Hear Ye, Hear Ye! Let it be known that it is time for all good beer-geeks to come to the party! Where? Here:  Philly Beer Week is March 7-16 (Wow, that’s a long week!)

Admittedly Philadelphia is a city that’s fairly close to my heart, having grown-up a mere 55 miles to the East on the Jersey Shore. Philly is “the big city” of my youth. It was where we traveled as teenagers to see all the great concerts or ball games. Most of our TV news and local programming came to us by way of cable from Philadelphia. Philly is a city that you either love or hate (or sometimes both). The summers are miserably hot and humid, and the Delaware Valley winter can be brutal; just ask George Washington.

This nation owes Philly its “props”. It was used as a bargaining chip during “The Great Compromise,” eventually having to give up its status as the nation’s capital to a mosquito-infested meadow on the Potomac. This city has given a lot, and should never be forgotten as the birthplace of this great nation.

Can you imagine the buzz in the air at every city tavern during those revolutionary days? What was being discussed among the patrons while the Continental Congress were laying it all on the line just up the street at the building we now call Independence Hall? What would it have been like to belly-up to the bar for a mug of porter with the likes of a lanky, red-headed Virginian named Thomas Jefferson?

It was Philly and its people that lived with the highest risk of brutal British occupation during the years of the revolutionary war. Its mean streets served as a base camp to German mercenaries who worked for the King, while also being the birthplace of the very revolution they were being paid to stifle. Imagine the winter snow blanketing cobblestone streets while the Continental army was freezing to death on the outskirts of town. I can almost hear ‘the Father of our Country’ quietly weeping in his tent, just out of earshot of his troops.

Philadelphia prospered as an industrial center during the 19^th century and even through the early 1900’s, but it never seemed to regain its composure after the Great Depression and fell into despair and disarray. It remained this way only until recently. Philly is going through a re-birth, and the craft beer culture is thriving. The greater Philadelphia area is home to a large number of craft breweries and many of the country’s best-rated beer bars. There are over 400 bars in the area where you can grab a pint of real beer. It also serves as home base for two of beer world’s leading writers, Lew Bryson and Don Russell, who always find a way of reminding us that beer and revolution just seem to go together. Philly is a beer town. In fact, it’s probably the country’s greatest beer town, and besides the misery dealt out at its awful airport, it’s not such a bad place to visit.

Philly Beer Week is a series of beery events that rank second to none. No drunk-fests or wet T-shirt contests here. I am talking about events that raise the profile and appreciation of real beer. Just take a look at the agenda and you will find events spread out to venues all over town. There are beer dinners, tastings, lectures, seminars, you name it. There’s so much going on that they made beer week 10 days long! We hold these truths to be self evident that all beers are not created equal. Become a beer revolutionary! This is your chance to put it all on the line, so throw away that can of Bud and make your way to Philly Beer Week, if you can!

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 14th, 2008 at 2:38 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.