# Nhc 2011 In San Diego



## Korev (24/6/10)

Hi Guys

I along with about another 1,300 home brewers attended the 2010 NHC in Minneapolis - this is my third NHC and another great experience. At the awards dinner the promotional video for the 2011 NHC in San Diego was shown see linky


http://www.google.com/url?sa=D&q=http:...RmoJJytKMYZqdOg

Now I have a challenge 

San Diego is almost local compared to some of the NHC venues so lets all make a concerted effort to enter beer and attend!

Cheers
Peter


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## Maple (24/6/10)

Korev said:


> Hi Guys
> 
> I along with about another 1,300 home brewers attended the 2010 NHC in Minneapolis - this is my third NHC and another great experience. At the awards dinner the promotional video for the 2011 NHC in San Diego was shown see linky
> 
> ...


Hi Peter, Just wondering, since this is the Nationals for the US (Canada in by proxy), how is it that we (AUS) can enter? A few of us were actually pondering setting up for club night there too, if the AHA was open to an international contingent, making it more of an iNHC (sorry Apple, did you already have claims to this one?) I was going to shoot an email off to one of the AHA reps in the next month or so to try and gauge feasibility, but assume you may have an inside track?


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## Fourstar (24/6/10)

and so the wheels start turning my good man! :icon_chickcheers: 

Now to comission JZ to brew us up a batch to display on the night!


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## jayse (24/6/10)

Fourstar said:


> and so the wheels start turning my good man! :icon_chickcheers:
> 
> Now to comission JZ to brew us up a batch to display on the night!



Not much sense in that I am sure, that would be like some small brewery rocking up to a beer festival and serving some other more popular breweries beer.
Unless I have missed something I see no sense in it.

Brewing the beer for club night yourself on someones gear over there does make sense though.

It would be great but I am a poor bastard and struggle to get to the nationals here.

Anyhow a big Aussie presence would be cool.


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## Maple (24/6/10)

jayse said:


> Not much sense in that I am sure, that would be like some small brewery rocking up to a beer festival and serving some other more popular breweries beer.
> Unless I have missed something I see no sense in it.
> 
> Brewing the beer for club night yourself on someones gear over there does make sense though.
> ...


Just thinking out loud here, but it would mean that we'd have to go there at the very least 3 weeks prior, that a fair chunk of time to be away, perhaps we can look at ways to get the beer over to it. Would be good to have a few of our clubs put in and represent aus.


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## joecast (24/6/10)

checks calander...checks bank balance...
wonder how the family would react if i said i was coming to visit, but might need a week to myself?


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## Fourstar (24/6/10)

jayse said:


> Not much sense in that I am sure, that would be like some small brewery rocking up to a beer festival and serving some other more popular breweries beer.
> Unless I have missed something I see no sense in it.



you missed the mark jayse. See below



Maple said:


> Just thinking out loud here, but it would mean that we'd have to go there at the very least 3 weeks prior, that a fair chunk of time to be away, perhaps we can look at ways to get the beer over to it. Would be good to have a few of our clubs put in and represent aus.




As JZ said to us maple (yes, i can understand if you cant remember we where far gone by then). Just flick somone over there a recipe of yours and maybe send some hops over that they can't get e.g. galaxy and have it made for you. Its been done before so somone can surely do it again for us.

Jayse, the only thing foreign will be the malt, yeast and water being used but we all make foreign beer here anyway. Besides, there are not a lot of us who use local malt, POR and coopers yeast exclusively. Its a representation of our style of beers, brewed by an American, for Australians. Thats all that we are trying to achieve.


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## Maple (24/6/10)

Fourstar said:


> As JZ said to us maple (yes, i can understand if you cant remember we where far gone by then). Just flick somone over there a recipe of yours and maybe send some hops over that they can't get e.g. galaxy and have it made for you. Its been done before so somone can surely do it again for us.
> 
> Jayse, the only thing foreign will be the malt, yeast and water being used but we all make foreign beer here anyway. Besides, there are not a lot of us who use local malt, POR and coopers yeast exclusively. Its a representation of our style of beers, brewed by an American, for Australians. Thats all that we are trying to achieve.


Not opposed to sending some of our good aussie malt as well, for that hometown feel. I mean water is manipulated anyway, and our yeast predominantly comes from the US, so we can still keep it genuine.


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## Fourstar (24/6/10)

Maple said:


> Not opposed to sending some of our good aussie malt as well, for that hometown feel. I mean water is manipulated anyway, and our yeast predominantly comes from the US, so we can still keep it genuine.




Question is, what local malt is worth sending over there?


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## jayse (24/6/10)

I get what you mean and it is maybe a good idea, my theory is/was its really the brewer who makes the beer great, average or bad moreso then a recipe and a bunch of ingredients.
So at the end of the day it would still be Jamils beer, but maybe thats not such a bad thing and could be a good option to use.

The number one option I guess would be whole galaxy flowers, malt wise its BB ale for me but I think the JWM various roasted malts are pretty world class, so that makes it a american style stout with aussie ingredients.

Just thinking out loud.


