2013 NHC in Philly! Who's going?

[gmr]

Amazing time. Made it back to CT in one piece. Club night was epic - it was overwhelming in fact. I just walked around and looked at the lists... stuck to lower ABV stuff, and sours. The Boston club had a tremendous geuze on cask.

Our little club (M.A.S.H from Clinton, CT) were very outclassed in the booth decorating dept... but I feel our beer quality was on-par with most of the stuff I tried. Was proud my Blackberry Berliner Weiss was one of the first kegs I saw kicked. My wives Pink Peppercorn Saison also seemed to go over quite well - only her second all-grain batch.

 

[stonebrewer]

Just got home after dumping off islandlizard and sweetcell. Bad wreck on 95 just before we hit Baltimore is going to make it a long day for others who left after us!!

Agree, club night was the highlight of the 4 days for me. Pro night was okay, but was a little disappointed in the game some of the pros brought. I was really hoping FW would bring one of their AMAZING beers, but they brought an off tasting Wooky Jack. Loved the Stone Enjoy By...and by far my favorite of the night was Bitter Valentine. Club night was so much fun and you guys that brought beer to share did a fabulous job, one and all. Loved the Barley Legal guys! They had a wonderful barrel aged stout that I could have drank all night! The DC area guys had some great sours, mead, along with other very good beers. Loved how the MD area folks banded together! There were what, 10-15 clubs from the DC MD VA area!

The awards ceremony was a bit of a let down, but that might just be because I was party'd out by that time. It was great fun to watch though and congrats to Phil who was sitting at our table for a respectable Bronze with his Uncle Bob's Pilsner! He was gracious enough to share some with me and it was awesome!

Looking forward to Grand Rapids!

Cheers!
stonebrewer

 

[drmark50]

Anybody witness the exploding commemorative cans? I guess they pulled the cans they handed out at registration due to quite a few exploding. I looked at the 2 we have and they look like the are ready to pop.

One if ours exoloded in our car on the ride home.

 

[DLink]

After I heard about the false seal i separated my can from the rest of my stuff. When i got home Saturday I was unloading all of my swag and having a conversation. The can exploded in my hand and scared the hell out of me! Didnt cut me or anything but it stung like a bastard and soaked me. That is a shame for round guys, I thought the beer they poured was quite good.

 

[TNGabe]

Wow did I do a bad job of meeting up with HBTers. Did meet some other cool folks. That cask geuze a club night was delicious, so was the kriek a few booths up. The cuvée de Tomme clone from Austin as excellent too. Anyone try the Merican Sour at the Philly Homebrew booth at the expo? It was probably the best sour beer I got to try.

It was my first conference and after the registration and comp snafus, I was a little worried. Had a great time and can't wait for next year. Hope to get back to Philly. Great beer town and very friendly.

 

[Qhrumphf]

My can survived but drinking before it blows. Definite lactic character. Its actually still quite good.

Was my first conference. Was glad i went, even blowing off a wedding to do so. Plus club night folks loved my beers, plus John Palmer hanging out in our room drinking was awesome.

 

[TBBrewer]

Thanks for the heads up on the cans - we almost flew with two of them . That would have been ugly.

Club night was awesome - props to the Ohio brewers with all the experimental IPAs, and o FBI who crammed every one of the SWMBO's fav hops into a single beer.

Monks and Eulogy were pretty awesome. I'll definitely be back to Philly for more food and beer.

Lastly, props to untapped - their servers held up pretty damn well given the number of checking in this weekend

I was worried others would have tried to fly with those. Luckily, we made it home with the rye saison. Anybody try that yet?

I really enjoyed the one club that had all the smash ipa's/pales.

Strangeloves and Monks were the place to be. Amazing brews. I did not make it to Eulogy, but wanted to. I was using the Untappd app to see what was pouring where/when and it worked out well. The servers did do quite well.

 

[TBBrewer]

Amazing time. Made it back to CT in one piece. Club night was epic - it was overwhelming in fact. I just walked around and looked at the lists... stuck to lower ABV stuff, and sours. The Boston club had a tremendous geuze on cask.

Our little club (M.A.S.H from Clinton, CT) were very outclassed in the booth decorating dept... but I feel our beer quality was on-par with most of the stuff I tried. Was proud my Blackberry Berliner Weiss was one of the first kegs I saw kicked. My wives Pink Peppercorn Saison also seemed to go over quite well - only her second all-grain batch.

That blackberry berliner was very nice. Really enjoyed that one.

