Rich Pawlak

Susan, you do forlorn very well, then. I cant imagine what you look like when you're happy! It was great to have you up here for FTF, despite the bad situation at home. But your hubby wasnt washed out to sea, and your house is intact, so the beer gods were looking out for you, too.

It was a more comfortable FTF this time around, owing to the fact that many of the beer revelers chose to hang out on the sidewalk outside the Grey Lodge instead of sardine-like around the bar. Made for a much more pleasant experience, and the beers were, as always, top notch. Big highlights for me were the General Lafayette Sunset Red, absolutely hopalicious, as well as the Flying Fish Coffee Porter, a jolt of espresso goodness, and the Nodding Head 700 Level, creamy yet refreshing, a really quaffable brew. The only weird beer to me was the year-old Iron Hill Oude Bruin, a brown ale aged in a whiskey barrel; some friends really dug it, but I thought it tasted sour, and not in a good way. We did also have some fun with Gary Bredbenner's concoction of a custom-made Black & Tan, his mix of FF Coffee Porter and Yards ESA, dubbed (by Mike Gates, I think) a YardFish Cappucino. That actually may have been my favorite beer of the night. Pics: The burgeoning crowd at the start of Friday the Firkinteenth (from l. to r.) Chris "cdh" Holst, Susan "Susan in FL" Burgess, friend of cdh (I forget his name!), Mike Gates Lew Bryson rudely blowing his nose all over Iron Hill brewer Larry Horowitz, and afterwards attempting an apology Beer writer Jack Curtin (foreground), with Nodding Head brewpub co-owner Curt Decker behind him, chatting up a fan Gary Bredbenner and Sue Burgess surveying the quickly kicked firkins, posted for convenient updating around the bar The slowly growing crowd enjoying a warm summer night on the sidewalk outside the Grey Lodge Bryson and friend, Les Moore, attempting convesation with a female beer aficionado Flying Fish brewer Jim Brennan More sidewalk scene with Chris Holst John (l.) and Dan (r.) from the Dan & John beer website (or is it Dan and John, I can never get those two guys right....)

Man, what a powerful lineup. Best damn beer event in Philly, year after year.

Cheap, gets you drunk quickly and makes you want to beat up Cowboy fans?? Well, ya gotta hope. John, will you be making your annual appearance at FTF??

Just an update on next weekend's festivities: we're over 30 folks already, with just a week to go to RSVP; I think we will exceed last year's Rib Run attendance! Yee-hah!

Kim, you can rent a van from Enterprise for example, for about $100 a day, and with some friendly pursuasion, rent the van on Saturday and not pay for Sunday (when Enterprise is closed), returning it on Monday. I have done that for the last two years for my Golden Age of Beer tours in the spring. Each van holds 14 and a driver.

Another brewery has been added to the FTF lineup. Just 3 days away! Brewers Art Saison , Baltimore, MD General Lafayette Sunset Red Ale, Lafayette Hill, PA Heavyweight Black Ocean, Ocean Twp., NJ Lancaster Saison, Lancaster, PA Sly Fox Pete's Peerless Ale, Phoenixville, PA Troegs Hopback Amber, Harrisburg, PA Victory Hop Devil , Downingtown, PA Weyerbacher Autumnfest , Easton, PA Nodding Head 700 Level, Philadelphia, PA as well as soon-to-be-announced beers from: Yards Dogfish Head Iron Hill Legacy Flying Fish!

Where have they gone, the cookies celebrated in "When Harry Met Sally"? In Billy Crystal's words, "the greatest cookie ever made", is seemingly, sporadically available on supermarket shelves, here one day, gone the next. Frustrating, to say the least, for one of my housemates. I don't get her fascination, but I'm not a cookie guy. Does anyone know if Nabisco is still committed to making them? What ever happened to Nabisco's Mallomars?

An updated Friday The Firkinteenth Beer List! Brewers Art Saison , Baltimore, MD General Lafayette Sunset Red Ale, Lafayette Hill, PA Heavyweight Black Ocean, Ocean Twp., NJ Lancaster Saison, Lancaster, PA Sly Fox Pete's Peerless Ale, Phoenixville, PA Troegs Hopback Amber, Harrisburg, PA Victory Hop Devil , Downingtown, PA Weyerbacher Autumnfest , Easton, PA Nodding Head 700 Level, Philadelphia, PA as well as soon-to-be-announced beers from: Yards Dogfish Head Iron Hill Legacy

Thats what happens when you make enemies of Jack Valenti and those damn movie people. That last one was my favorite. But enough about me. I need to keep a lower profile.

THEY SAID IT COULDN’T BE DONE.... (No one knows WHY they said that, but humor me….) THEY SAID IT WAS TOO DAMN MUCH FOOD.... (Well, some people said that, but they were girlie men) BUT IT’S TOO LATE NOW, CHESTER! (Chester? Who’s Chester?) BECAUSE IT’S TIME FOR: RIB RUN II: SMELL THE SMOKE ON STATE ROAD with THE DANGEROUS DINING CLUB AUGUST 21, 2004 ● 1:00 - 4:00 PM Northeast Philadelphia 1:00 PM - Sweet Lucy’s Smokehouse State Rd., ¼ mile North of Cottman Ave. (Take Cottman Ave. exit of I-95 North or South, then turn right on State Rd.) 2:30 PM – Smoke’n Dudes Smoke House BBQ 417 State Rd., Croydon, PA RIBS - WINGS - SALMON - PULLED PORK - BRISKET MACARONI SALAD - BAKED BEANS - HUSH PUPPIES - MORE $22.00 PER PERSON - BYOB RSVP BY AUGUST 17 To Rich Pawlak – esterrick@aol.com As is our custom, a voluntary donation will be collected for PHILABUNDANCE at the end of the event.

