As I step onto the train platform at Suburban Station in Philadelphia, an infinite ocean of people, shops, sounds and smells fly at me in a continuous stream of consciousness. I feel like James Joyce or J.P. Donleavy.

His beer rolled across my tongue with a full, rounded feel. In my mind, it took me back in time, to colonial Philadelphia - Penn's Woods, surrounded on the outskirts by fields of wheat, barley and corn, orchards of apples, and vines of pumpkin and acorn squash.

Since I do not typically drink mainstream beers, I may appear to be a beer snob, and beer snobs can scare people who are not well-versed in beer.

Homebrew Chef Sean Paxton reigns as one of the great beer and food chefs of the Craft Beer Renaissance in the United States. As a guest chef at the 2009 Great American Beer Festival’s Beer and Food Pavilion, Chef Paxton has been generous with his secrets.

In a glassed-in haven in the center of the festival floor, beer enthusiasts can take a break while observing the most well-versed beer chefs, brewmasters and authors as they teach about what works.

The Great American Beer Festival 2009 Beer and Food Pavilion demonstrates that food shows draw big crowds, whether on the Food Channel or in the Great Hall of the Colorado Convention Center surrounded by beer.

Believe it! The combined power of the Internet, digital TV and radio, and traditional print media has the ability to provide enough high-voltage for a small-town business to subdue even a billion-dollar corporate giant.

When I was contacted by Michelob, one of the regional brands in the Anheuser-Busch Inbev group, I looked with doubt at the possibility that a Michelob product could stand up to the artful brews created in a small local shop.

In a world where franchises and big business do their best to capture market share, the craft brewer seems to be a dying breed. When big business wields the sword, few have the resources to fight it.

Sean Paxton is the real deal. Since the mid-1990s, Paxton, known as the Homebrew Chef, has brought his knowledge and expertise about food and beer to dining establishments across the country.