Didn't get tickets to SAVOR? No sweat, the beer gods are smiling on you in the form of Santé: An Epicurean Adventure. The event, sponsored by the National Kidney Foundation of Maryland, will be held Sunday, June 13, from 3-6pm at the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore. Tickets are $75 advance, $85 at the door, or if you're the DD, $40. You can also splurge for a $100 ticket, which includes "premium food and beverage pairings, as well as guided tastings of rum, gin, and tequila not available at the main event." Sounds intriguing.

Santé won't have anywhere near the breadth and depth of SAVOR (although it shares a curiously similar name) in terms of beer, but there will be enough first-tier breweries on hand to make this a memorable afternoon. According to the write-up on BeerinBaltimore.com, current craft beer participants include: Allagash, Anchor, The Brewer's Art, Heavy Seas, Flying Dog, Harpoon, Lagunitas, Stillwater Artisinal Ales, Stone, Weyerbacher. And from abroad: Ayinger, Lindeman's, Orval, Pinkus Organic, Rochefort, Samuel Smith, Traquair House, Westmalle, and Zatec. Not bad.

It wasn't easy, but during the delicious beer year that was 2009 I managed to taste every beer in the world. Well, OK not quite. But I tasted plenty, and from spankin' fresh IPAs to spicy Belgians to face-altering sour beers, it was nearly impossible to choose the five best. Again, my job is very, very hard.

A lot of wonderful new beers hit the market, pushing boundaries and becoming new favorites. They're not all new per se; some are new to D.C., and some are pretty new but might have come out in 2008. But the main point is that these five are all delicious and worth seeking out. So, because I love countdowns more than Dick Clark and Ryan Seacrest's unborn son, here are the Top Five Beers of 2009. Let the discussion begin.

5. Goose Island Matilda – You know what's even better than a great Belgian beer? One that doesn't have to travel 5,000 miles to get here. What makes America the best beer country in the world is that you can find nearly every brewing style (not to mention that we're making up new styles every other week). With serious allspice notes and a mild touch of funky-sweet apricot, Matilda is one of the best Belgian golden ales you'll find on either side of the Atlantic.

4. Duck Rabbit Schwarzbier – Yes, lagers can be dark! And in this case, they can also be thick and chewy, and practically burnt with roasted malt. That's why my second-favorite part of sharing this six-pack was telling my friends that it was a lager. My favorite part? The grill marks.

3. Lagunitas A Little Sumpin' Sumpin' Ale – When it comes down to it, IPAs are my favorite, and I suspect many of you share this disposition. This summer seasonal tastes like the lovechild of Stone IPA and Bell's Two-Hearted Ale, with honey sweetness and grapefruit bite that give way to a blanket of bitter hops. Summer can't come soon enough.

2. Bockor Cuvee des Jacobins Rouge – 2009 was the year sour beer came to town, and the horse it rode in on was Cuvee des Jacobins. Cherry sweetness meets uber-tart pucker, all wrapped together in a barrel-aged package. If soda could taste this good, I'd drink soda for breakfast.

1. Stone Cali-Belgique IPA – And here we are. Of all the beers I tried in 2009 — including the ones I can't remember — this is the beer I want, all the time. Stone's regular IPA is a big, bludgeoning bottle of eau de hops. Cali-Belgique is that same beer with a Belgian yeast strain replacing the ol' Stars and Stripes, and the effect is something like when Jimi Hendrix covered "All Along the Watchtower." The basics are still there — you won't miss your hops — but the crazy yeast shows up with wafts of strawberry and tropical fruits, going completely Jackson Pollock all over your basic IPA canvas. Don't call it a Belgian IPA. This is American beer: flavorful, bold, creative, and above all, as good as it gets.

Wait, wait, don't tell me: You disagree, right? Did I miss your favorite beer? Or commit some other woeful folly? I'm sure I did, but don't just sit there and fume — flex those keyboard muscles and say something!

Southern California's Stone Brewing Co., makers of Arrogant Bastard and a panoply of big beers, announced yesterday in a web video that they are considering opening a second brewery across the Atlantic. They will release a request for proposal (RFP), a sort of open call for business proposals, allowing any number of business models to be pitched to them. It's not 100 percent certain that the brewery will go through, but CEO and co-founder Greg Koch sounds pretty upbeat about it in the video. And should it happen, this will be a very big deal for several reasons:

