2013 NHC in Philly! Who's going?
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What a wonderful conference that was! I've been at conferences...but this one takes the top prize, glass up.
Thanks to all who brewed, transported and served all that incredible beer, mead and cider. I never imagined the scale of Club Night and the Liberty Well, or the high quality of homebrew that was brought to all of us day after day.
"Sours after Hours" was another unexpected highlight with some incredibly exquisite brews shared among a smallish group of aficionados and those who were just curious. Thanks to claphamsa and everyone else who brought the tasty warez.
After being "dumped off" at the Elkridge exit by stonebrewer (thanks for the ride!) it took me the rest of Sunday and most of today to wind down from those 4 exhilarating days and nights. BRAVO NHC!
I totally support the idea to split Club Night into 2 nights if at all possible. Not sure if it should replace Pro-Night, though. I think many enjoyed that event just as much plus it gave us the opportunity to sample amazing craft beer from many breweries from all corners of the country. And the quality was in one word, awesome.
Of the presentations, I was especially moved by professor Roger Barth's Science of Beer Flavor. What a privilege to be able to attend such a magnificent lecture that was not only very informational but also carried a message as well as a good sense of wit; it took me straight back to my student years at the University. :respect:
Thanks to all who brewed, transported and served all that incredible beer, mead and cider. I never imagined the scale of Club Night and the Liberty Well, or the high quality of homebrew that was brought to all of us day after day.
"Sours after Hours" was another unexpected highlight with some incredibly exquisite brews shared among a smallish group of aficionados and those who were just curious. Thanks to claphamsa and everyone else who brought the tasty warez.
After being "dumped off" at the Elkridge exit by stonebrewer (thanks for the ride!) it took me the rest of Sunday and most of today to wind down from those 4 exhilarating days and nights. BRAVO NHC!
I totally support the idea to split Club Night into 2 nights if at all possible. Not sure if it should replace Pro-Night, though. I think many enjoyed that event just as much plus it gave us the opportunity to sample amazing craft beer from many breweries from all corners of the country. And the quality was in one word, awesome.
Of the presentations, I was especially moved by professor Roger Barth's Science of Beer Flavor. What a privilege to be able to attend such a magnificent lecture that was not only very informational but also carried a message as well as a good sense of wit; it took me straight back to my student years at the University. :respect:
I agree that they should have used the whole area but I'm probably jaded by the fact that Barley Legal erected a 12' high cabin at the front of their booth almost completely obscuring our back corner booth. It just happened to go that way, but we could have used another 6-8 feet of space between the booths for that reason.
I was completely done with with pro night at 9pm. The local brewery turnout was pathetic and frankly I'm embarrassed by it. Even for the guys that did show up, they basically poured their run of the mill stuff. This event is for brewers on the cutting edge right? How about pouring a one off batch that shows they GET what we're trying to do? Nah, they treat it exactly like every other beer festival. Anyone catch Weyerbacher's awesome 8.5 x 11" banner? In short, yes, a split club night would be welcomed big time.
gmr
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I was also a little underwhelmed by pro-night. Then club night happened... then I was really underwhelmed by pro-night.
I will give it up to Dogfish Head. Sam shows up, with a some pretty rare offerings. To me it shows he still gets it, as hasn't forgotten about his roots.
I will give it up to Dogfish Head. Sam shows up, with a some pretty rare offerings. To me it shows he still gets it, as hasn't forgotten about his roots.
can we all take a moment to acknowledge who took third place in pilsner (cat 2)?!?
one of our own.... congrats phil!!!
one of our own.... congrats phil!!!
And it really was a great beer! I liked his German pilsner even more, and that was the one I thought would place.
Thanks Phil for sharing them! :rockin:
Wow, what a great time! Great seminars, great beer (well, some of it) and good people. I was excited to meet some HBTers in person!
I do have to say though, I was extremely disappointed in the dinner at the awards banquet. I'm as much a food geek as I am a beer geek, and I was really pumped to have a Sean Paxton Dinner. What a huge letdown. I wouldn't pay 20 bucks for that meal.
