This weekend at Wynkoop Brewing Company in Denver the 2009 Beer Drinker of the year will be chosen. The field has been narrowed to three contestants: a prosecutor from Oregon who has visited 93 breweries, a software engineer from Colorado who has 16 taps in his basement, and an airline pilot from Georgia who has tasted beer in every country in Europe.

According to the Wynkoop Web site, the finalists will be grilled by a panel of previous Beer Drinker of the Year winners and national beer experts. The judges, wearing traditional jurist wigs and robes, will challenge the finalists with difficult beer questions, and then choose this year's winner.

Marty Jones, contest pr man, told me these are some of the questions prior winners have faced:

What beer would you serve Dick Cheney just before you went hunting with him?

If you were a beer, what kind of beer would you be and why?

Name the Trappist breweries of the world.

The winner gets free beer for life at Wynkoop and a $250 tab at his, or her ( a woman won in 2007) favorite pub.

If you were a judge, what questions would you pose to the contestants?

Contestants are asked about their "philosophy of beer." What would yours be?

Mine, I think, would be keep it cold, flavorful and flowing.