Yesterday the 17th annual Beerfest in Santa Rosa was held at the Luther Burbank Center (which has a new, corporate sponsor name, but I refuse to call it by that name). It’s one of the oldest of the small town fests that used to proliferate throughout the festival landscape. There aren’t nearly as many of this type of festival around anymore, which is a shame. But this is one of the best, and it’s no surprise it survived because since its inception they put an equal emphasis on food and beer, not to mention cider (a rarity in the U.S., especially when compared to British festivals). That set it apart from the average festival back in the day, but as food and beer is finally coming of age, it just seems obvious now. That’s also led to it being a much more crowded festival. C’est la vie.

Once upon a time the only truly long lines were for meat, now there were lines for beer and other foods, uniformly long.

Now those are beer goggles.

Denise Jones, from Moylan’s, and Arne Johnson, from Marin Brewing.

Annie’s fruit stand, one of dozens of food purveyors offering countless samples to experiment with beer and food pairings.

The first “official meeting” of the Bay Area Beer Bloggers. From left: Merideth Nelson, from the Beer Geek, me, Chris Nelson, ditto, JJ, the Thirsty Hopster, and Gail Ann Williams and Steve Shapiro, both from Beer by BART.

Tom Dalldorf, Celebrator publisher, and Gail Ann, show off their good taste in shirts.

Brian Hunt, from Moonlight Brewing, trying to explain his newest beer, Out To Lunch, another beer he’s created using no hops. His last one, Working for Tips, used Redwood tips as a substitute for hops, but Brian remarked that the Redwood tips have more citrusy qualities right now, meaning he felt he couldn’t use them alone.

This one used instead used some Redwood tips, along with cilantro, sliced fur cones (like pine cones), the zest and juice of both blood oranges and regular oranges and a little jalapeño. This combination, unplanned as it was, Brian decided was simply out to lunch, hence the name.