SD NHC RECAP National Homebrewers Conference Rocks San Diego By Loren Miraglia & Mike Shess


homebrewer-centric arm of the Brewers Association), the event was hosted in San Diego for the first time June 16-18 at the Town and Country Resort in Mission Valley. West Coaster staff attended all three days to give you our highlights from the conference dubbed “Some Like It Hoppy” - for more NHC coverage, including reviews of the three commemorative beers and select seminar


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notes, log on to westcoastersd.com and search “NHC” Attendance


Attendance records fell again with a 47% increase over the previous record in Minneapolis. Total attendance was 1926 (including vendors), with over half the attendees coming to a NHC for the first time.


Pre-Conference Events


11 events covered 13 breweries in the two days prior to the conference, the most in 33 years. The breweries included Stone, Lost Abbey/Port Brewing, Green Flash, Karl Strauss, and more.


BJCP Reception This stellar event featured the first remote presentation, by Matt Brynildson from Firestone Walker. Over 160 attendees followed Matt’s lead, tasting several Firestone Walker ales as he broke down the hop influences. Following Matt’s presentation on hops was a Baja style meal which segued nicely to a IPA deconvolution, featuring the same wort, hopped 10 different ways. Kelsey McNair coordinated local homebrewers on this project, which provided


insight on how hopping schedules and varieties impact an IPA.


National Homebrew Competition, Final Round The competition as a whole topped 7,000 entries with the final round composed of 790 beers, meads and ciders. All San Diegan final round medalists hailed from local homebrew club Quality Ale and Fermentation Fraternity (QUAFF). Paul Sangster, in particular, cleaned up with the Ninkasi Award, one Gold medal (for his Eisbock in the Bock Category) and one Silver medal (for his Special/Best/Premium Bitter in the English Pale Ale Category). Kent Shultz won Gold in the Amber Hybrid Beer Category with his Düsseldorf Altiber. Paul Gagnon took silver with his American Stout. Michael Habrat, Chris Bartik, Brett Goldstock & Suzy Pessutti won Gold with their American Barleywine in the Strong Ale Category. Kelsey McNair and Sean Gardinier took silver and bronze, respectively, in the Smoke-Flavored and Wood-Aged Beer Category. Both entered a wood-aged beer.


Commemorative beers for June’s NHC, L to R: AleSmith/San Diego Brewing Company - San Diego Dark Session Ale, Stone So-Cal Hop Salute Black Double IPA, Port Brewing La Cruda Porter


Pro-Brewers Night Again breaking records for most breweries in attendance, Pro- Brewers Night topped out with 51 individual breweries/brewpubs from 9 states in attendance in the 44,000 square foot Grand Exhibit Hall pouring from 47 booths. Thirty six of those breweries were from Southern California. The furthest travelled was Moonlight Meadery from Londonderry, NH at 3,102 miles followed by Alaskan brewing of Juneau, AK at 2,299 miles. There were 18 professional and amateur partnerships duking it out in a people’s choice competition as well. 1st place - Mother Earth Brew Co. and Paul Sangster’s Vanilla Storm Imperial Porter with vanilla beans and cold pressed Kona coffee. 2nd place - Ballast Point Brewing Co. and Alex Tweet’s Indra Kunidra Curry Export Stout. 3rd place - Ladyface Ale Companie and Nancy Gold’s Amazon Red.


Club Night


Forty five clubs came from as far away as New York (New York City Homebrewers Guild and Argyle Suds Society) and Hawaii (Kona Coast Barley Boys) for a raucous club night featuring almost every style of beer imaginable. Local clubs pouring at the event were the Barley Literates, Foam on the Brain, North County Home Brewers Association, Temecula Valley Homebrewers Association, QUAFF and the Society of Barley Engineers. The refrigerator trailer containing 900+ kegs was emptied in 16 minutes in preparation for Club Night, most likely a record also.


Poster Session and Hospitality Suites Two firsts for NHC. The poster session, headed by Travis Hammond, had perfect placement in the Atlas Foyer and included topics such as making your own lambic style beers, with samples to go. This will undoubtedly be something to look for again in 2012. NHC San Diego also hosted two hospitality suites. The first, during the day, was in the Town and Country room, featuring vendors and clubs pouring homebrew. The second was the


he San Diego Craft Beer Community was put on the map last month for many reasons, and Mayor Sanders declared June 2011 “Craft Beer Month” largely in part to the 33rd Annual National Homebrewers Conference. Put on by the American Homebrewers Association (the


Tiki Pavilion, featuring a 50-tap walk-in refrigerator donated by Jeff Bagby of Pizza Port. The Pavilion oozed San Diego, being both outside and surrounded by the plush Town and Country landscaping, including palms and Birds of Paradise with a fountain on one side, and a swimming pool on the other.


Helping Hands


The success of the 33rd annual NHC was far from a mistake. Indeed, the inception for its presence in San Diego can be traced back to 2007, reports Loren Miraglia, Conference Co-Chair. Major combat operations on the logistical aspect of the NHC began with the forming of the Organizing Committee almost two years ago. Co-Chair Cole Davisson and Loren worked with Project Manager/Treasurer, QUAFF President Chuck West to delegate responsibilities, initiate projects and track progress. Pre-conference events were organized by Stan Sisson, with key contributions from Brian Trout (Brewery Tour Organizer), Loren Miraglia (O’Brien’s Pub Crawl), Larry Stein (30th St. Pub Crawl), Earl Itrich (Beer Breakfast), Mary Anne Bixby (Beer Dinner). Transportation for the majority of the events was coordinated by Pete Hovde. The two main evening events run by the local committee were headed up by Sven Kinsey (Pro Brewers Night) and Roger Morrissey (Club Night).


The tournament element of the conference, the National Homebrew Competition, was organized by Harold Gulbransen with help from Jim Akin (Database Manager), Paul Sangster (Judge Organizer) and Gaaron Varner (Head Steward). Jonathan Shufelt served as Social Media Liaison, Technical Development (smart phone pub crawl) and in-house Tech Support, while Earl Itrich served as Print and Public Relations Liaison, coordinated the numerous events with local businesses as Pub/Restaurant Liaison, and is responsible for the presence of luminaries Ron Roberts (County Board of Supervisors), Nathan Fletcher (California Assemblyman) and Brian Bilbray (US Representative, 50th District). Speaker coordinator Paul Gagnon brought in an all-star cast for the seminars, featuring Vinnie Cilurzo of Russian River Brewing Company as the Keynote Speaker.


Hospitality was organized by Drew Beechum, again working closely with the Cellar Crew to coordinate delivery of the kegs at the appropriate time for the scheduled club to pour. The Cellar Crew poured over 5,000 gallons of beer, and was comprised of Tom Kelly, Chad Stevens, Dominic Fountain, Chris Stawney, Peggy Kelly, Gaaron Varner and Alex Stevens. The army of dedicated volunteers that ran beers during seminars, answered general questions, and helped out for the evening events was managed by Brendan Wehrly. There were also numerous volunteers that aided in shirt sales, and filling in wherever they were needed.


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