Snobby beer rules.

Forget wine-and-cheese parties.

Last night Ben and I hosted our first party (not including a pre-race spaghetti dinner) at our sweet Minneapolis pad. We invited a few dozen friends and family and asked them to bring a six-pack of "snobby" beer. We told them specifically what to leave at home (your Miller, Bud, Coors and so on). We provided appetizers and some brew of our own.

Guest filled two tubs with beer and five paper grocery bags with the empty bottles. And we have a map to show where all the beer came from. We had beer from Japan, Australia, Belgium and so on. I'll post a photo of that later.

Things kicked off at 7 p.m., and the final guests left after midnight.

I think another beer party might be in our future, given the compliments we received. Although one guest proposed throwing a "white trash" beer party, in which we ask everyone to bring crappy beer.

One party down. Many, many more to go.