October 8, 1999 -- 1700 beers, 400 American breweries, 1 ounce tasting portions, not nearly enough time; where do you start?

If you're this beer warrior, you pick an aisle (the center one featuring breweries from the North Central and Rocky Mountain regions), pick a style (brown ale), and start there. Then you start mixing in vaguely related styles (alt, Scottish ale, stout), expand your range to include other aisles and regions, and as the palate begins to grow weary, eventually turn to stronger beers such as old ales and barley wines. Which is exactly what I did on the first day of eighteenth edition of the most famous beer fest in the U.S. Some highlights:

From Boulder, Colorado's Twisted Pine Brewing I had the Twisted Pine Brown Ale, a very enjoyable brew with a chocolaty nose and a light front leading to a malty body with notes of chocolate, cocoa, a little fruit and some coffee in the second half and finish. A good way to start the fest

Also from Boulder, I sampled the Heavenly Daze Brewery's Steamboat Scottish Ale. It features a very pleasant cherryish, caramelly nose with a plummy start and a milk chocolaty body with just enough hop to balance the malt and keep the ale from becoming cloying). Good character.

The 75th Street Brewery of Kansas City, Missouri, offered the very pleasant and complex Possum Trot Brown Ale, with a hint of anise in the nose and milk and dark chocolate, licorice, tobacco and bit of fruit in the body. A touch raw on the finish, but very nice.

Best name of the fest thus far: Blue Oyster Alt from the River Market Brewing Company of Kansas City. A little big for the alt style, but the teenage rock fan in me had to smile.

From the Crooked River Brewing Company of Cleveland, Ohio, I had the Settler's Ale, well-balanced beer with a nicely hopped nose showing a hint of mint and a fruity (red apple), hoppy (autumn leaves, tobacco) body. Very drinkable.

Houston, Texas' St. Arnold Brewing was pouring their Cask Conditioned Amber Ale straight from a cask atop the serving table. It's an aggressive ale with dominant dry-hopping, but I'm not convinced that there is much beyond the hop.

Changing to stouts, I tried the Oatmeal Stout from the Indianapolis, Indiana, location of the Alcatraz Brewing Company. It has a very creamy, pleasing body and a nice coffee-ish nose with a light layer of roast.A dry finish completes this most impressive stout.

Finally, finishing the night, I tried two of the brews that are already starting to generate a buzz on the festival floor: Anniversary X from Fort Bragg, California's North Coast Brewing and Millennium Ale from the Boston Beer Company. The former was, to me, the most impressive, with a big bourbon barrel nose (but not the sickly, overpowering, sweet bourbon notes found in some bourbon cask-finished beers) and a hugely complex, very refined body. Certainly a contemplative ale.

The Millennium, on the other hand, had a big, super sweet body (as befits a beer that is claimed to be 20% alcohol by volume!), but not enough complexity or nuances of flavour to back it up. This could be the case of an enormous beer being released far too young.

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