Push up your spectacles and put down your glasses. It is time to shine, geeks. Philly Beer Geek 2011 is upon us.

Beer geeks should not be confused with snobs. Beer is joyous, welcoming, inexpensive, and, for the most part, accessible. Beer is simple and plentiful like the cheesesteak or the pretzel – and equally Philadelphian at this point. Even in Philly (where retail beer costs are stupid expensive, relative to almost any other state) we almost never pay more than $10 a glass or $25 dollars a bottle for even the most hyper-limited of beers and the majority of craft beer costs somewhere between $2.50 – $5 per bottle.

I think it was Benjamin Franklin himself who said that beer is proof that God didn’t want us to go broke drowning our sorrows. Your wine-loving friends may be ashamed (or perhaps
eager) to tell you that their collection contains many multi-Benjamin bottles. But you can really drink your way to an encyclopedic level of expertise with that kind of dough in the beer world and many Philadelphians have done so.

And this is not meant to belittle wine aficionados at large, but, frankly speaking, your “average wine aficionado” is significantly wealthier than your average Philadelphian. Our Joe, by the way, makes about $16k per year and has worked only 16 of the last 24 months. Calling Philly an essentially “middle” or “working” class city is precisely the kind of overstatement that one might hear over a ninety-dollar glass of Alsacean Pinot.

OK, rant over. Philly Beer Geek 2011 celebrates the cash-strapped, likely-bearded sud-savants of our city. Compete yourself or come for the show. Qualifying rounds continue through May. Next up – Monday the 16th at the P.O.P.E.

Full schedule here.