Our club had a hospitality shift, and the Falcons were a big help to usa getting set up. Shout out to Drew and Kent (a true Brewguyver) for the help. FYI - I had a CAP shipped cross country, and it was pouring fine.
My wife poured for Ken today, and said it went well. I will go to the second time he gives it tomorrow.
It is a great time. Everyone has worked hard to make it all run smoothly.
The pre-con events were well done, too. The alesmith tour was awesome, they gave us a glass and a bomber of IPA on top of a great tour by the owner Peter, and they set aside a bottle of bourbon barrel speedway stout for each of us to purchase. It was release day… they had hundreds of people lining up for it in the morning.
It’s been a killer conference so far. Really smooth, great facility, lots of great beer…hell, people even attended my seminar for some reason I can’t fathom. Tonight is club night which is always the highlight for me. If you’re thinking about going to Seattle next year, don’t hesitate…just do it!
I’ve been watching the twitter feeds from the AHA and I think the hardest part is picking which talk to go to. There are some really good talks happening at the same time. Do you typically do your talk a couple times during the conference?
Starting about 3 years ago, nearly every speaker repeats their presentation on another day. I did mine yesterday afternoon and again today. Guess I’d better get out there and start handing out the bribes!
Tough choice this morning between three talks: Randy Mosher, Homebrew Chef or wild yeast and bacteria?
I judged all day yesterday: spice/herb/veg in the a.m. and wood/smoke in the p.m., then took a train to oldtowne for some fish tacos. Back at the hotel was a HUGE pro brewer night, then drinking home brew poolside until very early this morning.
Great Conference so far. Beautiful weather. Wonderful resort.
I judged the morning session yesterday and all went smoothly although I think Harrold is a little stressed.
Went to Ken Schramm’s session on Meads and really enjoyed it. I got to sample about six different kinds of mead. The conference room was full. He’s a great speaker and injects some humor into the presentation to help keep it lively. I learned alot at that one. Stopped into Denny’s presentation for a few. He had alot of homebrewers in on that one.
Also went to pro-brewers night last night and enjoyed at least 20 different brewery samples.
[quote=Antiques Roadshow Thread]I can just hear the appraiser now “Very rarely do you see a hippy in this good of shape…”
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;D
Kudos to whoever came up with the idea to have presenters present more than once. Great idea! That was always the toughest part; deciding whom you would have to miss.
It’s great that some of the talks are repeated, but it is only ever the ones that are given Thursday afternoon. That way, people judging the 2nd session of the 2nd round won’t miss a talk.
Great conference all of the talks were first rate. Pro-Brewers night and club night were fantastic, so many beers and only one mouth. Food at awards banquet was Excellent. Will be in Seattle for sure.
Kudos to whoever came up with the idea to have presenters present more than once. Great idea! That was always the toughest part; deciding whom you would have to miss.
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We started doing after Orlando when we found judges bowing out of judging to attend seminars. We need to have all the judges we can get, so the obvious choice was to start repeating seminars.
BTW, I constrained myself to about 3 beers per day all week.
Yes Denny…I think I will have to practice some restraint next year. I drank quite a bit this past weekend, all in good fun, but at the expense of sluggish mornings.
I really appreciate that this decision was made. I was disappointed that 2 weren’t repeated this year, though - Brewing with Brett & Hop Boil Chemistry. Both were ones that I really wanted to go to, but I made the decision to judge instead. My guess is that the speakers were only available at those times, or logistics prevented them from being repeated. Hopefully next year all Thursday afternoon sessions can be repeated. 8)
It was a GREAT conference! Following my recent health problems, I put a pretty strict limit on my drinking. The conference would be a lot less fun after having a stroke!
Didn’t know some of the Thurs PM talks weren’t repeated – that was always the plan. Maybe it’s harder with three tracks.
Adding the judge reception, repeating Thurs talks, and cutting judging down to 1 day were all parts of the Hose The Judges Less initiative I pushed after the Orlando conference. Judges can send me any other ideas privately; we’ll see what we can do.