The Brew Lounge has been as busy as ever as the Spring turned to Summer

The last two months or so have been more busy than usual around these Brew Lounge parts. Someone remarked to me the other day that I've really "been on a roll lately". Or something to that effect. And others that have commented that I should do more to toot my own horn.

While I don't typically feel comfortable doing such a thing, I will present to you here a quick rundown of some of the more noteworthy things happening all up in this Brew Lounge.

~ I began writing for Origlio's Draught Lines magazine, found all around the greater Philadelphia region at many of their retail accounts. My first article submission was on the topic of taking a "beer-cation" and can be found on pages 9-10 through this magical little web link. The next issue is due out shortly. It's a quality magazine of beer information and suggest you keep your eyes open for it next time you're out buying beer.

~ Around the same time, I was nominated (for the fourth year, but who's counting?) for a Philly Beer Scene award for Beer Writer of the Year. Actually, I take the nomination even more seriously than winning (or not) since the process of getting nominated is through an anonymous polling of industry folk not in your category (i.e. writers can't nominate writers, brewers can't nominate brewers, etc.) Ultimately, through public voting, Suzanne Woods won, but as the old saying goes, I'm honored to be nominated and amongst such good company. Here's a link to Philly Beer Scene where the all the winners were announced.

~ Also just around the same time, I was asked to join the Philadelphia Inquirer's annual Brew-vitational judging of beers from around the region. In the spirit of full disclosure, I should mention that I was the second choice when Jack Curtin could not make himself available for the arduous task of working our way through 49 submitted beers in two categories, one very specific (Pilsners) and one much more broad ("new" beers). I was rather pleased that I had ranked both the Tröegs Sunshine Pils and Weyerbacher Riserva in the first place on my ballot in their respective categories and they both went home with the top honors. A full rundown, plus links to insightful videos about the esteemed judges can be found via this link.

~ Then there was Philly Beer Week. While it was the first PBW where I did not undertake my own event (the annual running event with Dock Street, that didn't stop me from partaking as much as my schedule would allow this year. As with every other year, I kept a running tally of everything I saw and heard and wrapped it up over where you'd expect it.

~ The Brew Lounge went a bit of course with a Simi Winery dinner in Valley Forge at Viviano in the VF Casino Resort. But knowing that quite a few of you like the grape-y stuff too, I took the winery and casino up on their offer to come out for the dinner. Now, if you know me as well as you should by now, you know that this in no way guarantees a favorable review of the evening. Since I don't have time to dabble in the negative, I simply would not write about a dinner that didn't have enough positives to mention. But, this one had plenty from the wines, to the cooking of Tony Clark, to the pairings. Here's a link to the dinner review and a link to some recipes and pairings that the winery sent along as well.

~ On the heels of the Craft Brewers Conference in Washington, DC back in March that I attended, I took in the National Homebrewers Conference (NHC) in Philly (of course, why would I not?) in late June. The month of June was quite busy for Philly what with Philly Beer Week in the early June and the NHC capping off June at the end. While I didn't do a full-blown write-up on either, it reminds me that you should really be following The Brew Lounge on both Facebook and Twitter where occasionally coverage of events (and accompanying pictures) may be limited solely to these social media behemoths. With that suggestion, here's a link to my Facebook page and a link to my Twitter feed.

~ Lastly, with that note about the NHC in Philly, there's a ton of developing content over at Basic Brewing (both radio and video) of the tour that I put together for James, Steve, and Andy who came up from their Arkansas headquarters to cover the NHC as they do every year. On the day prior to the conference, I escorted them around the region on a 130-mile, 12-hour tour of some of the best of the non-City based breweries. We hit up Iron Hill-Maple Shade, Victory, Forest & Main, Earth Bread + Brewery (ok, that's a city one), and Tired Hands. So far, Basic Brewing Radio has the interview with Chris LaPierre (Iron Hill-Maple Shade) up on its website and over the coming weeks more audio and video content will be forthcoming.

Was there more that happened over the past couple of months? Sure, probably, of course. These are the main highlights and as always, I appreciate and respect your support and reading through these voluminous pages of The Brew Lounge.

The 2013 Inquirer Brew-vitational Awards

(Welcome to the 2013 Inquirer Brew-vitational Awards. I was in the right place.)
As a judge in this year's Brew-vitational Awards, I'm a bit more inclined to write about them than I would have been in the past.

See, I'm extremely proud of the outcome, not because the results were nearly in line with my own personal scoresheet, but because of the strong showing of all the breweries and their submissions.

I was most pleased with the Pilsner category. Allow me to explain. (And stick around for the pictures at the end.)

As I mentioned in the judges interview, Pilsners have a special place in my heart dating back to the Pilsners of the early 90s from Dock Street and Stoudt's. I can drink the big over-the-top in every way (hops, alcohol, esters, coffee, fruit, etc., etc.) beers with the best of 'em and enjoy them all day and night long.

But, at the beginning and end of it all, I have the utmost respect and appreciation for the brewers that can nail a Pilsner with the perfect profile and refreshing balance of malts, noble hops, and clean finish. As most brewers will attest, it's not the easiest style to master.

Here in the Philadelphia region, which seems to generously extend from south-central to northeastern Pennsylvania and even over in to south Jersey and maybe even northern Delaware on an occasional day, we have an ever-growing reputation for brewers with an expert knack for consistently cranking out top-notch Pilsners.

