Tonight is club night. Free beer of every type you can imagine. I am drinking coffee to help me make it through the night. It's tough mixing with the elite of the brewing world and Shibolet! It's funny that I listen too and read books by the kings of the brewing world. Five of them are standing 10 feet away from me now trying to figure where to go for dinner or getting up the courage to talk to me? I bet they are going to dinner! Oh wait here they come.....

Thanks heaps for the updates Bob and shib. Sounds like you are having a blast. Good on you .

How did Brad go with his BIAB talk? Did you have to heckle?

How did Brad go with his BIAB talk? Did you have to heckle?

PP.

Noam heckled him while on stage! He brought up a bunch of stuff (no chill- ?) I don't remember? I harassed him later on. I cornered him and John Blichmann from http://www.blichmannengineering.com/bre ... dular.html
We talked beer for a while and then I brought up the formula problems and other changes. The funny thing is that when I got off on a tangent I was talking to Blichmann not Brad Smith! I was loaded!!!!

I am feeling very very sick today. Ogh

Right guys you've won me over. This has gone on my "Bucket" list.

Good to see Bob is still on his diet,except for the pretzel thing.

Yeasty,

If the world is still here than the 2013 NHC will be in Philadelphia PA USA I will see you there! Just remember that this years conference was filled up in 24 hours! You have to be online when it opens up to get a ticket and a hotel room at the same place! I am not sure if I will make it of course because I am married and I only have 50% the say-so in the family. My wife has the other 98%! I told you I am not good at numbers!

Lylo I am not on any kind of diet this week. Oh, maybe you could call it a beer and pretzel diet? I expect to see you in Philadelphia since your just over the border! Start now to lay the groundwork with the boss! Poor BobBrews is all alone except for Yeasty and Shibolet? he needs my consoling?

Philly is a 4 hour drive for me, hmmm.....

Next year is in Philly? This article had it set to be in Grand Rapids, MI next year. They said "American Homebrewers Association chose to book their 2013 national conference in Grand Rapids", unless there's another conference I don't know of that they're referring to.

http://csibrewers.org/content/?p=1231

"As an FYI, the NHC in 2013 will be headed to the east coast and will be held in Philadelphia, PA. More to come later in 2012 on how CSI will be participating in this effort."

Curses! They are definitely talking about the NHC.

Edit to add:
I did a little more searching, the article I was reading was close, but the author is a year off.
Grand Rapids, MI in 2014!!

BobBrews wrote:I am married and I only have 50% the say-so in the family. My wife has the other 98%! I told you I am not good at numbers!

Bob just skyped me (2:46am his time ) after managing to survive the last night of the conference. I am truly impressed at your amazing stamina Bob, your perfect speech and the fact that you still have all your fingers . The beers and brewers sounded outstanding .

shibolet is MIA, possibly jailed again or something .

Top job guys, looking forward to the videos and hope you don't get thrown off your planes for having too much fuel on board .

makemyday21

Thanks for all of the updates and laughs guys! Count me in for 2013 in Philly.
Any ideas on when registration opens?

First you have to be a member of the AHA ($35 US) ($44 International). http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/p ... ssociation That gets you The Magazine Zymurgy (10 issues) and lets you buy tickets. This years tickets Cost ($ 235) If I remember right? I think the tickets go on sale in March sometime. This year they allowed 1800 people. Next year it will be 2500. First come first serve! This year they sold out in 36 hours or so!

EDIT:
http://www.ahaconference.org/conference/register/

I bribed the lady at the front desk. She will let me stay in my room until 7PM (Not 4 free). I can then take a shuttle to the airport. My flight leaves at about 11:30PM and arrives in Chicago about 5:30AM! Is that 6 hours? Whoa! Maybe it's time zones or something? It's a hour flight from Chicago to Wausau WI. airport at 7:30 am!

I thought packing for the trip home would be a breeze. Wrong again! Two souvenir glasses. A big 22 OZ.(0.6237 kilo) bottle of RYE IPA in a commemorative bottle. A full bag of handouts, bottle openers, grain samples, brewing-TV t-shirt, air-locks, new (unnamed) hop variates, plastic cups, bottle insulators and much more!

I carried that fancy tulip glass from class to class it would be a shame to break it now! You took it everywhere you went because beer was everywhere and people wanted you to try their beer! Brewers want to share their pride in their creation. What a beautiful hobby? If it was a farmers convention would they be willing to give you a tractor, silo, plow or cow?

Thankfully it did fit in my pocket. I needed two hands at times because I was fully hydrated most of the time and I didn't sweat the water away!

All,

If you want to hear all the lectures presented at the convention they will be online (in a few weeks) for members only. So if you are interested in going next year or want to be a member or just want to get the magazine then join the group now and you can hear the seminars. Somewhere a few posts ago I put a link.

http://youtu.be/FGAAcZ4vano Look for a old fat man at about 33-34 seconds I am wearing a black T-shirt with O'So brewing on it?

http://www.facebook.com/basicbrewing

Cheers Bob for the constant updates, nice to think you were thinking of us whilst having a ball.