I totally understand that it's really, really hard to prepare a meal for 2000 people, but if that's the best you can do, don't do it. My group still had fun at the banquet, and we would have went anyway because we all had a beer in the running for a medal, but I was bummed by that meal. Not to mention, they weren't even good pairings in my opinion. It was just like putting whatever Rogue Beers they could with the dish.
Not trying to sound negative; everything else about the week was killer! I'll definitely be going to Michigan.
I do have to say though, I was extremely disappointed in the dinner at the awards banquet. I'm as much a food geek as I am a beer geek, and I was really pumped to have a Sean Paxton Dinner. What a huge letdown. I wouldn't pay 20 bucks for that meal.
I totally understand that it's really, really hard to prepare a meal for 2000 people, but if that's the best you can do, don't do it. My group still had fun at the banquet, and we would have went anyway because we all had a beer in the running for a medal, but I was bummed by that meal. Not to mention, they weren't even good pairings in my opinion. It was just like putting whatever Rogue Beers they could with the dish.
Not trying to sound negative; everything else about the week was killer! I'll definitely be going to Michigan.
I can pretty much assure you that won't happen.
I thought Williamsburg Alewerks had the best beer I had that night (Bitter Valentine).
I am a HUGE Firestone Walker fan and was extremely dissapointed with their old, off flavored bottles of Wooky Jack they pulled out of a closet somewhere. If they had poured 16, or parabola, or sucuba or all the above I would have never left their table!!
+1 to the Bitter Valentine being the best thing about pro night. how many refills did we have? six? more?!?
FW was indeed a let-down. i understand why they might not want to pour their premium barrel-aged beers (certainly would have been nice tho!), but the one - one - beer they did bring was not only a widely available one but it was off (old, or badly stored, or just a bad batch). having them ship some of their brewpub-only beers would have been nice.
Gitmoe
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Widmer Bros had their Hibiscus Goze that was pretty phenomenal and Heavy Seas busted out some elusive Loose Cannon... There was more hard to find beer pouring than I think people realized. I still don't like Dogfish. Sam showing up doesn't change their beer or their philosophy. Brew a normal beer every now and then...
noblesquirrel
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Moonlight Meadery brought a good mix of stuff, some that was brand new. Preferred the stuff at the seminars, but still rock solid offerings. Definitely disappointed in the lack of locals, though.
Gitmoe
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What do you mean by locals? There were definitely some local breweries to Philly there. Not all of them or the best ones but definitely a few...
O, I am sure.
Very true on the Heavy Seas. That was nice. I guess I somewhat overlooked Widmer and Moonlight as the were pouring at the expo all day. Aleworks was decent also. Wish the had the royale pouring, yum.
16 & 15 were being poured at Strangeloves. They had Sucuba also. They also had bottles of Hardy for sale.
I agree with you on the Loose Canon, but that Gose? No sour or salt to it. I love this forgotten style, but I thought that was a weak A$$ interpretation.
Speaking of Dogfish Head, did anyone else here do the Spiegelau glass tasing? That was the freshest 60 minute IPA I've ever seen. The date was June 7th. It was freaking amazing that fresh. It was like they picked it up that morning.
I guess it helps with their presentation, which I'm totally interested in discussing if anyone else went to it.
indeed, i suspect there are some sponsorship considerations...
how about this: turn pro night into a "pro vs. club" nigh. have a small number of clubs go up against the pros, maybe around a theme (ex: a pro identifies a style and a club has to step up and offer something similar, have their tables next to each other). most of the clubs, like 75% would still pour on club night be we could handle some of the overflow on pro night.
i ran out of things i wanted to try, or was willing to wait in line for, on pro night - too few pros. on the other hand there was way too much on offer on club night.
stratslinger
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Widmer had some awesome offerings - both at pro night and in the expo hall. That Goze was definitely amazing, and if you didn't get a chance to try their black raspberry RIS, go find a bottle! The also had some kind of brown they were pouring in the Expo Hall on Thursday that my wife went for that was pretty great.
