NHBC Cincinnatti--CLUB NIGHT planning

I like the shirts, EdWort!

I have some questions for the masses.

First the stupid question - Has anyone confirmed with Keith that we do, in fact, have a booth at Club night?

With EdWort flying in rather than driving, how are we going to serve beer? I have kegs but no picnic taps and probably not enough time/money to build a rig.

I think a theme and food still need to be worked out, right?

EdWort said:

I have a Sprint 3G card and can setup sharing on my notebook. It may have good reception.

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That's great. You know how hotels can be with reception sometimes, so it's always a craphoot depending on how far into the hotel bowels we are.

Anyone in Cincy have Sprint or Verizon and can tell us, generally about reception?

ohiobrewtus said:

With EdWort flying in rather than driving, how are we going to serve beer? I have kegs but no picnic taps and probably not enough time/money to build a rig.

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I have 3 picnic taps I can bring.

ohiobrewtus said:

I like the shirts, EdWort!

I have some questions for the masses.

First the stupid question - Has anyone confirmed with Keith that we do, in fact, have a booth at Club night?

With EdWort flying in rather than driving, how are we going to serve beer? I have kegs but no picnic taps and probably not enough time/money to build a rig.

I think a theme and food still need to be worked out, right?

Click to expand...

I've registered us for a booth and confirmed with Keith about signage and handouts.

I have one or 2 picnic taps that I can throw in a bag.


Yes, we still have no theme or menu.

I'm driving, and can bring a couple of kegs. I can't bring a CO2 tank, though. I can bring that portable little gun charger thing for serving, though, and a couple of picnic taps and beer line.

Since I have to leave for the NHBC on Sunday at 6 AM (long story why, involving dropping a kid off at a college), I can NOT bring food as I first planned. I would have no way to keep it from Sunday early AM to Thursday/Friday for the conference.

Edit- LOVE the t-shirt idea.

The WRT54G router can be flashed with DD-WRT ti create a Universal Wireless Repeater. The repeaer will grab an open network and create a new open network.

The nice thing about the WRT54G is that it supports up to 30v DC if we needed to go off of batteries instead of the wallwort.

We need some spy photos of the hotel so that we can dress this thing up as a potted plant or a knick-nack on a shelf.

As much as this is cool, who is going to have time to keep an eye on their notebook, router, etc to keep it from walking off. I think I'm going to be too busy drinking beer, chatting with folks, taking loads of pics, etc. to even mess with a computer. I'm contemplating staying at the Courtyard Marriott 1/2 mile down the road and use points instead of the $100 a night at the Sheraton. If I do, my Sheraton reservation will be up for grabs.

EdWort said:

As much as this is cool, who is going to have time to keep an eye on their notebook, router, etc to keep it from walking off. I think I'm going to be too busy drinking beer, chatting with folks, taking loads of pics, etc. to even mess with a computer. I'm contemplating staying at the Courtyard Marriott 1/2 mile down the road and use points instead of the $100 a night at the Sheraton. If I do, my Sheraton reservation will be up for grabs.

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I was thinking the same thing. While I'm in the main banquet hall I'm going to be too busy doing other things to take my laptop out. I don't want to lug the thing around all night and I sure don't want to leave in in a room full of hundreds of people that I don't know while I'm drinking.

I'll leave mine in the room and use the hotel free WiFi from my room to post pictures here. If I *HAD* to make a post or check something in the main banquet room I could always use my phone if the reception is good enough.

THe notebooks will be fine as they will be behind our booth. The booths are pretty much manned by someone.

As for the rogue router, it would be a $30 loss for me. More bragging rights if I were to pull it off than anything.

We had 3 lappys going last year.

Anyone know what font is used for the HBT decal? I want to go and get my shirt in the works.

billpa would know.

Where's he been?

Taking a guess on IMPACT as the font.

olllllo said:

That's great. You know how hotels can be with reception sometimes, so it's always a craphoot depending on how far into the hotel bowels we are.

Anyone in Cincy have Sprint or Verizon and can tell us, generally about reception?

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I have Verizon and it is decent, but not great. I typically get 2 bars inside buildings. Sprint seems spotty, awesome in some spots (the only carrier you could pick up inside the building at my former employer) and non-existent in others. I can't say for sure at the hotel, but If I am in that neighborhood, I can stop in and see what kind of reception I get there.

OK,

I ordered my NHC Club night Shirt from www.zazzle.com. The font is Brushed Pressed. It should look like this.

Ok- you convinced me! I ordered mine, too. I got just a white t-shirt with my most notorious avatar on the back. This is going to be so much fun!

I'm now officially in (plus swmbo), as mentioned in the private thread.

Also from other thread: If desired I will happily brew the beer of HBT's choosing for the event, seeing as I'm local and all. Any suggestions are welcome (though I would like to brew a beer that best represents HBT) and if need be it can be put to a vote.

