Author: Marshall Schott

Regretfully, it took me 12 years of homebrewing before I attended my first National Homebrewers Conference in San Diego last year. I’d heard about it and how much fun people had, but every year I came up with reasons to avoid going. Today, I’m going to go over some of my favorite aspects of NHC, now known as Homebrew Con, in the hope I can help others avoid making a similar mistake.

The People

Online personas serve to anonymize the real us, allowing for the occasional presumptively terse remark to someone we don’t really know, fully aware that we may never come across these people in real life. Unless you go to Homebrew Con! I often say that the community is my favorite aspect of this hobby, and a large part of this community resides on the internet where we engage with illusory versions of peers in the safety of the warm glow of a computer monitor. Rather than pretending to know a person based solely on their a/s/l, attending Homebrew Con forced me to interact with actual human beings, all who had one very cool thing in common: a love for brewing and beer. Whether attending seminars, moseying around the convention center, or even taking a stroll to a nearby burger joint, I was surrounded by cool fellow conference-goers more than willing to strike up a conversation that usually elicits stares of misunderstanding from my wife and non-brewing friends. One of the coolest experiences was bumping into people I’d interacted with online, many who I developed friendships with and continue to talk to today. Furthermore, there is no event on earth that puts so many favorite brewing celebs in a single place at the same time, and in my experience, most are down for sampling, sharing, and shooting the shit about beer. In addition to all the planned seminars and nightly events, various informal meetups occur at different times throughout the conference such as those put on by the Milk The Funk crew and the AHA Forum. Not only is this a rad opportunity to put faces to names, but to sample the amazing beers made by your distant peers. So cool! Ultimately, there’s a high cool people to asshole ratio at Homebrew Con, and while the latter can be found if you look hard enough, the atmosphere by and large encourages everyone to chill out and have a good time.

The Beer (and Such)

There’s no denying that Homebrew Con is a beer drinker’s paradise with brewers offering samples of their homemade swill at every turn. I get that it’s become a fun thing for some people to diss on homebrew, but I mean it when I say that a large portion of the unique beers I sampled last year ranged from absolutely incredible to no-worse-than-commercial. Was there shitty beer? Of course, that’s what all the dump buckets are for! Whereas some seek only the experience of tasting a 40+ point beer, one of the funnest things about homebrewing for me is sampling the creations of other people, beers that are by nature one-offs, and I’ve found no place more conducive to this than Homebrew Con. And it’s not just beer! I sampled various delicious meads and ciders last year as well, some award winners from prior National Homebrew Competitions, the best of the best. Bottles being opened and shared upon hotel arrival, hundreds of distinctive homebrewed concoctions poured during club night, a seemingly unending supply of local craft beer during Social Club (Pro Night), afterparty bottle shares in new friends’ hotel rooms, next morning breakfast burritos accompanied by delicious English Mild… I mean, c’mon, it doesn’t get any better than this!

The Education

After suffering through 13 years of grammar school, 4 years of undergrad, and 5 years of graduate school, I’ve more or less had my fill of listening to teachers spout mandated information in a boring format. What makes the seminars at Homebrew Con so badass is the fact they’re presented in a very entertaining manner by people passionate about their subject, and of course, beer is usually served. Seminars cover the entire gamut of brewing/beer related topics from building a homebrew club to quick sour beers. I attended a few talks last year including one on using coffee in beer by Michael Tonsmeier and the folks from Modern Times as well as Denny and Drew’s entertaining presentation on experimental brewing. I suppose the biggest downside to having so many seminar options at Homebrew Con is that the AHA is forced to schedule multiple seminars in the same time slots, forcing folks to decide between multiples lectures. Not a terrible bind to be in, particularly since all of the talks are made available for download after the conference. For those who enjoy having a good time and drinking beer while being educated by interesting people, Homebrew Con is definitely the place the be.

The Issues…

Now that I’ve gone over some of what makes the conference so rad, I’ll address some of the reasons I came up with in previous years to hold me back from attending and how I’m dealing with them now.

Cost

Yeah, it’s not cheap. Admission, travel, flight, food, hotel… I’d be lying if I said attending Homebrew Con was anything but pretty damn expensive, at least for most of us. Finally admitting to myself that I wanted to attend, I started saving up months before the conference, which meant holding off on new gear purchases and occasionally forgoing a night out at the brewpub with friends. The prospect of spending upwards of $1500 on a beer-cation seems a lot less reasonable when it’s unplanned and occurring in a few weeks, but with a little forethought and just a whisper of willpower, such a trip becomes much more practical. For the majority of attendees, the most expensive component is lodging, particularly if staying at the hotel that’s hosting the conference. A couple things one might do to reduce this financial burden is stay at a less expensive hotel, there are usually a few within walking distance of the conference center, and partner up with others for room sharing, finding another willing person is incredibly easy. By employing both of these ideas, one could easily knock the cost of lodging down by over 50%. As a value-minded cheapy,  I wondered if I’d end up feeling like the Homebrew Con experience was worth the cost. It was, absolutely! Dropping that kind of coin sucks, indeed, but not as much as missing out on all the fun.

