From a nuclear plant to the brewery with Bill Moore.

Going into an interview with a brewer, I’m starting to find that I always get hit with the unexpected. I always go in thinking I know exactly what they’re going to say and what I’m going to write, but every time it ends up being the direct opposite.  After breakfast with Pat Conway turned into a lengthy discussion on geology, an afternoon drink with Dann Paquette turned into a discussion of art, and lunch with Jim Koch turned into, well a conversation that changed my whole opinion of Sam Adams, you think I would have learned. Well once again I was wrong, but I really shouldn’t have been this time. I’m not sure what I expected when I walked into Lancaster Brewing Co. to meet Bill Moore, but for some reason I wasn’t expecting greatly enhance my history of beer in the Philadelphia area.

No better way to start the day than a scrapple breakfast discussing the benefits of worm farms at breweries.

“What’s scrapple?” asks Pat Conway, co-owner of Great Lakes Brewing Company (GLBC).  We all stared around in a silent laughter thinking amongst ourselves, “how do you describe such a special (for a lack of a better term) regional offering?”  Johnny Billotta of Two Guys on Beer decided to step up and try and explain it, but in the end Pat decided between the hangover he was battling and the drive back to Cleveland after breakfast, that passing was probably the better idea. Once we got past the scrapple discussion and a random debate on geology, we did finally end up talking beer and brewing in Cleveland, Ohio. Of course, scrapple came up again, multiple times.

Some people say that when you choose a job that you love, you will never work a day in your life. If this is true, Flying Fish Brewing Company’s Head Brewer, Casey Hughes, has not worked a day since he was 18.

“What do you want fuckface?” Twenty plus years ago, this was Jim Koch’s initial welcoming to New York City. Surprisingly, his greeting in Philadelphia he recalls as being much friendlier. Today his greetings have changed drastically. Instead of being welcomed with profanity, he is welcomed with a red carpet. On a very fortunate Tuesday afternoon in September during New York Beer Week, I got an opportunity to experience this first hand.

Philly Beer Scene: What’s the story with the name?
PAUL PHILLIPON: Well not everyone sees it right away, but you notice if you look at it one way it looks like a duck but if you look at it another way it looks like a rabbit. Before I became a professional brewer, I made a living teaching philosophy.

A version of that illustration was used famously in a book that I admire entitled, Philosophical Investigations. When I started my own brewery I wanted to use a name that had a relevance to my life, who I am and what I use to do, as well as hopefully something that looks cool and functions well as a branding image.