O'Flaherty's will become Just Sports Bar & Grill," Young said, noting that the new ownership "has serious ties to all the major sports team in Philadelphia."

"I've been assured that they intend to keep me and the rest of the staff and want to continue serving craft beers," he stressed.

"Some people are a bit nervous, given the new name, but I've been told many times no Irish pub anywhere pours the kind of beer line-up we do, so I see no reason why we can't continue the same approach in a sports pub. I'm in this business to support local brewers and their beers and that's what I'll continue to do."

O'Flaherty's regularly pours beers from Victory, Yards, Heavyweight, Dogfish Head, Flying Fish and Sly Fox, as well other local and national micros, selected imports and the big national brands. There are three dedicated craft taps: Victory HopDevil, Victory Golden Monkey and Paulaner Hefe Weizen, while ten other craft taps rotate.

The former conviction was underlined this week when Budejovicky Budvar announced that it had won the latest round in the global legal battle and had been awarded the right to sell its beer under its original brand names in Cambodia as a result of ruling by that nation's Supreme Court. A lower Cambodian court ruled in favor of Anheuser-Busch in 2000, ordering the cancelation of registered Budvar trademarks in the country, but an appeals court judgement favor of Budvar two years later was upheld by the Supreme Court.

The issue of maintaining quality arose when the writers, who were traveling with Colorado's Distinguished Brands International and several American distributors, questioned Budvar brewmaster Josef Tolar during a brewery tour on April 7 and asked him about draft Budvar in the United States. Using the brand name Czechvar to circumvent the Anheuser-Busch imbroglio, Budvar has been exporting its lager here since 2001, but only in bottles. Last year, when the brewery changed from its original importer to DBI, company president Jeff Coleman announced that a four-city select market trial of draft Czechvar would begin this past January, but that did not happen.

Tolar, a 40-year veteran who is only the ninth brewer in Budvar's 100-year history, said that "progress is being made" toward that end. "I hope in a short time we will be able to do it," he added, stressing that his beer is exactly the same all over the world. "All Budvar is made in this one brewery and the exported beer is the same beer as is served here in the Czech Republic. It is made with the same high quality ingredients and water from our own artesian wells. Our beer is very important to us."

Tolar has insisted that interested bars and restaurants in this country be required to pre-order Czechvar each month so that it can be shipped direct and fresh from the brewery two months later, Coleman said, and that they also commit to completing a Czechvar keg every three days, thus ensuring the freshness of all beer poured. He acknowledged that such stringent requirements could be off-putting to the majority of potential accounts, but suggested that "for those accounts who truly want to serve their customers the world's finest beer, it will be more than worth their effort."

O'Reilly will pour four bock beers, Slacker (traditional) Bock, Helles Golden Bock, Instigator Doppelbock and the To-Be-Named Maibock, as well two Eisbocks made from the Helles and Instigator styles.

"This is almost certainly the most bock styles ever offered at one time by a single brewery in this area, maybe anywhere," he said.

As usual, a traditional German band and special German menu will be part of the festivities at the pub's Pikeland Village Square location. Things will get underway at 11 AM with Weisse Wurst (a traditional German morning sausage) and Sly Fox beers served on pub's terrace.

Registration of goats will start at 12:30 and the races being at 2 PM. The Maibock is tapped by the owner of the winning goat and christened with its new name immediately after the race ends.

He cautioned the crowd, however, not to dismiss or ignore the passions of those who love "fizzy yellow beer" out of hand, admitted that he too sometimes wanted nothing more. "There are people all over who drink Bud because they like it and think it tastes good." he said, "and you have recognize that." He added that "in fact, Augie Busch told me he understood what you're all about and that he would like to buy you all a drink...oh wait, I misread my notes. He actually said he'd like to buy you all, period."

