2011 San Diego NHC

[Cape Brewing]

From my perspective what they are doing is creating "mega-clubs" that dont have any real "organization" than a website. It is a global club with anyone on the planet able to join. While I think it is a cool idea to include as many people as they can, I also see it as a cheesy marketing ploy just to get the name out.

Maybe I'm just playing the role of the grumpy old man but to Grem's point, very few of these folks know each other remotely. Does Yoop know HBT folks? Of course. But what percentage of "members" do you know? 1/2 a percent? 1/10th of one percent? I dunno.. When I think club, I think a regional group that gets together, in person, and does tastings, conducts talks, has events...

I dunno... I just think having a website and "members" all over the planet its a bit cheesy and its a bit a cheatin'

 

[kappclark]

Seattle then philly

I will be in Philly 4 sure...does anyone have pics ??

 

[Gremlyn]

I just feel that 1) it is solely a social media marketing gimmick out to spread the word about their show 2) if they do this every year, then there is no way any other club will ever win the award and the whole thing becomes a big joke and people stop caring.

Yooper, what you said makes perfect sense, but at some point there has to be some limits and rules established as to what constitutes a club otherwise club-glomerates will end up winning stuff all the time.

 

[Bsquared]

I think both HBT and The BN provide a great resource to the home brew community, But I would not call either a club, and don't think ether should be eligible for club of the year. It would be best if groups would be recognized at NHC based on their competition performance and their club night voting. I might have missed it on club night because we where too busy serving beer and talking to people about our beers, but I did not see a BN booth? There where a lot of people who put in a lot of effort to make club night awesome, who really have no way to be recognized.

 

[bill42]

i feel like this debate should be entered into its own thread. but why did BN even enter into club of the years awards? is there a prize awarded for winning? clubs have actual in person meetings. you can list HBT as a default if you dont have a club, but it should never win a "club award" as its a social forum, not a club

 

[bill42]

also, how is "club of the year" awarded, what do they base it on? there has to be some kind of evaluation

 

[Shooter]

Okay, back in HAYWARD and catching up on the thread. I have a few shots I'll post when I get a chance. Great to meet everyone!

 

[weirdboy]

Yooper, what you said makes perfect sense, but at some point there has to be some limits and rules established as to what constitutes a club otherwise club-glomerates will end up winning stuff all the time.

While I agree with this sentiment, this has already been happening even before BN.

QUAFF may be ostensibly San Diego residents, but Jamil is nominally a QUAFF member and won his Ninkasis as a QUAFF member and that certainly helped them get the club awards. Gordon Strong submitted his beers as a St Paul member and naturally that put them over the top for the club prize. I think the line has already been pretty blurry for a number of years, only now that it is explicitly non-geographical everybody is up in arms.

 

[chriswilkes33]

also, how is "club of the year" awarded, what do they base it on? there has to be some kind of evaluation

Its a total of 1st round and second round comp points and points collected during the AHA club only comps throughout the year. Who cares if they are a huge club? They had the most points, so they win. If you dont want them to win get your club to make better beer and beat them.

The fact that they dont have the ability to get together and share tips etc puts them at a disadvantage as far as I can see. You have access to all of the resources they have as a "club". Ill admit I questioned it when they called their name out too but Justin cleared the air pretty well in my opinion during their little speach. I dont have a problem with it, frustrating as it may be to be up against them, its no more frustrating to me to be up against a massive club from a huge city. Oh yeah, I dont really compete anyway.

 

[Shooter]

Bsquared sighting in center. Also back of shooter on the left.

Yes, a fine shot of my back as I stare off into a completely random direction paying NO attention to the shenanigans in front of me!

 

[Shooter]

Large group of HBTers waiting outside Gremlyn1's place for breakfast & mead tasting prior to kickoff.

Yep, this is before we arrived from the strip clu...err...I mean supermarket with keys and food.

 

[Shooter]

Okay, here are a couple shots to tide you over.

A wide shot of the HBT gathering.

A little shot I like to call, Fun with Alcohol and Power Tools!

