Lager

I SIPPED THE PAST the other afternoon, and it tasted pretty good. National Premium -- a locally made beer once considered among the classiest lagers in the land, only to drop out of production in 1996 -- is making a comeback.The reborn beer was served last week at the Baltimore Waterfront Festival by its new owner, Frederick Brewing Co., the Maryland craft brewery known for its variety of small-batch beers, including one made with hemp seed.Judging by the glass of National Premium I downed, the old favorite is off to a promising second start.

Why would 3,000 people choose to spend the first sunny weekend in a month inside a gloomy, cavernous building in downtown Baltimore? In a word, beer.Made-to-order weather wasn't going to keep serious beer fans away from the Baltimore Convention Center, where they were content to spend the afternoon sipping lagers, stouts, ales and barley wines at the Great American Beer Festival.For the price of $30, beer enthusiasts received a small glass and the opportunity to taste unlimited 1-ounce samples of the 350 beers being served by 120 breweries from across the country.

Like a big scoop of your favorite ice cream, the subtitle of this book is a real mouthful.It's also misleading.This isn't so much Ben & Jerry's story as it is Ben & Fred's. Fred would be Fred "Chico" Lager, the book's author and former chief executive officer of the ice cream company. Ben would be Ben Cohen, co-founder with Jerry Greenfield of Ben & Jerry's Homemade Inc.The conflict between Ben and Fred makes for interesting reading. It turns out that things weren't all sweetness and super chunks up in Vermont in the late 1980s.

RESULTS are in from this year's Great American Beer Festival, and they are a little disheartening for lovers of the brew on the East Coast. Of 94 medals awarded in 32 types of beers and ales, only 14 went to brewers east of the Mississippi River.No doubt one reason was the site of the competition, Denver, Colo. Many of the craft brewers who would enter contests like this are small operations with little time or money to fly a couple of cases and a keg or two that far. Also, the micro-brewery business started and flourishes the most on the West Coast.

One of the few kind things that can be said about August in Maryland is that it is excellent beer-drinking weather.This summer a growing number of Maryland brewers have been turning out small batches of full-flavored, locally made beers. This is good news for area quaffers. While many wines get better with age, most beers don't. Like a good baker, a small brewer uses fresh ingredients to make his product, sells it quickly while its flavors are at their peak, then goes to work on the next batch.

A Gold-en notionThere's a shoe for every sport, why not a beer? Let's start with Lax Lager, the creation of local lacrosse aficionado Joe Gold. Mr. Gold, who was raised in Brooklyn Park and helped UMBC win its lacrosse division championship in 1980, developed a taste for English-style beers while working for the British government to promote lacrosse and, later, for Young & Co. brewers of London.Back in the United States and involved once again with lacrosse, Mr. Gold thought it would be fun to develop a beer lacrosse players -- and others -- could love.

I have tasted the beverages of May, and can report there are happy days ahead.Two local brewers, Baltimore Brewing Company on Albermarle Street and Sisson's on Cross Street, have turned out "Maibock" beers in honor of the lusty month.The name Maibock means a strong lager served in May. I am told that over in Bavaria the arrival of these beers is part of a general hoo-ha celebrating spring, flowers and flirting. I support the spread of such hoo-ha.The Maibock is loaded with malt, and a fair of amount of alcohol, 6.8 percent by volume compared to the 5.3 percent in most everyday brews.