AHA Nationals

Brewtopia said:

Alright guys I reserved a car today and extended my stay at the Four Points Sheraton through Saturday. I was originally going to head out of town Saturday but decided to stay for the awards banquet. Anyway, I'm renting a small SUV (Ford Escape or similar) so I can carry a bunch of stuff. I can bring out my two tap jockey box and a couple of kegs. I'm also planning on packing plenty of NW beers that you guys probably can't get in your areas to share. We are driving to Denver via Santa Rosa so I'll fill up on some Pliny as well. Can't wait. Let's get to planning that booth!

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Uh...Pliny? OMFG....I'm shootin' sparks outta my ass!
If I paypal'd you some cash, could you get me a growler of it?

One thing I'll recommend guys--when Sam and I were in B-more we hardly drank ANY of the beer we brought in our coolers. We just didn't spend enough time in the hotel room to do it. You have an endless beer supply at the conference in the events and the hospitality room. I'd suggest only bringing beer to swap with each other--not very much to drink--or else you'll be taking it all back home. Just my .02.

So how many kegs are you planning on having for club night?

I will try to bring one--gonna be a royal PITA though.

Yes, lets get some planning going, and guilting more people into showing up. We need much more than 5-6 members!

I'm telling you guys who've never been to this--Club night alone is worth the admission alone, IMHO.

I wish they would announce the seminars...I'm REALLY liking some of the speakers but I hope they don't all speak on Saturday--I won't be there!

No need to PayPal cash just bring some beer to trade. I agree, I don't plan on drinking a bunch of the beer I bring but we have some great small breweries here that don't get wide distribution that I'd love to share. I can bring one or two kegs. This booth thing is tough. Is there anything that hasn't been done before?

If you can squeeze it, bring 2 kegs. What styles would you bring? Bring your best!

olllllo, are you bringing kegs? Brewpastor?

I think we can count on Rich for 2, and if we can get at least 6 from all of us, we'll be good to go. Rich--can you brew up another banana brew before then? That would go over REALLY well with the ladies. Remember the LPR story Sam and I told from Baltimore?

Brewtopia--I need a list of something you might be interested in. I'll bring the award winning St. George's brews, some Alewerks....but other than that I'm not sure what I can get that you couldn't. If you go to the Duclaw site (www.duclaw.com) and let me know what you might want to try from there, and I'll pick up a growler of it in May. They have great beers. I recommend the Venom HIGHLY.

I'd kill for a growler of Pliny to take back with me...I'd be willing to drive a while to get what you can't get there.

I recommend the Venom HIGHLY.

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Venom sounds great. When is the Serum available? I saw that on their seasonal's list. The hoppier the better for me. I haven't decided what to bring for the booth yet. I can do two kegs. I was thinking of brewing my Hopocalypse Now Imperial IPA. Definitely also thinking of something oaked.

Dude said:

olllllo, are you bringing kegs?

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Brewing it isn't going to be a problem.
Air Cargo?

Anyone ever do this?

Only a suitcase full of bottles. I've never tried to check a cornie. I wonder if they'd be concerned by just the way it looks?

I will bring beer. I will brew the 777 Rye IPA, maybe a double like my Preaching in Hell IIPA, and bring them up. I don't think I will bring the draft box. It is too big.

Brewpastor said:

I will bring beer. I will brew the 777 Rye IPA, maybe a double like my Preaching in Hell IIPA, and bring them up. I don't think I will bring the draft box. It is too big.

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I don't think that will be a problem Brewpastor. If you guys can send me some parts and pieces, I can build something for our booth.

I would like to bring a couple Corny's but right now I'm just about tapped out. I need to get brewing. Any ideas? Are we all bringing different beers?

RichBrewer said:

I don't think that will be a problem Brewpastor. If you guys can send me some parts and pieces, I can build something for our booth.

I would like to bring a couple Corny's but right now I'm just about tapped out. I need to get brewing. Any ideas? Are we all bringing different beers?

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We need to. Sounds like BP has the IPA route all taken care of. I'll prolly bring an ESB and something else undecided at this time.

If BP does a double IPA I can bring something else. I was very happy with my Saison, maybe I'll brew up a batch of that this weekend.

I haven't decided for sure yet, but I will be entering at least 6 beers and possibly 8 in the regionals. I will definitely be at NHC in person whether any of my entries advance or not. Our club will have a booth at club night. I will have 2 or 3 kegs of my brew there along with 6 or 7 kegs of assorted brews from other members of our club. See you all there!

Wayne
Bugeater Brewing Company
www.lincolnlagers.com

I am entering 5 beers

Preaching in Hell - Imperial IPA
el Corizon - Belgium Pale Ale
Water into Barleywine- American Barleywine
Dark Night of the Soul - Russian Imperial Stout
Sinner in the Hands of an Angry God- Old Ale

I think I should do my part to give the judges a nice buzz.

