The Top 10, in order, according to voting conducted among the magazine's staff : Portland, San Francisco, Denver, Seattle, Philadelphia, San Diego, Washington DC/Baltimore, Boston, New York & Chicago (tie).

in a feature story based on the listings, writers from each area were asked to provide a brief argument for their city's placement on the list. This was the Philadelphia section:

Why Philadelphia? The answer is Lager. But let's get the other stuff out of the way first.

Start with diversity. More beers of more styles are brewed the Philadelphia region than anywhere else in the U.S. Most are excellent. A few are superior. And the lot of them are generally balanced, nuanced brews which represent all the detailed complexity of the brewer's art at its finest.

Consider the milieu. Our best beer venues have been as highly praised for their culinary skills as for their beer selections for years now. We get virtually every popular craft beer from other areas in the country. Philadelphia is where the American craze for Belgian beers began; it remains the largest U.S. market for Belgians.

Still, it's lager beers which set Philadelphia apart. There's Yuengling Lager, the beer that stopped Budweiser in its tracks in this market. Or Victory Brewing's flagship Prima Pils, named Top Pilsner in the World by the New York Times a few months back. On a grander scale, the annual Sly Fox Bock Festival poured four Bocks (plus two Eisbock versions), Helles Lager, Dark Lager, Pilsner and Rauchbier this May. Got anything like that where you live?

Things get more depressing in London. Young's will close the famous Ram Brewery, which has a history dating back to 1571, as part of a merger of brewing operations with Bedford-based Charles Wells. The decision to merge paves the way for Young's to sell its highly lucrative Wandsworth brewery site, believed to be worth up to £100 million. A possible sale has been under "comprehensive" review for two years, the result being that Young's will combine its brewing, beer brands and wholesale operations with the brewing assets, including the freehold site of the Eagle Brewery, beer brands and wholesale operations of Charles Wells, which ill hold 60% of a new brewing operation called Wells & Young's Brewing Co. "The decision to sell the Ram Brewery site in our 175th year was taken with some reluctance, for mainly nostalgic reasons, but as I promised when we first announced that we were launching the brewing review in 2003, my head has ruled my heart" said Young's chairman John Young. "I thoroughly support the decision to sell the sites and the merger of our brewing interests with Charles Wells, which takes Young's forward into the next stage in its history." "We would also urge Young's to be upfront about where its beers are brewed and not try to pass itself off as a London brewery," said The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) in a statement. "It is a tremendous loss for London drinkers and a great shame that there is only one substantial real ale brewer left in the nation's capital in the form of Fuller's."

Speaking of depressing, this kind of thing still happens... Opponents to alcohol sales in Thomasville, Alabama have sent a petition signed by over 125 members and attendees of Thomasville Baptist Church to various elected officials. The petition urged them to "do all within their power to defeat the legalized sale of alcoholic beverages in Thomasville." A law has passed the Alabama Legislature and signed by the governor has set the stage for the City of Thomasville to take the next step for a vote to legalize the sale of alcohol in Thomasville, which would require petition containing 25 percent of the number of voters voting in the last general election. Thomasville Mayor Sheldon Day has said that a wet/dry vote would not be held until the city passed zoning ordinances but a draft proposal of the zoning ordinance was presented to members of the council last week. Thomasville Baptist sent its petition to Thomasville's Mayor and City Council, State Rep. Thomas Jackson (a key sponsor of the legislation). State Sen. Pat Lindsey, Sheriff Jack Day and the Clarke County Commission, among others. Earlier, Pineview Baptist Church in Thomasville had sent a petition to legislators in opposition of the wet/dry referendum even getting to the point where it could be voted on. The law passed anyway. --JACK CURTIN

Some unnamed guy in, of all places, in Ogden, Utah, who claimed to have consumed an estimated 24 beers a day for eight years, never threw away any of the cans! Seriously. A realtor found more than 70,000 (we repeat, 70,000) empty cans blocking the front door when he tried to enter a townhouse. You wanna know what's even more mind boggling? He evidently drank Coors Light exclusively for the entire eight years. Yikes! The furniture was buried under cans and the water and heat had been shut off, but the guy who lived in the townhouse was described as a "perfect tenant: who always paid on time and never complained. He lost his lease, as you might image but supposedly has quit drinking and gotten his old job back, which we suppose passes for a happy ending. The cans, by the way, were recycled for $800. Gotta believe if this guy had gotten to Utah 100 years or so ago, he'd a=had himself a whole passel of wives.

