Ask the Editor: Can I Partake in Philly Beer Week Festivities If I Love Miller Lite?

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Welcome to Ask the Editor, a biweekly column by yours truly where I answer all of your Philly food and drink questions. Have some burning ones already? Email me here.

Philly Beer Week is happening right now, which is great if you’re a hop head, but I like Miller Lite. Should I stay home?

—Jon in Yardley 

Philly Mag food editor Alex Tewfik

Anthony Bourdain said it best when some beer nerds criticized him for drinking non-craft beer:

“You know what kind of beer I like? I like cold beer.”

See, the craft beer world is developing a PR problem — it’s too into … itself. Take, for example, Philly’s own triple-hopped IPA brewed with local turnips and Chinese five-spice. It’s a joke beer I just made up, but you didn’t know it was till just now, and that’s not great.

Navigating Beer Week as a Miller Lite fan is easy. See, Miller Lite is a pilsner, so find one on the draft list. Going to Friday night’s FeastivALE in Fishtown? Order a Bohemian Pilsner from Lancaster-based brewery Wacker’s and stick to it all night long.  Spending your Saturday afternoon at Morgan’s Pier for the Tröegs takeover? Sunshine Pils all day.

If you want to branch out just a little past your comfort zone, search the menu for “pale ale” or “kölsch,” because those beers typically land on the lighter side of the spectrum — which, for us dilettantes, is just what we’re looking for. Plus, pilsners, kölsches, light pale ales, when they’re in the hands of master brewers, have all those “notes” and “layers” everyone keeps talking about, so you won’t be ostracized. And you can drink more than two without blacking out.

Last but not least, this Sunday (June 10th) afternoon, there’s even an event at Taproom on 19th called “Beers Your Dad Drank.” You’re in good hands there.

Or you could put on a full suit of armor and just, you know, order a Miller Lite at one of those IPA fests.

See how that goes. Could be fun.