Timing

This is truly the most difficult aspect for me and will likely be the primary thing that holds me back from attending every Homebrew Con until I die. The last week of school for my kids, as I imagine it is for many, is the same week of the conference, which sucks but is something I’ve come to terms with… at least until milestone years such as graduation from certain grades. I understand the importance of scheduling Homebrew Con at times that aren’t “peak” and thus really expensive, hence I’m not complaining, but for some people, this does make attending much more difficult.

Long Lines

I put this here because it’s something I consider when it comes to deciding whether or not to attend a beer-related function. I have a personal philosophy that no beer in the universe is worth waiting longer than about 15 minutes for. At last year’s conference in San Diego, I noticed a few lines did indeed form during both Club Night and Social Club, the longest of which were almost always at booths serving sour beer. However, these lines were isolated to maybe 3 booths, while people were able to walk right to the front and be immediately served at nearly every other booth. On top of that, lines seemed to dwindle as the evening progressed and usually enough beer was left for those of us who held off. With that said, waiting in lines during these nightly events at Homebrew Con is completely different than any typical beer fest, as other waiters are usually super fun to chat with and almost always have homebrew of their own to share. I’m impatient and even I wasn’t bothered by the few lines I waited in.

Ooh, That Smell!

The ingestion of massive quantities of beer by so many people who pack themselves in a relatively small place does lead to one oft discussed issue– ripe flatulence. Now, I’m not terribly offended by the passing of gas, so this bit isn’t nearly enough to keep me away from Homebrew Con, though I must say the effort I witnessed to conceal said wind breaking while maneuvering through a crowd was absolutely remarkable and I would contend… ubiquitous. Crop dusting is a move Homebrew Con has become known for. Whether it’s worth investing in Shreddies or not is up to each attendee, but I for one find no fault in the flatulating tendencies of my friends and fellow conference-goers. To commemorate, we’re releasing an absolutely stunning one of a kind t-shirt at the unbelievably low price of only $15!

That’s right, now YOU can proudly proclaim your pooting potential while also providing ample warning to those in your vicinity. You better act fast, these shirts are only available until May 8, 2016! Anyone caught wearing one at Homebrew Con on Club Night will be greeted with a warm hug and an invite to whatever afterparty we’re attending. Cheers!

| BRÜLOSOPHY AT HOMEBREW CON 2016 |

This year, I’ll be heading to Baltimore with the 3-cup king, Matt Humann, and we’ll be meeting up with contributor Malcolm Frazer, who recently returned from a trip to the Brazilian homebrewer conference. We’ve got a bunch of really cool things planned, I’ll do my best to be as active as possible on social media so that anyone who wants to can easily find us. Here are some details:

Collaboration xBmt with Ales Of The Riverwards

Given his proximity to Baltimore and the fact he’ll be driving to the conference, Ed Coffey teamed up with Brülosophy on what I think is going to be a badass xBmt! He’ll be brewing the beers using our standard protocol then bringing the kegs to Homebrew Con where we’ll be seeking participants throughout. If you’ll be attending the conference and want to contribute, which we hope you do, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and/or Instagram, we’ll be posting data collection times and locations prior to starting.

Day 0: Wednesday, June 8, 2016

My flight lands late Wednesday evening, a tad too late to join the fun that will be the Brewing Network’s 11th anniversary party. Since a few of my friends are in the same boat, we’re planning to meet up with whoever else wants to for an impromptu hangout, which I’m strongly hoping… expecting… will include a karaoke bar (already found a couple close to the hotel).

Day 1: Thursday, June 9, 2016

Outside of attending Mike “Tasty” McDole’s seminar on a topic near and dear to my heart, fast lager fermentation, we don’t currently have any set plans for Thursday and will likely bounce around the Expo, pop into a couple seminars, collect xBmt data, and attend forum/group meetups.

Day 2: Friday, June 10, 2016

A priority for me on Friday is attending Brian Hall’s (Brouwerij-Chugach) seminar on sour beer, and I’m sure I’ll find others I want to go to as well. Besides that, it’s more of the same.

Day 3: Saturday, June 11, 2016

This will be our busiest day by far. At 9:00am, I’ll be participating in a Homebrewer Bloggers Roundtable with Derek Springer from Five Blades Brewing, Ed Coffey from Ales Of The Riverwards, and Matt Humbard from PhD In Beer. This talk will center around how each of us discovered our passion for homebrewing, overcame the challenges of putting words on “paper,” and anything else the audience wants to talk about.

Immediately afterwards, at 10:15am, Malcolm and I will be giving a seminar called Modern Perspectives on Traditional Methods: Applying New Knowledge To An Ancient Craft, which is a long way of saying we’re going to talk about how modern technology and new knowledge allow us to brew great beer with less effort.

Finally, Malcolm and I will be heading over to the Love2Brew booth in the Expo hall around 11:30am to chat with folks while pouring our CollaBRÜation Rye IPA, the latest kit in our collaborative series that will be released in the coming weeks.

Day 4: Sunday, June 12, 2016

Adios!

So, What Do You Say?!

This is the part where I strongly encourage anyone who is on the fence, or those who hadn’t considered attending but have the time and money, to go register for the conference. I promise I was in no way put up to this by the AHA or conference organizers, and that I get zero kickback for promoting Homebrew Con. I love this community, I had a blast last year, and I’m happy to do whatever I can to promote this badass event.

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