AHA comments from the home brewing community

[madscientist451]

There have been a few threads generated by employees of the AHA, how about a free form discussion about either why you are participating in the AHA or why you choose not to?
I’ll kick it off:
It’s just not a good value for me. When they have the AHA convention in Baltimore, San Diego, or Denver, the costs to attend are just ridiculous. How about downsizing and stage the event as cheaply as possible, keep attendance costs low and attracting as many as possible? Make it an outdoor camping event with possibility of staying in nearby motels? The current model isn’t working financially, so it’s time for some changes.

 

[Bobby_M]

I honestly didn't find it to be too expensive, or at least I didn't feel that the costs were unreasonable given the circumstances. Even if it was scaled back to 500 attendees, it limits the lodging choices to relatively dense urban (expensive) areas. More than 70% of my costs were airfare and lodging, 20% AHA fees, and 10% food.

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

I liked the forum, but the new software is awful and things slowed way down, so I stopped going. It was a nice alternative to HBT.

 

[dmtaylor]

I bought a 3-year membership about 3 years ago. Been a member for roughly 9 years or thereabouts. The main thing I like about membership is Zymurgy magazine, I've also used the discounts at breweries a few times but not always. I have not been to any conventions and not sure if I ever would, so conventions are not much of a factor for me personally, but I can understand why they would be for others. The biggest thing I respect about AHA is just how instrumental they (actually Gary Glass specifically) was in getting the laws changed in EVERY state to legalize homebrewing, even in many otherwise dry counties.

Then last year happened, where the BA started exerting their power, turning the AHA into an afterthought. Until now I figured I would let my 3-year membership lapse later this year or whatever.

But now, with the AHA separating from the BA, this gives me a lot of hope that things will turn around for the better instead of for the worse. And they've brought back Gary Glass! They laid him off years ago, but now that they can finally do what's right, they brought him right back. How awesome!

So now, with this renewed hope, I will be renewing as I usually would. Even if I don't get a huge bang for the buck, I just feel that it's important to me to support an organization that's been so supportive of millions of homebrewers for so many years. With BA out of the way, they'll be the organization that they need to be, without limits. Sky's da limit now. I can support that.

 

[dmtaylor]

I liked the forum, but the new software is awful and things slowed way down, so I stopped going. It was a nice alternative to HBT.

I don't mind the new format. It's not poorly implemented the way Northern Brewer did it 8 or 9 years ago.

 

[madscientist451]

I honestly didn't find it to be too expensive, or at least I didn't feel that the costs were unreasonable given the circumstances. Even if it was scaled back to 500 attendees, it limits the lodging choices to relatively dense urban (expensive) areas. More than 70% of my costs were airfare and lodging, 20% AHA fees, and 10% food.

There’s likely many reasons attendance has been declining. I personally don’t like doing anything in downtown Philly or Baltimore or similar places. Costs are very high and there are also a lot of hassles with parking and security issues. A smaller location, like in the Harrisburg, PA area, is going to be way easier for those arriving by car to attend. I don’t know for shure , but I would think event costs would be lower as well. A google search indicates there are 9200 hotel rooms in that region, and there’s an airport. Other regions have similar smaller cities that would be less costly and easier for day trippers to get to. There’s no way I would devote the time and money to attend a homebrew conference I can’t drive to, so of course I wouldn’t go every year anyway.

 

[Bobby_M]

I think the site selection was always tied to three major factors, maybe more.
1. A compelling homebrew club presence to make up a functional local committee (that was later phased out).
2. A big enough commercial brewery scene to tempt people to visit the town and to make up the pro-night beer selection.
3. Relatively easy enough to travel to from anywhere in the U.S. and big enough meeting location and lodging options.

As the attendance grew to over 2K, #3 really started becoming a challenge in exurb areas and pushed it firmly into urban centers. A good contrast would be Minneapolis because it was held there twice, once at less than 1200 attendees and once over 2500. At 1200, it was held at a hotel way outside downtown near the Mall of America. At 2500, it was downtown because it had to be held at the convention center.

