Celebrating man’s real best friend

What a terrible day to be outside. The air is sweaty before it even hits Mr. Duvel’s skin, and… What a terrible day to be outside. The air is sweaty before it even hits Mr. Duvel’s skin, and the clouds look like thugs down a dark alley waiting to pounce on Friendship and drench Mr. Duvel as he stands in the parking lot of the Sharp Edge.

Fortunately, Mr. Duvel is underneath a tent shielding him from violent rain, and the gluttonous beads of perspiration flopping down his sides are cool. Because most fortunately of all, Mr. Duvel is a cold beer in the Sharp Edge’s annual Euro Beer Fest.

As Mr. Duvel attempts to stare down Mr. Guinness from across the shaded asphalt, thirsty spectators hand more than $50 each for small glasses.

Each glass comes with a ticket that has 113 black rectangles on it, signifying the number of available beer samples. Duvel, for example, is rectangle 75, and Chimay White is rectangle 15.

All 113 beers, from Paulaner Hefe at rectangle one to Otterhead Ale at rectangle N (the numbered rectangles only go up to 99 and are followed by letters), are European. Cheap-thrills drinkers searching for anything Budweiser or Miller will have to learn how to drink all over again.

“Having this many high styles of beer is an educational thing,” said Reggie Calhoun, a wholesales agent from McKees Rocks. “You have to teach a lot of people, and it puts a lot of excitement and fun in the job.”

There are quite a few things to learn about beer, such as identifying myriad subtle tastes.

Attendees are even encouraged to show some class by rinsing out their glasses between samples. Water pitchers sit at each table, and drinkers toss the rinse water anywhere on the asphalt after cleansing their glasses.

The whole tasting aspect seems to suggest that attendees take the drinking slowly, and doing so is helped by the rule that each sample be no more than two ounces. However, the alcohol by volume for many represented beers ranges all the way up to 9 percent. That means that two ounces of Duvel will pack as much punch as six ounces of the average American light beer.

Still, Sharp Edge owner Jeff Walewski smiled, saying, “I don’t want volume drinking