133 replies to this topic

[mach5]

I'll be showing up sometime on Thurs.

[denny]

If you haven't been to the banquet before here's a tip.....get in line EARLY! There are no reserved seats, so if you want to sit near the front of if you have a group of people, it's a mad dash once the doors open. I usually get in line 2 hours before doors open. Bring beer to share while you're in line.

[Genesee Ted]

Good advice!

[Hines]

Yowza, 2 hours early!

[Genesee Ted]

Dude!  Two hours of beer though. 

[macbrak]

its a good thing i noticed the picnic cooler we were given has back pack straps.

[Hines]

Headed to the expo!

 

Sent a couple of you guys info that sent me your contact information

[Jdtirado]

Got to meet my bro Hines. Doobahstop is next tomorrow!

[Dave in Indiana]

We are here now, too.  Sorry about your loss Denny.

[Dave in Indiana]

Seminars are great. 2014 conference in Grand Rapids.

[Stout_fan]

Seminars are great.2014 conference in Grand Rapids.

Debating if I'll be sober by then.

 

I squeezed into a packed elevator in the overflow hotel, and as I turned around I heard a voice. ' I think I know you."

Nice running into ya Mr Hines.  You were heading to breakfast, and I was late to a seminar.  Sorry I missed everybody else.  Wore the board shirt on thur and saturday.

 

Breakfast buffet at the hotel was $20.  But the nearby Reading Terminal Market didn't open until 9.  So that was a bit painful

 

Acoustics in the convention center sucked.  About a dozen or so meads on tap at club nite.  Tried 'em all. two fantastic, two were drain cleaner.  The rest were quite OK.  Because of the venue, club provided food was outlawed.  The center provided philly pretzels on pro nite and rice crispy treats on club nite.  Retired early both nights with ringing ears and a hoarse throat from shouting.  Lagunitas had a 30 foot beer geyser which was impressive.  I was about 40 feet away wishing I had a camera and forgetting that I had my 3D fuji in my pocket...  So whatever I was drinking at the time must have been pretty good.  Barley Legal had a less impressive one on club nite, but I missed it. 

 

Congrats to the keg crew for delivering 2,000 club nite kegs for 3,400 drunkies.  You do the math!

 

For those who noticed it, when you walked in on club nite, Maryland clubs were right at the entrance when you came in. This is what happens when the two people in charge of organization are from Maryland.  Oh no, we did not plan it that way in the least!    Not that I'm complaining.  We were packed at CRABS, Wootown and Midnight, claustrophobic almost.  I couldn't see across the "street" to see how the Cross Street Irregulars were doing.

 

Got to harass my bud John in his wood talk, the talk was about a hour worth of double entendres about wood.  In the middle there was some good intel on using wood (safely) in your beer.

 

The yeast culturing 101 talk was good.  It still looks like the sterile water solution is the best bet for my applications.  Biochemistry in the mash was a good refresher on exactly what makes alpha and beta work.

 

Listened in on Brad Smith talk on recipe design.  He did not turn it into a Beersmith advert and it was quite informative. Well done Brad.

 

A talk on induction heating has me thinking about the design of my next brewery going electric.

 

Kara Taylor's (White Labs) talk on sensory optimization was OK.

 

Curt Stock & Gordon did a phenomenal talk on Mead Tweaks.  Followed by Michael Fairbrother speaking of mastering mead and presenting a Heater mead he was going to ditch 500 gal of, but saved it with a pepper addition courtesy of Mr. Strong.  It's nice to have friends.  Methinks I can employ this on my 10 year old Heather that is a bit less than spectacular.

 

I'll think of more to write after I zorch my lunch.

[Jdtirado]

Wow great recap. You really get an A for summing things up. I really liked the induction brewing talk. In fact, we bought two plates while there on Amazon just to give it a try. I too liked the yeast culturing, but in the end time is money for me and since I'm never home I don't mind paying the 7 dollars for yeast. The person speaking talked about the savings but when I look at all my equipment and tally the money that I've spent on all the shiny stuff what's another 7 dollars. Finally, I wish that the dinner seating be grouped by clubs with an assortment of single or non group seating too.

[Stout_fan]

Quick note on the conference beers:

One was a 12 oz. can: "Cluster's last stand."

The first indication that something was amiss was a guy tipped his over on a table, and the top of the can bulged out from the shock; not a good sign.

At the Saturday dinner, two people at our table commented on spoilage.  This is what happens when you sit with master judges for dinner. One brought a can along, and we opened it: an over carbed foamer with funky nose and funky taste.  That night my roomie had his stored in the room fridge all week.  It was rock hard.  We opened it over the bathroom sink.  It opened OK, then spewed.  The taste was the same: infected.  I pulled my can out of the drawer where I had it at room temp.  It was impossible to squeeze the can.  I shoved it in the fridge and opened it Sunday morning still rock hard INTO the sink.  The smell told all: infected.  No need to taste.

 

WARNING: When traveling home by plane do not store these in the overhead.  The airline might not let you fly with them again.  If you get the can home in one piece, chill immediately, open carefully, drink cautiously.

 

The second beer was a 750 ml caged and corked Rye Saison which more than made up for the can-speriment.  Brilliantly clear golden with appropriate carbonation.  Excellent mouthfeel, long lasting lacy head.  Rye bite with just the right amount of esters.  Fruity esters in the aroma with just a touch of barnyard.  This is bottle conditioned with a yeast that has the most unbelievable flocculation I have ever seen.  I can only conclude it must be based on two part epoxy, but water soluble.  My mouth wants more.

[Stout_fan]

...In fact, we bought two plates while there on Amazon just to give it a try. ...

links?