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## Fourstar (24/6/10)

I get what you are saying jayse but also an acclaimed brewer cant make a bad recipe taste world class either.

An 'Australian Brown Ale" maybe?! I like the JW crystals too. They aint too bad!


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## Korev (24/6/10)

Interesting how this thread has developed. 

I took some Galaxy hops over and gave them to Tasty so he could experiment with a contemporary Aussie PA.

I'm sure we could get surrogate clones of award winning Aussie (and NZ?) beers made by some of the Californian guys for a Composite ANZ Club? for Club Night. 

I don't see a problem with us entering beers in the competition - but will check. I think that getting beer to the US in a decent condition for competition could be an issue.

Cheers

P1


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## Wolfy (24/6/10)

Fourstar said:


> Question is, what local malt is worth sending over there?


Maybe that is the point if you're trying to reproduce something that would be brewed here locally.


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## Josh (25/6/10)

Korev said:


> I don't see a problem with us entering beers in the competition - but will check. I think that getting beer to the US in a decent condition for competition could be an issue.
> 
> Cheers
> 
> P1



Knowing I was going to Minneapolis for the 2010 NHC, I entered a beer. Sent an IIPA which was probably not the right style to enter on the west coast of USA. Scored 30.5 in the first round. All International entries were sent to Southwest Region, which was in San Diego. The AHA have plastered all over their entry forms not to use US Postal Service. So I sent mine Express Courier for $75. A lot of money, but imagine if I managed to jag a second round entry.

NHC was amazing. I've never seen anything like it. 

The BNA5/NB17 was an awesome party. They had four or five refrigerated trailers with about 10 taps sticking out of each. Some breweries had made beers especially for the night. It was all free pour, with noone watching the taps. The first beer I had was Rodenbach Grand Cru to give you an idea of the quality of beer at the event. Tasty was pouring Janet's Brown Ale to select tasters (me) and I was pouring a few bottles of a spiced old ale with brett. It was great to put faces to all the BN Army people I know from the shows and forum.

NHC itself was just a huge celebration of beer. Some really informative talks. The John Blichman setting up a homebrewery was chock full of info. Justin Crossley from the Brewing Network gave a talk about sharing your beer and talking to other brewers. It was pretty entertaining. Another interesting talk I dragged myself out of bed at 9am for was the Stein Beer one. I think all the slides from the talks are on the AHA website.

Pro Brewers night had some incredible beers. Sure there were some that I could take or leave. But others, like the Town Hall Brewery cask conditioned Russian Imperial Stout were a pleasure to taste.

Club night was great. I had previously met up with a couple of New York City Homebrewers Guild guys. I had about 15 bottles of beer that I wanted to pour and they were gracious enough to offer me some of their table and a tub of ice for the bottles. They even walked the floor with me while pouring my Chocolate RoggenBock. Then the table next to the New Yorkers opened up. So I set up the Western Sydney Brewers stand on my own. Two moments stick out in my mind: 1) Tasty McDole said I had cloned the Nogne O 100, then came back for a second pour 20 minutes later. That was really cool. 2) Some guy came up to the stand and said I've heard you have an amazing eisbock, can I try it? --- Little things, but it felt great at the time.

Then the grand banquet with Sean Paxton the Homebrew Chef preparing three courses of Rogue Ales paired dinner. I wasn't even interested in having a beer that night. But the Rogue beers were paired perfectly with Paxton's dishes. The recipes are also on the AHA website.

If you get a chance to go to NHC2011 in San Diego, DO IT! I can't go, we'll have a 6-month old in the house by then. That's why I made the most out of Minneapolis. It may be the only one I ever go to.


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## DEALE (6/7/10)

I too made it to NHC 2010, my second after Oakland last year. This time I took my wife, whom I know enjoyed hanging out with a bunch of people I met the previous year. San Diego should be bigger and better. So if you are thinking of taking a significant other, then don't think twice as there's plenty of shopping and beaches to mix up the itinery.

Good on Josh for packing some beers and serving them club night. Not a bad idea if the two ideas are combined - having some volume of Aust Style brewed in Sothern California and each taking a case of varying styles to pour on club night.

I don't need to add how awesome NHC is, this has been done already - except tha Probrewers Night is worth the trip alone, imagine 50+ breweries all pouring samples for you. We had John Mayer "Rogue" pouring most of the event. NHC2011 will have a huge presence from Stone, just watcht the video link Peter posted!

Cheers


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## Peter Wadey (6/7/10)

DEALE said:


> I too made it to NHC 2010, my second after Oakland last year. This time I took my wife, whom I know enjoyed hanging out with a bunch of people I met the previous year. San Diego should be bigger and better. So if you are thinking of taking a significant other, then don't think twice as there's plenty of shopping and beaches to mix up the itinery.
> 
> Good on Josh for packing some beers and serving them club night. Not a bad idea if the two ideas are combined - having some volume of Aust Style brewed in Sothern California and each taking a case of varying styles to pour on club night.
> 
> ...



Hmmph! Overseas beer related trips AND multiple comp entries.
I think I'll have to tee up the women folk so they can talk babies.
That'll fix you!

