The first-year-ever, highly educational Land of 10,000 Beers hall at the MN State Fair solves two pressing problems at once: 1) you don't yet know everything there is to know about craft beer, and 2) you're stuck at the MN State Fair.

Hosted by the Minnesota Craft Brewer's Guild, and overtaking an entire wing of the Agriculture/ Horticulture Building (motto: "Marginally more fun than a throat-a-culture!"), the Hall aims to let everyone from "craft beer newbie to home-brew aficionado" celebrate this great state's "booming" beer biz, mainly by drinking a large portion of it in the form of 20 homegrown suds. Big boys like Surly, Fulton, and Summit will be there, plus there'll be smaller guys like Big Wood; and for those not in the know, they'll pour you specific styles (light, dark, hoppy, sweet, etc) in "four-beer flights", or what Kelly Osbourne calls "really, really short flights".

Once the buzz's set in, you can hit up an exhibit area that tells the story of brewing from the "farm to the pint glass", gives a pictoral history of MN beer, and even features daily presentations from local brew-talent on the "brew deck", all of which -- well, coupled with several beers -- should be enough to put you in a more-than-fair mood.