I also have a several-month-old batch of apfelwein that would be an easy way to fill another tap handle. Plus, is there anything HBT is better known for than apfelwein?

olllllo said:

I have one or 2 picnic taps that I can throw in a bag.

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EdWort said:

I have 3 picnic taps I can bring.

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ok, so there's 5 taps. What about CO2 tanks? EdWort mentioned shipping a multiple faucet serving device, is that still an option?

olllllo said:

Yes, we still have no theme or menu.

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Crap. Perhaps a few of us should take charge and get together some evening this week (HBT chat, Skype, etc.) to brainstorm and come up with a few ideas?

olllllo said:

As for the rogue router, it would be a $30 loss for me. More bragging rights if I were to pull it off than anything.

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Are you still thinking about doing this? I revisited the hotel's website yesterday and discovered that the only free wifi that they offer is in public areas. It's not even free in guest rooms.

olllllo said:

I've registered us for a booth and confirmed with Keith about signage and handouts.

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I may be missing it, but I don't see us listed on the official NHC club night page as a participating club:

Club Night Participant Clubs

• Ann Arbor Brewers Guild (AABG)
• Antioch Sud Suckers
• Bloatarian Brewing League (BBL)
• Boneyard Union of Zymurgical Zealots (BUZZ)
• Brew Free or Die
• Brewers of Central KY (BOCK)
• Brewer's of Ohio's Zymurgist Eclave (BOOZE)
• Brewers United for Real Potables (BURP)
• Brewmasters of Alpharetta
• Cary-Apex-Raleigh Brewers Of Yore (CARBOY)
• Chesepeake Real Ale Brewers Association (CRABS)
• Chicken City Ale Raisers
• Cincinnati Malt Infusers (CMI)
• Clinton River Association of Fermenting Trendsetters (CRAFT)
• Covert Hops Society
• Cowford Ale Sharing Klub (CASK)
• Dayton Regional Amateur Fermentation Technologists (DRAFT)
• Fermental Order of Renaissance Draughtsmen (FORD)
• Final Gravity
• Foam Blowers of Indiana (FBI)
• Frederick's Original Ale Maker's (FOAM)
• Free State Homebrew Club Guild
• Greater Huntington Homebrewers
• Hop Barley & The Alers
• Louisville Area Grain and Extract Research Society (LAGERS)
• MECA Brewers
• Midnight Homebrewer's League
• Motor City Mashers
• Mountain Ale & Lager Tasters (MALT)
• Music City Brewers
• Primetime Brewers
• Red Ledge Brewers
• Rocket City Brewers
• Saint Paul Homebrewers Club
• Salacious Homebrewers in Toledo
• Savannah Brewer's League
• Scioto, Olentangy and Darby Zymurgists (SODZ)
• Tippecanoe Homebrewer's Circle (THC)
• Treasure Coast Brewmasters
• Upstate New York Homebrewer's Association (UNYHA)
• Urban Knaves of Grain
• Washington Homebrewers Association (WAHA)

To anyone who's been to NHC before, what is there to do Saturday during the day if you did not sign up for seminars? The calendar appears to be blank. Anyone have any suggestions (drinking beer is assumed).

Just fired off an email to Frank about this.

ohiobrewtus said:

I may be missing it, but I don't see us listed on the official NHC club night page as a participating club:

Club Night Participant Clubs

• Ann Arbor Brewers Guild (AABG)
• Antioch Sud Suckers
• Bloatarian Brewing League (BBL)
• Boneyard Union of Zymurgical Zealots (BUZZ)
• Brew Free or Die
• Brewers of Central KY (BOCK)
• Brewer's of Ohio's Zymurgist Eclave (BOOZE)
• Brewers United for Real Potables (BURP)
• Brewmasters of Alpharetta
• Cary-Apex-Raleigh Brewers Of Yore (CARBOY)
• Chesepeake Real Ale Brewers Association (CRABS)
• Chicken City Ale Raisers
• Cincinnati Malt Infusers (CMI)
• Clinton River Association of Fermenting Trendsetters (CRAFT)
• Covert Hops Society
• Cowford Ale Sharing Klub (CASK)
• Dayton Regional Amateur Fermentation Technologists (DRAFT)
• Fermental Order of Renaissance Draughtsmen (FORD)
• Final Gravity
• Foam Blowers of Indiana (FBI)
• Frederick's Original Ale Maker's (FOAM)
• Free State Homebrew Club Guild
• Greater Huntington Homebrewers
• Hop Barley & The Alers
• Louisville Area Grain and Extract Research Society (LAGERS)
• MECA Brewers
• Midnight Homebrewer's League
• Motor City Mashers
• Mountain Ale & Lager Tasters (MALT)
• Music City Brewers
• Primetime Brewers
• Red Ledge Brewers
• Rocket City Brewers
• Saint Paul Homebrewers Club
• Salacious Homebrewers in Toledo
• Savannah Brewer's League
• Scioto, Olentangy and Darby Zymurgists (SODZ)
• Tippecanoe Homebrewer's Circle (THC)
• Treasure Coast Brewmasters
• Upstate New York Homebrewer's Association (UNYHA)
• Urban Knaves of Grain
• Washington Homebrewers Association (WAHA)

To anyone who's been to NHC before, what is there to do Saturday during the day if you did not sign up for seminars? The calendar appears to be blank. Anyone have any suggestions (drinking beer is assumed).

