I just moved to Georgia - the craft beer is still around $6 per pint. I don't understand it but maybe it isn't taxed as much as other places. (Watch the price jump up cuz I opened my big mouth. )
Completely true. I was hooked after my first conference but the true dopamine hit came the first time our club was close enough to pour our beer. That's the one thing I don't know if I can do without over several years (and still find the value in attending).I accidentally got into making beer. The first time I brewed, I was hooked. At that time, I really didn't know much about commercial craft beer. Turns out I just really enjoy the process and the results. And I like hanging out with like minded individuals. If that means Denver (nae bad place to hang oot) so be it.
For the Nashville conference, all the South Florida clubs were working together to do a Florida Man themed booth for club night. Then covid.
There are so many breweries making so many styles, some people just naturally opt not to spend 5 hours or so brewing, then managing fermentation, packaging and dispense. Also many of those breweries were started by people who were passionate homebrewers that went pro.
EXACTLY!!!!!!!!! There are other ways to make the event just as fun and informative without going all in on the exclusive sites and top shelf accommodations. Again, just one man's opinion. Like I said in another thread, if you can afford it and you are comfortable spending that kinda cash, that's awesome. Rock On!!!!!!!!
Kind of reminds me of the Olympics, city's are putting their bids in to host and if they are choosen they end up in the poor house.
I respectfully disagree with that. The way it is now? Yes, that is correct. But, and I will go back to the Good Guys Hot Rod shows in my area, if they scale it down or at least try ad scale down the event location and make it a more affordable weekend, I think they will see many more of the "average joe" types of brewers. For the Good Guys, you get ranges between the all out hot rod guys who spend thousands if not tens of thousands in their cars, to guys like me who are on a budget and do what we can to make the car look good. They don't price the events out of the market and for 25 or 30 bucks you can spend a day looking at some nice rides, browse the for sale cars and have a few beers. If they could figure out a way to do that and keep it in a decent price range, I would be happy to make the trek to Denver and use it as a nice weekend someplace I have been wanting to do anyway. Again, One man's opinion, take it for what it is worth. The other idea is to do smaller regional events. For instance, do a West Coast event, maybe a Mid West and a Southern. Then, at a designated time, do a national type outing for those who have the cash.
100%, but as you explain here, you’re talking major changes to get it there. It won’t happen unfortunately.
Talking the YVH folks after the first day in Pittsburgh, I know they weren't going to be giving away hops like that again... they hoped what they brought would last the entire con, and they were mostly gone in the first few hours.
Integration with GABF certainly deletes out the typical Thursday night commercial pouring portion of HBC, which for a long time was called "pro night" to differentiate it from the Friday Club Night. I'm assuming most attendees would have a GABF session to replace that. I'm very curious which portions of the typical HBC festivities are going to be kept intact.
My club had about 20 members make the trip to San Diego this year and the consensus was we aren't going anymore if it is connected to GABF. I will be interested to see what attendance looks like next year.
...and which ones will be <cough, cough> streamlined.
I like the suggestion, but the problem is with the National suppliers. It is very expensive for these guys to attend shows and they would have to attend all of them to capture the user base. From MoreBeer to Spike, Muntons or smaller manufacturers like Tilt or Plaato, I have engaged with their reps at HomeBrewCon, have learned a lot about their offerings, and am more likely to buy from them because of it. That is the purpose of a trade show - to educate and capture sales.
And that is one of the problems I have with the AHA being run by the Brewer's Association. I feel like they have a history of treating homebrewers as consumers of the various industries they represent rather than being pure advocates for homebrewing (see the annual Zymurgy survey of best commercial beers, for example). If HomebrewCon is mostly a trade show then I definitely don't want to attend. I want to hang out with homebrewers and drink homebrew and talk about homebrewing. I have only attended Philadelphia and Providence and found it hard to justify the cost (and that was without a flight!). I get more out of my homebrew club meetings. And I'm finally going to try to attend the New England Homebrew Jamboree this year, which I think like the model that a number of people have proposed.
I never even heard of this event and I was surprised to see it's been going on for 25 years. I would definitely be more inclined to check this out going forward.
Yes! Stop by the Knights of the Mashing Fork tent and say Hi.
And for those in the mid-Atlantic area, there is a similar event, the Mid-Atlantic States Homebrew campOUT (MASHOUT). The dates are August 17-20, 2023 in Cumberland MD (so pretty close to areas of VA, MD, DC, WV, PA, and OH). I have been maybe 8 times over the years. It a fun event with lots of homebrew, food, and events. I have 10 gallon of beer ready to keg that I brewed to take along.
Wow
