Friday at Noon there was a media luncheon put on by the Brewers association to educate repporters about pairing beer with food. While we were treated to a wonderful lunch using recipes from Lucy Saunders new book, The Best of American Beer & Food, she talked about pairing food and beer and cooking with it, too.

Marnie Old and Sam Calagione, who have been doing beer vs. wine dinners all over the east coast and next year will be publishing a book entitled He Said Beer, She Said Wine. They presented a mini-tasting of three beers and wines with several different tastes, such as salty, spicy hot, and sweet so hat we could compare how both drinks reacted to the food.

Then it was back over to the Falling Rock to catch the last hour of the Alpha King Challenge. Happily, we made it in plenty of time to hear Russian River Brewing’s Pliny the Elder declared the winner of this year’s challenge. Having just this competition in previous years, I know what a difficult job it can be to find the hoppiest beer that’s still also balanced.

Outside, Matt Bonnie, from Brouwer’s in Seattle, John Harris, brewmaster at Full Sail Brewing, and Dave Keene, from the Toronado in San Francisco, once again showing excellent fashion sense.

Past Alpha King winner Brendan Moylan, who owns both Marin Brewing and Moylan’s, downstairs waiting for the results of this year’s contest.

Ralph Olson, owner of Alpha King Challenge sponsor HopUnion, going over the results.

Vinnie was unable to be there to accept his award for Pliny the Elder, so the Alpha King posed for photos and we drank more wonderfully hoppy beers.

Later the father and son brewers from Bosteels arrived, along with some of their wonderful beers from Belgium. Here Chris Black (in, you guessed it, black) posed with father (in the tan vest) and son (in the green sweater).

A trio of colleagues, Stephen Beaumont, Carolyn Smagalski and Tom Dalldorf.

Back outside, fellow judges Carl Kins, from the EBCU (on left), and Hildegard van Ostaden (on right) along with her husband Bas (in the middle). The two own the successful new Belgian brewery, Urthel (though production has been moved to the Trappist brewery in the Netherlands).

Horse Brass publican Don Younger bookended by Robin and Jonathan Surratt, who runs beermapping.com, likewise displaying his excellent taste in attire.