Noting that he was glad to be talking to professionals after all that time with "amateur drunks," Wells went on to offer some new concepts for craft brewers. "Looking at a bottle of Chimay, I had this inspiration. Brew a beer using Viagra and Ecstasy and call it 'She Will.' Or make it an imperial beer and call it 'She Really, Really Will.' "

Wells expressed concern about a new advertising concept he'd read about. "Somebody has come up with an invention that will play music at a urinal when you use it. Think about that. Urinal music. Even worse, what if it turns out to be music you already listen. You're a fan of urinal music." he went on to suggest how craft brewers might turn the situation to their advantage. "Point out how, if you're drinking bigger, more flavorful beers the stuff won't be running through your body as fast. I can see it now: `Dogfish Head Midas Touch--save yourself a trip.' You can have that one for free, Sam."

Finally, Wells talked of having a can of Dale's Pale Ale (from Oskar Blues Grill and Brew, Lyons, Co.) and argued that craft brewers need to think more about the possibilities of cans and other packaging. "Almost everybody starts out drinking beer from a can," he noted. "You know, put a sixpack of your beer on the shelve next to one of the big brands and somebody just might buy it."

And then, in a vision that certainly struck home with Philadelphia sports fans, he concluded, "besides, when I'm watch TV and my team loses again, I can crumple up that can and throw it at the screen."

With that, the 2005 gathering came to a close. Next year's Craft Brewers Conference will held be in Seattle.

He noted that while the region's beers are most often cited for their balance and adherence to traditional styles, local brewers often do the unusual and unexpected as well, rattling off a list of styles ranging from Berliner Weisse to "ales continually hopped for 120 minutes" that are made here. He also pointed out that "we currently have 20 beer engines in use" and added that "since there are no hop farms in the East, we haven't fallen into the presumption that hops are the be all and end all of good brewing."

Kehoe took another gentle shot at his West Coast brethren by telling the story of a confused novice brewer in California and his unique method of adding hops to his brews, then shrugged and commented, "now if they can get a guy in Colorado to do the same thing, we'll have a whole new category at GABF."

He also tweaking himself, beginning the his remarks with "you know, they say people will do anything to get into the beer business..." and then stepping back to laugh with the crowd as large video screens on either side of the podium ran a Bud Light advertisement from the mid-90s (the ones in which they visited a city and its bars and filmed "real people" expressing their love for the beer) in which a younger, beaming, redheaded Tom Kehoe was shown in close-up. Twice.

While Kehoe's video expression of love was for the Philadelphia Phillies rather than Bud Light itself, political analysts said it was still too early to determine what effect the revelation of this indiscretion might have on the current campaign of his wife, Linda Carpenter, to be elected a judge in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas.

Noting that the mainstream media had pronounced craft brewing dead in 1996--"and I didn't even feel sick," Fish said that "we are the lone shining light in the beer industry and always have been."

Fish urged his compatriots not to view large breweries and wholesalers as the enemy but as those with whom common ground could be found. "We all need to work together, we have to explain to them how the solutions to our problems cal also be the solution to theirs, that our priorities are important to their priorities."

He also offered a counter argement to the oft-heard charge that beer is a bad thing for society which he said is too often overlooked. "In a society where we've lost the ability to disagree and we have a media which fuels the fire of the differences between us, beer can be the medium of moderation. Look around you at a pub sometime and see all the various kinds of people, different jobs, different backgrounds, different incomes, and see how they are all talking together without any problems.

"There is a sense of camaraderie and civility that comes with drinking beer that exists nowhere else. We have a profound impact on public discourse with our product and we should be proud of that and tell people about it."

The heart of Fish's message was the need for craft brewers to be involved in the industry, in their communities and, especially, in political affairs. "You need to talk to your political representatives, even if you disagree with them on every other issue, and tell them what your reality is, what you need to be successful. If you don't do that and others, with oppposite opinions, do, then the representatives will act on only the information that they have."

"As I watched the figures coming in, I was very impressed," Gatza said. "A 7.06 percent growth rate is very impressive." Sales of over $$3.5 billion, an increase of more than $234 million over 2003, "is an all time high for craft brewing," he said, quickly noting that "we have been able to say that every year since 1968, which means we're on a 36-year winning streak."