 

[TBBrewer]

Just got home after dumping off islandlizard and sweetcell. Bad wreck on 95 just before we hit Baltimore is going to make it a long day for others who left after us!!

Agree, club night was the highlight of the 4 days for me. Pro night was okay, but was a little disappointed in the game some of the pros brought. I was really hoping FW would bring one of their AMAZING beers, but they brought an off tasting Wooky Jack. Loved the Stone Enjoy By...and by far my favorite of the night was Bitter Valentine. Club night was so much fun and you guys that brought beer to share did a fabulous job, one and all. Loved the Barley Legal guys! They had a wonderful barrel aged stout that I could have drank all night! The DC area guys had some great sours, mead, along with other very good beers. Loved how the MD area folks banded together! There were what, 10-15 clubs from the DC MD VA area!

The awards ceremony was a bit of a let down, but that might just be because I was party'd out by that time. It was great fun to watch though and congrats to Phil who was sitting at our table for a respectable Bronze with his Uncle Bob's Pilsner! He was gracious enough to share some with me and it was awesome!

Looking forward to Grand Rapids!

Cheers!
stonebrewer

I was also somewhat disappointed with Pro night. Looked like a few breweries didn't show up. I was looking forward to Duclaw, but they were a no show.

Anybody make it over to the Stone tasting at Bru? It was a cool little place and enjoyed chatting with Mitch. The beer was also quite tasty.

 

[TBBrewer]

Wow did I do a bad job of meeting up with HBTers. Did meet some other cool folks. That cask geuze a club night was delicious, so was the kriek a few booths up. The cuvée de Tomme clone from Austin as excellent too. Anyone try the Merican Sour at the Philly Homebrew booth at the expo? It was probably the best sour beer I got to try.

It was my first conference and after the registration and comp snafus, I was a little worried. Had a great time and can't wait for next year. Hope to get back to Philly. Great beer town and very friendly.

That late night sours table was on point. Every single one we tried was very nice. They had a sour cherry that was amazing.

 

[Bobby_M]

The SWmBO (hophead) found a falconers, cascade, Citra, Nelson, + at the FBI booth. Needless to say I barely got a sip.

Anyone meeting up sat? We're jacks lack of lunch plans, but thinking of hitting the public market.

FYI if you're not going to the banquet, Parc Brasserie and Morimoto's were A-Mazing (and I'll be broke for the next month now but it was worth it).
View attachment 131922

Hey, that's a sexy looking....

























club in the background.

IMHO, The gems of our booth were the Russian Imperial Stout, Framboise, and the ice ciders. I hope everyone got to try at least one of them. They all kicked pretty early.

 

[Coff]

Wow did I do a bad job of meeting up with HBTers. Did meet some other cool folks. That cask geuze a club night was delicious, so was the kriek a few booths up. The cuvée de Tomme clone from Austin as excellent too. Anyone try the Merican Sour at the Philly Homebrew booth at the expo? It was probably the best sour beer I got to try.

The Merican Sour Is a beer brewed by a guy in my club. His name is Kirk, very much and eccentric dude, Hebrews exclusively sour/mixed fermentation beers. His basement is filled with barrels and large 60 gallon fermenters, everything is open his windows are open he does not sanitize, he repitches the same yeast slurry endlessly.

I brewed a turbid mash Lambic with him a few months ago using some of his slurry and bug farm I'm pretty excited to see how it turns out.

Also, the Dogfish folks had his beer and asked him to come down to the brew pub to work on some beers.

 

[gmr]

The Merican Sour Is a beer brewed by a guy in my club. His name is Kirk, very much and eccentric dude, Hebrews exclusively sour/mixed fermentation beers. His basement is filled with barrels and large 60 gallon fermenters, everything is open his windows are open he does not sanitize, he repitches the same yeast slurry endlessly.

That's awesome. it was a stellar beer.

Also got to purchase some ECY strains while drinking it, so that was a plus!

 

[Yooper]

Wow did I do a bad job of meeting up with HBTers. Did meet some other cool folks. That cask geuze a club night was delicious, so was the kriek a few booths up. The cuvée de Tomme clone from Austin as excellent too. Anyone try the Merican Sour at the Philly Homebrew booth at the expo? It was probably the best sour beer I got to try.

It was my first conference and after the registration and comp snafus, I was a little worried. Had a great time and can't wait for next year. Hope to get back to Philly. Great beer town and very friendly.

I tried unsuccessfully to find you and piratwolf through the whole conference, among others!

