​After drinking in hundreds of beer joints across the country - and blurbing more than 400 beer bars for his new book, touted as the "ultimate coast-to-coast road trip of craft beer" - craft beer connoisseur Christian DeBenedetti still can't define what makes an alehouse great.

"It's impossible to define a great beer bar, but you know it when you see it," says DeBenedetti, who claims a comprehensive guide to breweries, pubs and other beer-drinking establishments hasn't been published in over a decade.

DeBenedetti concedes greatness is partially contingent upon a bar's beer selection: He didn't devote any pages in The Great American Ale Trail: The Craft Beer Lover's Guide to the Best Watering Holes in the Nation to shacks specializing in Michelob Ultra. But he says there are no particular design elements, crowds, food menus or philosophies that reliably signal success in the beer-pouring business.

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​Have you ever wanted to create an exhilirating fall beverage that includes orange-flavored Sparks Malt Liquor, Tullamore Dew whiskey and Sailor Jerry rum? Shit, who hasn't?!

But I digress. Every year, Seattle Weekly sponsors a music festival in a dozen downtown Ballard venues featuring 70-some bands. It's called Reverb. This year, Reverb falls on this Saturday, October 8, and is sponsored by the following beverage brands: Genessee (beer), Sparks (malt liquor), Vitamin Water, Freixenet (sparkling wine), Tullamore Dew (Irish whiskey), and Sailor Jerry (rum).

All of these brands will be available free of charge in a designated area on the day of the fest to persons holding a Viking Pass. The approximate retail value of such a pass--which also gets you into each and every show--is $75, but let us tell you how to win a pair of Viking Passes FOR FREE!

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​When I gave Belltown's Shorty's Seattle Weekly's Best Place to Play Pinball award earlier this year, I said the prize would have gone to the Seattle Pinball Museum instead if it ever "lucked its way into a liquor license." Well, egg on my face. Because it turns out that the International District's Pantheon to Pinball has been serving beer for a few weeks now. And luck had nothing to do with it.

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​Two Beers' smallest serving size is shrinking, but its square footage is growing.

The SoDo microbrewery this week became the first Washington craft brewery to issue its ales in 12-ounce cans (Gig Harbor's 7 Seas Brewing beat Two Beers to the aluminum punch with its 16-ounce tall boys.) Founder and head brewer Joel VandenBrink says the release is one of "kind of a lot of projects concurrently launching or launching soon."

Two Beers last week began the process of doubling its annual production from 1000 gallons to 2000 gallons, and plans to expand its brewhouse and warehouse later this summer. The brewery is also adding a permanent tasting room to showcase its expanded roster of beer styles in 22-ounce bottles and new 12-ounce cans.

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Curtis Cartier

Brouwer's Cafe became a gourmet man-cave last night.

​Speaking before a packed house of more than 100 thirsty brew heads last night at Brouwer's Cafe in Fremont, Firestone Walker Brewing Company Owner David Walker declared in a European accent that "the beer industry in Europe is dying."

"It's booming," he added, "in the United States, and especially the Pacific Northwest."

Later, after 10 courses of creole- and Northwest-inspired gourmet food and around 15 hand-crafted, delicious beers (none of them from Europe), it seemed that Walker was on to something.

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​The sails of many a Shilshole boat flew at half-mast over the weekend with news that Charlie Files, the owner of Ballard's Sloop Tavern, passed away Friday while vacationing in Hawaii.

Files also owned Leny's in Tangletown, and once ran Targy's on Queen Anne as well as several other neighborhood watering holes (including his namesake Charlie's on Shilshole) past and present.

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​Seattle Beer Week started this week, giving aspiring Seattle Weekly Home Brew Competition entrants the chance to leach inspiration from top craft beers and craft-beer makers.

The competition, now in its third year, is open to all amateur home brewers. For more detailed information--including guidelines for labeling bottles and bottle drop-off points--click here.

The winner will brew his or her "best in show" beer with Big Al Brewing, which will distribute the results for a full month.

Entries must be submitted by Aug. 19, which means it's nigh time to get cracking. Or at least drinking. Enjoy the week.

Follow Voracious on Facebook & Twitter. Follow me at @hannaraskin

​Beer is "still very much a man's world," says Lisa Morrison, author of the newly released Craft Beers of the Pacific Northwest.

To encourage more women to crash the stag party, Morrison recently joined other members of the Pink Boots Society--a trade group for female beer brewers, writers and other industry professionals--to launch a counterpart organization for consumers. Since December, Barley's Angels has established chapters in Australia, Argentina, and eight North American cities.

"Our goal is to get more women interested in beer," Morrison explains. "It's not a drinking club, it's an educational group."

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Min Chung, the West Seattle entrepreneur who runs a sophisticated beer, wine, and hoagie shop in a former 7-Eleven, is worried an opponent's dirty tricks could derail a planned customer-appreciation barbecue next month.

Min Chung fills growlers at his West Seattle store, much to the dismay of detractors who claim his service is an affront to the neighborhood.

​"It's disheartening for me," says Chung, whose popular Super Deli Mart was profiled on Voracious last week. "I'm trying to do something new and fun."

According to Chung, he's been targeted with harassing phone calls, nasty Yelp reviews, and a Twitter smear campaign claiming the convenience store poses a threat to neighborhood children. Additionally, Chung says, police officers lunching at Super Deli Mart were recently interrupted by "someone who just popped in, screaming 'Crooked cops! Dirty cops!'."

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Lil' Scoop

Straight outta Vashon, the nicest convenience store table you'll ever sit down at.

​When Min Chung was a boy growing up in Burien, his father used to drag him across the Sound to Vashon Island every weekend for fishing trips. Young Chung would occasionally get cranky--"In Asian culture, the youngest son has no say," he says. So in order to pacify him, Chung's dad would stop for a snack at the Hoagie's Corner on 35th and Barton in West Seattle before making the final downhill descent to the Fauntleroy ferry dock.

As an adult, Chung moved into a home within a mile of the former deli, which had gone through subsequent incarnations as a 7-11 and a struggling independent convenience store. A couple years ago, while driving on 35th Ave SW--a road dubbed "I-35" for its travelers' propensity to far exceed the posted speed limit--Chung got in a car accident right in front of the store. At the time, he was in talks with 7-11 to purchase and operate his own franchise. But fate had suddenly reacquainted him with the then-dingy little store of his youth.

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