[Stout_fan]

And here's what I meant to say above, but ran out of edit time.

 

AHA meeting, Garry said we are at 38K members and growing.  Getting convention space for groups our size is getting hard to find.  Much aplogizings about registration system.  Say they will work the bugs out.  Next year; space for 4,000 of us drunkies.

 

The BJCP meeting I'm not discussing, but from there we split for the dinner.  With nothing else to do, we stood at a door for an hour.  This one guy shows up with a cooler of high placing beers in the finals.  I was subdued enough to tolerate the wait and pushing from behind. 

 

Sean Paxton's dinner was interesting.  That's like saying "nice" on a beer judging form.  It opened up wit Rogue's Honey Kolsch.  One fine brew to start the dinner.

 

Marinated vegies.  One cup for the whole table.  Seriously, that's like one piece per person.

 

Breadsticks, two for the whole table.  Later we found a herb cheese dip that we thought went with the breadsticks, but not sure.

 

Salad based upon philly soft pretzels; interesting.  Pared with Rogue American Amber Ale.  it was OK.

 

Stromboli made with breadstick dough and pork bits inside.  Sorry, for a dinner I want MEAT (victim of advertising I guess).  Paired with Roguenbier Rye.  That was a good beer.

 

Desert was a cream cheese chocolate thing shaped like a cupcake sprinkled with cocao nibs on top with an artistic swipe of raspberry sauce on the plate.  That was quite tasty, but eating at 10:00, the chocolate kept me awake and the hydrogenated oil from the pretzels gave me massive indigestion.  Paired with Rogue Hazelnut Brown.. The first sip was OK.  After that, you can keep the Hazelnut.  We all agreed this would have gone great with a RIS!

 

For $50 I should have hung with my roomie who spent $30 for a Westvleteren 12 at Monks and a cheese stake along with other fine Belgian brews.  Not too sure I'm going down this road again.

 

On the way back, my roomie said he talked to the custodial staff at the hotel.  They said they were amazed how we consumed that much alcohol and gave the hotel staff zero problems.  It's easy, we're professionals.  Don't try this at home.

[macbrak]

On the way back, my roomie said he talked to the custodial staff at the hotel.  They said they were amazed how we consumed that much alcohol and gave the hotel staff zero problems.  It's easy, we're professionals.  Don't try this at home.

 

This also impressed me.

 

I'm packing a spare liver and dialysis machine for michigan.

[Jdtirado]

https://www.amazon.c...ef=ya_aw_oh_pitI hope my pot will be ok on this thing and melt the controls cause it's too big

[Jdtirado]

I read that, according to the hotel, this event consumed 2-3 times the volume of water compared to other alcohol based events they host.

Not surprised. All I saw was self control although I was back in my room by 11:00 pm

[mach5]

Agree with Stout_fan on the dinner.

 

On the commemorative beer, it actually did not taste bad but it was not a pilsner.  It tasted more like a citrusy belgian wheat beer to me.  There were some peppery yeast notes with it.  If you tried it thinking BJCP pilsner you would have to give the beer a 13, if you tried it in a belgian category you could have scored it better.

[Genesee Ted]

Here is my rundown!

 

Got in on Wed and got checked in.  We hung out drinking some beers until it was time to hop on the bus to World Cafe Live for BNA8.  We should have walked!  The traffic was really heavy.  Anyway, I met up with a friend who lives in town down there and we all went in.  If anyone hasn't been to that venue, it is pretty cool.  I listen to the World Cafe almost every day, so it is always cool to see it.  

 

The BNA8 party started off pretty shitty.  It was packed and very difficult to move around.  Once they opened up the VIP area on the mezz and especially the Cafe Stage bar area, it started to flow a little better.  There were some tasty brews there.  I had my first taste of Moonlight Meadery's products.  They were serving an apple pie mead, an RIS braggot (aged 6 years), and a cinnamon mead.  All three were stellar.  A sign of things to come...

 

One of the guys I came with won a Hop Rocket in the raffle and gave it to me because he already has one 

 

After the party, my one tripmate and I went over to my buddy's house and drank some beers until the wee hours.  In the morning, we caught the L back to the convention. 

 

The first seminar that I attended was the alternative wood aging.  I thought that was a really interesting and informative seminar.  Yes, sooo many wood jokes. 

 

Next I hit up the Speigelau event.  This was more of a sales pitch than event, but awesome nonetheless.  They gave you 4 beers and 4 glasses plus a shaker pint.  Summerfest, Kellerweisse, 60 min, and Bigfoot.  Each paired with a specific glass.  Then we were instructed to pour into the Speigelau glass and then the pint.  Compare.  It was insane how different the beers were.  The sales guy gave a whole list of reasons why.  In the end we kept the glasses.  $50 worth of glassware and 4 beers 

 

I went down and checked out the Expo and Social Club after that.  Got tons of schwag.  There are some really cool HB products out there!  I had a few different HBs and then got a bit hungry.

 

After that was dinner break and then Pro Night.  Pro Night was pretty sweet.  I tried a lot of really good stuff.  More great meads from Moonlight.  DFH was pouring some horrific excuse for a beer called Peach o Myces or something.  It was really bad.  Sam C was there posing with you for pics if you wanted one.  And plenty did, their line was halfway across the room.

 

Once all the beer ran out at club night, I headed back to the Social Club again.  Drank a lot more beer, and then hit the hay.  

 

Woke up with like 12 minutes to spare before Stan Hieronomous' talk on hops.  It was pretty informative.  Along the same lines as the info he presented in his Hops book, but updated with new research.  I really enjoyed it.  Then it was off the the Redding Terminal Market for some Dinics.  Great sandwiches!  

 

I will add more later!