the fear reflex by supplying some perspective.

That research about campus binge drinking, done by an agency that exists to hand-wring about binge drinking, would come back with numbers showing an even greater binge drinking crisis should surprise no one.

If the numbers went down, would the research get a headline? Maybe. But, realistically, in an era in which a little fear goes a long way, lower numbers would probably just sail under the radar. (A little conditioning goes just as far, and we've all been conditioned to accept the viewpoint that crises only get worse, never better, let alone question whether they were ever a crisis to begin with.)

Let's hope those massive (yet encouraging) street protests in Iran over their election continue, so there's truly some significant news to report. Otherwise, this puffed-up piffle will claim unjustified airtime on the 24-hour news channels. It's probably already going to be the next health segment on the local broadcast news stations tonight, given their propensity to pick low-hanging fruit.

Alas.

More hops

It's been a rainy late spring, but the Centennials have held up fine, with cones coming in all over the place. These images are of some of the smaller bines.

Yesterday's gone

OK, time to cop to something.

Yes, calling Guinness a "yesteryear" beer was a dig at the beer. Sort of.

This comes up by way of email from a former co-worker (from our days at the sweatshop AP news bureau in Trenton) who asked if the Campaign for New Jersey Beer post of Thursday took a swipe at Guinness.

Again, yes. Sort of.

Guinness still tastes good (try the 250th anniversary edition; it's rich and tasty). And in those bars that Rick Reed and other Jersey brewers legitimately complain about, Guinness is a good buy when all the other options are Coors Light, Bud, Michelob Ultra (as in ultra bland) ... The list goes on.

Samuel Adams falls into the same cateogry, a good pint when the rest of the taps aren't worth wasting the calories on. (Jim Koch and Boston Beer, however, deserve a pass. The Samuel Adams brand clearcut the forest to make the road toward better beers, if not proving that you can become the next era of brewing in markets homogenized by Bud, Coors and Miller.)

So why, then, is Guinness yesteryear?

It's a generational thing. Guinness had cult-like status in the late 1980s, early 1990s in several parts of New Jersey. At that time, few bars went to the trouble to deal with that nitrogen-dispensed draft system that allowed Guinness its dense, creamy head and smooth texture. Why bother if you could count your Guinness customers on one hand?

One of the bars in our area, during our Asbury Park Press days, that did go to the trouble was the Drafting Table in Bradley Beach, where you could find Guinness on tap almost 20 years ago. And if memory serves, the Drafting Table occasionally had John Courage Amber on draft, too, a rather inviting British beer at the time.

It doesn't seem like much to sing the praises of either now, given that you can easily get your hands on a fat, heavy bottle of Kasteel Donker, if you're willing to part with 9 bucks. But in 1990, it was a big deal to shift from Heineken to darker beers without having to pass through the doors of a knowledgeable packaged goods store. And it's worth pointing out, too, that at this time, Samuel Adams wasn't a sure thing to find on tap. Or in even bottles behind the bar.

So, indeed, you were hip back then if you even liked Guinness; hipper still if you knew the flavor difference between Guinness on draft and Guinness Extra Stout in the bottle (draft was smoother, thanks to the nitrogen; bottled Extra was a different animal – the fizzy carbonation made the roasted and black patent malts more prickly, almost harsh on the palate). You were a trendsetter if you knew of bars that went the extra mile to carry Guinness on draft.

And Guinness was cool. The John Gilroy advertising illustrations from the 1930s, featuring the menagerie of zoo animals, now played to a new generation in the 1990s on glassware and T-shirts. A former Asbury Park Press co-worker even visited the Guinness brewery in Dublin, returning with gifts for fellow Guinness drinkers, while yet another former co-worker regaled us with tales of pubcrawling in Ireland.

What changed things?

The microbrewing industry finally caught up to New Jersey in the mid-90s. That and Jim Koch challenged you to step up to flavor. And there was portable draft Guinness, the four-pack of cans (those bottles of Guinness draft didn't hit the area market until about 2000-01). Guinness finally found a wider fan base. More taphandles too. Exponentially more compared to 1990. Guinness in the bar and grill these days is as common as salt shakers on the tables, and noticeably absent if it's not on tap. Or at least in cans behind the bar.

Some of that hipness has been lost to time and the increased ranks (see what we mean by generational). And these days, there are plenty of reasons to explore other beers, like that oatmeal cookie stout Triumph occasionally brews – and pours under nitrogen. It's an exceptionally well-done beer.

So is Guinness yesteryear? Respectfully, yes, when the landscape is dotted with so many beer choices, whether from breweries native to the home state (this is a Jersey-centric blog) or the surrounding environs.

