Also this issue: Sonoma Again, Naturally The Main Street mainstay enters its second decade with a new organic menu. -Maxine Keyser

December 5-11, 2002

food

Drink Tank

by Frank Lewis

The holidays are about giving, so let me give you an idea of what I want: a Samuel Adams Winter Classics Pack. (Well, another one. The good folks at The Boston Beer Company sent one recently -- “to aid in your research” -- but it’s looong gone.) The pack contains 12 bottles, two each of the well-known Boston Lager; the new Vienna Style Lager and Sam Adams Light; and previously released seasonal concoctions (exclusive to the Winter Classics Pack) Winter Lager, Old Fezziwig and Cranberry Lambic. Of the six, only the Cranberry Lambic disappointed me. Beer, good; cranberry, also good; cranberry beer, not so good. Old Fezziwig, however, is a real treat, despite its unfortunate name and this-can’t-be-right list of ingredients (caramel and chocolate malt, ginger, Curaçao orange peel and Saigon cinnamon). Even the Sam Adams Light is surprisingly good. The suggested retail price is a mere $11.99-$13.99, and the box is wintry and festive, so I won’t even mind if you don’t wrap it.

Brewer Chris LaPierre, formerly of Dock Street Brewery, has joined the Iron Hill Brewery & Restaurant group (www.ironhillbrewery.com). According to a release, LaPierre is being groomed for a head brewer post at a future Iron Hill location.

Fionn Mac Cumhaill (Finn Mac Cool) is one of the greatest heroes in Irish history/legend. To this day Irish republicans are sometimes referred to as Fenians, the same name as the warriors Finn once led. So you'd think that at a pub named after the likes of him, the barkeeps would be skilled in the art of pulling a pint of Guinness -- a two-step process that should take a few minutes. But on a recent visit to Finn Mac Cool's at 12th and Sansom, I watched in horror as a young bartender filled the glass in one shot. (If not given time to settle between pours, the beer is bitter and flat.) When I complained, another bartender argued with me, so I snatched my money off the bar and left. Life is too short to drink badly poured Guinness.