Philly Beer Week Gets A Re-Branding

The crew behind Philadelphia Beer Week (17 restaurant industry pros and local beer experts) have just announced the debut of Philly Loves Beer, a “year-round entity devoted to raising Philadelphia’s global profile as a destination city for beer tourism.”

So what does this mean? Quite a bit. actually. According to the PBW board, Philly Loves Beer is the country’s first (and only) non-profit organization dedicated to the love and greater glorification of beer that’s not linked to a brewing guild or business association. It exists to “serve as the foremost authority on beer and beer culture in Philadelphia and the surrounding area,” and will do so through education, advocacy and networking 365 days a year–not just during the annual Philly Beer Week bachanal.

Oh, and speaking of Beer Week…

Events are obviously going to be a big part of what Philly Loves Beer does to better acquaint the people of Philadelphia with all the local beer available to them. And they’re already announcing a whole slate of good ones in the run-up to this year’s 10th Anniversary Philly Beer Week. To wit:

Belgium Brew Day: On January 18, Felicia D’Ambrosio (PBW raffle winner) and Bob Barrar (2SP, Head Brewer) will collaborate with Brouwerij DeRanke, under the guidance of PBW co-founder and Belgium beer ambassador Tom Peters, to create PBW’s 10th Anniversary Beer in Belgium.

Flan-Animal: On February 19, PLB will host their first official fundraiser, a flannel fashion show at Heritage (914 North 2nd Street) featuring PLB members and supporters, judged by a panel of local female beer celebrities. The event is open to the public and all proceeds will benefit PLB.

Beer Madness: On March 13, PLB will unveil their annual Beer Madness Bracket on the organization’s new website, featuring a highly-anticipated field of 32 ALL LOCAL beers. This marks the fourth edition of Beer Madness; last year, Evil Genius Beer Company’s Shut Up, Meg! was crowned champion.

Opening Tap: On June 1, PBW’s marquee event returns to The Fillmore Philadelphia – a raucous summer party, with rare pours from Philly’s best local breweries. Opening Tap caps a whirlwind day where the famed Hammer of Glory, aka The HOG, parades around the city from bar-to-bar and brewery-to-brewery on an Olympic Torch-style relay starting in the early morning.

Beer Week itself (June 1-June 11 this year) will remain the highlight of the calendar–the biggest annual beer event in the country. And the PLB has trademarked the motto: “America’s Best Beer Drinking City”. Which, having lived in several others, I can fully endorse.

Going forward, Philly Loves Beer will add new events, seminars, fundraisers, smaller-scale festivals and anything else they think will boost the profile of beer in Philly and the surrounding area. For more information on upcoming events (in addition to coverage of beer news, interviews with local brewers and discussions of national beer trends and issues of concern to Philadelphians) you can check out the new PLB website that has also just launched: phillylovesbeer.com.

Check it out below.

Philly Loves Beer [Official]