But nonetheless, Guinness is still in our fridge. Probably always will be.

Campaign for New Jersey Beer*

Been there, been living it: Think Jersey, drink Jersey.

But this like-minded initiative is all about putting a bug in someone’s ear, namely bar owners.

For six weeks now, Rick Reed has used his Friday night sermons from the mash tun at Cricket Hill Brewery to imbue the tour crowds to be foot soldiers in a rebellion to get New Jersey beers on tap at Jersey bars that find it fashionable to crowd their tap space with crappy Coors Light, yesteryear's Guinness, and that god-awful Bass wannabe, Smithwick's.

Those crowds in Fairfield are running about 130- to 150-people strong each week, and Rick’s arming his legions with cards that bear the name of the cause – Campaign for New Jersey Beer – and are to be left with bars and restaurants' wait staff, bartenders or managers. The accompanying text on the cards explains that Garden State brewers make topnotch beers, and bars in New Jersey should have at least one of those beers on tap. It’s a matter of taking pride in something that's made in the state.

On another level, the cards are the equivalent of a polite boycott, since the person leaving the one intends to not patronize the establishment until a Jersey beer gets tap space.

Of course, Rick’s preference is to see Cricket Hill tap handles grow from this action, and he says his draft accounts have jumped by a half dozen since the campaign started. Whether that’s directly related to his foot soldiers and the 1,000 cards that have been passed out so far is anyone’s guess, he says.

But the six new accounts are welcome business, and the awareness served by the cards is undeniably important: Drink Jersey-made beers. They’re local, they’re fresh, and they can hold their own against anything on the store shelves that pours in from New York, Pennsylvania, Michigan, California, Massachusetts, Delaware or Europe.

Meanwhile, this thought came to mind after reading about Carrotmobs in a recent issue of Time magazine. In effect, the movement is a reverse boycott: rewarding businesses with patronage in exchange, in the case of Carrotmobs' requests, for going green.

It would seem like there’s potential for applying that technique to Jersey bars, prevailing en masse upon those places to put the locally made beers on tap and rewarding those bars with regular patronage. Granted, it’s easier, and perhaps more noble, to get businesses to change their light bulbs to CFLs, but we think the idea has potential for Jersey beer somehow.

Who knows, Jersey Maltmobs may be the next story in Time.


* FYI: The graphic above is of our making for the purpose of this post.

Roll out the barrel

If you like Ramstein Maibock (we do), then this is something you don't want to miss: Ramstein Maibock, barrel-aged and dry-hopped with fresh Hallertauer hops.

The dry-hopping may break from tradition with a German style beer, but American brewers have been making their mark by rewriting the rules (double IPA, anyone?) and coloring outside the lines. This is one in which High Point Brewing steps in with its expertise and sets the pace.

The tricked-out, limited version of the bock tops the bill for High Point's June open house this Saturday (2-4 p.m.), backed up with the Ramstein flight of Blonde, Dunkel Weiss and Blazing Amber.

And if you're a Ramones, Blondie or Lou Reed fan, the added bonus for Saturday is you can glimpse photos of those performers from their heady days, courtesy of Lower Third Enterprise. The images will be on exhibit and for sale.

You don't need the Reverend Horton Heat to tell you that rock 'n' roll and beer go together like Les and Paul.

Meanwhile, we trekked up to Berkeley Heights in Union County on Wednesday for a chat with Trap Rock brewer Charlie Schroeder (more on that very soon) and to visit a brewpub that's worth the two-hour drive from our southern Ocean County shores. (There's a classy polish to Trap Rock that you quickly come to appreciate once past the entrance. And even with a seven-barrel system, Charlie keeps nine house beers flowing, plus a version of one of those on a handpump.)

Pictured is the lovely and gracious Melissa Hudasko, slightly reprising her New York Times pose from last year.

An egregious miscarriagement of taxitude*

Higher state taxes on spirits and wine? Passed on by restaurants to the consumer? Faint ...

There's been a bit of backlash by consumers with QWERTY access, teeing off on restaurants, posting complaints about the threat to pass on a 25 percent increase in those taxes.

It's pretty much misplaced blame to do that. Here's why:

Restaurants don't stay in business by losing money; nor can they eat every rise in their overhead. Last year, anything made with flour cost more because of stupid government policy skewed toward corn as the raw material for ethanol (more corn planted, less of wheat and barley); delivery charges went up when crude oil prices (futures prices, that is) hit the moon; and the list goes on.