Brewtopia said:

Only a suitcase full of bottles. I've never tried to check a cornie. I wonder if they'd be concerned by just the way it looks?

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I'm going to talk to an air cargo guy next week.

IIRC: You have to be a known shipper. Airline employees used to qualify but Patriot act clammped down on that.

Weight and size are not an issue as far as checked bags go.
Security-wise I can see two problems
1) How do they know it's not a volitile liquid without opening it?
2) I don't want them to open it.
3) It's going to get shaken quite a bit. I may have to invest in a filter so the sediment stays out of solution

More when I know more.

Brewpastor said:

I am entering 5 beers

Preaching in Hell - Imperial IPA
el Corizon - Belgium Pale Ale
Water into Barleywine- American Barleywine
Dark Night of the Soul - Russian Imperial Stout
Sinner in the Hands of an Angry God- Old Ale

I think I should do my part to give the judges a nice buzz.

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Say hello to the 2007 Ninkasi winner, folks.

I wish I'd be able to actually go, but it doesn't look like I can take the time off work.

olllllo said:

I'm going to talk to an air cargo guy next week.

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Any luck on this?

Dude said:

Any luck on this?

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I just sent off another email to SWMBO. Guy was on vacation last week. He needs to answer my questions now.


Beer is depending on this!!!

So the air cargo guy is Guy? Guy the cargo guy?

I'm starting to get antsy about registering too...I'm not paying fo rthe whole conference--it was a waste IMHO--I was never around for anything.

I do want to do some seminars (Vinnie, Charlie Frey, etc), but not ALL of them.

I have no desire for the banquet--it blew last time. It seemed like it lasted for ever.

I am definitley doing pro brewers night, club night, and some seminars (which days I do not know yet).

Also, who has SWMBOs attending? I'm not registering my SWMBO for any seminars, she'd rather eat paint chips. I'm hoping SWMBOs get along so they can go out and shop or something while we play beer drun....geeks.

I registered my SWMBO for the social package. She wants to go to Pro Brewer's Night and Club Night. We're going to do the banquet as well. Should have talked to you first...oh well. I registered for the whole thing but may not attend everything. When is everyone planning on getting to Denver? We should arrive early Wednesday, drop off the beer at the hotel, then straight to the Falling Rock for me.

What the hell, I'm entering an Oatmeal Stout. Why not have this as my first competition. No way for me to go but I'm sure it will be fun.

Brewtopia said:

I registered my SWMBO for the social package. She wants to go to Pro Brewer's Night and Club Night. We're going to do the banquet as well. Should have talked to you first...oh well. I registered for the whole thing but may not attend everything. When is everyone planning on getting to Denver? We should arrive early Wednesday, drop off the beer at the hotel, then straight to the Falling Rock for me.

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The banquet will be fine if you like endless talking and endless shooting sunshine up everyone's butts for such a great weekend...it just got really old for me. You might also enjoy it if you think you have beers that may have won. I'm not entering any, hence I don't give a rat's ass.

We get in fairly early Wednesday too, I believe. I suggest an HBT pub crawl of our own. We'll start exchanging info once this gets closer.

This may be my one and only chance I get to attend so I signed up for the whole thing. I guess a little sunshine up my butt won't hurt anything.
My SWMBO won't want to attend any of the events but maybe I can talk her into getting together with other SWMBOs.

Never done a comp before, but I've registered Dark Horse Stout v1.0 and the Honey Ginger Winter Warmer. Contemplating tossing the Burninator Barleywine v1.0 in for good measure too. We'll see. It's all about the Dark Horse right now. Got friends pressuring me to enter it, so there you go. Hope it does okay.

I won't be able to actually attend anything, but I'm shipping them in.

Question: even if your brews don't make it to the finals, does the AHA still give you the judges' feedback?

I just booked my hotel and flight to go out too! I'm going to send in my Sweet 'Tater Ale for the comp. I wish I would have monitored this thread a little better though, we're coming in early on Thursday, I would have been down for a an HBT crawl on Wednesday night if I had noticed. DOH!

clayof2day said:

I just booked my hotel and flight to go out too! I'm going to send in my Sweet 'Tater Ale for the comp. I wish I would have monitored this thread a little better though, we're coming in early on Thursday, I would have been down for a an HBT crawl on Wednesday night if I had noticed. DOH!

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Cool...just make sure you are signed up for Pro Brewers night and Club night, and I guarantee you'll have a good time.

We'll meet up Thursday at some point!

gruntingfrog said:

I'm entering 4 beers.

I'm entering a pale ale, a brown ale, an orange pale ale, and a blueberry brown ale. The two fruit beers obviously are using the two main beers as the base.