Okay, from wretched excess to, well, more of the same. The latest news in A-B's seemingly incessent campaign to, you know, Do Stuff (following up on the Rolling Rock deal which we reported in our news section last week), is that the Goose Island deal is done and about to be announced. A-B gets the stake in the brewery and distribution rights to Goose Island products. Goose Island, whose sales grew an impressive 24% last year, gets to fend off angry craft beer geeks. The idea is to give A-B distributors more products to sell and similar deals with other micros are supposedly in the works for later this year. One guy who was approached last year, John McDonald of Kansas City's Boulevard Brewing, says it's a path to disaster for micros. "If you come out with a product they are trying to sell themselves, they just wouldn't sell it," he told the Tribune. "Even it they only own 35% of your company, they have total control of you." While we go along with McDonald for the most part, our theory on announcing this deal so soon after the Rolling Rock one was mostly designed to call attention away from the fact that the Rock will, as of August, no longer be brewed with water from "mountain springs" but with water from New Jersey. In Latrobe, we understand, they're calling the whole thing 33-Skidoo (that one's for you old-timers).

This comes, not surprisingly, from the Palm Beach Post and is based upon data from, even less surprisingly, the California-based Wine Institute. "The United States is in a wine boom, and Florida is at the front and center of it," says writer Charles Passy. "From value-priced 'critter' brands with amusing renderings of animals on the label to bottles of the newly released 2003 Bordeaux vintage that can cost as much as $800, there's enthusiasm for all things grape. Consider that in 2005, U.S. wine sales reached a record $26 billion, a 115 percent increase since 1995, according to the California-based Wine Institute. That translates to about 14 bottles consumed by every adult. In Florida, the second-largest wine market in the country after California, the growth is particularly strong." And then there's this, to back up the premise: "Gallup's 2005 poll showed 39 percent of respondents claimed wine as their alcoholic beverage of choice, compared with 36 percent for beer." Florida as a trend-setter for the nation? we don't think so. There's lots more, and, yes, the beverage alcohol trend is moving toward wine, but we'll just leave you with this, from Dina Blanco, a marketing manager for a North Palm Beach law firm, as she explains why she is so enamored with wine: "I can sit there swishing it for a couple of hours..beer makes me feel too full." As always, we do not make this stuff up.

The Germans? Still mad. As has been reported several times before, those beer-loving folks are furious that Budweiser will be the official beer for the World Cup, which starts next month. They see it as a slap in the face for their renowned beer culture. One German beer, Bitburger, will be allowed some sales space in the stadiums, after a court battle. And a second German brewery has managed to slip past the gaze of the lawyers and has registered “Goal” as the official name of its beer. Also, because the Czech Republic's Budweiser Budvar contests the right of A-B to use the name Budweiser in Germany, only the name “Bud” will be displayed outside stadiums. This is serious stuff: the average World Cup fan drinks half a litre of beer per game. With the profits from sales like that you could, we dunno, maybe buy Rolling Rock or something.--JACK CURTIN

In a follow-up to the story about the end of Heavyweight which appeared here Saturday, co-founder Baker told the Beer Yard in an exclusive interview yesterday why the decision was made now and talked more extensively about the future plans he and his co-founder and wife, Peggy Zwerver, have been working on.

"We've been thinking about closing for a long while," Baker acknowledged. "I felt like I'd kinda lost my way with Heavyweight. I really didn't know what it meant to me any more. I didn't like the grind of making the same beers over and over. I've always relished the brewpub scenario where you can make different beers all the time. I mean, I've been doing that to an extent anyway, with our One Time, One Place beers and other one-offs. I like to try new things and I don't like the feeling of people looking at me as if I were a traitor if I want to make a 5% beer or something completely out of the ordinary.

"The other thing is that, while Heavyweight has been profitable for the last couple of years, the only way to make it really profitable would be to divest myself of the whole one-man brewery approach, to grow bigger and add people. But the real charm and appeal of Heavyweight was that is was just me. I really have no interest in hiring people and doing all the things you need to do to grow bigger.

