AHA conference in Grand Rapids?

Being my first NHC...was pretty mind-blowing. Need to go on a cleanse diet to help my liver recover.
Favorite seminars included No Boil Hop Beers by Matt from Cigar City, can't remember his last name and Tonsmeire's Mashing for Sour Beers. The Effects of club night made me miss the Saturday morning seminars, unfortunately since there was a couple there I was hoping to hit...Club night was pretty amazing. Seeing all the vendors and getting to see all the new inventions and gadgets first hand was really fun. I don't think I've ever geeked it out as much as I have over the past 5 days. Was awesome hanging with the Carolina Brewmasters crew and as always the MoreBeer crew, as well as pretty much every group I talked to. Grand Rapids is an awesome city, great bars, amazing food. Brewery Vivant and Founders were both incredibly impressive and were HopCat, Grand Rapids Brewing.
One big downside was the acoustics of the Banquet hall, was really hard to hear speakers. Also unfortunately was forced to stay about 8 miles out of town so missed exploring much beyond these venues, but heard great things about a few of the other bars.

 

Had a great time. I will post more when I recover. It may be weeks.

 

It was a good time! I think I am getting old because after 2 days I was beered out! I had no control with all the excellent beer available.

 

great trip. Exhausting.

met more than a few of you, and drank more than a few of your beers. Got a couple shinies for my own too.

highlight? Arguably a couple of Schramm's meads, until end of banquet, before awards, I poured Jeff Carlson a sample of my cider, and went to go pour it for others. A minute later Jeff is grabbing my shoulder asking for a sample for Eric Fouch, another of the amazing upper midwest cider makers, and two cider greats proceed to give me a few accolades. So while I'm 0/4 in medals on cider in the Final Round, that right there might be more satisfying.

also, a grinning Gordon Strong: "you know if you'd entered that Vienna on your own you'd be the Ninkasi winner" - he's got 1100 more experience points than me, so he gets to rub in stuff like that.

See you guys in San Diego, if not earlier.

cheers--
--Michael

 

Did we meet? Kinda blurry after the conference. Edit, you were at the next table or 2 over, I remember you getting those early. Congrats on the gold.

We were at the table with Ken. His reaction when he realized he got the lifetime achievement award was great.

Jeff Carlson and Eric Fouch do make tasty cider. We have known Jeff for years. Worked with Fouch on the conference.

 

Is it official that NHC will be in San Diego next year?

 

Yes.

 

I realized I had hit the wall Friday morning. Fortunately, during Club Night I got my second wind and was I able get back on track through Saturday night! Sunday ended up being a detox day. Maybe today too!

I had a great time!

 

That's freaking awesome. I'll definitely be attending next year seeing as it's so close, and with a suitcase of yeast in tow! What great news!

 

Town and Country resort hotel, June 11-13, 2015.

 

Great NHC! Awesome talks, so much more room than in Philly. Judging was fun this year - was paired up with great judges, and we were pretty spot on with each other for every entry. judged American Ales - some very nice beers. Amazing local breweries. Vivant may have been my fav. Pyramid Scheme! Man, I wish that bar was in my town!

Highlight was seeing my friend/fellow homebrew club member/BA member @dgthrasher win a gold with his English Barleywine. Such a great beer. Well deserved!

 

Pretty good fun, even though I missed Club Night. Got to nerd out about barley and malt over dinner instead.

 

I always enjoy talking to Mr. Mallet.

Glad you had fun at NHC. Enjoyed your talk.

Been looking through your book. Will have trouble deciding on the first recipe. A Burton has been on my list to brew, so one of those could be the first.

 

Awesome time. Well worth it, hoping to be able to go to CA next year. Grad rapids was a great town between breweries and awesome beer bars, there was never a dull moment.

 

The SD hotel is a little remote from the breweries, so it is a different experience. The AHA is working on transportation options.

 

It was really cool to see everyone from out of state enjoying Grand Rapids. Such a great town for beer and it seemed like everyone loved it. I feel like we take it for granted sometimes.

I had a great time for sure. While I didn't learn a whole lot of new information in the seminars, I found a lot of them to be quite enjoyable. I particularly liked Denny and Drew's presentation - those guys sure are entertaining. Club Night was fun. I think my favorite event of the weekend was the Ann Arbor guild's mead experiment with all of the different yeast strains. That was a real eye opener for me.

My only real complaint about the whole event - I was a little bit bummed out by the main course at the banquet as I don't care for ham and the sausage was so smokey I couldn't eat it. Other than that, it was an amazing weekend for sure.

 

The historic malt talk was wonderful. I even took a few notes, which I hadn't anticipated doing. Andrea and Christian from Valley Malt are lovely people, too.

I'll definitely try to make it to San Diego next year. Hopefully I can get another speaking slot.

 

Highlights - I got to introduce Ron and thus meet another BA columnist! Also, I gave a talk - it didn't suck so much.

Ron, I don't doubt for a moment that you'll be able to get a speaker slot if you'd like!

 

I didn't go to your talk, but you did a great job introducing Ron!