Photo of the Day

There’s never really been a shortage of places to get a drink in Philadelphia. But starting today, Philly will go from being a city where it’s easy to find a cold beer when you need one to a city where it’s difficult not to be drinking from early in the morning till late, late at night. 

Yes, today marks the start of the fourth annual Philadelphia Beer Week. And can I tell you two things that are awesome about that, right from the start? First, it’s a whole week dedicated to nothing more than the appreciation and celebration of handcrafted, historic and locally brewed beer. And second, the organizers have worked some kind of temporal magic this year, making their “week” run from Friday, June 3rd, through Sunday, June 12th—which, for those of you who are bad at math, is a full 10 days of beer-soaked amusement. And 10 days of beer is way better than seven.

The party kicks off with “Opening Tap” at the Independence Visitor Center, where the first keg of Brotherly Suds 2 (the local, collaborative beer of PBW 2011) will be tapped by Mayor Nutter wielding the “Hammer of Glory” (pictured), which will have already made an Olympic Torch-style tour of all the participating bars before being handed off to his Mayor-ness. After that, it’s just event after beery event, with hundreds of dinners, tours, tastings, boxing matches, lectures, punk-rock butlered lunches, brewing classes, and excuses for lifting a couple (local) pints at any hour of the day or night.

Text by Jason Sheehan // Photography by Dom Savini