Dear John, What is the reason for keeping head on a beer?
-Jonathan C., Philadelphia, PA

Achieving a proper pour with a nice head is important to ensure that the aromas of your beer are released for maximum enjoyment. While I don’t believe that it is really necessary to have a thick foamy head on every glass of beer (in fact much of the beer I drink won’t foam too much) the main argument for head retention is that it also improves the body and mouthfeel of a beer.

At the last minute, Scott, due to unforeseen circumstances, couldn’t make the tasting. Quickly rushing to fill his very large shoes this issue was Melissa, Philly Beer Scene’s Art Director and beer lover in training.

This month’s Tasting Room took place at Raw Dawgs Saloon (www.rawdawgssaloon.com), a new up and coming beer bar on Second and Morris Streets in South Philly. Raw Dawgs Saloon is an awesome Irish Sports bar featuring 10 flat screens TVs, over 50 craft beers with more on the way, and great daily specials. Also, it is worth mentioning that Raw Dawgs Saloon is managed by Philly Beer’s Scene own Mat Falco.

How many times have you argued with a friend who drinks Budweiser about who’s beer is superior? Well we’re not out to answer that question, but we are going to attempt to help you out and explain the difference of what goes into brewing a macro beer such as Budweiser and a craft beer such as Dock Street. Some people may not realize how drastically different the art and science between the different breweries is, so in order to explain it, John and Mat set out to experience things first hand. Mat spent the day brewing beer at Dock Street brewery, while John traveled out to Jersey to get a personal, behind the scenes tour of a Budweiser factory. The following is what each experienced, so grab a bottle of 90 Minute and have your buddy grab his Rolling Rock and sit back and read together in attempt to solve this long-lived argument!

It’s not uncommon on a cool day that many drink a mulled (heated) wine. In fact, many people do this as a household remedy to the cold, due to the various antioxidants found in wine. But not many people have heard of doing such with a beer. It’s hard to imagine bringing a beer up to heated temperatures when just coming out of summer; we still look forward to the ice cold beverage after a long day of work. But for those cooler days, there’s La Dragonne.

Maybe you’re one of those happy people who starts thinking about Thanksgiving with the question ‘what beer should we have?’ Your instincts have probably already told you how hard it is to ‘match’ wine with the foods for Thanksgiving and how much easier it is to find the right beers. All of the holiday dishes are strongly flavored (except for the turkey which may not be flavored at all). Many stuffing’s have deliberately weird seasonings that make wine taste a little off, but can enhance the flavor of the right beer. Some of the traditional dishes are even sweet: there’s no wine on earth that could go with sweet potato and marshmallow casserole, but you might be able to think of a few beers.