I just got home and my daughter called and thinks she's in labor so I went to pick up my grandson for the night while they go off to the hospital.

I'm sleeping with my grandson tonight, instead of in my own bed I think!

I loved many of the beers I tried, and made it a point to drink as many PA/local beers as I could instead of some of my old favorites. I really enjoyed most of the beers in the Liberty Well, as well as at club night.

Judging went smoothly, as far as I could tell from my perspective, and I think it was a well done conference.

 

[njale]

what were the highlight beer of club night?

 

[Yooper]

what were the highlight beer of club night?

There were so many! One of the ones I thought was especially good was the Buffalo Trace barrel aged RIS from Bobby_M's club (WHALES, I think?).

But there were so many, and it's all sort of a blur, as I drank a pint of Damnation and three pints of Pliny before even going to Club Night. That, and the all-day beer samples meant that certain clubs/beers blur together in my mind.

 

[gmr]

Judging went smoothly, as far as I could tell from my perspective, and I think it was a well done conference.

Agreed, Judging seemed to go very smoothly. Wasn't thrilled with the use of check box judging sheets, but I get why they chose them. I certainly still took advantage of the small comment spaces on a lot of the entries I judged.

 

[Yooper]

Agreed, Judging seemed to go very smoothly. Wasn't thrilled with the use of check box judging sheets, but I get why they chose them. I certainly still took advantage of the small comment spaces on a lot of the entries I judged.

I did write a few comments also, but not many. I don't like the check sheets either, but they seemed to work.

 

[njale]

what does everyone think of a light lager winning bos?

 

[Yooper]

what does everyone think of a light lager winning bos?

I didn't judge that category, so I didn't try that beer. We had a stellar group of master and national judges (with random lowly certified ones like me) and I think if it was picked, it must have been deserved.

Did anybody else notice that it wasn't really a big deal that the Homebrewer of the Year was a woman? I'm so pleased about that. I mean, yes it's great that it's the first time in thirty years of the competition, but gender really doesn't matter. I don't think having a scrotum makes someone a better (or worse) brewer.

What I did like was that there were more women than ever before, especially in the "scientific" seminars.

I was approached by a writer/brewer who wants to interview me about women brewers. I declined. I'm not a woman brewer. I'm a brewer. My gender has nothing to do with my ability, although it's been a struggle in the past sometimes to even get service in a LHBS.

One really funny note- a few of us HBTers were sitting on the floor outside of the seminars at 4:30 yesterday, waiting for the rest to show up. A guy was taking pictures, and saw someone's "HBT" thing on their badge. He asked "Are you a member of HBT?" and someone said that we all were. So we introduced ourselves, with me going last. I said I was Yooper, and he was shocked. He didn't know I was a female, even though I "knew" him right away.

I think it's pretty cool that no one really knows or cares what the gender is of their imaginary friends. We all here for the beer.

 

[Qhrumphf]

what were the highlight beer of club night?

Unfortunately I was pinned to our club's booth all night and didn't have a chance to wander and try other stuff.

Did get a lot of good stuff at the Social Club (and a share of meh stuff). Some people brought some amazing sours, but I found a lot of the English session beers (most of my favorite styles) to be lacking.

 

[TNGabe]

The Merican Sour Is a beer brewed by a guy in my club. His name is Kirk, very much and eccentric dude, Hebrews exclusively sour/mixed fermentation beers. His basement is filled with barrels and large 60 gallon fermenters, everything is open his windows are open he does not sanitize, he repitches the same yeast slurry endlessly.

I brewed a turbid mash Lambic with him a few months ago using some of his slurry and bug farm I'm pretty excited to see how it turns out.

Also, the Dogfish folks had his beer and asked him to come down to the brew pub to work on some beers.

I quite serendipitously met him Saturday at Strangelove's. Drank some nice stuff there and then headed out to Tired Hands, we ended up drinking together for quite a while.

 

[Coff]

I quite serendipitously met him Saturday at Strangelove's. Drank some nice stuff there and then headed out to Tired Hands, we ended up drinking together for quite a while.

Oh that's cool, He loves him some Tired Hands and so do I.

 

[sweetcell]

what were the highlight beer of club night?

soooooooooooo many good beers. i spent a good portion of the evening pouring at the DC Homebrewers table and i quite enjoyed claphamsa's meads and lambic (i do believe that stonebrewer liked them too )

FOAM also had a great sour... there was some amazing single-hop IPAs... aww dammit they were all great to excellent. i didn't have a single drain-pour all night, clubs clearly brought their A-games. i can't say the same of the liberty well - some afternoons i was batting .500 there.

club night was a beer geek's dream come true.