All four segments of craft brewing--brewpubs, microbreweries, contract breweries and regional breweries--grew in 2004, with regionals performing most impressively at 8.5 percent. Gatza attributed this spurt to an evident consumer trend toward local products and "impressive management" in those brewing companies which have achieved regional status (Victory Brewing of Downingtown moved to that level in 2004). Warning that "trends chance so rapidly these days, things might be different by the time we leave this room," Gatza nonetheless predicted that regional breweries would continue to grow as contract breweries diminished in the overall picture. While there were more brewpubs which closed in 2004 than opened (77 to 44), he noted that 59 percent of all brewpubs were will in business and that microbreweries enjoyed a seven percent growth rate and were a stable part of the craft brewing picture.

Gatza said that one downside of all this was that the sorts of investors who were more interested in the business of beer than the beer itself might once again be attracted to craft brewing. perhaps creating a wave of ill-conceived and badly run endeavors similar to those whose failure in the latter years of the last century led the mainstream financial media to proclaim craft brewing "dead."

That surely send a shudder down the spine of those who remember the alternately hilarious and depressing Philadelphia brewery follies of the late 1990s.

Stoudt, who founded Stoudt's Brewing Company in Adamstown in 1987 after her husband Ed urged her to give up her teaching career, cited his for his encouragement, brewer Marc Worona and his staff and a host of industry professionals who helped her along the way. "I have come to learn that we all care about one another very much as well as caring about our beer," she said, "and you will be my friends for life."

The F. X. Matt Award for Industry Defense went to Brewers Association counsel Marc Sorini, who told how the award's namesake pressed him to the wall and peppering him with questions about his opinions of various industry issues prior to his being hired for the job.

Greg Noonan of Vermont Pub and Brewery in Burlington won the Russell Schehrer Award for Innovation and praised the man for it is named, who died in 1996 at 38 years old. Schehrer was a founding partner and original head brewer at Colorado's Wynkoop Brewing Co. and he was, said Noonan, "a true rebel. It's not easy being a rebel in an industry which is 7,000 years old, but Russ managed it."

"We have set standards for our purpose, for our core values and for our mission," Jordan said. "Our purpose is to promote and protect American craft beers and breweries. Toward that purpose, we have established a series of ten core beliefs, among them to vigorously defend the craft beer industry, to build a sense of real community and to speak with a unified voice.

"Our vision is the end to which all these efforts aim. We want American craft brewing to have at least five percent of the total market in five years, by 2010, and we want our beers to be recognized as the best beers in the world."

Craft brewing currently has three percent of the market. In a later speech, keynoter Gary Fish of Oregon's Deschutes Brewery, laughingly told the crowd to set their sights higher. "You should aim for at least ten percent of the market," he said, "unless you expect Oregon to drag you along with us." In Oregon, craft beers already account for ten percent of beer sales.

Beers from virtually every Philadelphia area craft brewery and those from familiar and not-so-familiar breweries from other areas of the country were poured for a festive crowd which filled the Yards Courtyard and second story tasting room, including the first release of 7 Threads Symposium Ale, a special celebratory brew concocted from a blending of Dogfish Head Indian Brown Ale, Flying Fish Porter, Independence Brewpub Oatmeal Stout, Iron Hill Pig Iron Porter, Nodding Head Grog, Stoudt's Fat Dog Stout, Victory Storm King Stout and Yards India Pale Ale. Every conference attendee received an impressively packaged bottle of this limited edition beer when registering.

The welcoming event marked the end of the semi-official portion of the gathering. On Tuesday night, many early arrivals bussed out to Adamstown for a beer dinner at Stoudt's Brewing Company, while other joined in the fun at a "Best of the West" beer dinner at Monk's Cafe in center city, which featured the beers of west coast breweries Elysian and Pizza Port Solana Beach. Yesterday, many brewers took advantage of bus tours to local breweries and brewpubs outside the city or joined in a press gathering in Monk's rear bar for the official relaunch of Rodenbach beers in the U.S.

