There’s good news in the ongoing saga of Shooting Creek Farm Brewery in Floyd County, Virginia. Local anti-alcohol forces had appealed the granting of the brewery’s license. Last month the two sides in the dispute agreed to sit down, with a neutral par…

Last week the Fredericksburg City Council passed a resolution asking the General Assembly to grant localities the power to ban smoking in public places such as bars and office buildings. Currently such power lies with the state, rather than the localit…

Last week I profiled The Complete World of Beer Styles from All About Beer magazine. Thanks to the generosity of the folks at All About Beer, I’ve obtained some extra copies of the guide. To celebrate the holiday season, I’ll be giving away a couple of…

We had our annual members’ Christmas dinner for a charitable organization this weekend. As often happens, my friend Frank and I were charged with arranging for the beer. Our local Blue & Gray Brewing Company is very generous in their support of th…

They say patience is a virtue. For cask ale fans in the Fredericksburg area, it’s a necessity.Back in October, I received a press release for a new pub chain coming to Fredericksburg. The Pub’s beer selection is said to “include cask-conditioned brews,…

It’s the weekend! That means it’s time to try out some new beers. Here are the local retailers’ tasting opportunities.Friday, December 12 – 5:00 – 8:00pmTotal Wine, FredericksburgFriday 5 @ 5 Beer Tasting:Sierra Nevada Harvest Ale, Samuel Smith India A…

These odds and ends are humorous in some ways, but in other ways not so much. It’s a bizarre world in which we drink.Shotstick is a drinking party toy designed to enable synchronized group drinking. An extensible pole holds a series of beer or shot gl…

AleBoards is a free application for the iPhone that keeps tabs on your local DogFish Head Alehouse. When launched, the app downloads the photographs of the chalkboards that are posted on the restaurant’s website. The chalkboards list the current tap se…

Here’s another fun online tool for looking up beer and food pairings. This one is brought to us by Michigan Live. The Flash application presents beer suggestions for a variety of foods. As with the Wisconsin Cheese Cupid website mentioned recently, thi…

Here’s another fun online tool that’s useful looking up beer and food pairings. This one is brought to us by Michigan Live. The Flash application presents beer suggestions for a variety of foods. As with the Wisconsin Cheese Cupid website mentioned rec…