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ohiobrewtus said:

ok, so there's 5 taps. What about CO2 tanks? EdWort mentioned shipping a multiple faucet serving device, is that still an option?

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I've got a dual-reg CO2 setup I can lend to the cause. It's currently configured for three kegs. I just got fresh 5# tank, too.

I'd love to help out however I can. What have been some past themes you guys have done?

We've only done this last year. Search for Denver club night.

We didn't really have a theme, but we served frozen pizza with a pizza oven that I schlepped from Phoenix.

We're headed into doing the same again this year, unless we get on the stick.

Pretzels can be warmed in the pizza oven. hmmm where is that thread...

We can buy pretzels at Sam's club or costco.

EdWort said:

We can buy pretzels at Sam's club or costco.

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That was the plan last year. The Costco was bereft of pretzels for some reason.

olllllo said:

We've only done this last year. Search for Denver club night.

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Dang, you guys had the ALTAR last year!

I'm planning on brewing this weekend. I can brew something for club night. I'm willing to brew whatever you guys want me to that you think would round out the keg selection, that is if you think we need any more. I also have a molasses brown ale of my own design that I brewed a couple weeks back. I expect it to be fantastic. Another possibility would be the batch of apfelwein that's been sitting around for quite a while now.

What about a popcorn machine? How much do those cost to rent? Or if you have an oven - those ready-to-bake pizzas from Papa Murphy's or wherever?

I have this.



Which is equavalent to what you might find in a Wisconsin type bar.

Since this is all volunteer, we are trying to keep expenses low. Appreciate the thoughts though... keep 'em coming.

olllllo said:

I have this.

Which is equavalent to what you might find in a Wisconsin type bar.

Since this is all volunteer, we are trying to keep expenses low. Appreciate the thoughts though... keep 'em coming.

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I had one of those too until I dropped it digging it out for last year's club night. I think my knee is finally healed! :cross:

I have a Costco membership and if we want to do pretzels I can go buy a bunch this weekend and keep them frozen until the event. I can also get some german spicy mustard. There's a place here that's pretty famous for it.

Do we need to take a new keg count? I'm not getting much response concerning how many I should bring, or what I should brew this weekend.

Thirdly, the only theme I've been able to think of is the 'net. I bet there are countless brewers out there that have at least stumbled upon HBT while seaking advice or searching for recipes. So, one idea I thought of would be to make each or our tap handles contain blown-up versions of some of the more memorable and unique emoticons used here, such as and , and maybe (certainly not unique to HBT, but certainly memorable). It could be as easy as foam board cut-outs fixed to the tap handles (I can take care of the construction). In addition to our banner, I can imagine passer-bys seeing the emoticons and then *click* they make the connection that we're that site where they found all that great kegging advice that one time, or whatever. Not sure if that's what you all meant by "theme", but what do you think?

If you're ok with donating some pretzels and olllllo is committed to bringing the pizza oven, then I say go for it. The spicy german mustard may be a nice touch as well.

As for kegs, I have the same question. I'm bringing a keg of EF and can bring more if needed (Probably a Hefe or a fairly young APA) and olllllo is looking into shipping a full keg to bring. I will PM the others who have previously stated that they could bring kegs and find out if they are still able to.

I'm bringing a keg of the DFH clone. I can bring something else, if needed. I don't have much ready, but certainly can put away one keg and save it! The cream ale and kolsch should be gone by this weekend (graduation party), though.

Don't forget, febtober, that at least a few of us ordered T-shirts from Zazzle. Homebrewtalk.com on the front, and our avatar and handle on the back. They were around $25 shipped. You and the wench could do that, so we could match. (and I mean wench with the utmost respect, of course!).

I'm a little concerned about the beer- it'll be HOT in my car on the way down and overnights in the car on my way down. I'll be leaving at 6 AM that Sunday morning, staying in motels/hotels until the conference. No way I'm lugging those kegs in my room every night! Will my beer be ruined?

By the way, LOVE the pretzels idea. That will be a winner for sure, and maybe not as labor intensive as the pizza making.

