| Saturday, June 13, 2015 |

Immediately after publishing the last update, I grabbed a breakfast burrito and headed over to Denny’s and Drew’s seminar, Introduction to Experimentation, where I was asked to help with a live triangle tasting. I didn’t wear a dress, though received quite a few comments on my fanny-pack.

Of all the seminars at NHC, this had to be the most serious, and by serious I mean completely whimsical and funny. Drew and Denny served 2 beers to the audience, asked them to note some differences, then hit them with the reality that… they were the same exact beer. These guys! For the actual triangle test, they compared a water diluted version of Drew’s Magnum Blonde Ale to a non-diluted version (generally same stats), and 2 of the 3 participants were able to distinguish the odd-beer-out. Still, I sampled both and was pretty surprised when the variable was revealed. Great stuff!

During the seminar, Drew talked about something I get asked quite a bit about the Brülosophy xBmts– whether the results might be different if I only used trained tasters for data collection. I’ve never been interested in doing this since since our target audience isn’t trained tasters, but I thought the information Drew shared was interesting and sort of validating. I don’t recall the exact numbers (download the talk from AHA later), but the differences between untrained and even rigorously trained tasters weren’t huge.

Following this seminar, I caught up with the crew from Brew Your Own magazine to discuss some potential future collaborations. Great folks doing great things! I then went back down to the Expo, had a couple beer samples, then bumped into Malcolm and Chip who were discussing lunch options. Chip suggested a place then realized he didn’t have enough time since he had to be back to introduce a seminar.

Great recommendation, Chip! While waiting for our food to arrive, Matt met-up with us and we invited a conference goer from New Jersey, Chris Baumle, to sit at our table and chat. The food was damn good.

We headed back to the conference center after eating to catch the fantastic talk by Derek Springer (Five Blades Brewing blog), Berliner and Beyond: Sour Mashing and Its Applications. Not only did he inspire me to try my hand and sour mashing, but he taught me how to avoid a poo beer.

This was the last seminar of the conference and we had a few hours before the Grand Banquet and Award Ceremony, so a group of us hit the road to explore the great San Diego beer scene. Our first stop was Tiger, Tiger, a neat restaurant and craft beer bar.

We then headed up the street to Rip Current where I enjoyed their Nut Brown and Hazelnut Porter, and we played a cool game with some locals involving an iPhone being placed on foreheads. It was a lot of fun.

After Rip Current, we walked to Mike Hess Brewing, which apparently has grown immensely over the last few years. The environment was rad and the beers were delicious.

Those of us with tickets to the the Banquet caught an Uber back to the conference center where we joined the remarkably long line. Thankfully, we caught up with some cool folks and had good conversation, which made the wait a bit less boring.

The number of homebrewers packed into the hall for the Banquet really put things in perspective for me– this hobby has grown like a weed!

Matt, Malcolm, and I plopped down next to Michael Tonsmeier and the Brazilian homebrewing crew, more fantastic chats were had. The food was quite tasty and paired with Lagunitas beer. The award ceremony was a lot of fun (my German Pils didn’t place).

CONGRATULATIONS TO 2015 NINKASI WINNER MARK SCHOPPE!

After all the awards were doled out, some of the guys went back out to visit more breweries while a few of us shared bottles in Eric’s and Rebecca’s room. Another day had withered away, I was tired and excited to get home to my family. Matt and I woke up early and were on the road by 8am, 5 reflective hours later, we were home. After some much needed kisses and hugs, unpacking, and a shower, I decided to put the final exclamation mark on the end of what was an epic adventure.

That would be my only beer of the day, and to be honest, it felt weird not having a buzz by noon.

So many people contributed to making this trip one of the best beer excursions I’ve ever been on. Ray and Malcolm, you guys are fucking rad, thanks for all you put into this silly project (you must come next year Greg). Aaron, Sean, Matt, Wes, and the rest of the BT6 crew who couldn’t make the trip, I love you guys and, no Sean, not tonight. Eric, Rebecca, Derek, and Dan, I can’t even tell you how great it was hanging out. Denny and Drew, you continue to inspire the shit out of me, which really says something now that I know in real life. Matt Chrispen, Chip Walton, John Palmer, Martin Brungard, Sean Terril, Michael Tonsmeier… the list of incredibly kind and smart people I met is quite long. And finally, all of the Brülosophy readers I bumped into throughout the conference, thank you so much for all the encouragement and support!

We’ll get back to our regular junk soon, we’ve got a bunch of great xBmts lined up as well as the first edition of The Hop Chronicles. We’ll also be running another t-shirt campaign shortly, so if you’re interested, keep your eyes peeled. Cheers!

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