Ok, so now that the prices are up, I have a questions. Might be a stupid one, but here goes. I am an AHA member, but my wife is not. I don’t know how interested she would be in all the hoopla, but I am sure she would want to attend most as this is all new to both of us. So, is it 309 for each of us? Or is that price for me and she would be my guest? If it is 309 for both of us, I may be able to swing it after all. If it is 309 for each, that takes me out of the game all together
Sorry to as a stupid question, but I am a simple kinda guy and need to know what I am getting into. LOL. Rock on!!!
The prices are per person, and there are “Social Packages” that are lower cost than the full registration price. You can see the full suite of registration prices here: Homebrew HQ at GABF® - American Homebrewers Association
If you have specific questions, feel free to reach out to our Membership Team!
One thing that you need to remember. Your wife has to be an AHA members to be able to attend. There is a discounted fee for adding family members to your account.
Good to know. Now I am out for sure. Wish it was more affordable. Seems a bit pricey to me, but I am new to all of this. Too bad, I was looking forward to getting some good info and seeing some cool stuff on display. Have fun all
You have a point that can be discussed. It’s like any hobby (for example golf, motorcycling, RC airplanes, etc.) — there is a cost involved and that cost increases at the more involved levels. A person who buys a Mr Beer kit for a few bucks to say he made beer is quite diff than a person who has north of four figures invested in equipment, shelves full of ingredients that could rival a homebrew shop, grows their own hops, is a professional yeast rancher, and is active in a lifestyle to the point of group membership, traveling, competing, etc.
It becomes obvious that cost can be a deciding factor on the level of participation. A resource constrained line can be draw at various points along the way.
I did a ‘back of the bar napkin’ to understand the impact of entering a beer in the competition and attending the convention. Many will have different cost (i.e. driving to the next town vs flying from across country). Anyone can do this for themselves and see the cost can get pretty steep pretty quickly. Things like airfare, hotel, entrance fee to attend the convention not to mention incidentals like food, transportation to and from the airport, etc. If entering the competition packaging, shipping, entrance fee, etc. If the stars are aligned and the beer advances to NHC double the shipping and packaging cost. The idea is to think about the financial resources we’re asking people to absorb and can those impacts be mitigated.
One way the AHA could help address Red’s concern is to take a look at a digital conference experience as well as an in person conference experience. IOW, if a person such as Red here wants to participate but finds the in person cost unsustainable, maybe a reduced cost online experience could be an alternative much like a digital only membership in AHA is an alternative to a print membership. The pandemic taught us how to stay connected when in person connections were restricted. Maybe we can learn from it to be more inclusive.
Just an idea. Bottom line hobbies can get expensive.
True, but the one thing that keeps me coming to HomebrewCon every year is seeing the friends I’ve made in previous years. If you go once, you’ll most likely return in spite of the cost. If I counted right 2023 will be my 22nd.
That pretty much already exists by having the seminars online. But there’s no way I can think of for the other conference experiences can be duplicated virtually. How do you have a virtual club night, for example? Duringth3 pandemic the conference went totally virtual, so it’s been done. But it’s a shadow of the full experience.
I agree with both points. For some it’s a planned, not to be missed, annual calendar event. I wouldn’t propose taking that away from anyone that has it factored into the budget.
Likewise, a virtual event would not be the same experience to be sure. Definitely a shadow of the main event.
However, at a cost prohibitive price point, even attending the convention at the social level is simply out of reach for some. A marketing truth is: Price points create exclusivity. Red’s “Too rich for my blood” comment should strike a nerve. If one person says it there are probably exponentially more thinking it.
Enter the reduced cost, reduced experience, virtual meetup. A gateway to the real thing. Not to replace it or even attempt to replicate it.
Can’t attend in person? Individually sign up, or have your homebrew club sign up for $X low fee to get logon credentials, pour a homebrew or three and meet up with fellow homebrewers and clubs online across the country for an hour during the conference. Celebrity homebrewers and AHA GC will be online to hoist a pint in a toast, entertain questions, and just generally chit chat about homebrewing. And the best part is you don’t have to live out of a suitcase.
Just food for thought to include those that otherwise would not participate at all. Something better than nothing concept I guess.
I am glad this sparked some conversation as I am a very novice brewer at best. A lot of what is discussed at these things are way over my head and to be honest, probably would not include me anyway. For me, 300 dollars per person seems a bit steep. With that being said, I have paid over 100 dollars for a round of golf, so I guess it is what is important. My going would be more for the product info, new brewer recommendations and maybe to run into you guys who have given me so much info here that I could personally thank you all. Sharing a beer or three is always fun, and if I happen to get one that I like, being able to speak to the brewer in person is another awesome experience. Now, please take this for what it is worth, if you are charging 300 bucks a head and getting what I would consider a good turnout, AHA is obviously making money. Much like the Good Guys car shows, they have become strictly for profit and not really car enthusiast driven anymore. When my dad was alive, he had a 56 Chevy Belair that I now own. He joined the Good guys for a very short time, and realized very quickly that they were more about making money than they were about the exchange of info and the meeting of folks with like hobbies. Now, with that being said, I don’t think this is the case here, but for the cost, you have taken what I believe are the newer brewers who are just looking to network and meet up with like people out of the game. I would never ask for anything for free, so this is not a “whining” post. Simply a post that for the cost of the ticket, plus the add ons, hotel cost and food, I am looking at probably close 1k if not more for my wife and me to go. I just don’t see me getting that much out of it. Now, if I was a home brewer that had 4 taps, all the latest technology and all that, maybe. But, for me, I was more looking for a fun weekend with like minded people to maybe say hi and share a pint or three. LOL.