"It just seemed this was the time to do it, to go out on top. For the last several months, our beers have been really solid and we've got a good reputation. Now we'll try to cash in on that with something different. And if that makes me happy in the bargain, that's a good thing too."

Baker's desire to operate a small brewpub which would also be a good beer bar is something he's been discussing with friends for years, and he says he believes he and Peggy can pull it off. "We're talking to a lot of people, both locally and from other areas, and I'd like to think we can make something happen by the end of the year. We hope to stay in this area because I really like the Philadelphia market. I have a general concept in mind, but there are a lot of options and we're looking at everything."

Baker also confirmed that the final Heavyweight appearance will be at the Royal Stumble, Nodding Head's annual beer event in which the winning brewer is the first to empty his keg, on July 7, and he talked about the last three beers still to be brewed at the Ocean City plant, including one which will be a collaboration with Scott (The Dude) Morrison, brewmaster at the two McKenzie Brew House locations in suburban Philadelphia.

"Scott and I just worked this out Saturday at the Iron Hill brewfest," he explained. "We're going to make a wild rice beer with bread yeast. All three of the final beers will be made with bread yeast and the next one, which I'll also do this week, will be a sourdough rye beer with caraway. It will be a little different from the Triumph version, which is a really nice beer. They put the caraway in at the last minute, in the serving tank, but I'm going for a more subtle thing and will add caraway in the boil to let the sourness and the bread yeast dominate with hint of caraway in the back. The final beer will be what I call a smorgasbord, which will be made with whatever is left in the brewery. We won't now what that beer will be until we do it, I guess. That's the one which I'll take to the Royal Stumble."

As part of the shut-down, Heavyweight will be selling off all its beer stock and Baker detailed some of those which are, or will be, available. "We're only doing big bottles now, we extinguished the 12oz line," he said, "although we do have some of those in reserve. We have cases of Biere d'Art from the last bottling and we just bottled St'-vee, which is an interesting beer. We named after Steve Lander, who comes here all the time. He was really crazy about our Golden Idol, a beer we made with Brettanomyces. It was actually a batch of Lunacy that went awry because some of the malt bags were mislabeled. We added some Brett and named it for Steve.

"We also have several cases of bourbon-aged Old Salty 2005, our barleywine, left, and We'll bottle the rest of our Black Ocean, a Schwartzbier made with oyster shells, and Doug's Colonial Ale, a beer I made with Doug Duschell, a North Jersey homebrewer, using his recipe of 50% Brumalt and 50% Pale malt. The Brumalt really gives it an interesting flavor."

"Interesting," Tom Baker will tell you, is what brewing is all about.--JACK CURTIN

Co-founder and brewmaster Tom Baker acknowledged that "we have only three brews left and will be completely closed down sometime in July" in a brief interview with the Beer Yard at the Brandywine Craft Brewers Festival at Iron Hill's Media restaurant today.

Baker also said that he and his wife and co-founder Peggy Zwerver expect to remain active in the local beer scene and will be looking to establish a "combination good beer bar and brewpub," possibly in the Philadelphia suburbs. "The idea would be to have something like ten taps and then two to four taps dedicated to beers brewed on site, possibly one-time beers that would never be brewed again," Baker said. "I'd expect to devote about half the taps to some of our great local beers and the rest to imports and other U.S. micros. We're talking to a lot of different people to try and determine the best situation for us."

The final three Heavyweight beers will all be made with bread yeast, Baker said, and the final one will be "a smorgasbord beer into which I'll put all the ingredients still left in the brewery." He said that he plans to bring that final beer to the Royal Stumble at Nodding Head Brewery & Restaurant on July 8. "It'll be the last Heavyweight appearance, I guess," he said. "There's no way I'm gonna miss the Stumble."

The unhappy news about Heavyweight has become widely known in craft beer circles in recent weeks. Many had their doubts about the veracity of same, given that similar rumors have swirled around Heavyweight for years, some of them playfully encouraged and enhanced by the founders.

The brewery was created in Ocean Township, NJ, in 1999 by Baker and Zwerver and established itself early on as an innovative one-man/one-woman operation (with a lot of help from their friends) which produced big, unusual beers. Not surprisingly, it became a cult favorite within the craft beer community with such brews as Lunacy Golden Ale, Perkuno's Hammer Imperial Porter and Biere d'Art, one of the first biere de gardes brewed in the Mid-Atlantic region.