Club Night!

 

[weirdboy]

BTW just wanted to say I had a great time meeting all the HBTers, and you guys make good stuff.

Also although I had planned to go to NHC in Seattle next year, as soon as they announced the actual dates my hopes were crushed. SWMBO's b-day is on the 22nd and there is about 0% chance she will be interested in attending a homebrew conference.

 

[Cape Brewing]

Welp.... I think you need to look on the bright side... At least I can still make it

 

[bill42]

dont forget to post in the most memorable beers of NHC 2011 thread,
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f20/best-beers-nhc-2011-a-251970/

 

[bill42]

The fact that they dont have the ability to get together and share tips etc puts them at a disadvantage as far as I can see. You have access to all of the resources they have as a "club". Ill admit I questioned it when they called their name out too but Justin cleared the air pretty well in my opinion during their little speach. I dont have a problem with it, frustrating as it may be to be up against them, its no more frustrating to me to be up against a massive club from a huge city. Oh yeah, I dont really compete anyway.

its no disadvantage at all, its the advantage of having a unlimited unnumbered club, with no limit on the entries. by not being a official club with no meetings, they can have 1000s of entries, and the poorer beers dont get reflected into the judging for the award. its like me entering a beer as the same club soper is in, even though i never talked to any of the members or meet them in person. its BS

 

[bill42]

its not a club, its an online social collabartion

 

[wreals]

Good times. I've never seen some much good beer in my life. Good meeting a bunch of you.

 

[Shooter]

Did anyone else catch Bryndilson's American Hops presentation? I thought it was one of the better talks and tied in nicely with some of the points Charlie Bamforth was making in his presentation earlier that morning, TOO early to be honest, about the importance of the oil components of hops and the need to get a better understanding about their contributions to flavor and aroma.

 

[weirdboy]

Did anyone else catch Bryndilson's American Hops presentation? I thought it was one of the better talks and tied in nicely with some of the points Charlie Bamforth was making in his presentation earlier that morning, TOO early to be honest, about the importance of the oil components of hops and the need to get a better understanding about their contributions to flavor and aroma.

I didn't see the scheduled seminar, but I suspect he did the same or similar presentation to what he did for the BJCP reception. I agree I thought that was one of the most useful bits I picked up the whole I time I was at NHC. Now I want all my hops labeled with essential oil% in addition to AA%. In fact, I would probably be willing to pay more for hops where I could get that data.

The other part of that was in Charlie Bamforth's presentation where he went into detail about how the method of extraction and also the ratio of the types of alpha acids in the hops makes a huge impact on perceived bitterness.

 

[chriswilkes33]

its no disadvantage at all, its the advantage of having a unlimited unnumbered club, with no limit on the entries. by not being a official club with no meetings, they can have 1000s of entries, and the poorer beers dont get reflected into the judging for the award. its like me entering a beer as the same club soper is in, even though i never talked to any of the members or meet them in person. its BS

How is that any different than a club of 40 people having to compete with clubs a few hundred?

My small club has people that do not participate in any club functions that compete under our club name. Is that any different than how the BN, or Quaff or the St. Paul people do it?

I also dont get upset that a local club will win the award for bringing the most beer to the conference every year. Jokes on them when they have to carry that urinal accross the country for the next years conference.

 

[remilard]

I seriously doubt the BN had anywhere near a hundred entrants. They entered all regions, but QUAFF amd SPHBC typically entered four or more.

Why complain about maximizing what the rules allow all of a sudden?

I expect the reaction to be most negative here because of the stupid BN envy. It comes off petty guys.

 

[weirdboy]

BTW I cannot get over the fact that QUAFF showed up with 135 kegs to club night. That is just sick.

 

[Saccharomyces]

I expect the reaction to be most negative here because of the stupid BN envy. It comes off petty guys.

I believe 90% of people polled at NHC would agree that BN should not be considered as a club, and I agree with them. However the rules are the rules, and whether they change them for next year is up to the AHA governing committee to decide, with input from its members.

