Bob Sylvester, who I met last year during the National Homebrewers Conference in Orlando, reports that his Saint Somewhere Brewing Co. in Tarpon Springs is about ready to start selling beer.

“We are up and running and making our debut at the Wazoo Beer Festival in Tampa FL on Aug. 4,” he writes. The first two beers are a spiced saison and an amber ale. All of his beers will be unfiltered and bottle conditioned, sold only in corked and caged 750ml bottles. They won’t be available on draft or in 12-ounce bottles.

More from the St. Petersburg Times.

“I’d rather put out a small amount of a really good product than a lot of a mediocre product, ” Sylvester told the Times.

Pacific Brew News Radio tasted a few beers with Martin Lodahl, who was writing about brewing Belgian-inspired beers back when making them in the United States was pretty much the domain of homebrewers.

I’d suggest grabbing one or more of these beer first: Ommegang Hennepin, Dupont Moinette Brune, Affligem Tripel and/or Allagash Four, then give a listen to the podcast.

Added July 25: Part II of the interview is now available. Pucker up with any of these you can find:

- Russian River Temptation
- Boone Aude Kriek
- Hansens Aude Kriek
- 1994 Lidemans Cuvee Rene
- Cantillon Organic Gueze

Asheville, N.C., just keeps getting more attractive.

We liked the town a dozen years ago when we passed through - nice setting, good brewing scene (starting with Highland Brewing), fine places to drink beer, good live music, good restaurants.

I was reminded up this last week while reading a post at Accidental Hedonist about keeping food local.

And as I was taken around through the neighborhoods to talk with various food entrepreneurs and advocates, one thing became very clear to me. A community gets the food culture it deserves.

Those involved in the food in Asheville have worked hard to lessen the influence of big business has had upon their community. And don’t be fooled, big food has a strong presence in the area, especially the further away one is from down town. But there is a strong, concerted effort to mitigate their influence.

But back to beer. The Asheville Beer Blog reports a place called the Thirsty Monk will open soon. It will serve eight Belgian beers on tap and offer a wide selection by the bottle.

Hard to tell if Seattle Weekly columnist Maggie Dutton was more taken by brewer Tomme Arthur or his Lost Abbey beers. Following a beer dinner in Seattle here’s some of what she wrote:

- “He is so far upstream that his endless ideas and experiments are filtering into the mainstream only now.”
- “Tasting the beer is the equivalent of hearing Eddie Van Halen’s hammer-on style for the first time.”
- “If I’d had a lighter, I would have raised it in praise.”

Dutton is no pushover, which you’ll see if you visit her blog, The Wine Offensive.

Not sure when Philadelphia reached the “tipping point” for Belgian-inspired cafe-restaurants serving Belgian-inspired and Belgian-brewed beers, but today Don Russell writes - in his Joe Sixpack column in the Philly Daily News and his website - about five new Belgian taverns.

He begins with a review of ZoT, which we mentioned opening in February, concluding “ZoT pushes the idea of Belgian cuisine to another level while holding firm to its beery roots.

Of the four yet to open, one will be called The Belgian Cafe and run by the same folks behind Monk’s Cafe, one of the beer spots on the planet inside or outside of Belgium. Russell writes possibly the most interesting is Beneluxx at the Broad Axe Tavern in Blue Bell, Montgomery County.

Established in 1681, the tavern is arguably the oldest in America, opened before William Penn arrived in Pennsylvania. It’s being gutted and is expected to open sometime this summer.