But your comment about the elusive Loose Cannon puzzles me a bit. Was Heavy Seas pouring a special edition of their Loose Cannon, or are you just in a region where it's hard to come by, or am I just really fortunate that my local shop seems to almost always have it on hand when I want it? Don't get me wrong - it's definitely good stuff! But I wouldn't exactly call it elusive.
The number of brews offered on club night was daunting - too daunting! Does anybody have a rough idea of how many homebrew kegs got kicked - or maybe more importantly - how many did not. If a bunch of beer went home, then perhaps there should be some kind of limit to the number of kegs that a club could bring. Perhaps a ceiling for the total # of kegs and then the number of kegs a club is allowed to bring is based on the # of club members attending the conference.
It might help improve the average quality too. I had some great ones, a lot of good ones, and more than just a couple that immediately got dumped, and I'm talking styles I like, not weird experimental stuff.
If most were empty, or nearly so, then good G*d.
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Except that they award a prize for club with the most kegs....
A couple years ago in San Diego, I don't even think our club tapped half the kegs we brought.
I didn't get the chance to meet as many HBT'ers as I wanted to, but I think I met a significant number! One thing that always strikes me is the huge number of geeks that are into this forum and into the NHC.
It seems like a much larger segment of this group is heavy with engineers and IT people than the national average. We're all in all a pretty well educated geeky group, and I love it! Oh, I know there were plenty of great blue collar people too, don't get me wrong. But I think taking your brewing to the next level is attractive to the ones who want to geek out over beer, and I felt like I couldn't spill a beer without hitting an engineer.
The other thing I wanted to say is that the quality of the speakers this year was awesome. I have to watch a lot of them on the AHA website, because there were so many that I couldn't get to them all. I really liked the science leaning at this conference, and I am looking forward to putting some of the things I learned into practice.
It seems like a much larger segment of this group is heavy with engineers and IT people than the national average. We're all in all a pretty well educated geeky group, and I love it! Oh, I know there were plenty of great blue collar people too, don't get me wrong. But I think taking your brewing to the next level is attractive to the ones who want to geek out over beer, and I felt like I couldn't spill a beer without hitting an engineer.
The other thing I wanted to say is that the quality of the speakers this year was awesome. I have to watch a lot of them on the AHA website, because there were so many that I couldn't get to them all. I really liked the science leaning at this conference, and I am looking forward to putting some of the things I learned into practice.
I think I would keep the format the same, but would tweak a few things. First, I would ask the pro brewers to bring their A-game (not sure how you do this, just thinking out loud) or not come. Who wants a crappy beer at an event like this? It's a waste of everyone's time including the pro's (money too if their beer just ends up in a dump bucket!). Second, I would ask more of the local brewer's to participate. Sure I want DFH and Stone there, but there are so many small breweries on the East Coast within 3 hours of the event that we could have had two pro nights! Let's get more of the little guy in there, showing off their good stuff! Third, I would spread the tables just a few feet more, to make room for mingling and drinking without interfering with pouring. Another thing I would like to see improve is the Well...I rarely had a beer there that I thought was outstanding. Is this because clubs were keeping their best for club night? If so, is there a way to improve on this like mix in a pro table or two? People mentioned the food wasn't that good at the awards dinner and I have to agree. Portions were okay for me, but I heard a lot of others complain they were too small. The salad and main dish were okay, but not worth the price we paid. The desert was great though. The beer was somewhat of a let down for me as well, but that just might have been due to 3 straight days of drinking prior to the dinner so I may have been a little burned out. Fourth (or is this fifth?) I would have liked it if the expo changed up vendors each day, at least a subset of them, though that might be a function of the number willing to put out a table. Seventeenth, I would like to have had a little more organization at the dinner, where people could sign up for a table together as a group and not have to rush in like a herd of cattle.