In recent years, Heavyweight's series of "One Time, One Place" specialty beers became something of a Holy Grail for the most dedicated beer fanciers, many of whom would flock to periodic Open House afternoons at the brewery, often bringing beers of their own to share with other attendees.

The Beer Yard has been promised a more extensive interview and more details about Baker and Zwerver's future plans at the Slow Food Pig Roast & BBQ at Yards Brewing Co, in Philadelphia tomorrow afternoon. If it happens, look for an updated story here Monday or Tuesday.--JACK CURTIN

The deal was reported today by Reuters:

Anheuser-Busch acquired Rolling Rock's global brand rights and recipes and will begin brewing Rolling Rock and Rock Green Light in August.

InBev said it was in talks to sell the Rolling Rock brewery in Latrobe, Pa., in a separate deal....

The complete story can be read here.

The original Tria is located at the corner 18th & Sansom Streets, right off Rittenhouse Square. The new location will be between the Kimmel Center and Washington Square on Locust Street. It is expected to open in early 2007.

The Tria Fermentation School will be located at 1601 Walnut Street, on the second floor. "We are building a state-of-the-art fermentation classroom for wine, cheese and beer classes-both open to the public and private classes for companies and organizations. We'll start off slowly, but eventually we plan to offer up to four public classes each week," according to a Tria newsletter.

Plans are to have the classes "taught by experts, including renowned winemakers, cheesemakers and brewers from around the world."

In another part of the British Empire, at a popular Paisley pub began raising their glasses when an 11-day beer festival got underway on May 10. Around 20 different beers and ciders from across Europe are currently pouring at the festival site, The Last Post in County Square. Among the "strangely-named beers" available are Titanic Lifeboat, Caledonian Dr Bobs Magic Potion, Inveralmond Inkie Pinkie and Cairngorm Trade Winds. Cider enthusiasts can choose from Thatchers Heritage, Kopparberg Summer Fruits and Thatchers Traditional Dry. "Foreign beers Herold Granat, from the Czech Republic, and Anker Ambrio, which hails from Belgium, are also expected to prove popular," said a news release from the promoters. Chris Doyle, manager at The Last Post, says: “The festival gives people the opportunity to enjoy a wide range of wonderful tasting beers and ciders from across the UK which are not normally available in the Paisley area. They will also be able to sample excellent foreign beers which I believe will prove especially popular.” AS if that's not enough for one English village, the 11-day event at The Last Post comes right on the heels of the successful 19th Paisley Real Ale Festival which 3,500 visitors through the doors of Paisley Town Hall last month. That one is Scotland’s biggest beer festival and offered more than 100 real ales from across the UK, as well as a selection of foreign beers from the U.S., Belgium, Germany, Holland and Lithuania.

By golly, they seem to enjoy and appreciate beer in those countries, don't they. Perhaps it's not so surprising then that a new study commissioned by the Brewers of Europe, an industry association, reports that Europe’s beer brewing sector is a major contributor to the continent's economy every year. The study puts Europe's beer industry on the par with the national economies of Austria or Poland. Europe is the most important beer producer in the world, ahead of China and the US, according to the study, conducted by Ernst & Young. However, shrinking and stagnant beer markets across much of Western Europe have forced many international brewers to re-think their strategy in the region. The study focused on the 25 member states of the enlarged European Union and also on Norway, Switzerland, Croatia, Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey. European breweries provide jobs for 164,000 employees, while 2.6 million jobs can be attributed to the brewing sector, the study found. About 3,000 small and medium sized enterprises are involved in Europe's brewing sector. It noted that, of the seven largest brewers in the world, four are European, making the continent the world leader in beer exports.

