BeerMenus.com officially launched this week in Philly. Since launching the site in NYC from our Brooklyn headquarters a little over a year ago, we have received repeated requests to expand to other cities across the country and even abroad. During that time, Philly has consistently shown itself to be one of the premier craft beer centers in the country (you already know this).

The participation by Philly's bar owners--before the site even launched--was phenomenal. And it is expected that BeerMenus/Philadelphia will quickly put BeerMenus/New York City to the test to see which City bests the other in terms of participation by bar owners and craft beer lovers alike.

A big topic of conversation is how to keep ever-rotating beer menus accurate. To solve this problem, we enable bars to login and update their menus. The process of updating takes a bar under 2 minutes on average and can even be done on an iPhone or Blackberry. The skepticism about accurate menus has been completely silenced in NYC. Many bars update their beer menu every time they come upstairs from changing a tap line effectively making their beer menu 100% accurate (often more accurate than the print menu in the bar).

We are just getting started in Philly. Now that the site is up and running, we will be recruiting many more bars to make updating their menus a part of their routine.

We hope the site helps Philly's many knowledgeable and passionate beer lovers find better beer and in turn helps the best bars, restaurants, and beer stores get discovered.

Thanks so much for the warm reception Philly.

This past Saturday I had the pleasure of attending Urban Oyster's Brewed In Brooklyn Walking Tour. You may have heard rumors about the rich history of brewing in Brooklyn, but this walking tour will teach you everything you need to know. Brooklyn used to have over 70 operating breweries - almost a brewery on every corner - and this created a very unique brewing culture and neighborhood atmosphere. On the tour you get a private tour of Brooklyn Brewery, you get to see the few remaining German breweries built in the 19th century, you get to see the sites of breweries that have been torn down, you get to talk with local residents whose families have been in the neighborhood for generations, and of course you get to drink great beer along the way. These tours run every Saturday from noon to 3PM. I encourage everyone to take a walk through Brooklyn with Dave and Cindy for a lively and humorous tour of Brooklyn's rich brewing history. Check out some photos I took along the way...

Local 1 fermenting at Brooklyn Brewery



The flight of beers at Brooklyn Brewery



Edward Hittelman Brewery



A perfect pairing at Danny's Pizzeria

Looking for German beers? Rauchbiers, dunkels, kolsch, berliner weisse, you name it, Brauhause Schmitz has it. Check out their beer menu on their website for now. Hopefully soon it will be searchable and updated on BeerMenus.

We now have just under 50 venues in the Philadelphia region. Stay tuned for more places, more updates, and more ways to find great beer. If you have any suggestions for places we should add, please let us know in the forums section. If you have any events we are missing please feel free to add them here. General feedback or technical problems can be directed here.

Cheers,
The BeerMenus Team

One of my personal favorite summer beers, the Witte, White, or Belgian wheat beer is an amazing beer to drink under the sun. We will be drinking 8 of our favorite Witte beers paired with some great cheeses from Murray's on Monday. Try some of the best Witte beers out there from Belgium, Italy, and the USA and figure out which one is your favorite.

See the list of Wittes and learn more

We have started a list of places on BeerMenus with free WiFi. Know of a place with free Wifi that we left off the list? Create your own version of the list to add additional places.

You may have noticed this morning we updated the design of the site reorganizing the navigation bars. We hope this makes navigating the site and finding great beer easier. If you have any feedback or comments please feel free to let us know in our forums.

Italian craft beer. Yes. There is an emerging craft beer scene in Italy creating small batch beers in strangely shaped bottles with strange ingredients with high price tags. These beers are some of the most interesting and complex beers brewed with the attention to detail and quality ingredients that you find in Italian wine and cuisine. The price tags can be difficult in this economy, but you will notice a couple of Italian restaurants serving these beers at a very small markup (hardly more than store price). Italian food and Italian craft beer, that sounds great.

Check out these two Italian restaurants on BeerMenus that offer craft Italian beers at great prices and never get stuck deciding between Moretti and wine at an Italian restaurant again:

Lusso

Convivio

As you may have read in our About section, we originally started BeerMenus because we were looking to go out in New York City, and we wanted to find a place serving Arrogant Bastard Ale. At the time this was a very difficult task, but thanks to the support and dedication of the best beer bars, restaurants, and beer stores in NYC, we have up to date info on where to find great beer. This past Wednesday, my brother Eric and I had the pleasure of meeting Greg Koch, co-founder and CEO of Stone Brewing Company, at Rattle 'N' Hum. As you can see below, finding great beer makes you happy.

Arrogant Bastard Ale FOUND...

We finalized the list for our next Styles Session event on Monday, June 8th. Learn the history of the style, see how the style has transformed and reincarnated itself, drink 10 representations of the style, and discover your favorite.

1. Pilsner Urquel
2. BB Burgerbrau
3. Budweiser
4. Czechvar
5. Jever Pilsener
6. Victory Prima Pils
7. Oskar Blues Mamas Lil Yella Pils
8. Stoudt's Pils
9. Moa Original
10. Rogue Morimoto

Learn more and buy tickets