The places you dine at were doing what they could last year to manage those headaches. And their migraine has lingered into this year with a downturn in business that they're struggling to make up. (Consider this: You should support your favorite restaurants if you can. The patrons they stand to lose aren't just someone else; they are you, too, if you're staying away in protest.)

So when New Jersey, meaning the Corzine administration, popped the cork on this tax increase and poured everyone a round of pay-more, well anyone who had just finished a snifter of Courvoisier on March 10th could have envisioned restaurants being stuck with few options.

And if you're a beer drinker, don't think you're getting an automatic pass at the tap just because beer was left off Corzine's tax menu. To keep from scaring away patrons, restaurants and bar owners could spread the pain across the pricing board – pints of beer, entrees, appetizers – and not just jack up the tab for a shot of Applejack. (It makes for good, kneejerk rabble rousing for industry groups to insinuate that prices by the drink will rise in proportion to the tax increase.)

But the point remains: Don't blame the restaurant owners for trying to stay in business. Blame the Legislature and a succession of governors on both sides of the political aisle for missteps and miscues, and a legacy of avoiding doing what's right.



* From The Simpsons, 9th season, episode 20, The Trouble With Trillions

Rapid response ...

As in yours is needed. This missive from the Brewers Association tumbled into the email queue today.

Like we have said, the battle has been joined, and the Brewers Association is conscripting craft beer drinkers to act like a militia and speak out, state by state, against higher excise taxes by writing their lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

New Jersey's own Bob Menendez is on the Senate Finance Committee. One more time, here's his email. And the blue graphic shows addresses for his New Jersey and DC offices.

The best approach is a two-pronged one, meaning don't just email, but send the same comments via conventional mail as well. Also, when you write, cite. Pull information from the Brewers Association's arguments and point out that higher federal taxes will hurt New Jersey craft brewers, who are a source of jobs and state and local taxes, regardless of how many jobs or however much those taxes paid at home are.

It's also worth pointing out – as we have before – that beer, wine and liquor* have been paying Uncle Sam's bills for several decades. It would be unfair and too easy for Congress to tap that source again. But the unfortunate stigma that beer, wine and liquor have attached to them make them the easy – even vulnerable – target. DUI, underage drinking and alcoholism are not solved through higher taxes (nor should any thinking person accept those as reasons to fund healthcare reforms so long as cigarettes are a commercially available product in this country).

If you're over 45, you probably remember when soft drinks came, not in Big Gulps and 20-ounce containers, but in 12-ounce bottles (or even 6 and 10 ounces from vending machines!) and that fast food was a sometimes food, served in modest portions, and not an everyday food. And it should mean something to healthcare reformers, Capitol Hill and the Obama administration that five years ago McDonald's, to its credit, dumped its Super Size menu, thanks, in no small part, to blow-back from those outsized portions making outsized Americans. Oversized sodas and fatty, prepared or prepackaged foods own a piece of the erosion of the nation's overall health and their industries should be asked thusly to share a tax burden.



*Awhile back, Pennsylvania beer writer Lew Bryson put forth the idea that calling beer, wine and liquor alcoholic beverages is an unfortunate choice of words, unfairly tying them to negative connotations of alcoholics and alcoholism. (Lew didn't pontificate; he just pointed out his preference to not phrase references to the beverages in that way.) We share his point of view: Hence, beer, wine and liquor.

Rapid deployment

Last year, it wasn't until the second week of July that cones took shape on our Centennial bines.

This season, it's been surprisingly fast: the first week of June. These are early ones, but cones all the same.

Ad nausea (or ad nauseum, take your pick)

Stupid things the mega brewers say via Madison Avenue (for some reason this annoys us now more than ever):

• Triple-hopped Miller Lite ...
It’s funny when the megas try to woo the mainstream with explanations of the brewing process and build an ad campaign around something as basic as ending a sentence with a period. As we know, a lot of beers – too many to count – get hops thrice: for bittering, flavor and aroma, and that doesn’t include dry-hopping. Watching their spot, you’d think Miller Lite pioneered this as a brewing technique. That is, if your mind is no more discriminating than a palate suited for Miller Lite. Beer enthusiasts on the Web have slaughtered this campaign, mocking it far and wide. And for good reason: For having three hop schedules, you’d never know bland Miller Lite has any hops at all.

• Bud Light, drinkability …
Philly's Don “Joe Sixpack” Russell had this interesting piece on "drinkability." But here's our take on it: Before Bud Light appropriated the word for use in commercials that look like they were cast with extras from Office Space, "drinkability" was tossed around by people who chose any other beer except a flavorless one like Bud Light. Now, thanks to BL’s ongoing campaign, "drinkability" is irretrievably tied to a cheap, nondescript beer from the AB-InBev portfolio. Hey Bud, here are some words you should consider: blather, twaddle and folderol.

