Nat. Homebrewers Conf. Re-Cap (save for records -don't delete)

Four days later and my head is still spinning from the non-stop, beer fueled festivities of this years National Homebrewers Conference, held at San Diego's Town and Country Resort. A reported seven hundred kegs of homebrew kept the attendees in high spirits as we continuously rotated through impressive educational lectures and investigated the latest gadgets in the retailer displays. Not to mention rubbing elbows and trading homebrew stories with each other, the brewing pros and the homebrewing super stars alike.

Day One
After registering and gladly accepting a fully loaded 'swag bag' , a cornucopia of beer do-dads, including a taster glass and specially bottled beers for the event, I made my way to the hotel's grand hall for the opening ceremony where thousands of homebrew hobbyists were in attendance. As pitchers of beer were circulated through the room, Gary Glass, president of the American Homebrewers Association announced the obvious absence of Charlie Papazian by explaining he couldn't attend because of a family emergency. Then he introduced the S.D. county supervisor Ron Roberts who, dressed in a nice business suit admitted that he felt a little over dressed like a "brown shoe in a black tie event". He went on to give us some startling facts about the beer industry in S.D. "As an important part of San Diego's economy" he noted that San Diego earns 3.35 billion, yes that's billion with a 'B', in revenue and takes in $690, 000 in related taxes annually. He stated his appreciation and thanked the local homebrew club QUAFF for their hard work to make the event happen in his town and he proclaimed June 12th-18th, homebrew week for the county of San Diego.

Moving over to the retailer round-up room, we got a chance to inspect the latest in homebrewing merchandise. I was most impressed with the Spiedels Braumeister mash tun within a boil kettle brewing system. This appears to be the high tech version of what I believe the Aussies first developed as the 'brew in a bag' method. Basically, the mash vessel is lowered by way of a pulley system into the the boil kettle containing the hot liquor and then removed after the rest period with same pulley to begin the boil. Pretty slick and really shiny, which seemed to attract the homebrewers. Also present were MoreBeer, Northern Brewer, SevenBridges Organic and others. Most serving homebrew, of course. If you couldn't get your fill through them the Quaff (Quality Ale and Fermentation Fraternity) homebrew club were pouring 20 different homebrews from their elaborate draft system.

As the lecture series began it was difficult to chose which to attend. At any one time, there were four one hour long presentations occurring simultaneously. In each one the presenter was either an expert in their field or a professional brewer willing to share their bounty of brewing knowledge. Fortunately, some would be repeated later during the conference giving us an opportunity the following days to attend those we missed. Still, I couldn't keep up with the schedule. I did manage to make the Brewing With Brett presentation by Chad Yakobson, Homebrew Planet by Randy Mosher and I attended the Going Pro panel where industry business owners talked about the steps and challenges to becoming a professional.


After dinner with friends at the Blind Lady ( a local hot spot for beer and specialty pizza), I headed back to the conference to sample beers being poured at the Pro-brewer night event. I arrived early and had the great opportunity to talk with Rob Widmer of Widmer Brothers Brewing Co. and shared one of his half dozen beers on tap. I was especially impressed with his Citra Blonde. I worked my way around the room sampling some of the unique and varied styles that were being offered and talking with my fellow homebrewing enthusiasts about which sample 'you've got to try'. This night, although all were good, I was most impressed with the beers poured by Lost Abbey and Widmer.
Evidently, later that evening was an after hours party at the Tiki Pavilion in the hotel but by this time I was in no shape to carry on without assistance.

Day Two
Starting out on the second day of the conference, I filled my taster glass with the first beer of the day, it was 8:30am. Lectures were beginning again and I was focused on attending as many as possible. Historical Beers presented by Mitch Steele of Stone Brewing was fascinating and inspiring. Focusing on the 1800's in England, this lecture included insights into the influences, styles and strengths of the beers of that day. As a pitcher of beer passed by I held out my glass for a refill and imagined myself brewing a strong ale or mild.

Back in the grand hall, Vinnie Cilurzo of Russian River gave the keynote address to a full house. We drank Pliney the Elder as he relayed his journey from homebrewer and member of QUAFF in 1989 to small startup professional at Blind Pig to major operations at Russian River Brewing in Santa Rosa. He spoke fondly of the early days and the people that were generous and inspirational as he pursued his dream. A large screen beside the podium showed pictures of the early days and later the construction of his current brewing facility. Now he says he spends more time supervising construction. Lately, he is focusing on the sour beers and has brought in 600 wine barrels for use in that project. He is also working on a collaboration with Sierra Nevada to brew some beers with funk. He joked "brett beers at chico, I could be the person to bring them down".

