The fifth annual Northern California Homebrewers Festival was held September 20-21 at Skyline Park in Napa, CA and it was an absolute blast. There were around 20 homebrew clubs and over 150 different homebrewed beers and meads at the festival. I think I'm still recovering from my hangover! On Friday night, there was a five course brewer's dinner with each course prepared and paired with a different beer. Highlights of the dinner include IPA-cured Oregon sturgeon appetizers, a mixed-green salad with stout-candied pecans, pale ale-marinated salmon, chocolate swartz cake garnished with barley malt-sweetened cream, and a keg of Speakeasy Double Daddy Imperial IPA. On Saturday, the first kegs of homebrew were tapped around noon and the beer didn't stop flowing until well past midnight. Fred Eckhardt, Fal Allen, and Charlie Gow each held one-hour seminars, although Fred's ended up lasting around three hours. If you're around Northern California next year in September, I highly recommend checking out this excellent event.