Category Beer
Brewing in New York
This article was written for Syracuse New Times, July 23, 1986, and rewritten for the Song Mountain Brewfest program in 1997. * * * The Empire State’s recorded brewing history begins with the Dutch colonists on Manhattan Island, soon to be home to New Amsterdam and eventually New York City. The settlers’ homebrewed beer, which […]
Thirteen Schaefer Quarts
This is not about drinking a lot of beer. Many people do, especially in college, and very especially in the service. Granted, thirteen quarts of beer in one evening is a lot for anyone, but this is not about an attempt to get into the Guinness Book. Rather it’s what happened after. But first, some […]
From the Beer Book
Mr. Clete and a cold one, art by Jo Buffalo In the 1960s and ’70s, I kept a notebook of beer articles, clippings, ephemera, but I hadn’t opened it in 30 or 40 years, until this week. I found things I had long forgotten. A keg label from Utica Club’s dark ale, a staple at […]
Homecoming
It began with a gift from a friend who was helping to clean out the house of a man who died without heirs. My friend saved an oak-framed picture from the dumpster and gave it to me. A couple of months later, I was looking on the Web for information on an artist and on […]
Black Heart Stout
There are people who will tell you that a Liberal Arts degree, in the possession of an English major, is one of the most worthless pieces of paper in general circulation. But as I possess one such scrap of parchment, I am not one of those who will speak disparagingly of it. And this is […]
Pig Sticking
I was reading about polo in India and the role played by the British military in bringing polo from India to England, and thence to the United States, when I came across another British sport in India that involved a spear rather than a mallet, and an enraged boar rather than a ball. Pig sticking […]
Watching Golf
My wife thinks I have gone around the bend because I have begun watching golf on television. I have never played golf, unless you count courses with a windmill hole. But I enjoy watching, and I have a regimen that I find very fulfilling. First, I place a pint of excellent beer within my reach. […]
Passing the Torch
In 1968, my fraternity brother, Bud Shulman, and I, felt it was time to teach our younger brothers how to tap a keg of beer. The lesson, almost a sacred ceremony, took place in the kitchen of the Delt house at 115 College Place on the Syracuse University campus, a dry campus, but what of […]
Elephants
I don’t know where you stand on reincarnation, but let me give you a tip: Given a choice, don’t come back as an elephant. Especially if you’re going to be anywhere near people. :: Old Bet – 1816 :: In the summer of 1816, Hackaliah Bailey took Old Bet on a tour of New England, […]
A Beer Footnote
April 15, 2006 When I started putting my writing up on the Web, I thought of my beer articles only at the tail end of things. Everything else seemed more important. But today, 15 of the 20 most visited pages on my site are pieces about beer. My history of malt liquor — which, not […]
Faithful Readers 