Think Dock Street, Lancaster, Sly Fox, Stoudt's, Tröegs, and Victory for starters. These days, you may have heard of some solid Pilsners coming out of the newer Neshaminy Creek (I named them one of the most memorable of 2012) and Gunpowder Falls (out in York County I told you about a couple of months ago).

We had a bit of a lively discussion after we submitted our individual judge's scores where I, and a few others, took the position that "imperial" Pilsners had no place in the Pilsner category that we were judging.


(You can see a video of how some of the tasting/judging went down via this link.)

My thoughts and comments went along the lines of the following:

• On the topic of Pilsners, I've continued to think about it and remain steadfast in my belief that while the Imperials entered were above average beers, in a region where we have such high quality Pilsners being turned out, there's little reason in my mind not to exclude nontraditional versions. Just as there are Double IPA fests and competitions (with so many in the style crowding the market more than ever) to distinguish them uniquely from "regular" IPAs, I think we can look at judging Pilsners separately from Imperial Pilsners.
• After conversations I've had in different parts of the country in the days just since the competition tasting, I'm more convinced than ever of the pride we should have in our German/Czech/Bohemia brewing roots and the quality that current brewers have carried on. Folks in other parts of the country, both hardcore and average beer geeks, don't seem to be experiencing the same level of quality and appreciation in Pilsners as are we.

I'd sent these follow-up notes to Craig LaBan as we reflected upon the judging results. It was the second bullet that really sent me to further reflection. Every opportunity I had to share my judging experience from Atlanta to San Francisco to Los Angeles with supposed appreciators of better beer just could not completely wrap their heads around the idea that Pilsners could be interesting enough to judge a whole panel of them, not to mention that in the world of beer geekery, Pilsners are just not interesting enough. (Unless it's a hot summer day and you just want to chug something alcoholic and on and on with the seemingly endless canned, and stereotypical, responses.)

Well, I think I've put more than my two cents out there on the topic of Pilsners. It was a true treat and a monumental challenge, to say the least. My approach was to quickly sniff and then sample a small taste to see if I could discard any immediately strictly based on any obvious aroma or flavor flaws. There were none. Well done, my local brewers. Well done, indeed.

Lest you think I've gone off the rails from my earlier comment, I likewise could not have been more pleased with the New Beer category. Did I name a 10% beer a best-of? I sure did. It was bursting with all the wonderful flavors that I mentioned in the video. My praise, while a bit effusive, was genuine nonetheless. There were some wild sensory rides from some of the beers in the various categories and the top three were well-deserved of their finish place.

By the way, did I mention the results? You may have already read up on the final results. Here they are below, with my judged ranking in parentheses.

Pilsners
  Tröegs Sunshine Pils (1st in my finals round and 1st in my preliminary round of Pilsners)
  Victory CBC Tettnang Pils (3)
  Dogfish Head My Antonia (4)

New Beers
  Weyerbacher Riserva (1st in both my preliminary judging of "special/barrel-aged" and in the final round of New Beers)
  Tired Hands HandFarm (3)
  Free Will Rapunzel (4)

Now, for the visual evidence. Don't waste time, though, looking for photographic evidence of the elusive ringleader of this competition, Craig LaBan. He played the role well in guiding us through the competition and the approach. But, publishing photos of the longtime (hard to believe, fifteen years now) food journalist for the Philadelphia Inquirer would not have been the prudent thing to do if I wish to be considered for future similar gigs, now would it?

Big cheers to all of the winners and bring on Philly Beer Week 2013.

(First up: the Pilsner category of ten.)

(Then, speciality/barrel-aged.)

(judges seated, from left: Dan DeLuca, Natalie DeChico, Steve Wildy, Andy Rich, and William Reed standing)

(Pizza Brain provided the perfect intermission.)

(Pizza Brain up close.)

(Then the Belgian-style category, oh my.)

(Discussing the scores amongst half the judges seated, from left, Dan DeLuca, Natalie DeChico, Steve Wildy, Andy Rich.)

(This looks like a beer sampling/judging.)

(Final round in the New Beer category.)

(Coming down the home stretch. In addition to those judges already mentioned at the right table, William Reed and Tara Nurin at the left table.)

(the top 3, from left, in the Pilsners category.)

(the top 3, from left, in the New Beers category.)

Beer in Philly (Inquirer) everywhere today. Philly Beer Week and Brew-vitational edition

Have you caught the Food Section of today's Philadelphia Inquirer? The print edition is out today where you'll see all sorts of tasty stuff including the judging results of the fourth annual Brew-vitational that Craig LaBan and the Inquirer have conducted.

As you may have known, or about to learn, I was one of the eight judges and the results of our five-hour-long labor of love are detailed in the paper.

Much of the print version is available online as well as some video. I've included links below to speed your way. I'll come back later to elaborate some more on my thoughts about the Pilsner category, which I voiced some passion about during the judging. (Spoiler: I love 'em.)

The Brew-vitational winners and "Meet the Judges" video.

Brew-vitational: Tasting the Winners, the video

Brew-vitational: Gallery of pictures

Pilsners and Scoats' love of them.

Joe Sixpack's guide to Philly Beer Week.

Dan DeLuca, a fellow Brew-vitational judge, presents his music to drink beer by

The dynamic husband-and-wife duo behind PhillyTapFinder.com

And, while this isn't the Inquirer, Beer Sessions Radio featured Philly Beer Week and Chris Wilson from Weyerbacher this week. Check out the podcast here.

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