That said, if you care one way or the other, write to Gary Glass and tell him what you think, don't bitch and moan about it on the forums, that won't solve anything and will be seen by the BN folks as trolling.

 

[Gremlyn]

I've paid little to no attention to the BN, it's just never been on my radar or anything that has piqued my interest. I know of them, but really know nothing about them, so I feel I'm quite neutral on any bad vibes between HBT and the BN army. And if I can't bitch and moan about stuff like this on the internet, where can I?

 

[Cape Brewing]

(agreeing with Grem again)

... and I don't think I'm bitching and moaning. I don't think I'm being all super pissy. I just dont think a website with thousands and thousands of people, from all over the planet, who wouldn't know each other from a hole in the wall is a "club".

I don't have any skin in the game since my club doesn't really enter any beers in the NHC anyway. We would never remotely compete with some of the larger clubs... but, at least their CLUBS.

I have zero problem with a huge regional club (hundreds of members) but like I said... Ten of thousands of people from all over the planet who's onli link to each other is posting online... its just not a club in my mind.

Clubs are clubs... not businesses.

Sure, maybe you have some really large clubs out there that make some decent money but they're not a business. BN is a business that provides a service to the general public, and as a result, has customers globally (just like HBT). BN is a professional service that makes money, pays employees, etc from revenue made (advertising fees, etc) people who use their services.

That is not what a club is.

 

[Cape Brewing]

SEVENTEEN bottles of beer in my luggage and not a single one broken.

 

[remilard]

(agreeing with Grem again)

... and I don't think I'm bitching and moaning. I don't think I'm being all super pissy. I just dont think a website with thousands and thousands of people, from all over the planet, who wouldn't know each other from a hole in the wall is a "club".

I don't have any skin in the game since my club doesn't really enter any beers in the NHC anyway. We would never remotely compete with some of the larger clubs... but, at least their CLUBS.

I have zero problem with a huge regional club (hundreds of members) but like I said... Ten of thousands of people from all over the planet who's onli link to each other is posting online... its just not a club in my mind.

Clubs are clubs... not businesses.

Sure, maybe you have some really large clubs out there that make some decent money but they're not a business. BN is a business that provides a service to the general public, and as a result, has customers globally (just like HBT). BN is a professional service that makes money, pays employees, etc from revenue made (advertising fees, etc) people who use their services.

That is not what a club is.

There aren't thousands of people who enter as The BN. I listen to The BN but am a member of another club and enter as that club. There are thousands of those people.

The fact that you keep throwing around numbers that have no basis in reality makes me wonder if you would object to what was happening if you had a good grasp on what was truly happening?

 

[Shooter]

BTW I cannot get over the fact that QUAFF showed up with 135 kegs to club night. That is just sick.

Yeah and I tried only two of them. Their pulled pork sliders were pretty good.

 

[Cape Brewing]

There aren't thousands of people who enter as The BN. I listen to The BN but am a member of another club and enter as that club. There are thousands of those people.

The fact that you keep throwing around numbers that have no basis in reality makes me wonder if you would object to what was happening if you had a good grasp on what was truly happening?

Well... at least you decided not to take the really douchy snarky route in responding. That's always appreciated. Thanks.

And I'm sorry... I don't have a good grasp on this whole thing so can you show me where I said they had thousands of people were entering as BN??? You obviously have a good grasp on reality so I must have said that somewhere.

I thought I simply said that they had thousands of members all over the planet. I didn't think I ever said they were flooding the comp with entries and hell, if some of the bigger real clubs (ASH or QUAF that were both there) want to bomb 1,000 entries on the comp... awesome... have at it, I never said I had a problem with it. I THOUGHT what I said was I just didn't think BN was a "club" since they were a professional business that doesn't have a regional membership that gets together, has regular club meetings, etc. They're a business who sells advertising space on a website and they promote their website by providing a forum for their "members".... which is awesome... BN is fantastic for the homebrewing community and I am actually a big fan of BN... that doesn't mean they're a club.