falco

What a crazy couple of months it has been. I don’t know how you felt about it, but Philly Beer Week was pretty intense and really wiped me out. But, with Philly Beer Week over, it’s time to get back to normal beer life. Well, it’s probably also time to start planning for PBW ‘11, but I’ll hold off on that for a few more weeks. We are however, getting to work on our next two big adventures: our first trip to the Great American Beer Festival and Brews For Boobies 3, taking place on October 2nd. Last year’s breast cancer awareness pub crawl brought out over 200 people who split into two unique crawls through Old City and Center City. This year, we’re expecting to double in size and are adding two additional crawls to choose from: Northern Liberties/Fishtown and South Philly. Hopefully, we’ll see you out supporting this year!

In honor of summer nearing its end and colleges opening their doors back up to students, this issue we’re bringing you a happy hour guide to the city. We all know it’s tough to afford good beer and be in college at the same time. Heck, sometimes it’s tough to afford good beer years after college. Hopefully, our guide will help you find ways to keep drinking your favorite beers without having to put too much of a hurting on your wallet.

Speaking about happy hours, a great new place to check out is Mac’s Tavern in Old City. We had the privilege of talking with part owners, Rob McElhenney and Kaitlin Olson, otherwise known as Mac and Sweet Dee from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia for this issue’s “Meet the Scene.” And, for those of you who wondered how those delicious Belgian beers got to America, we are honored to have the incomparable Tom Peters bring us his story on how he went from bartender to bar owner and became one of the key players in bringing Belgium to the states. His story is definitely worth hearing as he is one of the people who truly helped make Philadelphia the beer city it is!

Finally, one minor correction from our last issue has to be mentioned. We associated The International Great Beer Expo with our friend Chris DePeppe, which was inaccurate. Chris continues to bring us the annual Philly Craft Beer Festival at the Naval Yard and his ongoing Suds For Buds events at the General Lafayette Inn, supporting the PSPCA. Hope you enjoy the issue, and I truly apologize for you having to see Steve Hawk’s face so many times in this issue. Cheers!
Mat Falco