I'm a writer for a beer magazine, and one of the fringe benefits of the gig is that brewers and distributors insist on giving me free beer. So I returned from covering the Great American Beer Festival (GABF) in Denver on Sept. 30 with a dozen bottles of beer, both 12oz and 22oz, both domestic and imported, both metal-capped and champagne-corked, in my carryon luggage.

I had no problems getting any of it through security at DIA; they went through the scanner inside my shoulder bag and nobody asked me to open the bag, much less any of the bottles.

Actually, I had more problems convincing the screener that I was not going to send the film I'd shot at the GABF through the X-ray and that I was exercising my right to request a separate hand search of the clear plastic zipper baggie containing a dozen rolls of 35mm film. It took a request for and a quick conversation with a supervisor, who explained to the screener while I stood there that passengers could get a hand search of items like film. The supervisor then searched the baggie himself and handed it back to me.

(Oh, and for those who want a destination for a mileage run -- the GABF is a four day festival and competition held in Denver each fall featuring about 1,500 beers made by breweries literally from Anchorage to Key West.)