 

[galttfwo]

Still recovering from the 4 best days I can mostly remember. Club night was legendary ( I would love Club night to be split up next year though. 1/2 of the clubs one night, and half the next. Would be able to try more other beers, and really don't need a Pro Night anymore with the amount of beers that the clubs bring).

Having our booth across from Barley Legal and the WHALES was amazing too. Their barrel aged stuff was tremendous.

Getting to meet Yooper and have a beer was awesome as well! And she said my SN was geeky, which I appreciate.

 

[eroymada]

My wife and I went and we had an awesome time! It was our first NHC, but we quickly met up with a lot of friendly brewers. Our cans didn't explode, but we drank those little bombs on the first night. We brought home the Saison as a gift to a brewer who couldn't go. Hopefully those aren't overcharged as well. My head and liver are still in one piece, so perhaps I didn't have enough fun.

On another note, does anyone know when they are going to post the podcasts of the sessions? I had a little trouble making some of the morning ones . . . . ok, morning and afternoon ones.

 

[TBBrewer]

Why didnt the use more of the convention center for club night? They had the whole other half to spread it out and it would have flowed a lot better if they just gave it a little more room.

On another note, did anybody have the jalapeño cream ale near the entrance? Really enjoyed that one. Think it was served by the guys in old lady dresses.

 

[remthewanderer]

Still recovering from the 4 best days I can mostly remember. Club night was legendary ( I would love Club night to be split up next year though. 1/2 of the clubs one night, and half the next. Would be able to try more other beers, and really don't need a Pro Night anymore with the amount of beers that the clubs bring).

Having our booth across from Barley Legal and the WHALES was amazing too. Their barrel aged stuff was tremendous.

Getting to meet Yooper and have a beer was awesome as well! And she said my SN was geeky, which I appreciate.

Dude! You guys had the most amazing mosaic ipa! My buddy and I ran in to one of your members at pro night. They gave us the heads up about this one IPA and I got to say it delivered.

Why is it that even with our names around our necks I can't remember the name of a single person I met at the conference?

 

[remthewanderer]

My wife and I went and we had an awesome time! It was our first NHC, but we quickly met up with a lot of friendly brewers. Our cans didn't explode, but we drank those little bombs on the first night. We brought home the Saison as a gift to a brewer who couldn't go. Hopefully those aren't overcharged as well. My head and liver are still in one piece, so perhaps I didn't have enough fun.

On another note, does anyone know when they are going to post the podcasts of the sessions? I had a little trouble making some of the morning ones . . . . ok, morning and afternoon ones.

I asked about the podcasts too because my babysitter for Saturday backed out and I had to miss the whole day. I thought being local to NHC was going to make things easier but it was the exact opposite.

Someone from the AHA told me it will take a month or so to get them all up online.

 

[janzik]

There were so many! One of the ones I thought was especially good was the Buffalo Trace barrel aged RIS from Bobby_M's club (WHALES, I think?).

Yes, that was us! We had a ton of great comments about the RIS. We were getting stopped in the hallways and elevators about it.

Damn, I didn't get a chance to say hello to you. I only met Soper and Sach this weekend... I think Soper was stalking me because everywhere I went he was there.

 

[janzik]

Still recovering from the 4 best days I can mostly remember. Club night was legendary ( I would love Club night to be split up next year though. 1/2 of the clubs one night, and half the next. Would be able to try more other beers, and really don't need a Pro Night anymore with the amount of beers that the clubs bring).

Having our booth across from Barley Legal and the WHALES was amazing too. Their barrel aged stuff was tremendous.

Adam, it was great getting to meet other Jersey clubs as well. I really enjoyed the Mosiac Marris Otter SMASH from your booth. I'm pretty sure that one was yours.

I didn't get a chance to try too many booths, because I was having a lot of fun pouring at ours (WHALES)

I agree that it would help splitting club night up.

 

[Yooper]

Yes, that was us! We had a ton of great comments about the RIS. We were getting stopped in the hallways and elevators about it.

Damn, I didn't get a chance to say hello to you. I only met Soper and Sach this weekend... I think Soper was stalking me because everywhere I went he was there.

I hung out a lot with Soper and Sacc- maybe I walked right past you. Even though I wanted to meet and visit with a lot more HBTers, it seemed like I was most often with Sweetcell, Soper, Sacc, pjj2ba, stonebrewer, and claphamsa. Step and ollllllllo went for lunch with us one day, but Step had to always run off to man the booth at Wyeast so he missed out on much of my slightly drunken inane conversation.

