Fans of German beers and fun might want to check out the Front Door taphouse this Saturday and down a few liters of brew to celebrate Okotberfest.

Last year’s celebration at the Front Door (105 S. 6th St. in Downtown Boise) was a total blast, and this year’s version looks pretty fun too. C’mon — a holiday built around drinking beer? It’s irresistible.

The Front Door will have nine German beers on tap — most liters will cost between $6-to-$7 — and authentic dishes like bratwurst and sauerkraut on the menu between noon and 9 p.m. Saturday.

Anyone planning to get a last minute ticket to this year’s Great American Beer Festival in Denver next month is essentially out of luck.

Three of the four GABF sessions are sold out, and only a few tickets remain for the Thursday, Oct. 9 session. The Friday night and Saturday afternoon sessions (Oct. 10 and 11) sold out at the beginning of September, and now Saturday night is sold out as well.

In what is unquestionably the coolest convention ever created (except for maybe the Kiss conventions in the mid 90s) lucky ticket holders for this year’s GABF will get to sample 1,969 beers from 432 breweries, all from the U.S., the greatest beer nation in the world.

That is the question Washington Post columnist Greg Kitsock asks readers in this entertaining column published today.

The question “Who would you rather have a beer with” has been used by many in determining who they are going to vote for years. Who among us hadn’t used that as a personal litmus test at one time or another? Even in these partisan times, the question still has some merit.

Kitsock says a 2004 poll showed more Americans wanted to drink a beer with George W. than John Kerry, which I get, kind of. I guess. Maybe this isn’t the best way to determine who to vote for. Anyway, it’s an interesting exercise.

Boise's best and most consistent beer bar — Bittercreek Alehouse — got a nice shout out in the latest issue of Imbibe Magazine.

The magazine rates Bittercreek one of the 100 best places to drink beer in America in the "Best Locally Brewed Offerings" category.

There are three bylines on the whole package — which is pretty cool, by the way — and this is what the reporters say about Bittercreek.

Here’s some good news from Laughing Dog Brewing up in Ponderay — Fred Colby’s delicious Dogzilla black IPA has shed its label of seasonal and will now be a year-round product.

First conceived last summer as a middle ground between Laughing Dog’s regular IPA and the Devil Dog Imperial version, the Dogzilla has caught on like crazy, Colby said.

Here’s some good news for Valley County craft beer enthusiasts and thirsty recreationists from the Treasure Valley — a new brewpub will be open for business in McCall later this fall.

The Salmon River Brewery will open in a retrofitted home at 300 Colorado Street later this fall. Co-owners Matt and Jennifer Hurlbutt and Matt and Ellen Ganz are currenlty turning a home built in 1976 into a seven-barrel brewery and pub.

Matt Hurlbutt, who is doing much of the retrofitting work, said he is using as much salvaged lumber and other restored materials as he can during construction to reflect the owners’ dedication to environmental conservation.

Want to drink some excellent pacific northwest beer and meet one of the founding fathers of the craft beer movement?

Get to the Front Door ( 105 S. 6th Street in Downtown Boise) at 6 p.m. and help Mike Hale, of Hale’s Ales celebrate the brewery’s 25th anniversary.

The Front Door is having a brewers night with Hale tonight, and this is your chance to thank him for a quarter century of producing excellent craft beers from his Seattle-based brewery.

That’s right, Boise imbibers. The much anticipated Stone Anniversary ale is out and available at the Boise Co-Op for the very reasonable price of $5.79 for 22 ounce bottle. Go get one, or two, or three, asap.

The annual Stone anniversary beer has become one of my favorite things to look forward to every year, because they are always so good. And this year’s version, a bitter chocolate oatmeal stout is outstanding. I drank a bottle last night and it was deep, dark, complex, and delicious. The dark malt is just full of (you guessed it) chocolate, oat, and burnt coffee tastes, but it is wonderfully balanced.

In the incredibly obvious department, international brewing conglomerate SAB/Miller has decided to pull their “craft-style light” versions of Miller Lite from store shelves after a tryout in a few select markets — Baltimore, Minneapolis, and Charlotte — didn’t go so well.

I don’t blame a company like SAB/Miller for trying to make craft beer. As a matter of fact, huge companies like Miller have the resources to do a great job.

But why not make a few interesting, full-flavored beers to expand the roster? Creating “light” versions of craft beers, especially duller styles like the amber and blonde ales Miller flirted with, is just silly. It’s not like they were trying to make a low-cal porter or something.

Making dull beers even duller doesn’t sound to me like a recipe for success.

Cooking with beer — as in the use of beer as an ingredient in select dishes, not drinking some while you are cooking — is becoming more and more popular as chefs are embracing the wonderful flavors the barley malt/hops/yeast/water elixir can add to food.

And one of the funner recipes is beer can chicken, where you use a can of brew, inserted into the chicken, to provide flavor and moisture during the cooking of the bird.

The monkey in the wrench here, of course, is most beer in cans are mainstream brewer light lagers. They are undoubtably moist, but flavor-wise, they leave more than a little to be desired.

But check out this website from the Food Network for a nice recipe (complete with a helpful video) using Oskar Blue’s Old Chub Scottish Style Ale as the beer to flavor the chicken. Taste problem solved!

To get to the video, go to the "Watch Adam's Videos" sidebar on the right side of the Web page and click on "Adam Gertler's Show Pilot" to learn how to use a can of Old Chub to make a delicious roast chicken.