If none of this changes, I would still go again and still have a blast. Meeting so many of you great people from HBT, drinking and chatting with people like Palmer and Steele, sampling homebrew from so many fine brewers was really a special time for me and I just can't wait to do it again! Cheers!!!
If none of this changes, I would still go again and still have a blast. Meeting so many of you great people from HBT, drinking and chatting with people like Palmer and Steele, sampling homebrew from so many fine brewers was really a special time for me and I just can't wait to do it again! Cheers!!!
Gitmoe
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It was a special version of Loose Cannon. Honestly, I forget what the special part was. I was really sick for the whole conference and extremely tired. I was talking to the Heavy Seas guys after Pro night out on the loading dock. They told me what it was but I was half in the bag and nearly asleep at that point....
TNGabe
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Maybe all the normal folks just didn't want to talk to you guys
I don't think I asked a single person about job stuff while I was there. Who wants to talk about that at the homebrewers conference? Oh, engineers.
Maybe all the normal folks just didn't want to talk to you guys
Oh, I rarely asked! But it was really apparent much of the time. Sometimes, I would just say, "What kind of engineer are you?" after hearing them talk for 30 seconds. Usually, it was electrical but sometimes chemical. :cross:
bnmir
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They need to have a table reservation system for the banquet.
That would be nice, but don't hold your breath.
remthewanderer
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As someone who works at a non profit some of our fundraising events are sit down lunches and dinner banquets. I'm in IT and part of what I have been trying to find is a vendor at can manage tables in a simple manor. It is the HARDEST thing about these types of events. We do corporate tables which would be the same concept as what we are talking about for NHC.
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Yeah. It's easy to tell those wanabees from the real mechanical engineers.
club night split into 2 nights would work...they could of done club night on Wednesday than again on friday right? or do it on friday night than again on saturday afternoon? do all the east coast clubs on one night, all the west coast clubs on the other
just to be a pain: Milton, DE is less than 2 hours south of Philly... so DFH is a local brewery by your definition
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Yeah. It's easy to tell those wanabees from the real mechanical engineers.
Ha! Fellow ME here.......
Oh, yeah, well.......................MEs too!
I spent a lot of time talking about electric brewing, so that was really fun. No one around where I live (except for my buddy lschaivo, who happens to be an EE
) cares about any brewery items let alone a control panel with a PWM and a PID. But the folks I chatted with totally geeked out with me. :rockin:
Oh, and I now have the coolest tap handle at my cottage on the little kegerator, due to one of my geek friends!
Thanks, AnOldUR! I'll be staying at the cottage overnight tonight, and I'll take a picture. Quinn helped me put it on, and pronounced it "cool"!To be fair, of course, I knew Firebrewer was a fellow paramedic (and firefighter), and eyedocTodd is self explanatory. But otherwise, I felt like the only non-engineer or IT person around for long stretches.
I agree, the rush sucks
Yooper said:Oh, yeah, well.......................MEs too!
I spent a lot of time talking about electric brewing, so that was really fun. No one around where I live (except for my buddy lschaivo, who happens to be an EE
But the folks I chatted with totally geeked out with me. :rockin:
Oh, and I now have the coolest tap handle at my cottage on the little kegerator, due to one of my geek friends!
To be fair, of course, I knew Firebrewer was a fellow paramedic (and firefighter), and eyedocTodd is self explanatory. But otherwise, I felt like the only non-engineer or IT person around for long stretches.
I wonder if the conference has something to do with the demographic. I don't think most of the folks in the Pittsburgh group buy are IT/eng, but both of the folks I hung with at the conference are Chem E's.
Maybe it's natural selection on the registration process - the geeky folks were much faster on the draw.
We were talking about this today at work. Most brewers I know are engineering types as well (most people, for that matte,r that I know are engineers). Process oriented, like electronics and chemistry, mechanically inclined. I can see why we are drawn to the hobby. Add to that stress filled jobs and the desire to relieve stress with a cold beverage and it is a natural fit. That said, I know accountants, musicians, health professionals, etc. that are into brewing as well...but most folks I know that do it are engineers.
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