I like to drink good beer. To further this quest, I like to try new beers from breweries I usually don’t get to sample. That led me to a sampler case (since Pennsylvania’s stupid laws make it almost impossible to just buy a 6-pack of anything except macro-brews) from the Philadelphia Brewing Co.

First, a word about Philly. I grew up in Baltimore and still have my sports allegiences, for the most part, there. That means I’m not too fond of the city with the Liberty Bell. Except for a brief dalliance with the Phillies before I was too  young to know the wrongity of sports bigamy, I’ve spent much of my time loathing the City of Brotherly Love.

I put all of this aside in my beer quest though. I had already had one of the beers in the case in a little project I took part in in late 2008/early 2009 called Beer Appreciation. A friend set up a program so we could each get a case with 24 different beers. The Philly Brewing Kenzinger was in the case, and I had a decent memory of it.

I was right on that count. It’s nothing stellar, but a decent beer to sit and enjoy. At 4.5 ABV (I’m not a total beer geek, but I do check out this statistic), you can definitely enjoy more than one of these golden ales. I completely passed on the Walt Wit beers in the case because I don’t really enjoy wheat beers. I gave them to my nephews (all of drinking age).

I had high hopes for the Rowhouse Red, but something happened and all of them turned out way too foamy and didn’t taste right. I really enjoy interesting ales so was a bit disappointed. The final beer in the case was their Newbold IPA, which comes in at 6 percent ABV. It was OK. I think I have one of the six left in the fridge and will eventually drink it. I wouldn’t go out and get most of these beers again, but I would definitely drink them if offered.

I’ve already started my way through a sampler case from New Orleans’ Abita brewery, and I can say that in this case, just as in football this year, New Orleans kicks Philly’s ass all over the place.