Founders Madness at Kite and Key

Through its first few days, Philly Beer Week has had some pretty remarkable beer events.  Many venues throughout the city have been packed, as beer enthusiasts have attended the events in droves.

Take, for example, the Founders Brewing Company event at Kite and Key.  On a Monday afternoon at 5 p.m., which is hardly the most common time for city folks to be out at a bar drinking, Kite and Key was completely packed with patrons seeking to sample Founders’ high quality, high alcohol and highly rare beers.  The two superstars were Canadian Breakfast Stout, a beer aged in maple and whiskey soaked wood with Sumatra and Kona coffee beans breakast stout, and Kenutkcy Breakfast Stout (KBS), an imperial stout brewed with coffee and chocolates before aged in bourbon barrels for an entire year.  Both beers are among the top seven rated beers in the world, contain over nine percent alcohol and are only available for a limited time each year. 

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Philly Beer Week: A Celebration of Great Beer

This weekend marks the opening of Philly Beer Week, an annual festival highlighting craft beers.  It’s a ten day celebration that beer enthusiasts from both Philly and elsewhere look forward to attending.   

 Philly Beer Week was co-founded in 2008 by Tom Peters, who owns several city bars; Don Russell, who writes the “Joe Sixpack” column for the Philadelphia Daily News; and the late Bruce Nichols, a city beer pioneer who passed away in November 2010.  From an inaugural Beer Week featuring about 300 events, it has grown exponentially to over 1,000 events throughout 180 different venues in both the city and suburbs.  In terms of number of events, it’s the largest national festival dedicated to craft beers. 

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Frankford Hall Fills Philly Beer Garden Niche

A lot of city residents have probably never spent much time in the neighborhood of Fishtown.  Until the past few years, there never had been much reason to head up to the Girard Avenue and north area.  Now, there is.  There are some terrific bars and restaurants in the area, including restaurant/music venue Johnny Brendas, Italian BYO Modo Mio, hipster hangout Kung Fu Necktie and sandwich shop extraordinaire Paesanos.  Memphis Taproom is also not too far away in Kensington.

Frankford Hall is both the latest addition to Stephen Starr empire and his first foray into Fishtown.  It’s themed as a beer garden in the true German tradition.  That means there’s no women waitresses coming around dressed with lederhosen carrying pitchers of beers in tables.  In fact, only tourist traps like the Munich Hofbräuhaus have such features.  Instead, Frankford Hall has walk-up bars to order your beer and food, and it has table service only for food deliveries.  It’s definitely different than how people in town are used to dining and drinking in Philly.

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