The August Meeting of the First State Brewers was held at the home of Joebob Jacobs.
Ronnie Price talked about the AHA National Home Brew Conference “Brewing Up a Revolution”. He is on the planning committee which has 20 – 30 members working with the AHA. There is discounted registration for AHA Members. It will take place June 27 -29, 2013. The conference runs Thursday – Saturday, there are seminars all 3 days from 8am – 5pm. There will be pre-conference events like pub crawls, historic tours, etc.
Thursday night is pro brewers night, where samples from pro brewers from all over the mid-Atlantic region will be available. The conference in Seattle had 69 pro brewers, there are more are anticipated here. Seattle had 1800 attendees, with 3000 projected for Philadelphia. The actual venue is not yet announced but will be in center city.
Friday night is club night, “which is the awesomest of awesome nights”. Homebrew clubs gather together and showcase their brews. We need to brew a lot of beer, it must be in 5 gallon kegs. We need a jockey box with a cold storage area & taps. We should shoot for 50 kegs and start brewing now. The club that brings the most kegs gets the golden urinal, which we get to keep for 1 year.
Saturday night is banquet night, food is served by Sean Paxton who is a beer chef, it is usually a 5 course meal. Rogue Brewery is the sponsor this year. The awards from national homebrew competition which is held Wednesday will be announced.
Beer flows from 8am – 2am all 3 days.
The cost for the full package last year was $235 with unlimited access and does not include lodging. If you just want to go for club night day passes are available. There will be a professional cellar crew to handle all of the beer, the beer will be stored in cold trucks.
We need to set a deadline for kegs & have a centralized spot for drop off, we also need volunteers with skills to build the jockey box, and to transport the kegs to the conference center. The beer should be there no later than Tuesday, but we should try to plan on Monday morning. Kegs will be serialized by the cellar crew. You must put your name & phone # on your kegs. After the conference is done everyone will be called to pick up their kegs, we need to decide on 1 contact person who can pick up all the kegs at once. Approximately 47 kegs fit in a standard pick-up truck bed. Joebob says he has an unlimited supply of ice. The beer will be kept cold until we pick it up after the conference. The challenge is to bring 200 kegs to the conference.
Our booth area is 12’ long, we can be as creative as we’d like. We can also dress in costume. If you want to volunteer, Ronnie suggests you help the club.
Joebob submitted the club logo to his t-shirt guy; he can produce a t-shirt & vinyl decal our cost would be $10 for both, the decals will be lasered on. He can also do the banner for our booth, the cost would be some beer (a growler or 2).
Kent wants us to really think about the booth design, and submit ideas. A club competition is still in the works, possibly to take place in October @ the meeting @ Bill King’s house. Kent is talking to Steve at Argilla’s about the winner brewing a large batch and having it available to take to the AHA Conference.
Scott talked briefly about Michael Jackson’s show “The Beer Hunter”, he has all 6 episodes on DVD, available for a $2 donation to the club.
Here’s the attendance and beers brought by club members.
| Name | Beer |
|---|---|
| Scott Bieber | Kölsch, German Lager, Belgian (Not So) Strong Ale, Saison |
| Michael Berninger | |
| Brian Light | Bri's IPA, Hand Grenade |
| John & Rachel Cimino | Sour Cherry Ale, Kiwit |
| Robert Vasecki | DIPA |
| Andrew Coughlin | Black Berry Bruggett, |
| Brian Verdine | ESB, Put It On The List, Damn Yanke Variant |
| Moriah Guise | Black Currant Hefe |
| David Francis | Raspberry Wheat |
| Harold Williams | Blackberry Merlot |
| Ron Price | RIS(oaked), Barleywine, Quad, Dopplebock |
| Ralph Barthold | Dominion Pils, Sam Adams Oktoberfest, Greenville Pale Ale |
| Amy Bullard | 100% Brett Heady Topper |
| Roy & Theresa Simonson | Spicey Pumpkin Ale |
| Tammy & Scott Perlot | Blackberry Wit, Chamomile Wheat, Blackland Porter, IPA, Peak Orange Pale Ale, Main Logger Lager. |
| David Reese | |
| Dan Wightman | Rye IPA |
| Marty Drinan | Dogfish Head Raison D'Etre |
| Chris Higgins & Jen Vallone | DIPA, Almond Nut Brown, Orange Cream Ale, Mango ? |
| Jeff Ramberg | English Mild |
| Kevin Schatz | 60 Min Clone, Boxcar Mango Ginger, Pumpkin Ale |
| Ben Selin | Coffee Oatmeal Stout |
| Carl Bartelt | "I got some Killians & ML upstairs" |
| JoeBob Jacobs | Pirate Porter, Saison Du Manor, Presidential IPA, Stout of DE, Fest Bier |
| Kent Spriggs | Saison, Heather Mead, Blackhorse Black Ale, Dogfish Tweason'ale |
| Seth Tolbert | |
| Tehra Boyser | Wildflower Honey Mead 2005 |
| Mike Kohler | 3 Hops This Time |
| Jason Breault | Copper Ale, Honey Ale, Irish Red |
| Kelly Jack | "The Greatful Shed!!!" |
By the way, if you haven’t joined the First State Brewers Facebook Group, you are missing out on a lot of great brewing discussion! We have lots of fun, too! This is different than the Facebook Page we have. The Group allows us to interact with one another. :-)
The September meeting will be held at the How Do You Brew store on Friday, September 21, at 7:00pm.
Shoppes at Louviers, 203 Louviers Dr, Newark, DE 19711
www.howdoyoubrew.com