One high point for me was to go over to the big Wanamaker Day- the big pipe organ at Macy's. A whole bunch of us ended up going over there for a great concert. I didn't even know it was there, but Sacc filled me in and it was so worth it. I think it was like me and about 5-6 guys from HBT that went over there. It was really awesome.

 

[galttfwo]

Dude! You guys had the most amazing mosaic ipa! My buddy and I ran in to one of your members at pro night. They gave us the heads up about this one IPA and I got to say it delivered.

Why is it that even with our names around our necks I can't remember the name of a single person I met at the conference?

Thanks Jeremy! That one was mine and I was really proud of it. Kinda freaked out when Jamil Z. come over and asked for a full glass, like 3 times. I was beside myself for about a day after that.

 

[AnOldUR]

Only drank coffee and water all day yesterday and still woke up with a hangover this morning.

Yeah, that was fun!




edit:

. . . and no matter how hard I tried, couldn't come close to keeping up with Yooper, but enjoyed trying.

Have to start training now for Grand Rapids 2014.

 

[machfive55]

My first NHC. I really had a good time at the pro-brewers night and also club night. I had a little too much on pro night and turned in a little early. Missed Sam pouring the Dogfish beers and was a little bummed about that. Was in line at Lagunitas when the fountain went off.

I tried the beer in the exploding cans. It was not a pilsner. It was kinda like a hoppy citrusy wheat beer. Not a bad beer but not a Pilsner. It's almost like they canned the wrong beer or something.

I spent some time at the BN booth, got to meet the BN crowd. Very cool crew. In fact EVERYONE I met was really cool. In spite of all the beer and drinking I did not see one drunk a-hole.

The dinner was so-so for us. It was good but I expected more. Next year I might not spend on the dinner unless I have a beer in the second round. I do wish they would open up the awards ceremony for everyone so you don't have to spend $50 to see if you won. They should separate the dinner from the awards.

Definitely looking forward to next year.

 

[machfive55]

Only drank coffee and water all day yesterday and still woke up with a hangover this morning.

Yeah, that was fun!

I took advice from the NHC and had NO issues. I started taking milk thistle before the event and kept it going through the event. I took my daily multivitamin and drank plenty of water and gatorade. NO hangover whatsover. And I certainly drank my share, went to bed after club night pretty lit.

 

[Yooper]

. . . and no matter how hard I tried, couldn't come close to keeping up with Yooper, but enjoyed trying.

Have to start training now for Grand Rapids 2014.

I felt like I was always looking for you! Remember one of my first phrases- it's a marathon, not a sprint!

It was such an honor to meet you and your wife- and I'm so glad I did.

The dinner was so-so for us. It was good but I expected more. Next year I might not spend on the dinner unless I have a beer in the second round. I do wish they would open up the awards ceremony for everyone so you don't have to spend $50 to see if you won. They should separate the dinner from the awards.

Definitely looking forward to next year.

I think the dinner is worth doing at least once, but I feel like you do and that's why I skipped it. I think it's great in many ways, but I can do much better for dinner for $50. Heck, at Monk's I had fantastic mussels and a pint of Damnation and three pints of Pliny the Elder for $40, and $30 of that was bar tab.

 

[AnOldUR]

The dinner was so-so for us. It was good but I expected more.

All PC aside, I was thinking the same thing. My Stromboli was kind of dry and didn't have enough sause. Only ate half of it. That and the five pitchers of beer we brough down from our room was my undoing on Saturday night.

 

[machfive55]

I fairly local and have never been to the downtown joints. I went to Monk's and Nodding Head and really enjoyed both. Also went to McGillin's and liked it. For the stuff that Monk's had, you could not beat the prices in there especially for downtown Philly.

 

[machfive55]

All PC aside, I was thinking the same thing. My Stromboli was kind of dry and didn't have enough sause. Only ate half of it.

My buddy said the same thing about his. I also thought it was odd that it was a taste of Philly with Rogue beers. I realize they sponsored it, but they should have maybe looked for a Philly area brewer to sponsor it, or at least an east coast brewery. I know, I'm just picking now.

By Saturday I was taking it easy on the beer knowing that I wanted Sunday morning to be sane due to travel and family things going on later in the day. I did think it was darn cool the way people were "tailgating" outside the banquet. I was approached several times with "where's your glass". The rush into the doors was a little crazy though.