Playing Catchup - NHC

It has been a long time since I've updated the blog - mostly because I've been lucky enough to spend most of summer 2012 in campsites and other fun places around the Pacific Northwest that do not have internet access.  I've had some fun beer adventures, but I'm far enough behind now that I have to post abbreviated highlights in order to catch up.  Here goes.

2012 National Homebrewers Conference (NHC) - Bellevue, Washington

NHC is the annual conference of the American Homebrewers Association (AHA).  The AHA is incredibly well-organized and sophisticated, and has (I believe) around 30,000 members in the USA.  In addition to offering beer information and discussion forums on the web, pub discounts across America and a very good homebrewing magazine (Zymurgy), they also assist states in lobbying for/crafting legislation to legalize or liberalize homebrewing.  (Yes, there are still a few states where homebrewing is still outlawed.)  We are sorely lacking an equivalent organization in Canada.

The AHA also runs NHC, which is held in a different host city each year.  It is a massive effort, and is a true convention along the lines of other professional or industry conventions.  3 days and 1800 attendees this year (next year will probably be about 2400), seminars all day long by experts in various aspects of brewing and beer, an exhibitors hall, reception rooms hosted by local homebrewing clubs that provide beer during breaks and after evening events, and the evening events themselves.  Night one is Pro Brewers Night, where the main ballroom essentially turns into a beer festival where commercial breweries pour their beer for attendees.  Night two is Club Night, the highlight of the festival; 52 homebrew clubs from around the US (and now Canada, since this year VanBrewers was the first Canadian club to host a booth at NHC) set up outlandish, themed booths, dress in costumes, and serve their club's beer.  The third and final night is the Grand Banquet, where a multi-course beer-paired dinner is served, and the results of the National Homebrewers Competition are announced.

Oh yes, one of the main events of NHC is the judging of the final round of the biggest beer competition in the world.  The National Homebrewers Competition "qualifying rounds" consist of 10 major homebrew competitions across the US and one in Canada (the Saskatchewan ALES competition).  Anyone who places 1st, 2nd or 3rd in any beer category in any of these competitions may submit a beer in the same category to the final round, which is judged at NHC by senior BJCP beer judges.

This year, about 7800 entries were judged at the 11 qualifying competitions, and about 880 beers were entered in the final round at NHC.  Every one of those 880 beers were judged in one day at NHC, and each received a full page of scoring/feedback from three different judges.  I was lucky enough (along with two other VanBrewers) to judge at this year's competition.

So other than the fact that free, interesting beer is available all day long and is an intergral part of the program, and that people aren't wearing collared shirts, it could be any other convention but is much, much more fun.  

It all went by in a jet-lagged blur, but highlights for me included:

• BJCP judges reception and lunch, including presentations on the Alt beer style (with an incredibly Brettanomyces-infected keg of Zum Uerige, ugh) and the burgeoning Cascadian Dark Ale style (mistakenly identified as "Black IPA" east of the Rockies).
• Huge beer cellar list during dinner at Brouwer's in Seattle
• Judging the final round of the National Homebrew Competition with one of my brewing role models - author John Palmer, as well as beer author Stan Hieronymus.  It was also a confidence-booster, since my evaluations were nicely in line with the other (senior) judges.  Every final round beer was very good, so judging was difficult and often came down to intangibles and being very picky about the beers and styles.

VanBrewers. L-R: Danny Seeton, Aaron Peterson, Ari Giligson and yours truly. All except Aaron judged the NHC final round. [Photo credit to a VanBrewer, let me know if you know who took it]

• Club Night, a beer festival consisting entirely of home brewers.  Unbelievable.

Some of the kegs for just ONE of the 52 club night booths.  This one (shown mid-setup) has a rock theme, plasma screens showing the tap list, video screens showing Seattle music performances, and a "backstage" area with special brews.

And the tuning pegs on the big guitar are tap handles!

A club from Arizona had an "Occupy NHC" theme, which was both topical and funny.  Here there are "protesting" at the VanBrewers booth until we give them beer.

The VanBrewers crew with the first-ever Canadian booth at an NHC Club Night.  [Photo credit to one of the VanBrewers; let me know if you know who took the photo]

• Great seminars on all manner of beer-related topics, from the biggest names in homebrewing.

Homebrewing stars: Authors Ray Daniels, Jamil Zainasheff, Gordon Strong, Randy Mosher, John Palmer.

•  Grand Banquet and awards ceremony featuring a beer-paired dinner by Sean Paxton, The Homebrew Chef.

VanBrewer table at the Grand Banquet

If you have any interest in homebrewing, you owe it to yourself to make a trip to NHC at least once.  It's the most brewing-nerd fun possible, a truly great time.  The 2013 conference is in Philadelphia - mark your calendars and get ready to pounce on tickets, as they sell out almost instantly.

