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.

While in Michigan visiting family and attending a high school class reunion, I tasted a ton of great Michigan beers. Here are some of the highlights:

• Arcadia Angler's Ale - Tasty Pale Ale, probably a good everyday beer.
• Arcadia Whitsun - Spicy American Wheat very similar to Bell's Oberon.
• Bell's Beer - A seriously under-appreciated American take on a Czech Pilsener.
• Bell's Batch 5000 - An interesting smoked Barley Wine. Tastes a little like bacon.
• Bell's Cherry Stout - Like a dark chocolate torte topped with cherries. Very nice.
• Boyne River Brown Ale - Nice American take on an English-style Brown Ale.
• Boyne River Lake Trout Stout - Fairly tasty stout.
• Boyne River Log Jam Ale - Good ESB. Very smooth and well-rounded.
• Boyne River Pale Ale - One of the best American Pale Ales I've ever had. Great balance of malt and west coast hops.
• Dark Horse Special Reserve Black Bier - This beer has the crappiest label I've ever seen on a bottle of beer. The art looked like it was produced using clip art on an Apple ][e and there was glue smeared all over the bottle. But a nice meaty stout, nonetheless.

I also brought home a mixed-sixer of Bell's and New Holland beers which I'm looking forward to tasting.

(*note: I usually enter more detailed ratings of beers at RateBeer.com. Follow the links above for my more detailed reviews.)