Old Dominion beer festival.

Went to a beer festival yesterday, the annual beer festival at the Old Dominion Brewing Company in Ashburn, VA. Always a good festival, and this year's was no exception.

As usual, well organized. Something like 65 beers from 34 breweries, plus a handful of cask-conditioned beers. And they have the sense to provide you with an actual glass tasting glass instead of one of those hideous opaque plastic mugs provided at festivals organized by marketing groups instead of beer lovers.

They were fortunate to have good weather. The festival is outdoors, held in the field behind the brewery, so they're always at the mercy of the weather. This spring's bizarre monsoons let up early in the week, so the field had a chance to dry out, and the day's high temperature was in the low 80's, instead of the high 90's we had on Thursday.

Best beer of the day, hands down, was the High Desert Imperial Stout made by Sweetwater Tavern of Northern Virginia. Gold medal winner in the "American-style Stout" category at the 2003 Real Ale Festival, and bronze medal in the overall "American Style Ale" category. An absolutely wonderful, thick, rich, gooey imperial stout. The precisely wrong style of beer to be drinking in mid-summer, of course, but that didn't stop me from enjoying every drop of it.