Beer Glorious Beer. For those of you in my circle that do not appreciate fine micro-brewing or beer in general, go put on your worry-wart hats and sit in the corner for a while. This post is not for you. For those that do, wellll....

Yesterday I attended a 'Tion' for the Russian River Brewery at The Toronado in the Lower Haight here in San Francisco. Two things:

First: The Toronado should be on any beer lover Haj. (Yes I'm trying to be ironic, not bigoted.) In the midst of so many fine breweries in the NW US, this bar continues to stand out as the home of great, craft brewed and non- traditional beer. It looks like a biker bar/dive from the outside but when you enter and get an order in past the surley, tatto laden barkeep, you will have a world of fermented fabulousness at your fingertips. It serves NO FOOD! It is a beer bar. But it is perfect happy to allow you to toddle in with baskets or paper plates from the almost equally as locally legenday Mythic Pizza or Sausage Parlor that flank it. What more could you ask for? www.toronado.com

Second: The Russian River brewery produces some brew that PACKED the house all night for this event. They weren't giving it away, they were selling it on a Wednesday and the result was an elbow-to-elbow-buy-4-at-a-time event. The Pleny the Elder (an IPA) and Lap Dance win the 'keepin' it realz' beer name award. Most of the catalog is very religious. Links below:

• Little White Lie
• Redemption
• Perdition
• Benediction
• Damnation
• Deification
• Erudition
• Rejection
• Salvation
• Sanctification
• all at www.russianriverbrewing.com

Go ye forth and find one to enjoy. You will thank me for it.

Cheers Big Ears!!