Friends,
I was just fortunate enough to attend BYO's Boot Camp in Burlington, Vermont the past two days. I thought I would share my notes with you should you want to consider attending a similar event when it finds your area.
On day one, I attended advanced hopping techniques with Sean Lawson. It was outstanding. We didn't spend much of the day in PowerPoints, it was mostly us peppering him with questions, and he was very gracious with his answers. Fancy yeast in sip of sunshine? Nope, chico. Bring the boil temp down before you whirlpool? Nope, he doesn't do it, just turn the heat off. He was so humble and down to earth.
We sampled some beers with different hop schedules (brought in by BYO staff). We sampled Lawson's beers. Life was good.
He brought some of his hop supply for us to both evaluate and bring some home. I brought over 3.5 pounds of hops home, 6-7 varieties. We went through his methods of evaluating hops and hop combinations. Gold, his insight was gold.
We brewed a batch, but that really wasn't as critical to me as the informal QA. He was incredibly generous with time, thought and hops. This was a great day.
On day two, I went to advanced yeast techniques with Dr. Chris White. That man is incredible. We did spend a lot of the day going over very academic PowerPoints, which may not have been as practical or as home brewer focused as I would like, but I did get some very useful nuggets.
Starters aren't nearly as critical as one would think, and he has the science to prove it. He has confidence in the viability of his product, especially in it's new packaging. His science made it appear as though a starter may help a beer finish quicker, but it won't necessarily finish better or with a lower gravity.
He also wasn't worried about having the packaging in open air. For some reason, I've always been scared to death of not having the packs cold. He said they are good for a couple of days. I won't leave my yeast on a shelf by any means, but I'm going to calm down about the small stuff, like having White Labs shipped to my house.
In summary, I have been overthinking and having too much anxiety about hops and yeast. It was well worth my time and money to hear all about it. I know my beer will improve.
The conference hall did have a few vendors on display (Morebeer, Blichman, Exchillerator, sadly few Burlington breweries, a couple of local distilleries, a few more misc.). People were going to have to leave the hotel to get a sense of what our beer is about, but that's probably okay.
My only real complaint was the quality of the food at lunch. If I'm paying over $200 for a conference, I expect better food than canned beans and franks or grey hamburgers, both offered with canned corn. The hotel could have made better food (I've been to many conferences there), but they surely couldn't have made cheaper food. I didn't expect gourmet, but I expected better than this for what I paid. This was a little bush league, BYO definitely cut some corners. I did put this feedback in my survey.
All in all, great experience, and I would put my hard earned money down again should they come back. I missed Brad Smith and Gordon Strong, so maybe next time.
Hanging out with other home brewers from all over the country was cool, everyone is so super personable. Anyway, just my thoughts....
Michael Burdick
Burlington, VT
I was just fortunate enough to attend BYO's Boot Camp in Burlington, Vermont the past two days. I thought I would share my notes with you should you want to consider attending a similar event when it finds your area.
On day one, I attended advanced hopping techniques with Sean Lawson. It was outstanding. We didn't spend much of the day in PowerPoints, it was mostly us peppering him with questions, and he was very gracious with his answers. Fancy yeast in sip of sunshine? Nope, chico. Bring the boil temp down before you whirlpool? Nope, he doesn't do it, just turn the heat off. He was so humble and down to earth.
We sampled some beers with different hop schedules (brought in by BYO staff). We sampled Lawson's beers. Life was good.
He brought some of his hop supply for us to both evaluate and bring some home. I brought over 3.5 pounds of hops home, 6-7 varieties. We went through his methods of evaluating hops and hop combinations. Gold, his insight was gold.
We brewed a batch, but that really wasn't as critical to me as the informal QA. He was incredibly generous with time, thought and hops. This was a great day.
On day two, I went to advanced yeast techniques with Dr. Chris White. That man is incredible. We did spend a lot of the day going over very academic PowerPoints, which may not have been as practical or as home brewer focused as I would like, but I did get some very useful nuggets.
Starters aren't nearly as critical as one would think, and he has the science to prove it. He has confidence in the viability of his product, especially in it's new packaging. His science made it appear as though a starter may help a beer finish quicker, but it won't necessarily finish better or with a lower gravity.
He also wasn't worried about having the packaging in open air. For some reason, I've always been scared to death of not having the packs cold. He said they are good for a couple of days. I won't leave my yeast on a shelf by any means, but I'm going to calm down about the small stuff, like having White Labs shipped to my house.
In summary, I have been overthinking and having too much anxiety about hops and yeast. It was well worth my time and money to hear all about it. I know my beer will improve.
The conference hall did have a few vendors on display (Morebeer, Blichman, Exchillerator, sadly few Burlington breweries, a couple of local distilleries, a few more misc.). People were going to have to leave the hotel to get a sense of what our beer is about, but that's probably okay.
My only real complaint was the quality of the food at lunch. If I'm paying over $200 for a conference, I expect better food than canned beans and franks or grey hamburgers, both offered with canned corn. The hotel could have made better food (I've been to many conferences there), but they surely couldn't have made cheaper food. I didn't expect gourmet, but I expected better than this for what I paid. This was a little bush league, BYO definitely cut some corners. I did put this feedback in my survey.
All in all, great experience, and I would put my hard earned money down again should they come back. I missed Brad Smith and Gordon Strong, so maybe next time.
Hanging out with other home brewers from all over the country was cool, everyone is so super personable. Anyway, just my thoughts....
Michael Burdick
Burlington, VT
