On Saturday, May 17, 2008, I had the extreme pleasure and joy of attending the first and hopefully annual Savor in Washington DC! Whoa!

I attended the event with my husband (Tim), my brother (Ray), my brother’s girlfriend (Melissa), and two friends (Tyler and Allison). Ranging in age from 24-27, we were, in all probability, the youngest people there. Right from the start, we could tell this was going to be different from other fests we’d been to.

Savor’s main focus was the art and appreciation of beer and food pairing (mmm, my favorite). 48 breweries with two brews each, along with 35 appetizers, specially crafted to compliment and highlight the distinct flavors created by the brewers. You can imagine my delight.

Upon entrance to the auditorium, I found myself slightly overwhelmed. The place was elegant as hell. High ceilings, gorgeous architecture… There were pillars, for God’s sake! And everywhere I turned, there were tables filled with bottles from notable breweries and scads of tasty-looking morsels. Where to start? I wasted a few minutes of precious time before I snapped out of it and got to work.

• Great Divide’s Oak Aged Yeti Imperial Stout with Fudge Stout Brownies
Lord knows nothing is better with rich, fudgy chocolate than an imperial stout. Heavenly.

• Flying Dog’s Kerberos Tripel with Peking Duck Purses
This had to be my favorite appetizer of all. And the light, sweet, yeasty goodness of this tripel made an awesome pairing.

• Avery’s Fifteen (Belgian Brett Farmhouse) with Venezuelan Spice Artisan Chocolate
Now this was in interesting beer. Not only is Fifteen fermented exclusively with Brettanomyces, but they also include additions of figs, hibiscus flowers, and white pepper! It was tart, but not overwhelmingly so, which surprised me. The slight funkiness from the Brett and the mild spicy kick from the pepper matched the spiced chocolate fabulously.

• Rogue’s Morimoto Soba Ale with Rogue Creamery Morimoto Soba Cheddar
The beer was in the cheese. How cool? And this beer was brewed using roasted buckwheat (aka soba). Really, really cool.

On top of all the great beer and food to be had, there was a ton of networking going on. It’s not every day you get to hang out and shoot the breeze with the person that actually made the beer you’re drinking. Tim and I spoke at length with one of the guys from Avery about their Fifteen. We got to meet the folks from Flying Dog, who we’d been following on Twitter for some time. And the guy from Great Divide was probably the most pleasant and enthusiastic person I met that day.

The highlight of the day for me, though, was when I turned around and spotted none other than Charlie Papazian. Charlie Papazian!! I couldn’t pass up the opportunity, so I stumped right up to him, stuck out my hand, and said, “Hi, I’m Stephanie! I’ve read all your books!” He, with a mouthful of food, had difficult answering at first. But once he finished chewing, he shook my hand and engaged me in conversation. Wow! And what a nice guy he was. We explained how we’ve been homebrewing for about two years now, and reading his books was what helped us make great beer right from the start, which he seemed to genuinely appreciate hearing. He posed for pictures with us, and even took a picture of all of us with his camera. So cool.

Also, I totally met Garrett Oliver (brewmaster of Brooklyn Brewery and author of The Brewmaster’s Table), who poured me a Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout, and suggested I try it with a Mini Chocolate Cherry Scone (delicious, by the way). Unfortunately, my conversation with him was brief (told him I really enjoyed his book, yadda yadda yadda), but Tim actually got a chance to talk shop with him for a few minutes! Excellent.

I walked up to the Dogfish Head table, where Sam Calagione poured me their new Palo Santo Marron, a huge brown ale aged in palo santo wood from Paraguay (always the creative ones at Dogfish Head). He described the beer to me and explained a little about how it was made, though admittedly, I barely heard a word he was saying — inside my head, I was screaming, “Holy crap, Sam Calagione is pouring me a beer!” As soon as he finished what he was saying, I told him I’m reading his book, Brewing Up a Business. We then chatted for a few minutes, Tim came up to join the conversation, and we told Sam about our hopes of opening a brewery. And he actually gave us some advice! Great guy.

In all this hubbub, we completely missed both of the salons. Crap. I was really looking forward to hearing Randy Mosher and Jim Koch speak. We didn’t even spot them in the auditorium. Oh well, we’ll do better next year (there’d better be a next year!).

I can’t even describe the high I felt at Savor. Meeting three brewers whose books I’ve read and whom I greatly admire was a thrill. And every person I met there that day was absolutely ecstatic to be there. Never have I seen such an excellent representation of the craft beer community. Savor wasn’t just about great beer and great food, it was about gathering together a group of people who all share a common bond over that magical, mystical substance we all drink far too much of.