For any of you that have stopped in to Okay’s Pub recently, you may be aware of the absolute run of bad luck that owner Kay Dillon has experienced in the last six months, from her son’s tragic accident in Thailand (leaving him paralyzed from the waist down) to Kay’s own health issues. Kay is doing much better. Her son is adjusting to his new challenges and her younger son Dylan has been a real trooper, helping his mother and brother through these tough times. All of this has left the “cash drawer” in bad shape. Kay almost threw in the towel this week, but many of her supporters and confidants inspired her to give it one more try to get over the hump this weekend.

Starting Friday evening and throughout this weekend, Kay needs your support. I am not talking about a pity party either. Kay just needs patrons to do what they normally do; stop by and have a beer or a glass of wine, order up a grilled pizza and maybe listen to tunes from Charleston’s own “Honky-Tonk Power Trio” Buckstone.

Why should we care if Okay’s lives or dies? It’s simple… Okay’s is a unique, maybe even quirky pub that prides itself on serving great beer and great wine. Kay has been an ardent supporter of the arts and music scene in Charleston as well as just a dear friend to all of her patrons. Be sure to tell all of your friends!

Okay’s Pub is Located at 222 Leon Sullivan Way in downtown Charleston.

With the Government’s constant attempt to over-reach with the hand of power, it’s good for some of us to bite that hand every once in a while…

Recently, more than 50 owners of local bars and lounges took to the streets of Charleston to voice their disapproval of the recent sweeping smoking ban which includes bars. Although I am a non-smoker and prefer non-smoking establishments, I am first and foremost a person who believes in freedom and the free markets. I also believe in the existence of the potential for a “Nanny State” becoming the norm, and nobody really wants that to happen.

These businesses have banded together to let government know that the ban which was put in place by the non-elected “ministers” of health, has hurt their business.These smoking bans are wrong and an unnecessary encroachment on business owner’s private property rights.

Let me give you my thoughts. Here are 10 logical points that go toward solving this issue that are based on the principles of a free society and a free market. Read the rest of this entry »

This past week I was in Chicago for a couple of days for business. I always try to act as expected and fit in a visit to a great beer spot while I am anywhere. This week it was Goose Island’s brewpub located in the trendy Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago. This isn’t my first trip to the Goose, but it may be my last. The pub (not the production brewery) is scheduled to close due to the very high cost of real estate in the area. That unfortunate news is compounded by the fact that the premises is also shared with the Siebel Institute, which is the oldest and one the most respected brewing schools in the world. Many a good brewer has graduated Siebel’s master brewing program. I can only hope Siebel finds a suitable location even if the pub decides not to reopen.

I had a few great beers while there. Replicale was the summer seasonal. It was based on a Belgian farmhouse style ale, but with a little hoppier kick. The Summer Bitter was my favorite, similar to a popular British ale called Summer Lightning. The Go0se’s version weighed in at just under 5% abv and was a slightly more bitter than what I recall in the British version. If your plans include Chicago over the next few months, you may want to visit Goose Island before it’s gone… Read the rest of this entry »

I have always held a fondness for British beer and English pub culture. While today’s Brits are often known worldwide as rowdy, drunken and often violent soccer “hooligans,” the historical reality is that the English have been some of the most civilized drinkers in the history of the world. In the last 50 years or so, England has been evolving (or devolving, depending on your perspective) into a largely commercially driven, lager swilling and very mediocre-beer drinking country. From my point of view, this “devolution” has been a contributing cause for the soiled reputation the English beer drinker earns today; it’s not unlike our own over-indulgent and irresponsible behavior that is all too common with the typical American macro-lager drinker.

Why am I picking on macro-lagers and macro lager drinkers? Well, it’s simple. The large macro lager brewers are all about volume selling. They want you to be able to “chain drink” one can after another without tasting it or filling your tummy. This sounds O.K. on the surface: Heck! Why not give the people what they want, right? The problem is that although they have lightened the beer’s taste and body, they leave all of the alcohol in the package. This means that you can guzzle away at great volumes with little consequence to your tummy; but your brain, well that’s another matter, it gets wasted. This all happens in a country where unlike most of beer drinking Europe, there is little to no public transportation to get your tummy and brain home…

Read the rest of this entry »

We mountaineers have come a long way in terms of craft beer that is brewed in state. Though we still have a long way to go to rank up there with neighboring states like Pennsylvania or Ohio, we can be proud of the small stable of West Virginia craft breweries that are turning out respectable beer.

One Charleston pub-owner has made it really easy to sample some of the best beers that the state offers. Kay Dillon at O’Kays on Leon Sullivan Way offers “West Virginia Beer Flights” on the menu. Patrons can choose a four-sample flight for $4 or a six sample flight for $5! The samples are three ounces, which is just the right amount for tasting. This makes it really easy to taste each beer and decide which one deserves your further attention when you order up a pint. Read the rest of this entry »

I spent part of last week and the weekend in Cincinnati attending the National Homebrewers Conference. Over 1,300 dedicated brewers, along with over 600 kegs of hand-crafted beer, were also in attendance. This was my first NHC, and it will surely not be the last. I must admit, I am a little “Beer-ed out” as of now, but I am sure I will recover before FestivALL’s “Blues, Brews and BBQ” this weekend.

Day one of NHC was a work day… That’s right. Judging the final round of the National Homebrewers Competition is really hard work. I spent the afternoon smelling, swirling tasting and critiquing some of the finest homebrewed beer in the world. Then it was right into “Brewer’s Night,” where homebrewers are paid homage by many craft breweries treating us with their finest brews, many of which were specially made for the conference. We partied with the pros, most of who began as amateurs just like us.

