All week you can wander over to Pizzeria Paradiso (Georgetown and Dupont Circle) to sample a huge array of IPAs for JulyPA days. Both locations have dedicated all their draft lines to pouring some of the best hoppy beers around. Check out our picks and more details about the event in last week's post.

Monday night at ChurchKey you can join Beer Director Greg Engert in an exploration of Saisons. Seven different Saisons will be accompanied by small bites of complimentary summer foods from Birch & Barley's Executive Chef Kyle Bailey and Pastry Chef Tiffany MacIsaac. Price is $35.

And like every Monday, Room 11 is featuring a special beer on tap. This week they will have one of our favorites, Maredsous Tripel,  a 10% ABV Belgian Abbey ale.

On Tuesday, Little Miss Whiskey's on H Street is hosting a four-course small plate and beer tasting menu by Graig Glufling of Liberty Tree. The menu includes dishes like grilled oysters and bacon-wrapped scallops paired with beers from breweries such as Weihenstephaner, Bear Republic, and Founders. Price is $25.

Also on Tuesday, Belga Café is having their monthly beer pairing menu, this time featuring beer and wine distributor Jeff Wells of DOPS, Inc. The tasting includes small portions of seven Belgian and Belgian-style beers, a specially-prepared entreé, and a dessert for $49.

On Wednesday, Midwesterners and fans of Midwestern beer can attend a Great Lakes Brewing Company food and beer pairing event at Scion. Seven Great Lakes beers and dishes made to go with them will be available a la carte, as pairings, or you can get a set of three pairings for $15.

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday at the Brickskeller you can go back to school. Beer School, that is. Session 3 of the series, called "The Awakening of American Taste Buds” features the following topics on its sudsy syllabus: British real ale/cask beer and the birth of the IPA; all about hops; why industrial macrobeer lagers permeate the US market; the American craft beer revolution; and local beer–what the DC/Baltimore area has to offer the beer enthusiast. Tickets $35.

And on Saturday join Brewers United for Real Potables (BURP) on a bus trip from DC to the breweries of the Charlottesville area. Lunch at Devils Backbone Brewpub, tour at Blue Mountain Brewery & Hop Farm, organized tasting Albermarle CiderWorks, and visits to Starr Hill and South Street Breweries. The bus will depart promptly at 8:00 am from the West Falls Church Metro and will return at approximately 10pm. Registration fee is $45.00 per person for homebrew club members and $50.00 for all other participants. The fee covers the bus rental, cidery tasting fee, water, juice/coffee, bagels and donuts. It does not include the cost of beer, lunch, or dinner. Advance reservations are required. Space is limited to 53 seats. Sign up here.

Our experience reflects a national trend. It's been legal to brew your own beer since 1978, and that change in U.S. law has been responsible for the "Craft Beer Revolution" we've seen in this country over the last 30 years. These first homebrewers in the late 70's moved from their garages to starting the first wave of microbreweries in the early 80's, and then many like Sierra Nevada founder Ken Grossman developed their operations into today's craft beer giants.

This general mania is what we think gets more people into homebrewing each year, but we are sure that the AHA's annual event has helped things along a bit as well. Just last year, the group claims, 2,100 homebrewers taught 610 people how to brew, producing 2,800 gallons of beer in the process. So give it a try. After all, it's not all that difficult and requires a relatively tiny upfront investment in equipment, most of which you can find at your local homebrew store or here on the web. If you are not ambitious enough to go out and buy your own carboy and ale pail yet, perhaps one of the local homebrewers' clubs (DC Homebrewers or BURP) has something going on Saturday.

Meanwhile, there are two stores in the DC area that provide everything you need. We go to the Maryland Homebrew in Columbia and get plenty of advice from Chris and the other helpful folks there. If that's too far, consider myLocal-Home-Brew-Shop off Route 7 in Falls Church. Happy brewing!