Almost everything was better at the smaller place except access to varied food.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

FYI: Brewers Friend forum (link).

All I know about it is what is posted there (plus a domain name lookup).

 

[jschein]

FYI: Brewers Friend forum (link).

All I know about it is what is posted there (plus a domain name lookup).

And this is germane to the AHA convention topic at hand in which way?

 

[dmtaylor]

FYI: Brewers Friend forum (link).

All I know about it is what is posted there (plus a domain name lookup).

Smells scammy. Let's all go join a new club that doesn't exist yet, from a guy who just joined a homebrew forum with only one post so far to promote a new thing where he wants us to pay him money!

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

If this is HomeBrewTalk, topics often go "off topic" by about #5.

And this is germane to the AHA convention topic at hand in which way?

from the topic:

AHA comments from the home brewing community​

I thought that 'personas' here might find it interesting that there is an attempt to build a new home brewing 'community' in early 2025 apparently using "old school" web stuff.

Smells scammy. Let's all go join a new club ...

Personally, I'm not doing much more with it other than making a note to revisit the site in about 18 months.

In late summer 2026, I suspect it will be reasonable to do a "side-by-side" comparison with it, AHA 2.0, BYO, and CB&B for paid curated content.

 

[jschein]

If this is HomeBrewTalk, topics often go "off topic" by about #5.

That’s why I ask, I see you wanting to close topics when it happens

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

That’s why I ask, I see you wanting to close topics when it happens

Not any more - it's on the new years resolution list (LOL).

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

I liked the forum, but the new software is awful and things slowed way down, so I stopped going. It was a nice alternative to HBT.

The volume of replies makes it easy to "scan" the "latest" list (much like HomeBrewTalk or /r/homebrewing - although the list for the later two are a little longer).

FWIW, I find that there is a high "signal to noise" ratio in "slower forums" (e.g. AHA forums, Brewers Friend forums, ...). For example, there was a recent AHA forums topic (link) on rates for various hot side oxygen scavenging ingredients - stuff that neither books, nor UT, not LLMs (so far) seem to cover.

Over time, I have a list of "personas" that I follow across various forums. Some are unique to a specific forum.

With regard to AHA forum software, I suffered through college classes where the instructor was infinitely worse that whatever the current version of Discourse happens to be.

 

[madscientist451]

FYI: Brewers Friend forum (link).

All I know about it is what is posted there (plus a domain name lookup).

He wants $3.99/ month to be in the new club. Meh, for $48 a year, I’ll keep doing what I’m doing.

 

[MaxStout]

The AHA forum has another bonus for anyone here who feels nostalgic: lots of posts by Fred The Cat.

 

[Kent88]

I looked into AHA years ago, and it looks like a good organization, I'm glad they're around, but when it came to whether or not I'd spend money on it, and what kind of exclusive benefits I might get out of it individually, I figured there were other organizations and charities that I would rather send money to.

Nothing against them at all, I'd just rather spend charitably to certain local places, or groups that focus on curing (or as close as possible), or improving the quality of life of people with: CF, Parkinsons, or certain cancers or memory afflictions.

 

[MaxStout]

Apparently, when you renew at AHA, the new expiration date is 1 year after the time you renew, NOT 1 year after the old term expires. My existing membership expires 6/30/25. I just renewed last month, and the card I received states new expiration of 2/14/26.

Being proactive and renewing early cost me 4-1/2 months. I got to pay their new, higher membership fee and got a whopping 7-1/2 months in return. Hooray for me.

Anyone else experience this? Is it a glitch?

Edit: I sent them an email. I'll wait and see what they have to say and post here.

 

[dmtaylor]

Oops. They're still working out the kinks. Hopefully they'll rectify the dates based on your email. They're not trying to screw us over. Nevertheless the rest of us who are already members should keep it in mind for when we might want to renew. I myself had a 3-year membership that runs out later this year. So I'll simply wait until close to the renewal date based on your experience, so thanks. I know they don't have 3-year memberships currently so I'll do a year and then next year they should have 3-years again so then I'll consider doing 3-year at that time.