Back here in the Colonies? Same old, same old. Convenience stores in Tennessee are pushing legislation that would require anyone wanting a six-pack of beer in the state to be required to prove they are old enough to buy it, even if they look well over 21. The state House approved legislation last Thursday that would require all beer sellers but restaurants to check all IDs. The bill also would create a voluntary training regimen for sellers and all their employees called the "responsible vendors program," and that is where the legislation has drawn opposition. Businesses that participate in the program would face lower fines if found guilty of selling beer to a minor than those that don't participate. The measure also stipulates that beer permits for "responsible vendors" cannot be revoked on a first offense. The Senate had approved the bill last week but must vote again because it was amended. The bill would mandate carding for only a year beginning July 1, 2007, unless the Legislature votes to extend it. And it wouldn't apply to sales of wine or whiskey. Beer sales are traditionally regulated locally in Tennessee, while liquor sales are regulated by the state. Beer can't be sold in stores that sell wine and liquor. Chris Freeman, a manager for Pilot convenience stores, said it was difficult at first to get customers used to being carded even if they were obviously older than 21. "Now they walk up and have their IDs ready," he said. "It made it easier on the cashiers." We supposed they could just enforce the laws they already have, you know, or maybe use some common sense when a 70-year old grandmother walks up with a sixpack but, heck, easing the horrible pressures on cashiers should definitely be a priority over those sorts of silly approaches.

Rt. 52 Pilsner and Greenville Pale Ale were released in April and Tweeds Tavern Stout becomes available as of tomorrow. The first two are named in acknowledgement of the brewery location on Old Kennett Pike; the stout is named after the first tavern in the first state.

Head brewer is Mark Fesche, who came from Deschutes in Oregon. He making his beers in a 26bbl steam-fired brewhouse with water from a deep rock well which has operated on the property for over 200 years. He currnently has three fermenters and says there is ample room for expansion in the orchard behind the brewery building. "We'll eventually put a warehouse back there and install a bottling line," he said.

Co-owner Sam Hobbs, whose family has owned the sit for seven generations, told The Beer Yard that a distillery is part of the long-range planning and that a "very special beer" inspired by the visit of a member of a European royal family to Twin Lakes recently is also on the horizon.

"I love that we are to do this and turn the property into a a valuable contributor to the community again without having to sell off to developers and destroy its natural beauty," Hobbs said.

Manager Renata Rushlau says that the new draft system should be in place by late June. "In addition to gaining five taps, we'll add a new walk-in downstairs to hold all ten kegs," she said. "The cold room we have currently have allows us to keep about 30-40 cases along with our five kegs. With all the kegs in the new unit, we should able to cellar as many as 100 cases in the old area. It will be great for us in terms of efficiency and should be better all around for handling and caring for the beer."

The added taps are the centerpiece of Rushlau's efforts to raise Brigid's profile in the increasingly competitive Philadelphia market. Toward that end, she's already begun a monthly Third Monday series of samplings featuring brews and brewers from area breweries in the second floor weekend dining and special events room above the bar. The room is dubbed the Upstairs Tasting Lounge those nights; Flying Fish will be the featured brewery this Monday, May 15.

Rushlau has also expanded Brigid's bottle selection, with over 100 options currently offered.

Brigid's attraction for long-time patrons, aside from its solid beer menu, has been the cozy rear dining room (with fireplace) and its reasonable and appealing menu. Regulars also take pride in Bridid's unique downdraft tap, created by Beer Philadelphia editor Jim Anderson (since relocated to Scotland) in the late '90s. Originally consisting simply of a keg of beer propped on a folding chair upstairs to gravity pour beer to the bar below through a tube that sticks down from the ceiling, the system has been "upgraded" with a refrigerator to hold the keg and a few other improvements.

This is how the author describes bar, located at 6235 Frankford Ave. in the city's Mayfair section:

At the outer edge of the vast sea of decrepit two-story row houses that is northeast Philadelphia, there's a cemetery. Past the cemetery, there's a Burger King and a car dealership. Past them, there's the Grey Lodge. If Moe Szyslak's umpteenth suicide attempt actually succeeded and if, through some unlikely but amusing chain of events, Comic Book Guy took over his bar, this is what you'd end up with. It's a long way to go for a beer. It's worth it.

The Grey Lodge Pub is owned and operated by Mike "Scoats" Scotese, who has received national attention in the past for his creative events such as Friday the Firkinteenth and Groundhog Day/Lucky Cat Night, which have turned both dates into beer celebrations which draw attendees from across the country. This is the first time the Grey Lodge itself has been noted on a "best of" list outside the immediate area, however. Given its out-of-the-way location, the honor can only be seen as a monumental achievement for Scotese and his staff.

