BEER TRAVELERS

Jack Curtin writes that Copa Too! in Philadelphia has closed.

The first draft beer from a Belgian specialty brewer was poured on June 13, 1995 at a beer dinner here. Kwak was soon followed by plenty of others, and by the next April Copa Too! hosted a mini-Belgian festival with 18 Belgian and Dutch specialties. The next year, manager Tom Peters moved on, hooking up with Fergus Carey to open Monk’s Café (also in Philadelphia), which had developed into a force unto itself.

Curtin reports that Jose Pistola’s, a tequila/beer bar, will open in the spot.

The first bars and restaurants offering speciality beers came to Helsinki just 15 years ago, but have quickly become entrenched.

From the Helsinki Sanomat:

Don’t laugh. Yes, Finland does have a quixotic relationship with alcohol, and yes, there are plans to jack up the price of a pint still further, but the plain fact of the matter is that these days Helsinki is one of the world’s most diverse beer cities.

And it looks like things may only get better.

Don Russell about writes that Philadelphia’s brewpub scene took two steps forward this summer and one giant step backward, meaning two new pubs opened but one closed rather suddenly.

Russell (aka Joe Sixpack)

“It’s anybody’s guess why it failed,” said (Independence) spokesman Frank Keel.

Well, here’s one guess: The owners didn’t have a clue.

Independence Brew Pub is owned by a group of investors, called GS Capital, who picked apart the bones of the original Red Bell brewpub that was supposed to open in that spot in 2000. Those investors created a subsidiary called DS Holdings II - made up of former investors in the failed Dock Street brewpub on 18th Street - to hold the liquor license. And that group hired a third company, a Washington, D.C., restaurant management firm called Sam & Harry’s, to run the place.

It was a money deal. Good beer was completely secondary, and it showed.

Russell also reports better news from Philadelphia and the region.

Alas, we won’t be heading to Portland for the Oregon Brewers Festival.

But if we were, the links we’d be using:

- Beervana Bests - Best Portland Brewpub Experiences. One man’s opinion, but this way you’ll find places not on everybody else’s list.

- The official festival site.

- The Beer Here. This is the Oregon Live site regularly update by John Foyston. Easier to find the beer list here than the official site. Plus details of a beer and cheese tasting with Fred Eckhardt.

- The Portland Beer Blog. To makes sure you don’t miss anything.

Esquire Magazine has “the latest installment of our ever-growing franchise celebrating the great bars of America, those harmonious and radiant places that serve us drinks, keep us company, and put up with our regrettable behavior. This is not an overhaul of last year’s list. Those bars are still great, and we still drink in them.”

Give them credit. Although the headline says “best bars” the copy reads “great bars” and this is a work in progress. The focus here is on a lot of things other than beer, although there are a few great beer spots along the way.

The Ginger Man chain, one of the first multi-taps in the country, is opening a new location at 99 Washington St. in South Norwalk, Connecticut. It’s located in a former bank. As with the Gingerman pubs in Manhattan and Greenwich there will be more emphasis on food than the original three locations in Texas, but with 52 taps beer will still be a star.

Two brewpubs in the DC area closed in 2006 and no new ones opened. Business for craft beer is good, we know, but operating brewpubs can still be a challenge.

Greg Kitsock examines the challenges brewery-restaurants face and reports what’s new in the region in The Washington Post (free registration).

Franklin’s Restaurant, Brewery and General Store in Hyattsville is one of the area’s few brew pubs that aren’t part of a regional or national chain. Owner Mike Franklin blames the high cost of rent: $40 and upwards a square foot. It’s hard to justify setting aside 1,000 square feet for stainless-steel tanks when you could fill that space with tables and chairs. Franklin owns the building and operated the curio-filled general store there for a decade before adding the brewery in 2002.

Don’t worry, this doesn’t mean your local brewpub is going away. In fact, the Brewers Association has given us all a good excuse to visit all the breweries we can next week.