I heard there are a minimum # of kegs required to be able to pour @ keg night for the NHC. Is this correct? What’s the minimum?
In the past, clubs were recommended to bring a minimum of 4 kegs. I imagine for someone overseas, they could make an exception.
I’d hope so! FWIW, our club took 36 kegs for club night and we weren’t even close to the top numbers.
How many of those did your club go through Denny? Is 30 kegs overkill or is it what you need to survive the thirsty masses?
Our Club had 8 taps at club night. We kicked 1 keg completely at club night (That was the Apple Pie beer that was hugely popular). Overall, I think we poured about 30 gallons or so, but we switched kegs out quite a bit. We did not have the benefit of a big name like Denny though. Although some people asked us where he was; Cascade Brewers Guild vs Cascade Brewers Society and whatnot. We had 20 or so Kegs at NHC, and I think we only fully kicked 4. I fought like hell to kick my keg, because the keg wasn’t mine (You can ask Keith about that).
We put on 12 at a time. Some, like the Wee Shroomy, kicked. Others didn’t. I’d say we emptied maybe 1/2 of them.
How does a club go about pouring at club night?
Ooohhhh, that apple pie beer was good.
You could always put out a plea to a local club to take on a new member. Seems like there are some who will be involved on this board. Or maybe some club from Chicago could take you in.
The Michgan AHA members have joined together to get a booth in the last 2 NHCs. We had 6 clubs in the Michigan Coalition of Homebrewers at this years club night. The beers were shipped on one pallet out to Washington. Just saying this as a way for several clubs to pool resources and get a space at a conference far away.
As far as getting a space, there will be a call for clubs to participate go out several months in advance.
Contact the club night organizer of the conference you want to participate in.
I think the Falcons brought 30 some odd kegs and we burned 20+ of them. Oddly, we burned more on our hospitality suite shift (the last shift before the banquet) than at club night. We just turned and burned kegs rapidly.
Yeah, you rip through them in the hospitality suite because there are far fewer people pouring. Just get in touch with the club night organizer Phil, they may be able to accommodate you somehow. We had a booth in Seattle for unaffiliated brewers who wanted to pour.
I think this is the first time I can remember that happening to us… trust me, no complaints on my part. I was very happy to have fewer full kegs to have to sling around.
So who is the club night organizer?
I would probably bring two kegs, or perhaps four if I can strap them together and call them a ‘single bag.’. I’m working on a recipe using malt grown in the fields near me, hops grown in the chateau next door and wild yeast collected in october. Then aged on French oak.
For those of you who flew with your kegs, did you have to vent them all the way first? Would they keep a seal with no CO2 pressure?
We plan on flying in seating class “A,” which is discounted first class (1300 per person as opposed to 980 per person for the super cheap seats, which seems like a deal to me) so I would hope that as a first class passenger I’d get a little leeway in what I bring onboard. But I dunno.
Ron (Bluesman) is part of the Philly organizing committee. Shoot him a PM for info.
how did the tofu pale ale go over?
Fair… brought home about 1/2 a keg.
Phil, i don’t know of anyone who flew with their kegs, but a few clubs shipped them. I think you might be better off flying to Ron’s in January and brewing with him, and then serving it in Philly. 
I see the sign up is open now. Phil should contact Ron to see about serving a couple of kegs.
http://www.ahaconference.org/events/club-night/sign-up/
Hey Phil, our club is planning on pouring at club night. We could easily accommodate a couple of your kegs if you want to piggyback on. Let me know. You could be the Paris division of the Northern Illinois Homebrewers Collective.