Last night (Friday night) was Homebrew Club Night here at the National Homebrewer's Convention in San Diego. Many local, and quite a few not-so-local (HUGE props go out to New York and Michigan!), clubs brought their finest libations in and served them up to the bleary eyed, half drunk already, costumed masses of homebrewers attending this year's festivities. Those weary masses were still up to the challenge of enjoying some malted beverages even after 3 days of continual inebriation.

My hangover this morning was intense, and well earned.

As I sit writing this, I'm sipping on a "Beermosa", a strange combination of carbonated tang and a Belgian triple. It would have been a lot better with real orange juice, but otherwise the flavors meld pretty well, and the alcohol is calming the sudden football sized tumor that grew in my skull during the night. It may have been from the Romulan Ale (Yes, it was VERY blue).

According to the group running the show, there were over 700 unique kegs of homebrew here last night. I think I personally only got through half, but that's only because I ran out of consciousness, making it difficult to crawl between taps. No two beers were the same, even though there were many of similar styles. Almost every booth had something odd on tap as well, showing off local flair and creativity.

The fun didn't stop there, of course. Once again, after the drink fest inside the convention center, the hospitality suite opened up in the tiki house. At 11am, I'm still not seeing a lot of the poor souls who got sucked into the black-hole vortex of the tiki house. They may be lost forever, their souls getting closer and closer to Ninkasi, but never quite reaching her golden radiance.

Off to lunch. We're heading to Green Flash Brewing's new facility. More blog later.

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