A couple of community supported breweries are pushing ahead despite some challenges.

Beer gardens are not just about drinking outside. There is a sense of place about them — inviting, friendly and unthreatening.

For months, a buddy of mine in Jersey City had been telling me about this “beer garden” that had opened a few blocks from his apartment.

Final day. Lot of pressure. There were so many places left to visit. I didn’t have time to hit them all. Realistically, I’ve only had time to visit one.

Somehow, I just knew it should be Yards.

This craft brewery has been in town since 1994. In that time, it has developed a well-earned reputation within Philadelphia’s beer scene. With just 24 employees, it is still quite small. The brewery expects to produce 20,000 to 24,000 barrels this year, according to Andrew Rutherford of Yards. That puts it barely above microbrewery levels.

Don’t let size fool you, though. I stopped by around lunchtime for a Saturday afternoon tour, and this place was hopping. And it’s easy to understand why.

“Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.”
– Ben Franklin

OK, fine. Ben Franklin didn’t actually say the quote above. Historians have shown us that the bar plaques, beer blogs and T-shirts are wrong. But Old Ben should have said it. As proof, I give you a place with close ties to that founding father — Philadelphia.

I just came back from a four-day visit to the City of Brotherly Love. It is a place that makes most lists for top beer cities in the U.S. It’s even taken the crown on a few. Philadelphia is home to a favorite Belgian beer bar — Monk’s Cafe — of the late beer writer Michael Jackson. The breweries within city limits and in nearby surrounding communities are innovative and make me smile whenever I see them on my local grocery store shelf.

I wanted to have a look for myself.

March 5 is when this year’s incarnation of Kate the Great will be released at the Portsmouth Brewery. Here’s a look back at what the event was like last year.

Monday morning began cold and none of the clocks worked. Neither did the coffee maker or shower.

An ice storm had caused a power outage that left thousands of Granite Staters like me in a “situation,” facing a long day ahead and slick streets in between. Mondays are terrifying enough, but March in New England offers up something that will infuse you with a general sense of doubt.

The day would be won purely on internal motivation. I didn’t have to work. I could have just stayed home, kicked back with a Bloody Mary and messed around on YouTube. Instead, I got in my car at 8 a.m. and drove 2 hours to Portsmouth, N.H., to taste a beer that is the stuff of legend.

High noon snuck up on Rik Marley one Saturday in late November. The afternoon had seemed to come a few hours too soon.Marley brightened, however, when the conversation turned to pilsners.

Scene: A brewpub in Manchester, NH. Loud construction happening in the next room. The deafening silence of an empty room punctured with the gunshot bang of a nail gun stapling a threshold to the floor. A waitress attends to a couple, the only two customers in the place. The guy is figuring out his order for a flight of 6 samplers.
Guy: …and, I think for the last one, I’d like to try the Bold Horizons.
Waitress: Oh no. Don’t get that. Everybody hates it.
Guy: Oh. Well that’s OK. I’ll try it …

Holiday travel is all about the detours.
Val and I make the 13-hour trip from New Hampshire to Long Island to Virginia exactly once per year, and when a snowstorm sweeps through the day before you leave, it is no fun. Particularly, when you’re on your way back — exhausted from family, the car packed with gifts and dirty laundry and the workweek grind ahead. Which is why Harrisburg, PA has become a favorite stop of mine.
The state capital of Pennsylvania is pretty much as you might expect — grimy, gray …

Anytime I travel, a visit to the local brewery or brewpub is on the agenda. These days, every major city and certainly most tourist destinations have their own offering of oat sodas, which I think gives a window into local culture. Like a lot of businesses, breweries survive by appealing to the local population and regular visitors.
And so, if that theory holds, what could you possibly expect of a place like Vegas?

After I visited last week, I can tell you this — “local taste” is something of an oxymoron.
Being out …