We, your frothy and fearless leaders of the AHA, could not be more excited to announce: Homebrew Con (HBC) is BACK!
Asheville, North Carolina, June 19-20, 2026*
*Preceded by Final Round Judging of National Homebrew Competition on June 18
2026 will be the event’s 46th year.
Here’s a sneak peek at what’s on tap:
We’re bringing back Club Night, the Holy Grail of homebrew nights, Homebrew Expo with top suppliers and educators, HBC seminar sessions, and once again pairing the National Homebrew Competition (NHC) Final Round Judging and Awards Ceremony with the conference… And more!
Stay tuned for registration dates, hotel info, and more
Get the latest updates via AHA emails, Zymurgy magazine and monitor the HBC website.
Cheers and good beers to you each. Boo-flipping-yah to this news. Julia Herz - AHA Executive Director and fellow homebrewer
Huge kudos to the new and improved AHA to not only bring back the National HomeBrew Conference, but to break the mold of the N.E., N, West Coast merry-go-round it’s been on for over a decade by reintroducing it in the S.E.!
This news has spread like wildfire throughout the HomeBrew community around here. All the S.E. club Facebook pages are lit up like a Christmas tree
Cool. This is close enough for me to consider attending (I’ve never been to one). And Asheville is such a great town/area. Great job getting this set up.
There used to be a page that showed all the old sites. Here’s the list with my updates as to where it’s been. My first was 2001 in LA. I missed 2002, 2005, 2022 and 2024 in that time span.
And just because I couldn’t resist. I do some more crunching. Separated the locations into several region groups just to see how the distribution has been
Thanks, Julia. Our home brewers from GRiST in Arlington, VA are definitely looking forward to the conference.
Question about the National Competition: I think you have regional competitions that feed into the national, is that correct? And if so, have any dates or locations been decided for those regional competitions? It’s helpful to know how much lead time we have, especially for brewing those styles that can’t be hurried. Thanks.
Hello @user33 (aka Joseph) . Excellent question, and here is the latest we …. just published. Executive Summary (but please read full post) is brewing now with First Round, there will be nine locations this year, judging to happen in March and April 2026, and Final Round judging to happen in conjunction with Homebrew Con in Asheville on 6/17 and 6/18/26.
We are BEYOND excited to bring back the recent cadence and schedule for NHC! Julia
Sue and I will be there!!! Asheville is a great beer town. We were there for the third time in 2024 and were talking about going back again this year. HBC is going to make that happen. See you in June!
So , I went ahead and booked my room at the Hilton Garden Inn. I picked that hotel since the AHA site showed free parking , however the hotel web site says they chare $15 a day for self parking. Does anyone know if free parking is part of the AHA discount room blocking ? Or is that a typo on the AHA website about free parking. Not that it will make me change my reservation, but it would be nice to know before I get there.
Thanks.
. Excellent question, and here is 