The oldest beer movie known to man is “The Fatal Glass of Beer (1933)”. This film is a short comedy movie starring W.C. Fields, known for its absurdist humor and deadpan delivery. Set in the Yukon during the Klondike Gold Rush, the film follows the story of Mr. Snavely (Fields), a dour, long-suffering man living in a remote snow-covered cabin with his wife. Their son, Chester, left home to seek fortune in the city but was led astray by the temptations of alcohol—symbolized by the “fatal glass of beer.”
The film satirizes morality plays and melodramas of the time, with exaggeratedly tragic storytelling and intentionally clumsy staging. Fields frequently breaks the fourth wall, delivering the film’s most famous recurring gag: after dramatically declaring, “And it ain’t a fit night out for man nor beast!” he immediately gets a handful of fake snow tossed into his face.
With its surreal, anti-comedy sensibilities and relentless parody of melodramatic tropes, The Fatal Glass of Beer remains one of Fields’ most bizarre and memorable short films.
Story about W.C. Fields
W.C. Fields was the glorious grouch who turned misanthropy into an art form, a red-nosed virtuoso who hated children, dogs, and just about everything else that moved—except maybe a well-mixed martini and a stack of unpaid bills he could juggle like circus knives. With his bulbous schnozz glowing like a stoplight nobody obeyed and a voice that sounded like a busted bagpipe gargling gravel, he waddled through the 1930s and ’40s snarling lines that still make decent people snort their drinks: “I am free of all prejudice. I hate everyone equally.” Fields didn’t just play drunkards and con men; he elevated them into philosophers of glorious self-interest, forever scheming to swindle bankers, outwit temperance ladies, and keep one step ahead of any kid who might ask him for a nickel.
Off-screen, the myth and the man happily arm-wrestled each other. He kept dozens of bank accounts under fake names (his favorite pseudonym: “Mahatma Kane Jeeves”), hoarded cash in trunks because he trusted banks about as much as he trusted a teetotaler’s handshake, and once told a process server, “Tell ’em I’m out of town—permanently.” He claimed to have started juggling at age nine to fend off his abusive father, which explains why every apple he ever tossed in a movie looked personally offended. Fields died on Christmas Day 1946—a holiday he openly despised—just to get the last laugh, presumably while muttering, “On the whole, I’d rather be in Philadelphia,” the line carved on his tombstone as the ultimate raspberry to the universe. Somewhere right now he’s probably trying to return a cloud to Saint Peter, claiming it has a hole in it.
W.C. Fields Quotes:
- “I am free of all prejudice. I hate everyone equally.”
- “Never give a sucker an even break.”
- “It ain’t what they call you, it’s what you answer to.”
- “I cook with wine; sometimes I even add it to the food.”
- “Horse sense is the thing a horse has which keeps it from betting on people.”
- “I never vote for anybody; I always vote against.”
- “Anyone who hates children and dogs can’t be all bad.” (Actually said about Fields by someone else at a dinner, but he loved it so much he repeated it forever.)
- “A woman drove me to drink and I never even had the courtesy to thank her.”
- “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Then quit. No use being a damn fool about it.”
- “I like children—fried.” (Apocryphal, but so perfectly in character that it stuck.)
- “Some weasel took the cork out of my lunch!”
- “Ah, the patter of little feet around the house—there’s nothing like having a midget for a butler.”
- “I’d rather have two barrels of Yesterday’s Sauerkraut than all the flowers in the world.”
- “On the whole, I’d rather be in Philadelphia.” (His self-penned epitaph)
- “Christmas at my house is always at least six or seven times more pleasant than anywhere else. We start drinking early. And while everyone else is seeing only one Santa Claus, we’ll be seeing six or seven.”
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McGuire’s Irish Pub – Pensacola, FL
The Story of Ken Grossman Brewing and Sierra Nevada Stout – The Brewery’s First Beer
In 1978, Grossman, along with Paul Camusi, founded 
On November 15, 1980, at 5 a.m., Grossman brewed Sierra Nevada’s first test batch: five barrels (150 gallons) of stout. This choice was deliberate. Grossman and Camusi opted for a stout over their already-tested pale ale recipe because they believed the dark, robust style would mask any imperfections in their fledgling brewery’s process. As Grossman explained, “We thought that making a stronger, dark beer would cover some of our sins. We knew we weren’t going to sell it and we figured we had a pretty good shot at making a drinkable stout right off the bat.” They also enjoyed drinking stouts themselves. The brewing process was a 13-hour labor of love, and after one sip, Grossman knew it was a success, giving them the confidence to move forward.
The B.C. Beer Awards awarded Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s brewing program the “Brewery of the Year” on Saturday in Vancouver, BC.
Cincinnati’s College Hill powerhouse, Brink Brewing Co, just pulled off the ultimate craft beer underdog story at the 2018 Great American Beer Festival® (GABF®)! In only 19 months of operation, this neighborhood gem crushed the competition — and they did it with head brewer Kelly Montgomery fresh out of the hospital!
Moozie is a rich Milk Stout. Like a chocolate milkshake without the straw, it features chocolate and coffee notes and is almost chewy thanks to the addition of lactose and flaked oats. This beer also boasts a bronze medal from the 2018 World Beer Cup®, silver at the inaugural Ohio Craft Brewers Cup earlier this year, a bronze from the 2017 Denver International Beer Competition and a gold medal from the 2017 U.S. Open Beer Championship after only being open for four months (one of the youngest breweries to place that year).
Pull up a stool in “Middleton’s Backyard” and raise a pint to Capital Brewery & Bier Garten as it celebrates its 40th anniversary. Since its founding in 1984 in downtown Middleton, Wisconsin, this trailblazing craft brewery has united beer lovers with its award-winning German-style lagers and vibrant community spirit.