There is also a distillery at Edgefield, with its own unique tavern; they distill not only whiskies but eau de vie and gin and rum: the Distillery Bar, which also acts as a clubhouse for the golf course. The pipework is purely ornamental. the huge pot belly stove at the Distillery Bar Lighting a ceegar at the always available flame there. Clever.

They even celebrate the late Grateful Dead guitarist's birthday every year, and have memorialized his image in bronze: Staffers there told me that on Garcia's birthday, people fill the bronze statue with candles and hemp beads and such and do a drum circle there. Wild.

More from OBF 2004, wandering around Edgefield resort: The entrance to the Little Red Shed, maybe the smallest pub I've ever entered. Just a few tables and chairs here, in what used to be the incinerator for the property. The Little Red Shed is in there somewhere..... The bar and bartender at the Little Red Shed Then you wander a bit further and find "Jerry's Ice House" Ive never seen so much Grateful Dead memoribilia in one place It's pretty dense.

On my way to the airport, I stopped in Troutdale, OR to visiting McMenamins Edgefield, a 100-room resort fashioned from the buildings and grounds that once held a "poor farm" a mental hospital, and other facilities on its 38 acre spread. Now it is a full fledged resort, with a brewery, distillery, winery, 2 restaurants, 5 pubs, a movie theatre and 18 hold golf course, among other diversions. At the mouth of the Columbia River Gorge, and in view of Mt Hood, it is a funky resort with an old hippie vibe. The brewery at Edgefield, the largest in the McMenamins empire (and they call their group of brewpubs and hotels "The Empire" on posters and calendars!)

Oh please. A shill with an axe to grind. Check his "joined" date.

Uh, Cool, that was awarded in 2003.

I can do one better. I just got the official list from Scoats (Mike Scotese) hisownself: Brewers Art Saison , Baltimore, MD General Lafayette Sunset Red Ale, Lafayette Hill, PA Heavyweight Black Ocean, Ocean Twp., NJ Lancaster Saison, Lancaster, PA Sly Fox Pete's Peerless Ale, Phoenixville, PA Troegs Hopback Amber, Harrisburg, PA Victory Hop Devil , Downingtown, PA Weyerbacher Autumnfest , Easton, PA as well as soon-to-be-announced beers from: Yards Dogfish Head Iron Hill Legacy Nodding Head Updates when posted, or when we can beg for them.

Just TWO WEEKS from today, those of us in the Philly area (as well as truly dedicated beer trekkers from literally all across the country this year) will get to enjoy Philly's best beer event, this year's second FRIDAY THE FIRKINTEENTH on Friday Aug 13, at the GREY LODGE (www.greylodge.com). I will attempt to get the beer list for this go-around (or hope that owner Mike Scotese will post it here), but if it is anything like previous FTFs over the years, expect some awesome firkins of gravity-poured brew, 15 in all. Don't know when they'll open the doors this time around, but I'll try to get that info as well. If you want to experience a truly great, unpretentious night of carefully selected (and often rare, one-off) beers, this is the place to be in Philly on August 13. For me, these are the beer highlights of the year in Philly. And the next one isn't until May 2005!

Just returned form 4 great days in Portland, OR, to attend the Oregon Brewers Festival, Jul 23-25, the best run beer fest I've ever attended. Forget that everyone in Portland in unbelievbably friendly and helpful and welcoming, and that the setting is charmingly beautiful and clean, this year's OBF took place in 103 degree heat, as an outrageous heat wave hit the PNW. But not a scintilla of friendliness was lost, and the beers I sampled were all top notch, with some unusual offerings, from 72 different craft brewers. I'll post TNs shortly, as I sort through my notes and receipts, but, for now, some pics of the OBF, and a visit to the hop-strewn Bridgeport Brewery and Brewpub, as well as some of the, ah, colorful native artwork in town (well one example for now): The welcoming sign, map and menu The early crowd on Friday; the total attendance topped 80, 000 over 3 days One of the two massive beverage tents The Bridgeport Brewpub The Bridgeport brewpub menu; ironically, our bartender during our visit had just moved there from the Philly area; small world. Yes, those are hops, draped everywhere. The local, ah, art scene. This thing seems to be known as "Art Car". More to come, including a visit to Edgefield, the Mcmenamin-owned country resort that used to be a mental hospital, including its homages to Jerry Garcia no less.

Guillermo Pernot--Pasion (Iron Chef Ceviche)

It's possible, perhaps at The Foodery in Center City, 10th & Pine.

If we can pull off a DDC dinner a month, and an almost monthly Piozza Club, I see no reason why we can't do a DDC Hot Dog Caravan. Goddamit that would be fun.

He's probably an INVETERATE hot dog guru at that!

Rumor is that pennbrew (Guy H) did more than taste the Lakefront beers, Frank. I think we'll let Guy break the news here.