In the Future, All Desserts Will Be Chocolate Towers.

Still recovering from a fun and reasonably productive two-day trip to London. This included the British Guild of Beer Writers dinner on Thursday. The five-course feast went about one more than I could handle. My fault, not the dinner's. I had a big pub lunch that must have displaced most of dessert — a hulking dark chocolate tower with ice cream, paired with Flying Dog Gonzo Imperial Porter.

My favorite course was easily the third: braised rabbit leg wrapped in roasted rabbit saddle with a bottle of Ringwood's Old Thumper pale ale. I found it a subtler, deeper match than the rest — so good I forgot to snap a photo that wouldn't have done it justice anyway. And since the next morning I've been mourning the chocolate tower that went to waste. Next time I'll bring a ziplock baggy for leftovers, which would be just about as classy as the blue jeans I wore to a lounge-suit event. Anyway.

Pete Brown was the big winner, as it should be. Read about all the winners here. In particular I want to point out the work of Mark Dredge, which may still be unknown to those of you who don't read beer blogs all the time. (It's an unhealthy habit and I don't recommend it. But if you must die reading beer blogs, then do so in style. Read Pencil and Spoon.)