I was always aware of its existence, and had always planned on going, next year. But things and stuff and yada yada … Well, next year finally happened, last year. And I made the most of it.

You can only eat baked beans and fish finger sandwiches for several days in a row before the urge to get something more substantial becomes overwhelming.

I just worked my way through my checklist in no particular order, just trying to maximize my steps by alternating between “pub” and “bar”, and watching under my feet to make sure that I didn’t trip over the pub dog Chewie ...

The beers were almost exclusively old-world styles, German, Czech, British and Belgian, with just a single native American style (a New England IPA) and a barrel-aged Imperial Stout in the mix.

... one of the closest Irish bars to my apartment in Woodside was the legendary Liffey Bar (aka Liffey Tavern) in Jackson Heights, which happened to serve the very best Guinness in NYC; don’t just take my word for it. Long gone unfortunately, swallowed by the bus station ...

The homebrewing graduate class of 2013/2014 has shown a real enthusiasm for including more traditional beer styles in their repertoire and a willingness to dispense those beers by the traditional methods.