Yoop, if you're concerned about it you could make a slight detour on the way to Cincy and drop it off to me and I'll keep it chilled and bring it down. If it's going to be a few days between when you leave and when that would happen then I'm not sure that it's worth it, but the offer stands.

So we've got DFH, EF for sure. olllllo's looking into shipping a keg (I can't recall what style atm). Is 3 kegs enough or should we guide MrFebtober on a style to brew this weekend? I can also brew up a Hefe this weekend if we think we'll need more.

I've thought about the t-shirt. I want one, but really feel like I need a worthy avatar first. If I don't come up with anything perhaps I'll just put a on the back, all blown up and pixelated.

I'm no expert, but aren't shifts in beer temp not that big a deal unless it's a fast change? Maybe if you just rolling the keg up in a sleeping bag or two (and keeping sun off it) will allow for such a slow increase in heat that flavor won't be affected.

Anyway, I've been eyeballing your cream ale recipe for the last week and was originally planning on brewing that this weekend prior to taking suggestions. Perhaps I'll stay the course and bring either that or the brown ale i've got going.

Alright, consider BrewWench and I committed to providing pretzels and mustard and one keg of beer (yep, finally got SWMBO to join the fun here at HBT). Any guess as to how many soft pretzels?

MrFebtober said:

Any guess as to how many soft pretzels?

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There will literally be hundreds of people mulling around on Club Night. Granted, most other clubs will have something as well so we're not feeding them all, but maybe a hundred or more? This will depend on if we're still doing pizza as well.

Plus you have to account for mass consumption by the staff working the HBT booth.

ohiobrewtus said:

There will literally be hundreds of people mulling around on Club Night. Granted, most other clubs will have something as well so we're not feeding them all, but maybe a hundred or more? This will depend on if we're still doing pizza as well.

Plus you have to account for mass consumption by the staff working the HBT booth.

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I think it was Richbrewer or Dude who said last year that literally every single thing they put out was scarfed down immediately.

The cream ale really should be cold conditioned some, and isn't really good when it's green. Since it's only 4 weeks away, we probably would need something "faster". I will have a keg of Dead Guy clone that should be ready by then- my husband will kill me if I take it away from him (he said he needs me to leave him some good beer here at home!), but I can do that. It's going into secondary this weekend, and I can keg it in in a couple of weeks, no problem. Let me know if we want/need it.

Cincy is actually my LAST stop on my trip down, at least for that week, so the beer will be in my car with me until then. I'll be in Cincy by Tuesday, though, since I'm doing that Bourbon distillery tour on Wednesday. So, thanks for the offer, Brewtus, but I won't be able to take you up on it. My beer is seeing all of Michigan and parts of Indiana and Ohio before being consumed! I'll try to keep the temperature stable, but it won't be easy!

I'm still working on getting my keg of 13 month old Apfelwein there. I think there are some guys from Austin driving, so it may be able to hitch a ride with them. If not, then I will fill some 3 liter PET bottles with carbo caps on them and ship it.

YooperBrew said:

I think it was Richbrewer or Dude who said last year that literally every single thing they put out was scarfed down immediately.

The cream ale really should be cold conditioned some, and isn't really good when it's green. Since it's only 4 weeks away, we probably would need something "faster". I will have a keg of Dead Guy clone that should be ready by then- my husband will kill me if I take it away from him (he said he needs me to leave him some good beer here at home!), but I can do that. It's going into secondary this weekend, and I can keg it in in a couple of weeks, no problem. Let me know if we want/need it.

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So, no amount of pretzels will be enough. gotcha.

Okay, the cream ale is out (though i may brew it this weekend anyway) but my molasses brown ale should be in prime condition for the event.

Ed, let me know if you need a place to ship your brew. I can also rack it to a keg if need be.

Sam's Club sells these for $7.48 a box (or 38 cents per pretzel).



If we all kick in for a box or two, we'll have enough for the first 30 minutes based on how long they take to heat up. It will be memorable at least and easier to deal with than pizza.

YooperBrew said:

I think it was Richbrewer or Dude who said last year that literally every single thing they put out was scarfed down immediately.

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Very true. We couldn't heat the pizzas fast enough! It seemed to be that people were hungry and just wanted to eat. They loved what we had!

I wish I could do more but I'll be happy to chip in money and any labor that is needed. I'm very limited on what I can bring since I'm flying in.

So who's up for a lunch at Hofbrauhaus in Newport, KY on Saturday? I may be able to talk SWMBO into driving and depending on which car we take we'll be able to fit either 8 (cramped) in the Honda Pilot or 8 comfortably in the Ford Excursion... possibly more if people are willing to 'sit' in the back behind the 3rd row seats.

The lunch time is still up in the air, as I'm going to see if I can get a free tour of the SA brewery in Cincy for us around that time as well.