Beer, beer, beer! Philadelphia is a city overflowing with breweries and fabulous bars and restaurants passionate about serving great beer.
And why not? It’s a city where drinking a pint glass takes you back in time to the birthplace of Independence.
Our Founding Fathers gathered around beer halls and coffee shops to talk about the ideas that laid the foundation for the American Revolution.
Many of the beers in the city are directly related to the beers that Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson drank. Learning about history was never so delicious.
To celebrate Philly’s Beer Heritage, the city is kicking off Philly Beer Week 2008 to draw tourism and promote many of the great beer drinking establishments the city has to offer. Thanks to the good people at the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation, we were able to travel there and cover part of the event, now in full swing until March 16.
The first night of our tour set the bar high at Monk’s Cafe when owner Tom Peters, a passionate brewer opened up several bottles of the incredibly delicious golden yellow Cuvee de Monk’s Cafe Cantillon Geueze. Geuze is a beer that is crafted over years by blending older beers with younger ones.
Unlike most beers, whose yeast content is carefully controlled, this Lambic Ale, created in an old Belgian Brewhouse, is exposed to the air to allow for “spontaneous fermentation.” It’s almost alchemy I tells ya. These guys are turning grains into gold.
The native yeast and bacteria in the air fall slowly into the mix resulting in a beautiful yellow beverage with a profound citrus taste.
Several different brews from several years are blended together to control the flavor, much like non-vintage champagnes, whiskeys and wines.
If you’re lucky enough to live near Philadelphia, go this week to Monk’s Café and order yourself a glass of this unique and magical beverage. You won’t be disappointed. Hurry before the stock runs out.
Later in our tour we headed up to Nodding Head to sample their homemade collection of Lagers, Ales, Stouts and Porters. That’s a fancy way of saying beer.
When you walk up to the second floor of this eclectic brewery, you’ll notice a floor to ceiling glass case of bobble head dolls with every popular culture character you can imagine. Notice the head of George W Bush has been ripped off.
Join Marc Felion and me, Fausto Fernós as we talk with the handsome brewer Timothy Stumpf who works at Ironhill Brewery in Pheonxiville, just outside of Philly.
At Ironhill, variety is the spice that makes the place. For a reasonable price you can try over a dozen four ounce glasses of all their in-house brews, most of them made by the talented Tim Stumpf. Tim started brewing at the age of 21 and ten years later finds himself as one of Philly’s formidable brewers. I loved his Iron Hill Light Lager, a light beer with a refreshing taste and floral overtones. Marc loved the Irish Dry Stout whose nutty roasted taste reminds him of roasted coffee or chocolate.
Earlier in the day we talked to Beer Blogging babe Susanne Woods, The Beer Lass who blogs about her experience as marketing director for Sly Fox Brewing Company.
Their rich Black Raspberry Preserve is simply one of the best fruit infused beers I’ve ever tasted. I wish I was drinking one right now.
Susanne also organizes a beer drinking event for women only to prove that woman can appreciate beer as much as any man can. Sounds like a fun time ladies and lesbians are welcome!
Join us tomorrow for more Willy Pheer Beak fun. I mean Philly Beer Week. I guess my head is still buzzing from the great weekend we had in Philadephia. Go Philly Beer Week!
Check out our photo gallery from Philly Beer Week 2008 (more coming soon)
and Jason Smith’s pics from the Meet & Greet at Triumph!
The podcast that puts the spirit back into 1776- Feast of Fools.
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Joe Sixpack’s Philly Beer Guide by Don Russell: Get it on Amazon
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The New Autonomous Folksingers – Pitcher of Beer: MySpace | Site
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Jeff Mallon – Buzzkill: iTunes | CD Baby | Site
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5 Comments
Comments
Yay, beer. The beer was great at Triumph Brewery too!
It was great to meet you guys at the Triumph Meet & Greet. The beer was fantastic there too.
Great, fresh, funny show.
A delicious beer is always good !
Prost
I\’m so glad you guys got to come and hang out in Historic Philadelphia. This show was a joy and I can\’t wait to hear the next show and listen to the Benjamin Franklin impersonator get the special FoF treatment.
I nearly lost it when you said \”Make it work\” to TIM. I had a good laugh. And all the references to Steamworks? You must have really liked that guy. I kept waiting for him to respond with \”saca la presion\”.
Oh yeah, for anyone who comes to Philly and wants to try some of these places, here is a tip – don\’t go to Monk\’s on a Friday night! That place is so friggin popular, you\’ll be waiting 2 hours for a table. It\’s better to go on a weeknight, but if you have to go on Friday, get there EARLY! Their burgers are very good.
Beer… Mmmmm . . . Beer
Great show! Makes me want to go to Philly and drink some tasty beer!
Phili=Goodness.
Suddenly… I\’d like a beer.
Looking forward to the Ben Franklin show. I bet it\’ll be a hoot.
Yey! Love this show…listened to it on my way into work and truly left me with the feeling of wanting to visit. Told everyone at work that they MUST visit! I never thought Philly was gay friendly…
Let\’s all plan to meet up there!?
I\’ll be visiting Pittsburgh in a month or so… my first visit to Pennsylvania. I\’ll have to take a trip to Philadelphia very soon. I think this is a great way to get to know another city! Who knew that Philadelphia had such an affinity for beer? After being born and raised in Wisconsin only miles from Milwaukee, I thought I knew from beer. Apparently not!
I\’m also glad the Philadelphia listeners got to meet you guys.
Great show – Philly sounds like a good place to drink! I\’d like to take the Tim tour too
Who wouldn\’t want to take the \”Tim Tour\”……
I love Fausto\’s face in the pic above with Tim. You can see him
in the bottom corner of the picture. He looks either really buzzed or
like he\’s just hanging on to every word Tim is saying.
It was so great to meet the both of you at Triumph. Come back again real soon! …and YES, lambic is AMAZING!
A very interesting show. From a podcast I follow they have something called Enhanced Podcast which breaks the show into bookmarked segments and changes pictures at each bookmark. For the stuff you were talking about, the beer brewer tanks and the people you were talking to it would have been great to have this feature on such a show. Not saying you always have to show a bunch of pictures on every show. Just sometimes you say \’we will post it on our site if you want to see it\’. Now I could see it while listening to my podcast in case I don\’t remember to check out the site that night when I get home. But this is just a suggestion. It was cute to hear you interview while you appeared to be a tad \’spirited\’. The beer songs were fun.
We\’d love to do some enhanced podcasts but they take so much time to create and time is a very precious commodity around here. I think the technology has improved a bit since we first started podcasting but it\’s still a lot for Fausto to do and with five shows a week its next to impossible.