I went last night (Thurs). Met several other homebrewers, not sure any of them from this board. From what I heard Wed. had a bigger line out front. I got lucky and was there early enough to get in during the first wave. It was not overly crowded, and was not a "beerfest" type atmosphere w/college kids getting hammered. It was much more of a mixed crowd, with only beer-o-phile type college age folks, and mostly 30-40 somethings. Great conversations, and some really excellent ales. Never had much line waiting inside, they kept attendance to a reasonable level. I wish I had taken notes but will probably mark down a few impressions into my program for future reference. I tried to drink more of the imported ales since I figured they would be harder to find and try locally. I found the selection and variety to be plentiful, probably only tried a total of about 7 beers. I was highly impressed by an ale from Martha's Exchange which is a Brewpub in Nashua, NH that I now want to go visit - I think it was an American Pale Ale, but can't remember the name, it wasn't in the program. Orkney's Dragonhead Stout was fantastic, and I also really enjoyed Kelburn's Carte Blanche and Cairngorm's Tradewinds and Black Gold (all from Scotland). Finally, a couple more favorites were Gold Digger by Banktop, Summer Lightning by Hop Back, and the Asylum by Oakham (all from England).
American Beer Fest ( a B.A. event) is coming up in June, I'm looking forward to the night of the lagers if I can make it fit my schedule!
NERAX 2008 is already tentatively planned for April 30-May 3 next year and I'm definitely going again!