What happened to Shib ? have you checked under all the tables ? Local Hospitals, Police stations ? Ladies toilets ? I hope you don't leave with a man down !! I'm sure he will turn up



Yeasty

yeasty,
We did find Shib under a table on pro-brewers night. He suffered greatly the next day in the seminars. But like a true champion he battled back for club night. Shib and his mates had a early flight so they probably didn't want to disturb me? You will be amazed as I was when I get the 2 hours of video whittled down to 10 minutes. Noam and I talked a little last night but when they closed the beer down at 2:30am I didn't see him to give a proper good bye. I think next year we will say good by when we meet so we won't repeat the debacle.

It's about 5:30pm here now. I have to get packing so I can meet the shuttle at 9:00pm for a 11:30 flight! This time I do use numbers! They don't give points for being close to take off! You have to be there so numbers is the name of the game today!

Just ran the numbers for you Bob. With all the posts you're doing here, it looks like you'll miss your plane by an hour and a half.

PP,
Thanks a lot PP! I missed my connecting flight in Chicago! I missed it by 8 Friggen minutes. So here I am wandering one of the largest airports in the world. I got here at 6:28am and I may get a flight at 5:47pm. I hate flying! The bastards don't have enough pilots, planes or trained counter people. I stopped for a beer and the buggers had almost all mega swill and it runs twice the price of regular swill! I got a Guinness! better than nothing?

I had to risk my credit card by purchasing internet service. Now the battery is getting low and they don't seem to have a friggen outlet to charge my laptop. So why did I purchase the internet? I hate air travel. I got talked out of driving because it cost the same as flying in gas. I would be tired but at least I would be in control of my destiny.

All of you guys that were envious of Shib and my trip. You have your revenge!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I found a outlet to charge my laptop and mp3 player. But here I am again sitting on the floor with people stepping and tripping over me. just like at the convention! Things are back to normal!!!!

Oh no Bob!!! That's terrible my numbers were 82 minutes out and for the wrong plane. I am very annoyed .

Eleven hours to wait . Maybe try and get a part-time job in the bar?

Mate, I hope you find some good company and that you have a blissful 24 hour sleep when you get home .

Champ!

hi all. i'm back!
yes, club night got me very very sick indeed.
the night before was pro-night. all those north west micro breweries were poring an IPA after an IPA, so for club night i went straight for the sours. too many frigin sours... they were all great but the acid burned through my stomach.
we too had trouble packing for the flight back as we had all the special beer brewed for and handed out at NHC plus some great NW beers that we bought at the local supermarkets and that isn't available beyond the NW.
now we're in NYC. spent the day visiting three breweries.
Brooklyn Brewery (we got the VIP tour), Barrier Brewery (a small outfit in Long Island) and a very small brewery in the Birreria beer bar in mid down Manhattan .

I made it home. (with luggage) I was standby on another flight (1:47) before my rescheduled confirmed flight at 5:47. They had room and I couldn't get home soon enough! All glassware was unbroken! My 22 oz. bottle of rye IPA was intact and ready to share at our next brew club meeting?

I was groggy but I managed to have a drink at home to relax (imagine that)? I had lots of fun looking through the hand outs of beer related trinkets that I collected. If I had the room I could have collected enough grain and hops for a full brew! Near the end they were giving sacks of samples to anyone you wanted them. I will be busy with the cleanup of my camera gear but I will get some video soon.

http://youtu.be/2dR2N7Ssdrc

http://www.youtube.com/embed/FGAAcZ4vano

I am in this somewhere around 33 seconds. Black t-shirt that says "O'so"

edit... actually I am in the thumbnail and beginning left side at 0 seconds filming the (what ever endless party that night was)

shibolet wrote:hi all. i'm back!
yes, club night got me very very sick indeed.
the night before was pro-night. all those north west micro breweries were poring an IPA after an IPA, so for club night i went straight for the sours. too many frigin sours... they were all great but the acid burned through my stomach.
we too had trouble packing for the flight back as we had all the special beer brewed for and handed out at NHC plus some great NW beers that we bought at the local supermarkets and that isn't available beyond the NW.
now we're in NYC. spent the day visiting three breweries.
Brooklyn Brewery (we got the VIP tour), Barrier Brewery (a small outfit in Long Island) and a very small brewery in the Birreria beer bar in mid down Manhattan .

Noam, how was the Brooklyn tour? Did you get to chat with Garret Oliver?

---Todd

Wow! This was an enjoyable read. Thanks!

I am curious about the audience reaction to the BIAB talk. Skeptics? Converts?

Anything interesting in the fresh hops talk? A buddy here plans to plant some and I told him I'd help.

I'm glad you all made it home safe and sound.