"Romans" news and stories

A weekly look at the draft selection at beer-friendly bars across the country.

The city of Milwaukee has long been known as Beer Town USA. Considered "the beer capital of the world" at the turn of the 20th century, it was home to four of the world's largest breweries (Blatz, Miller, Pabst and Schlitz).

Nowadays less than 1 percent of Milwaukee's workforce is employed by the brewing industry, but as long as Miller stays in business, Old Milwaukee remains on store shelves and the city keeps calling their baseball team the Brewers, it will continue to earn its moniker. Like many cities, the area is seeing a boom in craft-beer culture. Smaller brewers like Lakefront and Sprecher have national followings and the city is home to a number of brewpubs.

One of Milwaukee's most highly regarded watering holes is Romans' Pub, which DRAFT and Imbibe Magazines have called among the best beer bars in the nation. Indeed, 30 selections grace today's tap list. Sounds like Wisconsinites like to stay relatively local when they booze, though: Owner Mike Romans informed us that Goose Island IPA from nearby Chicago is their most popular brew. Locals craving a beer can simply check the list: "As soon as one gets changed out, it goes up on our site."

A sampling of suds on tap is after the jump. Got a favorite microbrew? Let us know in the comments.

An Italian wine producer has gone back to his Celtic roots and produced a wine using their techniques.

Yep, it is not all Roman down Italy way. The northern regions have discovered their Celtic tribal heritage, known as 'Barbari' to the Romans with two men taking it to the extreme by recreating a wine using wine making techiniques described by Roman historian Columella, in De Re Rustica: it is called "Arbustum Gallicum". They have built a replica Celtic farm to produce their wine using growing methods that would have been familiar to the locals 2500 years ago.

The wine Uinom Laevum is described as having "a rich taste with a strong herbal note and an unusual sandy after-taste" which doesn't really sell itself to me. The company plans to sell 300 liters of the 2004 vintage this year and 500 liters of the 2005 production next year for around 150 Euros (US$185). It will be bottled in ceramic vases of an ancient Celtic design according to archaeological relics in the Museums of Gambolò and Vigevano

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