The Craft Brewers Conference will officially open this morning at the Philadelphia Marriott with a welcoming address by Yards founder Tom Kehoe and keynote address by Gary Fish, president of Deschutes Brewing, Bend, Oregon. Kehoe promised last night that his talk will reveal "video evidence of a shocking youthful indiscretion from my sordid past." Kim Jordan, co-founder of Colorado's New Belgium Brewing and chair of the Brewers Association board of directors, will also offer opening remarks and present various BA awards, and BA's Paul Gatza will offer a "state of the industry" report. Thereafter, attendees with be offered a two-track series of seminars exploring industry issues and techniques and a concurrent BrewExpo America where various industry suppliers will display their wares.

After event festivities will include a second welcoming gathering at Nodding Head Brewery & Restaurant in center city which will feature not only Nodding Head's award-winning beers but several from other local and out-of-town breweries, as well as hospitality suites at the Marriott from several industry suppliers. Manayunk Brewing is also running a shuttle bus to its Main Street pub.

Tasting notes for the Sly Fox beer read: "Light nose with hints of spice and citrusy fruit. Creamy, malt flavors with crisp hop character and good conditioning. Finishes clean, with a nice, warming quality."

The honor comes in the wake of last week's New York Times tasting which ranking Victory Brewing's Prima Pils and Stoudt's Pilsner in first and second place respectively, and marks the city's western suburbs as the creme de la creme section of lagerland. Victory, Stoudt's and two Sly Fox locations are all within 35-40 miles of one another. Prima Pils and Stoudt's Pilsner each received four stars in the Celebrator judging.

Great American Beer Festival results also support the Philadelphia claim. New Hope's Triumph Brewing won a Gold Medal for its Keller Pils at the 2004 GABF; Stoudt's Pilsner has won three Golds, a Silver and a Bronze, and Pikeland Pils a Gold and a Bronze. Victory does not enter its beers in GABF competition.

The Celebrator Beer News article noted that "Among American craft brewers, [pilsner is] a growing style. It is by far the most popular style of beer consumed worldwide today." The other eight beers to receive a five-star rating were Lagunitas Czech Style Pils (California), Laurelwood Pils (Oregon), Pilsner Urquell (Czech Republic). Radeberger Pilsner (Germany), Heavy Seas Small Craft Warning Uber Pils (Maryland), Spring Brew Specialty Lager (Virginia), Trumer Pils (California) and Veltins Pilsener (Germany).  

Stoudt's, Victory, Lagunitas,  Pilsner Urquell, Heavy Seas Small Craft Warning Uber Pils and Veltins are all available at the Beer Yard in bottles, the Sly Fox is available on draft.

The same issue also features results from a Double IPA Blind Tasting Panel in which 31 beers were involved. Four Philadelphia area beers won three stars each in that one: Dogfish Head 90 Minute and 20 Minute IPAs, Stoudt's Double IPA and Sly Fox Odyssey Imperial IPA.

Seven Double IPAs earned the full five stars from the panel: Deuce Imperial IPA (California), Denogginizer Double IPA (California), Dreadnaught Imperial IPA (Indiana), Hercules Double IPA (Colorado), Plny the Elder (California) anmd White Knuckle Double IPA (California).

The Solana Beach Pizza Port has been brewng Swamis IPA since 1992. It is based on the Wipeout IPA brewed at the chain's Carlsbad, Ca. site.

"We've to make some adjustments because the difference in equipment and other factors," says Grubb. "The beer we will produced will not be as intensely bitter as the one Tomme does at Pizza Port, but it will have more hop flavor and aroma."

That night, Arthur and Dick Cantwell of Elysian Brewing in Seattle (the GABF Large Brewpub of the Year for the last two years) will be pouring their beers at Monk's Cafe for an event called "The Best of the West."