Earlier this summer Martyn Cornell wrote that the Wikipedia entry on India Pale Ale “so completely, uselessly wrong as to be actively dangerous: the mistakes in it are going to be repeated by other writers too lazy to do their own research, and they are likely to take years to stamp out.” A bit of a discussion about Wikipedia followed with a bit of a sidebar about how dang frustrating it is to see myths get repeated as fact.

We were in the Canadian Rockies at the time, and later it seemed too late to chime that small breweries are also a culprit when it comes to the IPA story. A shorter version of the Wikipedia entry gets shown thousands of times a day to drinkers ordering from brewpub menus or customers reading the blurb on the neck label. In the long run this propagates the information just as dangerously as Wikipedia.

I thought of that this week when we visited Independence Hall in Philadelphia — yes, “America’s Best Beer Drinking City” but this was a home school field trip. The gift shop sells all manner of items quoting Benjamin Franklin, including T-shirts and coasters, proclaiming, “Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.”

The problem is that Franklin probably never said this. Mid-Atlantic Brewing News explained this well nearly three years go (no link to the story – sorry), and Bob Skilnik had more details shortly thereafter.

What do you think the chances are the gift store will withdraw these obviously good sellers from its inventory for the sake of historical accuracy?

Today is the 100th day of our adventure, and we’ve posted a bunch of numbers since we figure this pretty much concludes Part I. Part II begins Monday when we fly to Germany.

You won’t find much beer — should I have counted ounces consumed, or at least number of different brands? — but you will notice we spent one night in a brewery parking lot.

The unnamed brewery was Bell’s in Michigan. John Mallett offered and we couldn’t resist. Would you pass on the chance to call friends and say, “Guess where I’m calling from.” OK, maybe it would have been cooler to be inside the brewery (with everybody else gone.)

This aerial map from MapQwest is a tad out of date — it seems as if they expand at Bell’s about every third week.

We’re wrapping up the summer phase of our Grand Adventure with an American history field trip and packing for Part II-Europe, so a few links to posts you should read and think about:

– On Locale, and Maeib writes, “Whilst supporting this initiative as I like to see local businesses flourishing, and will support them wherever possible, I don’t want to hear the words ‘beer miles.'”

Be sure to read the comments. I can tell you that three months into paying attention to all things local, not just beer, it’s possible to spend too much time thinking about this. Take a break and enjoy the beer, local or otherwise.

– The Wall Street Journal recently joined the marketing to women discussion which has already already consumed plenty of space here.

But you have to smile when you read that Coors “set up a unit code-named Eve this year to develop beer brands and marketing techniques appealing to women. The unit’s mission, the company says, is to create ‘a world where women love beer as much as they love shoes.'” What beer has been assigned that task? Blue Moon.

– This is what beer is about: Beer Babe eventually gets around to drinking Shock Top Belgian White (a Blue Moon knock-off, as a matter of fact).

– This is where beer need not go: A fictitious restaurant captured a Wine Spectator Award of Excellence with a fictitious wine list. Quite a mess in the wine world (reading here and here will be enough to make your head explode).

The news to me is that there’s an organization called the American Association of Wine Economists. I don’t think I want to drink in a world where there is an American Association of Beer Economists.