• Coors Light ... When the mountains turn blue, it’s cold.
And if you follow the velvet rope inside the bank, you’ll reach the teller window. The mountains may turn blue and the beer may be cold, but it’s still flavorless Coors Light. Some score that is. Say, wasn’t Coors the brewer that misspelled arctic on its labels, cartons and merchandise tie-ins in the mid-1990s, as in Coors Artic Ice? Blue mountains, artic ice … Coors is still brewing up stupid.

On the radar

Here's to your health(care), Part 2

An update on the possibility of beer taxes going up to pay for an overhaul of the US healthcare system.

We've said it before: beer, wine and liquor – partly to assuage the temperance leagues and become legal again those 76 years ago – were turned into vehicles for taxes, and have been paying the freight for three generations hence. The sin taxes.

Granted the spotlight is on the beverage industry right now, but why is it outside the realm of reason to ask Burger King, in addition to Coke and Pepsi, or the owners of Ben & Jerry to pony up something for their contribution toward unhealthy living, however large or small?

Obesity can be, and is, as insidiously debilitating as alcoholism. Overeating just isn't defined as a social ill like drinking to excess is. And if you want to argue that it's presumptuous to think that high-fat foods or beverages with a lot of sugar will be overconsumed, then it's equally presumptuous to assume that beer, wine and liquor will be abused; that everyone who has a drink will drive with a load on; and that everyone under 21 will scheme to get his hands on a pint of Jack Daniel's or a sixpack of beer. (Funny how that's MADD's position.)

For the record, we're not in favor of higher taxes. We're just saying that what's good for the Grey Goose is good for Burger King, so long as BK thinks cheap, fatty, starchy food is good business and what America needs more of.

Anyway, looks like the battle has been joined. Add your voice: Here's the contact info for Sens. Frank Lautenberg and Bob Menendez. (Just remember that Lautenberg was the one who authored the federal .08% threshold for DUI – no, we don't endorse driving with a snootful – and the federal drinking age of 21, both of which were nothing more than Uncle Sam usurping states' authority by threatening to withhold highway funding if the states didn't sign on.)

Beer from the takeout menu

Jersey's brewpubs are neighborhood bars for the folks lucky enough to live that close (imagine being so spoiled as to live within walking distance to one).

For others, especially the traveling beer geeks among us, the brewpubs are a destination, a planned trip, with maybe some local things to do: The Tun Tavern puts you within a couple of blocks of Atlantic City's casinos; the Ship Inn, near the Delaware River in Milford, is a nice weekend afternoon excursion, as is Krogh's in Sparta and Long Valley, which is located in that portion of Washington Township in Morris County that lends a name to the brewpub.

Elsewhere, JJ Bitting is an oasis in the middle of the state, not even a half block from the NJ Transit train platform in Woodbridge, while Triumph feels like a natural fit in Princeton, like some form of it was there when tricorn hats were in fashion in New Jersey.

So yeah, the brewpub experience in Jersey can translate into some distance traversed. Which ususally means justifying the trip by taking home a growler or two of beer. Which means, in this not so happy economy, you might want to know what that jug is going to set you back before you set out on the beer trail.

What follows is handy chart of current growler prices, cobbled together by calling around to the pubs this week. (Double-click the chart to open it larger in another page.)

Cheers.

Centennials 2009

Shots of this year's Centennial hops, their second year in the ground. Back in early spring, they really started rocketing skyward. Burs and sidearm shoots came the last full week of May. Cones will probably start taking shape by mid-June.

How to get a mention without trying

One of the things about the Internet Age is that if you're creating content, sooner or later, someone is going to appropriate it for something. Especially if YouTube is involved.

Sometimes it's stealing, copyright infringement; sometimes it truly is fair use. And sometimes it's just a pleasant surprise.

Browsing around the 'Net this evening, we came across this fair use: the video we produced (and uploaded to YouTube) of the 2008 Philly Beer Week finale, the Real Ale Festival that was held at Triumph Brewing in Old City.

It's a nice surprise because it's on wikihow.com, the World Wide Web's how-to handbook that went online under that banner three years ago. Of course, since it's in the wiki world, it's a collection of user-created entries from a community of folks who, by and large, like to share what they know, à la wikipedia, of course.

Still, it's rewarding, albeit on some small scale, that our video helps illustrate a "how-to" for real ale.