• Redefine "microbrewery." – Good beer, craft beer, or whatever you call it, is growing. By industry definitions, "microbrewery" means an output of less than 15,000 barrels/year. Anything between that and 2 million barrels is considered a "regional brewery," which includes many household names such as Dogfish Head, Magic Hat, and Victory. By contrast, MillerCoors puts out about 50 million barrels a year. Good beer is still just a sliver of the market, but as the breweries grow, acceptance of good beer will climb exponentially as major outlets (restaurant chains, airlines, sports stadiums) see them as a profitable product instead of a marginal outlier.
• U.S. beer evangelism – When Stone released its flagship Arrogant Bastard in 1997 (!), it became one of the progenitors of extreme beer and of the hop-philic mentality that, for better or worse, is America's face in the world of beer. Some larger craft breweries export to Europe in limited quantities, but a brewery on the continent would be a big step in that regard.
• Freshness. – Freshness is critical to enjoying a hop-forward brewery like Stone. Hop oils are volatile and degrade quickly, so an old IPA, or even anything less than a spanking new one, loses the floral aromas that accompany it from the brewery. Like pilsners in Prague or bitters in London, West-Coast IPAs just aren't the same by the time they reach us. Koch acknowledges this in the video, and says that freshness is one of the reasons they'd like to brew abroad rather than export.

The Internet is rife with Thanksgiving-themed beer pairings, so we've elected to take a slightly different tack. This  year why not drink beer made with the ingredients of all your Thanksgiving foods instead of eating the same old tired feast? It'll save you time in the kitchen, guaranteed.

If you insist on cooking and need some good beer advice, you can always head over to Michael Jackson's site for Thanksgiving pairing tips, which still hold true after more than twenty-five years.  The San Francisco Examiner has some good pairing suggestions, and Serious Eats has some very good recommendations for beers to enjoy with the turkey feast as well as the T-day piefest. Beer Advocate has a practical guide to holiday beer pairing, as well. But enough of that silliness. Let's drink dinner this year:

CRANBERRY SAUCE – Unibroue Ephemere Cranberry: This beer was out last year, but we haven't seen it since the spring. If you can't find Unibroue, you can always snag a Sam Adams Cranberry Lambic. It's not actually a lambic but it is very easy to find right now.

SWEET POTATO - Allagash Fluxus 2009: This year's anniversary beer was brewed with sweet potatoes. The recipe was concocted with Southern flair by Allagash brewer DeeDee Germain. We saw it on draft at The Reef and Birreria Paradiso last month, and in the bottle at AB Liquor Store in Adams Morgan.

STUFFING - Craftsman Triple White Sage: Yup, there are a few beers made with sage. We definitely saw this beer somewhere recently but are afraid it was in Brooklyn, not in DC. If you're willing to go for something savory but not as classically Thanksgiving, a few herby beers we've tried lately include Stone's Sublimely Self-Righteous Ale, and Dogfish Head Black Thai, the latter of which was on cask at ChurchKey this weekend. Both have a basil thing going on.

TURKEY – Your choice: Okay, so brewers haven't gotten crazy enough to start making beer with turkey, but there is a connection. Beer has been shown to suppress the degradation of tryptophan, so if you end up eating this part of your dinner instead of drinking it, you're likely to feel nice and drowsy as the turkey and beer do a seratonin number on your brain.

PUMPKIN PIE – Any Pumpkin Beer Still on the Shelves: Our favorites are Dogfish Head, Southern Tier, and Weyerbacher pumpkin ales, but it will probably be difficult to find them this late in the season. Any will do if the goal is a traditional but liquid Thanksgiving.

In the September/October issue of Imbibe, the editors selected their 99 favorite beers in different categories, such as seasonals or beers to drink with a burger. In "Imbibe Vs. Beerspotter," Y&H's Beerspotter takes each list to task.

The editors of Imbibe write that their ideal burger beers "complement, rather than overwhelm" the flavors of their burger. I suppose that's fine if you're writing from Portland, Ore. — the dry, hoppy Victory Prima Pils does cut through unctuous beef fat like, um, a knife through unctuous beef fat. But in D.C., where our chain burgers are Five Guys and our boutique patties are presidential, we want our beers to punch their weight.

I want my burger juicy in the middle and charred on the outside, and I want a Stone Smoked Porter to go with it. Its bittersweet chocolate flavors give it a hefty body, while a dose of smoked malt puts grill marks on your pint glass. Nonsmokers should try Duck Rabbit Schwarzbier, a black lager that swaps the smoke for chewier flavors in the form of toasted coffee. Samuel Adams Black Lager would do in a pinch, too.

What do you drink with your burger? Tweet up @Beerspotter!

