Totally worth it. Ben and I got in quickly and went right for the legendary Surly Darkness. (It was pretty awesome.)

Eventually — I'm tempted to count time here by the number of beers sampled, but I'm not sure I could — we were joined by Dave, Barry, Jenna, Shelley, and Nick. The rest of the night was a series of brief chats punctuated by trips to the various booths that ringed the hall. I remember maybe three conversations that didn't involve some variation on "how's your beer? try mine!"

Initially I was concerned with checking off, in order, all the beers I'd wanted to try, but the lines were never very long and it soon became obvious that none of the brewers was going to run out of beer anytime soon anyways.

Needless to say, my palate got destroyed. It probably didn't help that I'd just come from a Happy Hour with the coworkers at another coworker's recently-opened restaurant — by the time I got to Landmark Center I'd already had two passion fruit martinis, five apricot-jalapeño wontons, and (compliments of the house) a shot of something that tasted disconcertingly like butterscotch.

Add to that all the beers I had that said "dunkel" or "trippel" or "kick-your-ass imperial stout" and you can see why all my sources had recommended actually training in the run-up to something like this. My second beer of the night was Town Hall's Eye of the Storm, but (since I was drinking it right after the heavy Darkness) its indisputable golden deliciousness wasn't as glorious as it was this past Fall, when Jenna and I tried that same beer and immediately decided to make the Town Hall patio one of our Spring Places.

(Other standout beers: the cask-conditioned Summit Great Northern Porter and the Town Hall Chocolate Raspberry Bourbon Stout. I'm sure some of the stuff I had later in the night was great and/or that I thought other stuff was great, but see: palate, destroyed.)

I didn't realize you could vote, and I didn't hear what won. Maybe those bagpipes we heard were part of the announcement?

(Update, 2/11: The winner was the aforementioned Chocolate Raspberry Bourbon Stout.)

Once the night was over those kids caught a cab to Barry's — I'm looking forward to digesting the night with them next week, at somewhere more suited to conversation — but since there wasn't room for all of us, Ben and I got a ride from his sister.

We hung out at his place, watching the terribly boring Number 23 (seriously: I had expected at least Stir of Echoes-level intrigue) until I'd sobered up sufficiently to drive home.

I'd taken every precaution, so I'm not surprised to feel fine this morning, but it is amazing that the day after a beer festival I'm already looking forward to further adventures in tasty beer this coming Friday.