I was at the Old Town bar on East 18th Street on Thursday evening, when a petite woman with a French accent leaned across the bar to my right and demanded from the bartender: "Two Budweisers for Belgian people!"

She laughed. Her and her friends were tourists from Belgium.

The bartender grinned wryly and said, "It's not very good beer."

Indeed. But that didn't stop InBev from buying Anheuser-Busch for $52 billion earlier this week in history's biggest all-cash deal. America's largest brewer, which the Busch family ran for 150 years, will now be in the hands of a company run by Brazilians and controlled by a few Belgian aristocracts.  read more »

Today, The New York Times brings us a mouthwatering, albeit hardly groundbreaking, trend piece on the time-honored summer phenomenon of public drinking. Yes, it's hot outside, and New Yorkers are quenching their thirst by throwing back cold ones at just about every turn. As Cara Buckley writes:

New York City is somewhat of a drinker's paradise year round, but a certain extra layer of permissiveness seems to infuse the city in the summertime, along with a wellspring of opportunities to get sloshed, slightly or mightily.

[...]

With bars on every corner, and—thanks to buses, subways or cabs—no need to drive after the drinking is done, New York City ... is like a giant—and boozy—college campus. And this is never more true than in the summer.

 read more »

Brooklyn Brewery co-founder and current president Steve Hindy has been elected to the board of directors of The Beer Institute (yup, that would be the national trade association representing the brewing industry, God bless 'em).

My colleague Chris Shott profiled Mr. Hindy last May as an unlikely real estate power broker in Brooklyn, which includes his involvement with Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner and with Mayor Bloomberg's sweeping rezoning of parts of the borough:  read more »

Beer nerds, rejoice! Crown Heights can now count itself among the select group of neighborhoods to have a true, brew beer garden.

As reported in the Gothamist, Franklin Park, at 618 St. John's Place, officially opened its doors on Friday, tapping kegs of Coney Island Lager, Rare Vos Amber Ale, Hoegaarden, Green Flash IPA, Schneider Weisse, Raddelburger, Six Point Righteous, Blue Point Toasted Lager, Original Sin, Jever, O'hara Irish Stout and Stone Pale Ale.  read more »

An early dispatch from Very Special Correspondent Choire Sicha in New Hampshire.