The hammer had started its day in the Northeast and traveled in Olympic torch-style relay via foot, bike, Big Wheels, roller skates, and truck to Center City. Noted beer aficionado Ben Franklin - or a very close facsimile of the Founding Father - carried the hammer on its final leg and handed it to a laughing Mayor Nutter.

The second annual Philadelphia Beer Week - a 10-day celebration of all things brewed - was launched at the Comcast Center Friday, where Nutter tapped the first Yards keg with a swing of a specially forged "Hammer of Glory" that would have done Thor proud.

"We are the greatest beer-drinking city in the United States of America," Nutter said. "We make all kinds. We drink all kinds."

And we turn out for beer. As many as 30,000 enthusiasts were expected to attend 670 beer-related events across the region, from tastings to trivia to brew-tours, during the brewing extravaganza that continues through Sunday.

And while Nutter expanded on the positive economic impact the event would have for the city, advising the crowd that "after that seventh or eighth, you might want to think about that designated driver," he finally realized the 700-strong sellout crowd wasn't there to hear him speak.

"Enough of the talkin,' " Nutter declared. "It's time to start tappin'."

While men may have slightly outnumbered women at the opening-night event, this was no frat party. Attendees came in all ages and sizes, from different towns and with different agendas.

Rob Dougherty, 28, a Fairmount home brewer who attended three Beer Week events each night last year, said he hoped to repeat that feat this year. He welcomed the chance to talk to the professional brewers and to "try to get little recipes out of them when I can."

Bruce Rodgers of Mickleton, Gloucester County, joked to a friend that, only one hour into the event, "I've already had 40 beers." Rodgers and his wife, Dori, said their two children, ages 11 and 15, had been to more brewpubs than most people of legal drinking age.

"We love to sample beers and this is the perfect venue for it," said Bruce Rodgers, 44. "We never come to Philadelphia, but this is a good time."

So good, in fact, that the Rodgers family was talking about finding a nearby hotel room for the night. Nutter would have been proud.

Still, there wasn't a lot of chugging going on at Beer Week events, especially not at the Ladies Beer Tea at Fairmount's Belgian Cafe Saturday afternoon. Host Nancy Rigberg, owner of Center City's Home Sweet Homebrew, said good beer was "an extension of good food and the finer things in life."

"Beer is more food-friendly than wine. It's more adaptable," Rigberg said. "Beer has a culinary place and it's just as important to learn beer and food pairings as it is food and wine pairings."

The women who crowded the cafe sampled shrimp croquettes and pancakes topped with smoked duck with a sage-heavy beer and desserts with a chocolate stout. Among the crowd were home brewers, beverage writers, and those who work in the industry as well as those who simply appreciate a good beer.

While men may be the focus of major beer companies' advertising, women are the ones who have historically brewed and created beers, Rigberg said. Biology has also given women a more refined palate. Carolyn Smagalski, the self-proclaimed "Beer Fox," held a glass of light beer up to a window and admired the yeast floating inside.

"It's like a sunset over the ocean. It's glowing," said Smagalski, of Harleysville, in a wondrous voice. She sipped and marveled at the beer while looking at the crowd of females around her.

"Beer is our bond," she said. "I feel like it's our own secret society of women like the bacchanalia was."

Beer flowed freely all weekend, as free buses took revelers from bar to bar across the city. (A common sight? A school bus carrying a cheering crowd of over-school-age people.) Brewers had a chance to show their wares to a new audience as well as meet new customers.

"This exposes us to people who might not be driving down [Routes] 30 or 202," said Gerard Olson, a brewer at McKenzie Brewhouse, which has locations in Malvern and Chadds Ford.

One of McKenzie's locations is next to Immaculata College, and some of the holy sisters imbibe at the brewery. "They tend to prefer the stout," Olson said. (Perhaps because the nuns appreciate the dark beer with the white collar?)