Epic Return to North America

Mrs. Hoplog and I decided to travel apart for a couple of weeks during our multi-month world tour. She would meet her mother in Paris and eat lovely food, shop at lovely stores, see lovely people and generally hobnob with the rich and soon-to-be-famous. During which I would make the supreme sacrifice and return to North America for the 2012 National Homebrewers Conference - the greatest beer geek event in the world.

This year's NHC was held in Seattle (Bellevue, actually) - likely the closest it will get to Vancouver in the foreseeable future, so many VanBrewers attended, including myself. The Bellevue Hyatt Hotel and Conference Center was a bit smaller venue than usual (1800 attendees), so the event sold out in less than 2 days.

But how to get from Paris to NHC; without a car, or really anything except an overnight bag?

Start by waking up in Paris, buying a loaf of bread for Vancouverite friends, and hitting the subway to the airport by 7:45am. An aside: Paris really won me over on this trip, and the final factor was finding this inside the gate area while waiting for my flight:

First opportunity to play piano in a long time.  Thanks, Charles De Gaulle airport!

Then on to Heathrow and a very tight connection (made all the tighter by a family who was - quite literally - hiding three complete home theatre systems and a cosmetics counter in their carry-on luggage, which only one family member took steps to unload one tiny piece at a time, and only after much coaching from the security officials), followed by a flight to Vancouver.  Then straight on to the Canada Line to Waterfront, a quick dash next door, and this:

Ahh, a proper North American craft beer at long last - Steamworks' Copper Roof Bitter and a view of the North Shore Mountains.  It's green, cool, and comfortable.  Aaaaand only about 2:30pm...

Less than an hour later I packed into Matt's truck along with Tak (assistant brewer at Steamworks) and dropped by my North Vancouver storage locker to pick up beer judging materials, followed by a 2 hour drive to Agassiz to pick up Dan.  Then a quick U-turn and we drove back down highway 1 to the Sumas border crossing.  The border guards were surprisingly OK with a truck full of kegs of homebrew, CO2 tanks and assorted tools crossing the border.  But Dan's lack of passport and previously-uncancelled US entry permit caused some turmoil and resulted in some tax being charged on our non-taxable goods.  (US Customs, in my experience, is nothing if not inconsistent.)

Having sorted out our immigration issues, we grabbed a room at the Rodeway Inn in Bellingham, followed by a cab to Chuckanut Brewing where it was Kolsch Night!

Ah Chuckanut, a Bellingham gem - great German-style beers and decent food.  Plus, Tuesdays are Kolsch Night and proper 200 mL glasses of the light, soft, sublime ale (with a Pacific Northwest twist) are on special.  All four of us beer geeks went for some Kolsches, shared a pizza, and then shared a taster of all Chuckanut's beers.  The Viennna Lager was great, so we all went for another pizza and - gads - a 1 litre stein of the Vienna Lager.  At this point I had been up for over 24 hours, so it was tough slogging.

At one point Matt mentioned something about my recent trip to Turkey within earshot of our server.  The server said, "Turkey?  Our brewmaster was working with some people in Tukey not long ago, helping them set up a brewery/brewpub."  Really?  Where?  "Oh, in Istanbul.  I think it was the first brewpub in Turkey."  Wow, that's weird, I was just at a Turkish brewpub a few days ago, and I thought it was about the only one in the country.  "Well, have a look at that plaque over there, it says which brewpub it was."

Whoa, my mind is officially blown!  I visited Taps in Turkey only a few days ago, and my first day back in North America I randomly drop in at the brewery that provided them with guidance!  Weird.  I guess I was correct in my assessment of Taps - clearly someone with expertise had set up their operation, though Taps was executing rather poorly (I assume because the experts at Chuckanut are now out of the picture).

Just down the street from Chuckanut is Boundary Bay Brewing Company - a Bellingham institution and a big part of the community, as well as brewing brilliant beer and serving excellent food.  It's possibly my favourite brewpub - especially at happy hour.  (Don't get me started on the fact that BC still outlaws happy hours, like our 19+-year-old citizens are a bunch of 3-year-olds who can't be trusted with the keys to the liquor cabinet...)

Some of our group hadn't visited Boundary Bay Brewing yet, so we walked a few minutes up the hill and arrived in time to share another complete sampler of their beers.  The 1L steins (and lack of sleep) made it a bit of a foggy visit for me, but we closed the place down and I finally got to play a few tunes on the Boundary Bay barroom piano, which I've been wanting to do for a while.

Then it was in the cab back to the Rodeway Inn, and a surprisingly snore-free sleep (for a roomful of four beer-drinking guys) - well-deserved after my 28-hour triumphant return to the Pacific.

However, this was only the beginning of the great 2012 NHC beer odyssey...