Rgds,
Sad Sack


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## DEALE (6/7/10)

Check out http://brewingtv.squarespace.com/episodes/2010/6/24/brewing-tv-episode-8-nhc-2010-recap.html  for some video of NHC 2010


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## Fourstar (7/7/10)

Just looking at flights in may, return tickets are just less than $1100 inc tax with united airlines to LAX!  

With flights to san diego its pretty much the same! Thats cheaper than my return flights to HKG with Singapire Air! Lets just hope the flights are not balooned come June date availabilty!

Best of all they are 'star alliance' so i still get to add some more frequent flyer points to my booty!


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## DEALE (7/7/10)

Peter Wadey said:


> Hmmph! Overseas beer related trips AND multiple comp entries.
> I think I'll have to tee up the women folk so they can talk babies.
> That'll fix you!
> 
> ...




All it usually takes for a good contraception dose is a trip to QLD visiting the siblings with a bunch of screeming kids between them!


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## Doc (20/7/10)

It is tempting.
Have done SD to death over the last 5 years, but NHC would be different.
Would be able to get some more fresh Alesmith Speedway Stout and Green Flash West Coast IPA and Pizza Port ......

hmmmmm,
Doc


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## sinkas (21/7/10)

As far as I can tell I am going to be there, on a family holiday, 
I beleive the weekend following is the SD international beer fest as well, so 
I am going to try sand send a few entries in, maybe we could get an aggregator to send them, or some sort fo sponsorship for the freight. The cost isnt really an issue to me, but having them all going together might be a good idea


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## Fatgodzilla (2/2/11)

Bumping this topic.

So who has booked to go to San Diego this year (aside from me) ?

And IF we were to enter an Australian table at Club Night, who'd be interested in submitting beers?

How many beers can we get over to the USA and how? Kegs or bottles?

Time for some of you international type guys to put on the thinking cap.


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## winkle (2/2/11)

Fatgodzilla said:


> Bumping this topic.
> 
> So who has booked to go to San Diego this year (aside from me) ?
> 
> ...



Business must be going well, mate. That will be awesome - hope you get a posse going.
(I'll be lucky just to get to our Nats  )


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## Andyd (2/2/11)

I would love to be there, but SWMBO put the kaibosh on expenditure, and then turned around and flooded the kitchen to the point of a full rebuild... Ungood++

*Sigh* - Nothing compared to our friends up north!

Andy


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## Fatgodzilla (7/2/11)

winkle said:


> Business must be going well, mate. That will be awesome - hope you get a posse going.
> (I'll be lucky just to get to our Nats  )




No such luck Winkle. Had to have the missus leave me and demand I sell the house  before I finally had the money to go overseas (for the first and likely only time).

Hoping to make the Brissy Xmas swap again this year, so catch you for a jar or seven then. No doubt with great war stories and a slide night on the NHC 



> Andyd Posted Feb 2 2011, 07:47 PM
> I would love to be there, but SWMBO put the kaibosh on expenditure, and then turned around and flooded the kitchen to the point of a full rebuild... Ungood++



crap luck Andy. You deserve better beer karma!


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## Josh (10/2/11)

Man I wish I had the dollars to get to San Diego.

I reiterate.. if anyone is contemplating NHC 2011, and you can do it. Then DO IT!

Be sure to be there before the Wednesday cos the Brewing Network Anniversary Party was one of the highlights of my 2010 NHC experience.

I highly recommend taking PET bottles of homebrew to pour on Club Night. If every Aussie brewer took one style of beer in PET, say 10 bottles, you would have one hell of a good stand. Wear your green and gold cricket/football/rugby league/international rules shirts so everyone knows who you are. Take vegemite and serve vegemite on toast as well.


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## head (9/3/11)

well at present, pending my long service leave being approved, I will be there with bells on. Will look stupid but I will wear them all the same.

Anyone have any info on how to get beer from here to there without it costing a fortune?


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## Josh (10/3/11)

head said:


> well at present, pending my long service leave being approved, I will be there with bells on. Will look stupid but I will wear them all the same.
> 
> Anyone have any info on how to get beer from here to there without it costing a fortune?



Fly V Australia to LAX. Take 25kg of beer in PET bottles and 5kg of clothing in your checked luggage. More clothes in your carry on if you require it.


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## Fatgodzilla (11/3/11)

Josh said:


> Fly V Australia to LAX. Take 25kg of beer in PET bottles and 5kg of clothing in your checked luggage. More clothes in your carry on if you require it.




That looks a good idea Josh. Was planning on taking few clothes anyway and buying stuff over there. Might do a Galaxy Ale.


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## Andyd (11/3/11)

Fatgodzilla said:


> That looks a good idea Josh. Was planning on taking few clothes anyway and buying stuff over there. Might do a Galaxy Ale.



I can recommend basically taking what you can wear in terms of clothes and then finding a MAcy's store over there and going crazy. Clothes are soooo cheap over there. If you are going to go to Macy's make sure you go to their information desk and get an "international visitors" card - that'll give you another 10% off their prices.

Andy


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