Anyway, please don’t think I am accusing anybody of tryint make money on this. I just feel this is above my price point and am disappointed. There are a few of you who have gone out of your way to help me in my quest, and I was hoping to extent my thanks in person, but for now, I will just say thanks this way and ROCK ON!!!
The organization that I work for is doing something very much like this. We offer in person meditation retreats and that’s all we did for over 40 years, period. When covid shut us down suddenly we quickly started offering online retreats and other content. We have long since reopened but now have robust offerings on our online platform. Currently they are not the same courses online as in person but this spring we will offer our first hybrid retreat which is analogous to what BB proposes for the conference. We are setting up the technology so that online participants can watch talks and instruction live and also participate in Q&A and small group discussions. Obviously the experience is not the same and the cost is vastly different but a lot more people can participate and many people who have wanted to come here for years but can’t due to cost, retreats being full with waitlists, or our rural location, are thrilled to join online.
With on line “new brewer” and “intermediate brewer” content is the problem one of “too much poor content” rather than “no quality content”? (I’m excluding discussion forums from this thought).
Has home brewing become a “mature” (in terms of content) hobby? It seems like “the next big thing” (BIAB, no chill, challenging conventional wisdom, water adjustments, fermenting in kegs, fermenting under pressure) is getting smaller as time goes by. ‘Beer science’ seems to have found it’s place by driving the advances in the products and ingredients we use.
I have to say that I’m in a similar situation to Red. I’ve only been brewing for a couple of years and I don’t think I can justify admission for two, plus cross-country airfare, lodging, food, etc. I seriously considered it and I may attend in a year or two, but right now, I have a hard time swallowing the total cost.
If a virtual option were available, I’d certainly look into it.
I also wanted to comment on “Has home brewing become a “mature” (in terms of content) hobby?”
My wife makes sausage, and I’ve always found it interesting how there really aren’t many new innovations in that space, while brewing has been evolving fairly quickly for a while. My guess is that (a) homebrewing wasn’t legal until relatively recently, and (b) I don’t think commercial sausage making is at the same scale as commercial brewing. I think there were new markets that opened for brewing gadgets and there’s probably tons more research into brewing.
It just struck me as odd that two ancient practices are so different today: one still evolving while the other is basically stagnant.
One of the things about the BrewCon is that it gets rotated around the country. Not many individuals nor clubs make every one of them. I went when it was in Cincinnati and waited for it to be nearby. Of course, as luck would have it, when it was in Michigan I could not go. And of course, when it was in Pittsburgh it was my wife’s and my 25th anniversary. I knew I better not go if I wanted to live in the same house. Oh well, next time.
Off topic, but I have been toying with the idea of making my own sausage. I have a smoker that is not the best, but I have thought about putting a few cuts of meat in and then grinding and packaging. Might want to bend your ear one day. LOL.
As far as Brewcon, as I said, if I was into it with all the gadgets and had a bigger setup, I would do it for sure. But, for me, my little garage setup of a propane burner, 10 gallon kettle and odds and ends just doesn’t make the cost of the weekend worth it. But, who knows, it might be a decision I will change as we get closer. Right now, I am looking at 23 to 25k for a new roof. OUCH!!! LOL.
By the way - this is actually a large problem for the conference - how to target the content that’s presented. Too much “new brewer” content and the talks aren’t useful to the dedicated brewer (and arguably the most likely conference goer) - too specialized/esoteric/narrow/technical and you’ll leave a lot of people in the dust with smaller audiences for the speaker.
2019 was my first year when in was New England for the first time in 40 years. Yeah, it can be pricey for tickets, plus hotel room, our club was less than an hour away from the location and only like 5 of us were willing to pay, but a bunch of clubmates that work for breweries wound up getting free passes because they were pouring for their breweries on club night…but the presentations offer some great stuff…and in the vendor area, you will walk of of there with enough swag that more than covers your ticket price. I got home with about 30 lbs of various malts, 5-6 lbs of various hops, several hats, t-shirts, tons of stickers, metal signs and so on. Had to throw all my clothes in a bag (also given out for free) to thrown all the swag in my suitcase. And even better, on the last day as the vendor area is breaking down, you can get even more stuff as they start giving all the stuff they have left away so they don’t have to ship back to their places of business. You are not going to walk about with say a Grainfather, but you can get good stuff. I unfortunately missed that as I was in the awards show waiting to see if either of my two beers in finals medaled. They did not.