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

The San Diego area has so many great breweries -- AleSmith, Green Flash, Port, just to pull a few off a list in alphabetical order -- that it certainly needs its fair share of great beer bars to showcase the local SoCal talent. They've got the goods. Perennial powerhouse Hamilton's Tavern always keeps a mighty draft list. Significant start-ups like Toronado's recent San Diego location offers tons of taps. Even Stone Brewery gets in on the action, featuring not only their own brews but favorites from around California and beyond.

Today, however, O'Brien's Pub gets the nod for a trend worth supporting: draft beer archives! Not only do they offer up their own "On Tap" link via their website, but patrons can also view a complete list of every brew they've ever had on draft ... or at least for the past few years. "It's everything we've ever posted on the website," says owner Tom Nickel, "but the site only dates back to 2007." Still, two years of beers is the kind of comprehensive compiling that What's On Tap nerds can get behind!

After the jump, a reprint of the most current draft list off their website.

Look no further than Beer Suggest, a new website that - well, isn't it obvious?

The site is a work in progress, with its simple design and rudimentary tools (it only went live about a week ago). So far, the site boasts over 4,000 beer listings and over 1000 breweries. There are also beer-centered events, and reviews of various brews.

Think you can walk the walk when it comes to beer? Register for an account, and feel free to review and rate beers. Check here for the current Top 10 lists of rated and reviewed beers, including the Shiner Bock and the Gonzo Imperial Porter.

The site is slow to load, so be patient. But with a few tweaks and a few more ratings, it could develop into a seriously helpful tool for beer lovers.

Small microbreweries in Texas are lobbying to sell beer directly to the public to open up an entirely new sales area for the industry. Presently, the Texas A & B code only lets microbreweries sell to distributors and retailers. This puts Texas craft breweries at a disadvantage to those in other states where sales directly to customers are allowed.

To improve this, Saint Arnold Brewing Co. in Houston, TX is presenting a proposition to change the current beverage code. This proposal is supported by all five Texas microbreweries, which have joined together to recruit a sponsor to put it before the Legislature in the form of a bill. Brock Wagner, founder of Saint Arnold Brewing says that as many as 14 Texas microbreweries have gone out of business for various reasons since craft breweries first opened in the mid-1980s and early 1990s.

This proposal follows strongly on the heels of the strongly supported 2003 Proposition 11, which changed the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission code to allow state wineries to directly sell limited quantities of wine. The founder of Rahr & Sons, Fritz Rahr, thinks that Texas voters would again support such a change in the beverage law. He says, "It's time Texas craft brewers are offered the same customer-friendly advantages that Texas wineries already have."

Sales of organic beer grew just as fast as sales of organic coffee in 2005-40 percent-according to a recent Associated Press article about organic breweries. Peak Organic Brewing Co. in Burlington, Mass. and Butte Creek Brewing Co. in Chico, Calif. are among the organic breweries mentioned in the piece. Anheuser-Busch is even testing out organic brews, the AP says. Consumers have already shown a willingness to shell out extra for boutique beers, so the price of organic brews shouldn't seem that unusual. For those of you still looking for a trustworthy name, Samuel Smith makes an organic lager and an organic ale.

Brewers in Europe may soon have to provide complete lists off ingredients on their beer bottles, according to a recent BBC News story. The European Commission hopes to have reworked many labeling standards, including those for alcoholic beverages, by the end of the year. While this might not be a big deal to breweries in Germany, where beer can legally only contain water, hops (right), yeast and malted barley or wheat, plenty of other breweries use chemicals that, while safe, may sound less than appealing to consumers. Propylene glycol alginate, for example, is a chemical derived from algae, used to maintain a thicker head on a beer. Personally, I'd be glad to know a little more about what else is in my beer. I'm sure others would too.

Last Friday, the winners of the 2006 Brewers Association World Beer Cup (aka "the most prestigious beer competition in the world") were announced in Seattle. This year's event was the largest on record, with over 2,000 entries coming in from almost 60 different countries. Beers were judged in 85 different categories, from "non-alcoholic malt tonic" to "fruit and vegetable beer" to "barley wine-style ale." A complete list of winners is available here.

Beer does not immediately spring to mind when asked to think about desserts. Whether you like dark or pale ales, chances are that you are more likely to want a beer with your pizza than with your creme brule. Restaurateurs and brewers, however, are seeing things in a different light. With the proliferation of microbreweries, including restaurants and pubs that brew their own blends, a wider variety of beers are showing up on menus and the unique flavors in some brews - from honey to blackberry - are helping to put some beers on the dessert menu on a regular basis. Strong, dark beers can have a noticeably bitter after taste, but many pair well with fruit to make sorbets. Dairy can mute the flavors of some malts, but also conceals lingering bitterness, so it pairs well with stronger ales. Wine and champagne have long been making appearances in desserts - why not beer?

Guinness has appeared, with success, in ice creams already and there are commercial varieties of beer ice cream as well, though unique new flavors will not have the same lure of a brand name to draw consumers in.

[Photo Sydney Morning Herald]

Now this just might be dangerous - a google map of all the brew houses in Oregon and Washington State. As will all such mashups, you can click on a pin (in this case shaped like beer tankards) and drill down to view the exact location. Then you can get driving instructions - which is the dangerous bit as there are dozens of places to visit.

There is also a winery map which offers similar details. Now I can see exactly where those two bottles of Pinot Gris came from that my parents brought back for me on a recent trip.