NHC is not all about the party. I was wide awake each morning and sitting in a presentation hall by 9 a.m. to listen and learn from some of the world’s best brewers, both professional and amateur. Technical topics, such as “Yeast Management for High gravity Brewing,” were presented as well as important beer culture topics such as “10 signs of a perfect pint – and why you rarely find them,” which were just as engaging and informative.

Samuel Adams founder and brewer Jim Koch took the podium with “beer in hand” Friday evening, giving what was a heartfelt and entertaining keynote address. Jim noted that he was addressing the largest gathering of brewers anywhere in the 8,000 year history of beer. He also was keenly aware of his audience when he went for easy laughs at the expense of winemakers and their undying affection for their single ingredient. They are pressured to find flavors in wine that do not exist, he said.

The highlight, or you could say the spectacle, of the weekend was “Club Night”. This is when the homebrewers and their brewing clubs entertain and attempt to outdo each other, like a kegged and tapped version of the mummer’s parade. “Rocket City Brewers” of Huntsville, Ala., strutted its stuff with pseudo-NASA blue jumpsuits and Rocket shaped tap-handles. Then there was West Virginia’s very own “Greater Huntington Homebrewers”, who dressed in yellow raincoats, hung a few fishnets and called our booth “The Deadliest Batch”.

(Click on pictures to enlarge)

The NHC is a great opportunity for brewers to leave their basement or garage breweries and find camaraderie, quirkiness and useful knowledge to improve their craft. I can only hope that more people who enjoy beer will find a friend who brews and offer to lend a helping hand at the next brew session. Or better yet, get online and order up a beginner’s kit to start their journey in a craft that is rewarding creatively, technically and really tastes good!

(Photos by Tim Lepley)

The rumors have been circulating for several months: global beverage giant Inbev of Belgium wants to buy Anheuser-Busch. Now, it’s official. Inbev has offered A-B shareholders an unprecedented $65 per share, making this something like a $50 billion deal. The financial pages of every major newspaper and magazine are touting the deal as a new page in the history of beer.

Interestingly, there is a contingent of U.S. citizens in a nationalistic uproar: “Some Ferrinners takin over Amerika’s Beer! How can y’all stand back and let this happen?!” Where was the outrage when Miller was purchased by South African Breweries, or when Daimler took over Chrysler? Frankly, I wish people were more concerned about energy independence and not “Beer Independence”! Read the rest of this entry »

Some of you may remember the commercial for a leading macro-lager showing someone wincing while drinking a competitive brand, making what was called a “bitter beer face.” This ad is ludicrous on so many levels. First of all, if you lined up all of the macro-lagers on a bar and tasted them, there is about as much difference between them as hamburgers from different McDonald’s locations. Secondly, “bitterness” is not a valid taste descriptor for any of the leading macros; there are barely enough hops in there to give the beer any character at all.

The real problem with this commercial is that it somehow tries to convince you that “bitter” flavor is a bad thing. These guys are trying appeal to your palate as if you were two years old. Yes, bitterness is a “bad thing” for most two year olds. It probably has something to do with our hard-wired “hunter-gatherer” operating systems, keeping the young’ins from eating potentially poisonous bitter berries. I guess if you want to be sure, go ask an anthropologist.

As we grow older and more adventurous, let’s hope we will take our taste buds on the journey. I admit that I have little patience with people that won’t try this or that for fear that it might taste bad… If it does, just spit it out! Grow up already! I am not talking about eating stuff like raw monkey brains or sheep’s eyeballs, Read the rest of this entry »

I thought I made a breakthrough a few weeks ago. After writing and ranting about better beer for nearly a year and a half, I was finally asked to recommend a beer selection to pair with a recipe in the Sunday Gazette-Mail. Wow! I was finally getting some respect from the Gazette’s foodies, Tara Tuckwiller and Robert Byers, who do the weekly “Main Ingredient” column. But the request did trigger a “red-flag.”

What I am talking about is “beer typecasting.” The first recipe they asked me to work with was Grilled Bratwurst, the second was Fried Catfish Tacos and the third was “Fish and Chips.” I was able to find what I thought were excellent beer choices to go with each. I noticed all along that none of the recipes fell into the “fine-cuisine” category; but more like cuisine you would find in a sport’s bar. I started to ask myself: ‘Am I (and better-beer) being played?’ I obliged them anyway, hoping for the best.

I withheld making any conclusions until this week. Where was that e-mail asking me to pair something with this week’s recipe? My inbox fell silent. Hmmm… My suspicions may have been confirmed this morning as I was sipping on my delicious black coffee and un-banding the Sunday Gazette-Mail. Oh! What’s this? A wonderfully delicious looking dish made with meat from a goat. Oooh, looky! It’s Parmesan and mint-crusted chops and looks like a fine dining entrée. “Hey, honey, they asked John Brown to give a wine recommendation for this dish. How nice.” What? No beer this week? I may just be jumping to conclusions here. Maybe it was a simple oversight on the part of Tuckwiller and Byers? Either way, the subject of typecasting needs to be discussed. Read the rest of this entry »

Who’d a thunk it? Just about a year ago I wrote a blog lamenting the lack of a decent beer selection at Appalachian Park, save for our beer vending friend “Mitch – The Elder Beer-Man” and his special selection of better brews. This year, I get the feeling Mitch’s vending business may not be doing as well as in years past.

The beer selection at the park has grown to include several beers from Mountaineer Brewing Company: Magic Hat and Hoegaarden. The transition started taking place near the end of the season last year. But I thought I would wait to see if the great beer selection returned this year before I committed to doing a blog on the subject. Read the rest of this entry »