The Esquire article is available online.

Further details, plus a questionnaire for interested parties to use to offer suggestions for the itinerary and its activities, can be found at the Victory website.

A-B brewers created three special beers in eadh location and participants voted to select the "local hometown specialty brew that met their own individual tastes." Voting ended April 30. and both beers will will be available on draught at local bars and restaurants throughout New England and Ohio beginning June 26.

Demon's Hop Yard IPA (7% abv) is described by A-B brewers as an "incredibly hopped-up, citrusy ale:" Burnin' Helles (6.3% abv) is said to be a "rich and malty Bock-style lager."

Stone Face Ale (7.5% abv) and Leaf Peeper Pils (8.0% abv) were the other New England options; Racer Snake Red (5.5% abv) and Old Eyepopper (5.4% abv) were also offered in Ohio. The names and beer styles for all six beers were created and brewed by a small team of local employees at the Merrimack, NH, and Columbus, Ohio, breweries.

"We created the local specialty brewing groups in each hometown to craft what we thought would appeal to local residents," said Dave Wolfe, manager, Innovations, Anheuser-Busch, Inc. "The brewmasters who make up the specialty group are part of these communities and they took a lot of pride in crafting these incredible tasting and diverse brews. We're really looking forward to tapping the first kegs of Demon's Hop Yard IPA and Burnin' Helles for the people of New England and Ohio on June 26."

"You Choose It, We'll Brew It" is the latest of several forays into the craft beer world by A-B, which began with the release of the first of a series of seasonal draft specialties at the Great American Beer Festival in Denver last fall and was marked by the release of Michelob Brew Master's Private Reserve Winter Warmer 8.5% abv) and Michelob Celebrate, a 10% abv holiday lager aged in bourbon barrels, in December.

Probably unrelated, but intriguing, is news that Mitch Steele, Assistant Brewmaster at A-B's Merrimack brewery, one of the two breweries participating in the "You Choose It" promotion, has just been hired by California's Stone Brewing as tjheir Head Brewer. The story was broken this week by Don Russell at the Joe Sixpack website.

Frederick Brewing Co. was founded in 1993 and has had financial problems for most of the past decade. Flying Dog began as a brew pub in Aspen in 1991. In 1994, a joint venture was launched to create a brewery and in 1999 the owners bought out the partners.

Frederick currently produces about 25,000 barrels of Wild Goose and Blue Ridge beers annually; a Flying Dog spokesman says he anticipates production roughly doubling with the addition of Flying Dog beers (only the standard line, no specialties or one-offs), although that may take two or three years to happen.

The purchase comes as no surprise to beer industry insiders who have known about negotiations between the two breweries for several months.

The complete newspaper story is available here.

Can't we all just get along? Apparently not. The Associated Press is reporting that Miller Brewing recently hired a pilot to buzz the Anheuser-Busch headquarters in St. Louis with a banner accusing it of lying about its beer recipe. And the A-B "Here's to Beer" TV campaign, the one they developed to bring all the Big Blands together to promote beer drinking over wine and cocktails? That's a solo flight so far as no other brewers have bought in. A new website for the campaign is due to launch this week, we're told (and nobody tell us anything.

Here's the epic tale of EPIC, a pale ale from the brewery of the same name which beat out 198 other beers from 40 international and domestic breweries to be judged the Supreme Champion beer at the 2006 New Zealand International Beer Awards in Nelson last Friday. EPIC had already won a Gold Medal in the New World Pale Ale style and the Best in Class for all Pale Ales. The Gold Medal beers from all the classes were then re-judged with EPIC Pale Ale being declared Supreme Champion of the Awards. This was the first time EPIC Pale Ale had ever been entered in a beer competition. The beer is brand new and is actually just being released in New Zealand this week. “This kind of recognition from a panel of noted judges is a fantastic. We are confident that New Zealand beer drinkers will enjoy it just as much,” said head brewer Luke Nicholas. The win capped a big week for Nicholas, who was a judge at the World Beer Cup in Seattle, the first time New Zealand has been represented at that competition. Okay, let's start the countdown to see how long it takes Guyer to get this one on the Beer Yard shelves....