By Janet Eldred

If you have a computer and access to the Internet (also referred to as the Net, the World Wide Web, and the Web), then there are plenty of opportunities to quench your thirst for beer and pubs. Here are a few sites to get you started, as well as some general information about what you should expect from the Web. (NB: If you don't have access to the Web, see Helpful Hint 4 at the end of this article.)

Beer sites

Of course, you'll want to start with CAMRA's own site at (www.camra.org.uk). Here you'll find news updates, the CAMRA catalogue, info on upcoming beer festivals and other CAMRA branches, and an email address to send your own message to CAMRA HQ, including letters to What's Brewing.

RealBeer.com at is a US site that uses lots of graphics and can be painfully slow to load onto your screen. Once on, however, it has a wealth of pathways you can follow. There is a "What's New" section with new links and features each month; information about BEERWeeK, a weekly email beer news digest available by subscription; and "virtual brew tours" of breweries in the US and Canada. For this last one, I entered the ZIP code of my former home in Cambridge, MA (02142) and found several breweries listed, including the Boston Beer Company, maker of Samuel Adams beers. Other options at this site are games, authors, retail, and something called "Burp Me" I leave that to you to investigate!

At the other end of the spectrum is another US site that is strong on (sophomoric) humor. "Beer" at (www.beer.com) posts stories, games, and photos from "readers" of the site. It's not my pint of ale, but if you enjoy looking at photos of Great American Beer Guts, then this is the place for you.

Two sites offer loads of reference information. The Beer Info Source at (www.beerinfo.com) has a "Beer and Brewing Library", classified ads, and answers to FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions). www.breworld.com bills itself as "Europe's largest Internet site for the brewing industry". Here, among other things, you'll find a comprehensive word search.

Finally, for those of you who like to make your own, the Home Brew Shop at (www.the-home-brew-shop.co.uk) offers a wide range of products for craft brewers and winemakers, all of which can be ordered via phone or post.

Pub sites

Definitely check out PubWorld at (www.pubworld.co.uk). This is a UK site with few graphics, so response time is quick. My favorite part is the "virtual bar", where you can send an "e-beer" to anyone who has an email address including yourself! Once sent (at no charge), your friend gets a message with a code to pick up their e-beer at the website. When they connect to the website, they can "drink" the beer! This site also offers a worldwide pub crawl, with links to pubs, bars, hotels, and other beer sites around the globe.

A small but interesting site is (www.fishnet.net/~green_lion/). Green Lion describes itself as "a small non-commercial group of enthusiasts interested in the history, name derivations, and signs of the English Public House". The site includes a database of pubs and a quiz of pub names in the UK.

General info

There are Web sites for beer and pubs in many different countries. I concentrated my search on the US and UK for obvious reasons (these are the countries I know!), but you'll find sites in Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Australia, etc. (See PubWorld, above.)

Helpful hints:

� Janet B. Eldred, 1997