Imbibe picks:

• Anderson Valley Poleeko Gold Pale Ale

• Bear Republic Racer 5
• Deschutes Mirror Pond
• Firestone Walker Pale 31
• Full Sail Session
• Sierra Nevada Pale Ale
• Trumer Pils
• Uerige Obergärige
• Widmer Drifter
• Victory Prima Pils

Last week's Beerspotter column about Smuttynose IPA mentioned that the beer shined in a blind tasting against old standbys, such as Bell's Two-Hearted Ale, and was mistaken across the board for Stone IPA. It's exactly discoveries like this that make beer tastings so much fun — sometimes you'll find a new favorite and, in any case, you get to drink good beer with friends.

So here are the notes from my recent IPA tasting, in chronological order. We tasted the beers blind and informally, with no scoring system, and the bottles ere based on availability, not necessarily my top choices. Taste is opinion, and as with sports or politics or music, arguing is half the fun. So sound off in the comments section or yell at me directly on Twitter.

• Stone. Poured golden with a frothy, laced head. A strong grapefruit aroma wafted over the sweetness of golden raisins and dessert wine. My notes say "Stone?", but as this was the first taste of the night, I wasn't convinced.

• Highland Kashmir. Not available in D.C., this is an Ashville, N.C. beer that my friend brought up. It was light in flavor, on the malty side, with lemony sweetness. Fine as an all-day beer but a lightweight in this competition.
• Sierra Nevada Torpedo. A few of us identified this one by its giant citrus flavor, courtesy of Sierra's signature cascade hops. It's a heavier beer with a brown pour, which stood out from the first two.
• Great Divide Titan. This was different than I remembered: big, fruity, and floral, with a sweetness like white wine. Some funky stuff going on in the nose, kind of a clash between all the hops. The consensus: busy and delicious.
• Anderson Valley Hop Ottin. This beer was a definite outlier: a dark, chestnut body with a fat head the color of buttercream frosting. Heavy malts put it closer to a big red ale like Bear Republic Red Rocket than an IPA.
• Smuttynose. I can't say it was best in show, but given its dark-horse stature (none of the panelists had tried it recently) and the near-unanimous agreement that it was Stone IPA, the takeaway lesson from this tasting was that Smuttynose IPA is awesome. Fresh grapefruit hoppiness with an aggressively dry finish.
• Bell's Two-Hearted Ale. The reason Smuttynose can't be the hands-down winner. Everyone picked this out of the blind tasting with no problem: the huge citrus flavors, the twin peaks of sweet malt and quenching hops....This is a beer to bring home to Mom.

If you've done a tasting recently, let me know in the comments. My question for everyone: What style would you like to see done next? Pilsners, doppelbocks, embarrassing product tie-ins?

When I was little I once saw a Family Circus cartoon in which the father, on Independence Day, thanked China for their fireworks, Germany for their picnic of sausages and coleslaw, and so on. It was about as funny as, well, Family Circus — but the message stuck with me.

So on that note, I remind those of you stuck in the imports section of your beer store that America is home to the world's most diverse beer selection, including many of the finest and certainly the freshest. This Independence Day weekend (I'm starting mine today), buy American beer. If you have a friend who thinks Stella Artois is the gods' gift to Belgium, send 'em this way for a list of proper American substitutes.

• Heineken (or Stella Artois) — Of the imports on this list, Heiney's the one I'm least offended to get for free at a party. But it's still just the Budweiser of Europe. If crisp, clean lagers are your thing (and in July, they're certainly mine), try Stoudt's Gold Lager or Sierra Nevada Summerfest.

• Guinness — Stout in the summertime is a bold move anyway, so go whole hog with Stone Imperial Russian Stout, a black hole of a beast. For something on the sweet side, Founders Porter is possibly the best American porter I've ever tasted, with huge chocolatey flavors and a hint of roastiness to balance.
• Corona — Sigh. White wine, I guess. I hear they sell that stuff in juice boxes now.
• Newcastle or Amstel Light — Brown ales, like the sweet Ellie's Brown Ale from Avery, are perfect for introducing newcomers to good craft beer. For something a bit hoppier, I turn to Troegs Hopback Amber Ale again and again.
• Chimay (and Belgians in general) — Of course, there are imports out there that don't come from giant conglomerates and even taste like beer. And guess what? America's got that style down. Jolly Pumpkin excels in many Belgian styles, with beers like their Bam Biere saison. (Check De Vinos in Adams Morgan.) For some that are more widely available, Brooklyn Local 1 and Allagash Confluence are two complex Belgian-style ales made just up the East Coast.

That's just a quick list. What are y'all drinking this coming weekend? Any other imports you'd like a recommendation on? Fill up that there comments section, and I'll get right back at you.

Photo by cristinabe via Flick, Creative Commons Attribution License