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OK. I take that back. I'll be entering an American Pale Ale and an American Brown Ale for sure. I may be entering a rye beer as well. The two fruit variations are questionable. The orange pale ale currently smells like Mr. Clean Orange All Purpose Cleaner and tastes not far from it. It may mellow in time so I'm not throwing it out, but I'm pretty sure it's not worth the entry fee for Nationals. The blueberry brown ale is very dry since I didn't take the additional fermentables which raised the ABV in account when I brewed the brown ale base. If I had, I would have raised the mash temp to get a little more malt sweetness to the base. I have about a week and a half before I ship them off, so I'll see what it's like in a week. I'm bottling the rye tomorrow so hopefully 3 weeks is enough aging since I'll have to make a decision when I taste it next week while it's still green.

olllllo said:

Brewing it isn't going to be a problem.
Air Cargo?

Anyone ever do this?

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Update by chance?

A guy on BB said that you can bring kegs as longs as they are IN your checked luggage. I can do that.

I'm gonna call our airline and confirm this....

What about a booth theme? We need to get moving on this!!!!!!

More club night info.

B,
Thank you so much for the additional information! I have added you to the list for a "booth" at Club Night at this year's National Homebrewers Conference! Within the next month, I will be starting to contact all clubs/groups that have signed up for a booth and will be asking questions regarding your booth so I'll know if you will need the conference to provide any special equipment, etc. Also, I hope to have the opportunity to take a tour of the room by then that we will be utilizing for Club Night so I'll know the status of electrical outlets, etc. This will help when I start collecting your information. In the meantime, if you already know what equipment, etc that you may need, or what you'll be bringing, let me know and I will get that added to my list. Also, let me know if you have any questions for me regarding Club Night. Thanks so much Brandon! I look forward to meeting you in June!! Take care!

Cheers,
Dottie Clapp
2007 NHC Club Night Coordinator

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Dude said:

Update by chance?

A guy on BB said that you can bring kegs as longs as they are IN your checked luggage. I can do that.

I'm gonna call our airline and confirm this....

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There's actually 2 hurdles on this:
What the airlines will allow (size, weight, type of cargo)
What the TSA will open and inspect.

I think contracting the airlines is a good idea, because the answer could vary between carriers. I guess I'm worried that the TSA will open my corny and not be able to reseal it. It'll leak and then the airline will reject it. All of this would happen while you're getting your seat on the plane. Meanwhile your corny will sit in the departure airport's hot baggage area spoiling away until you get back home to claim your new batch of malt vinegar.

olllllo said:

There's actually 2 hurdles on this:
What the airlines will allow (size, weight, type of cargo)
What the TSA will open and inspect.

I think contracting the airlines is a good idea, because the answer could vary between carriers. I guess I'm worried that the TSA will open my corny and not be able to reseal it. It'll leak and then the airline will reject it. All of this would happen while you're getting your seat on the plane. Meanwhile your corny will sit in the departure airport's hot baggage area spoiling away until you get back home to claim your new batch of malt vinegar.

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Okay....I still need to make a call to the airlines then. I might have an in though. The Maryland clubs are sending all of their beer on a pallet. I'm going to see if I can get in on that.

I am officially registered!!!!!! SWEET!!!!!!

Welll...my shipping problem is solved I think.

I heard through the grapevine that some of the Maryland homebrew clubs were getting together to ship a pallet of kegs over. I e-mailed and asked if I could get in on it and they said sure! SWEET!

I gotta get brewing!

Plans for Watermelon Wheat begin (my other keg will be Lake Walk Pale Ale, which was brewed today, we'll run that through the randall at the NHC)!!!!!!!!!

I have a Randal (or at least all the parts) and was thinking the oaked randal would be good to have in Denver. Thoughts?

At this point we have as many Randalls as people.

olllllo said:

At this point we have as many Randalls as people.

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And????????????

I'll bring my Randall and our theme can be "Singing in the Rain"

Oaked Randall sounds awesome BP.

How many taps do we need? Are we rotating beers through or pouring all at once? I can bring extra Co2, manifold, etc. if needed. I might just toss everything in the back of the rig so we have it. If we don't need it that's cool.

Ok, I'm tentatively in! SWMBO loves the idea, and I have the leave available from work. Brewpastor is only 3 hours from me, and Denver is only 8-10. I'll try and get a brew going ASAP so I have some beer to bring, but I'll never make an entry in time.

What I'd really like to do is finish my Brewman! inspired corny steam masher and perhaps a little side project that Dude and I have been talking about. That should garner HBT a little attention, I think!

(tentatively) Looking forward to it!

Oh, and let me know if there's anything I NEED to bring. I'll be driving a big SUV or pickup!

**** Yea! tentatively

If I can find another to share a drive out to Denver from Wisconsin/Illinios comma consider the sause in. Really looking for another person.