Returning to the lectures, I got a good laugh listening to Justin Crossley's stand-up routine 'How Not To Brew', a tongue in cheek spoof of John Palmers best selling homebrew book 'How To Brew'. Great stories of brewing mishaps including funny videos driving the point home. One video in particular included an unusual but effective way to plug a leaking hole in a wood cask.
Next I got schooled in the way of Mead Making with Ken Schramm, making clear what is necessary to move beyond good mead to award winning mead. He emphasized avoiding generic honey and instead finding a source that is fresh and the flower it is derived from is recognizable.

At this point it was time to get some real food and definitely a full pint of beer. In San Diego you don't have far to get the best of both. We beat the crowd to Pizza Port in Ocean Beach (or OB as the local call it) where they serve dozens of local beers in addition to their own huge line up. I order their Jetty IPA and sat back to enjoy the beach scene atmosphere while we waited for our food to arrive. Good food, excellent beer and relaxing although busy environment. But it was time to get back to the conference for Club Night.

Homebrew clubs from across the country were there, proudly serving their best beers through elaborately decorated and often ingenious draft systems. What immediately caught my eye was the extensive line up of Hop Randalls that one brew club was using. Every beer was being sent through it's own Randall stocked with a different hop, and in a couple cases fresh fruit. Another club was using fresh, dark roasted coffee beans to run their coffee porter through.
I worked my way around the booths sampling dozens of beers to determine my favorite of the evening. It was difficult, as many were very good. The popular styles of the night were overwhelmingly IPA's and sour beers. What was strange to me is that as the night grew late and the edges began to blur between beer samples, it seemed completely normal to see people dress up as pirates or vikings with horns growing out of their helmets. People with togas and leotards appeared as natural in this setting as pandas in a bamboo forest. When all was said and done, I concluded that the sour beer I tasted, which was brewed by a member of the Brewing Enthusiasts (BEAVR), was my favorite of the night. The peoples choice award went to DOZE (Diablo Order of Zymiracle Enthusiasts) for providing the best homebrew on club night and with that announcement I headed home to get a few hours sleep before beginning again on Saturday.

Day Three

A quick check in at the hospitality suited on Saturday morning to begin my beer sampling. The Maltose Falcons homebrew club was keeping up with demand and I filled my taster glass and headed into the main floor to choose another series of lectures.
I decided on the High Gravity Brewing talk given by Patrick Rue of The Bruery, and followed by the lecture called Sacred Stones that was presented by Terence Sullivan of Sierra Nevada. He relayed the interesting story of stones from an ancient monastery in Spain being relocated to Northern California an utilize to construct a new Trappist monastery. This inspiring story is leading Sierra Nevada to brew three different Abbey style Belgian ales. A dubbel, saison and and Abbey ale for the Fall/Winter season. A question from the audience came up about Sierra also brewing back east. Terence confirmed that they are moving in that direction.
For the final set of lectures I attended the Unusual Brewing Ingredients by Ron Jeffries of Jolly Pumpkin Brewing. I didn't know what to expect from a title like that and was a little shocked to hear about some of the beers he brews using ingredients I wouldn't even consider, like a kale laced IPA and spinach.  Other non-traditional additions used include healing herbs and flowers, rose hips and local vegetables. How about Beire de Gourd? As pitchers of his beers moved around the room, I tasted a few samples that were shockingly tasty. Who knew? His process for conditioning beer in pumpkins was amazing. The steps: scoop out pumpkin, char the inside of pumpkin for six hours, rack finished beer to pumpkin to condition, secure the lid with stainless steel screws and bees wax. When the beer is ready,  tap the pumpkin and served directly. This lecture ended my time at the convention.

I wasn't able to make it to the grand banquet or hear first hand who the winners of the homebrewing competition were or enjoy the meal, but here is a link for the results. Instead, I found myself drinking homebrew and specialty beers and having conversations with my homebrewing friends about the convention. Sitting around the fire pit, a pint in hand, we discussed our favorite moments, beers, and lectures. A perfect ending to a exhaustive and satisfying event. Then we began to think out loud.
How were we going to get up to Seattle next year to do this all again?