Change brewing in VA?

I have heard this rumor from several sources. I've called certain people in the industry who would be in the position to know something about it. So, I am 75% certain that:

A major regional mid-Atlantic brewery will be sold within the next couple of weeks. The buyer will be a major national brewery. An in-house duopoly at the local brewery is attempting to put together a counter offer.

Hurricane Katrina

Just think: where would you go, what would you do, how would you live, how would you provide for yourself and your children ... if your entire city was obliterated? Contribute to the Red Cross or do whatever you can do to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

What has happened to our brethren at Abita Brewery?

Odds and ends

Brooklyn Summer Scorcher, beer breakfast, homebrewers' conference in Baltimore, Old Dominion Beer Festival. I'm on the way out to Ashburn, Vriginia this morning to set up for the last session of the Fest.

In the men's room

I saw this announcement posted in the bathroom of a DC beer bar:

Cast ale this week.

Must have cost them an arm and a leg.

"Cask ale", of course, was meant.

Baseball returns and my Philly regrets

I grew up in DC, back when the Redskins were terrible and the Senators, our baseball team, moreso ... but at least we had baseball.

Today, after 34 years, prodigal baseball has returned, and things don't seem as gray.

Also this week in nearby Philadelphia, professional brewers, brewery owners, brewing scientists, equipment fabricators, and assorted poobahs and grunts of the craft beer world have convened and consumed. It's the annual Craft Brewers Conference. And its a grand occasion.

It was 1997 in Seattle that I was to it last. And this year, it pains me to miss it, so palpably close. I couldn't justify the trip: selling beer, Clipper City Brewing Company beer of Baltimore, is my job now, and I could do that more effectively here.

Maybe next year!