 

[jdauria]

What I would like to see from the AHA is, should Homebrew Con actually be revived is allow AHA members to purchase tickets per day, instead of for the whole event. When it was in RI in 2019, only 4 member of my club in Mass would commit to going full event. First time in New England in like 30 years, and I could not convince a majority of my club to spend the money. Now we did wind up with 8 members (out of 30( because 4 who work at breweries actually got free passes because their breweries were pouring at Pro Night.

Sure it was costly...but I left Providence with an overflowing suitcase of swag that I had collected over the 3 days that easily exceeded the cost of the tickets.

 

[MaxStout]

Oops. They're still working out the kinks. Hopefully they'll rectify the dates based on your email. They're not trying to screw us over. Nevertheless the rest of us who are already members should keep it in mind for when we might want to renew. I myself had a 3-year membership that runs out later this year. So I'll simply wait until close to the renewal date based on your experience, so thanks. I know they don't have 3-year memberships currently so I'll do a year and then next year they should have 3-years again so then I'll consider doing 3-year at that time.

I hope you're tight, and it's just a glitch. Hanlon's Razor. Maybe their system categorizes renewals as new memberships. Still, getting that right is an elementary database function. And there's a 9-digit membership number that it should be keyed to. Countless organizations are able to get their renewal timing right. My AAA membership renewal starts May 1 every year, regardless of when I send in the renewal.

It ain't rocket surgery.

Here's what's interesting. My AHA profile page shows the two terms, with dates that overlap.

Hopefully, I'll get a response and I'll post it here.

 

[MaxStout]

Update: I heard back from AHA re the membership date issue. They claim I hit the "new membership" choice, rather than "renew." I don't think so, as I was responding to their own email, promoting renewal. I followed the link in the email and ordered the renewed membership.

Anyway, they will fix it and I can get a new card.

It might be wise to wait until your membership expires before signing up for a renewal.

As for me, I'm done after this membership expires in June 2026. More trouble than it's worth. And I get more usable information here at HBT, anyway.

 

[dbeechum]

If no one minds, I'll chime in with my AHA Board hat here.

• Bear in mind that by the time you're up for renewal, the AHA will be completely unrolled from the BA systems and staff and be working with an independent management company. (~August 2025) That will be a much better place to be as then the AHA will be a priority
  • (I know that 3-year and lifetime memberships are also on the table for returning if they make sense. They got pulled when the separation was begun to avoid complicating the accounting even more than it was).
• On the conference tickets - here's the history of that.
  • Forever and a day, you could buy a Full Pass, A Social Pass (so just Club/Pro/Expo Hall), a separate Banquet ticket, and a DD-pass.
  • When the conference started rocketing in attendance, they made the decision to eliminate the tickets other than Full because the facilities had a certain capacity and it made more sense to favor the people who bought the full experience (plus the logistics got simpler)
  • As with all things, once you start getting the increased money, it's really hard to convince management they should take less. Now with this change and the reality of the headwinds that conferences are experiencing across the board should make change a bit easier.
  • Weird benefit of being smaller and more "homey" - the show can be in more places - once you crest that 1500-2000 mark, you're locked into fewer choices with multi-year contracts that make adjusting hard.

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

Apparently, when you renew at AHA, the new expiration date is 1 year after the time you renew, NOT 1 year after the old term expires. My existing membership expires 6/30/25. I just renewed last month, and the card I received states new expiration of 2/14/26.

View attachment 870734

Being proactive and renewing early cost me 4-1/2 months. I got to pay their new, higher membership fee and got a whopping 7-1/2 months in return. Hooray for me.

Anyone else experience this? Is it a glitch?

Edit: I sent them an email. I'll wait and see what they have to say and post here.

About a month ago, I won a year of membership and had no problem adding the year to my existing membership, fortunately. I’m sure they will make it right for you.
Edit: Reading on, I see they did.