MIY2K, the 2000 AHA National Conference
Mark Tumarkin

How do I describe the AHA Natl. Conference to someone who hasn't been there? The country's largest homebrew competition is only part of it. There was also a very interesting series of lectures/presentations, the club night gathering, the pub crawl, the room crawls, the awards banquet, late night singlemalt scotch tastings, the pig roast and brewers guild reception, and many other tasty and fun events. I guess the most important thing would be to try to convey the sense of homebrew community and the taste of the incredible homebrew beers that are at the heart of that community.

For me, the adventure started early Wednesday morning as I left Gainesville on my way to Livonia (a suburb of Detroit). I was met at the airport by Ed Wolfe; a good friend, former member of the Hogtown Brewers, and a traitorous ex-Gator who took a job at MSU just in time to gloat about their football & basketball wins over the Gators. We headed back to Ed's new home in E. Lansing to spend the night. It was great to see Carol and their two boys. It was also great to see Ed's new basement brewery and bar. The trip downstairs also afforded me the chance to start warming up for the conference. Ed had an IPA and two brown ales (both American and N. English) on tap. For those of you that are new to the club and don't know Ed; both Ed and Carol are Nationally ranked BJCP judges and have a brewery full of medals and ribbons (incl. a gold, a silver, and a bronze from the NHC) - so I started warming up in style. He also plied me with Arcadia Brewing IPA, a very hoppy Michigan micro-brew.

Next morning, Ed and I headed to Livonia for the conference, which started for me by judging Porters. I had the chance to judge with some very experienced judges, Ed Bronson and Marc Gaspard, which was a great learning experience for me. The next morning I judged wheats (hefeweizens and Berliner Weisse) with Dan McConnell (mead god) and David Logsdon (of Wyeast). Everyone has their own approach to judging and I really enjoyed having the opportunity to judge with folks of this caliber. The training Ed Wolfe gave us paid off and I was able to hold my own. I found that my scores were usually within a few points of these more experienced judges. Ed was judging IPAs and had the unenviable chore of judging category 22, spice/herb/vegetable beers. Perhaps to make up for this, Ed was also part of the Best of Show panel for meads, that truly is a rare treat.

That evening was club night, or Beer Without Borders. This was the highlight of the conference. Perhaps a dozen different clubs (mostly local, Michigan clubs but also some from further away) had tables set up with kegs and kegs of beer and awesome food offerings. I had been invited by Ken Schramm (also mead god) of the Ann Arbor Brewers Guild to bring a batch of my habanero beer mustard to compliment the smoked turkey, pheasant, trout, and salmon that he was putting out for the feast. The mustard was a big success with the crowds; they also used it with the pig roast on Friday. There were so many great beers at this gathering, and so many great people to share them with. This event highlighted the feeling of homebrew community. It was sort of a huge homebrew club meeting, with only the best beer and food being brought, and being presented in copious abundance.

Another aspect of this club-meeting atmosphere was the hospitality suite. Different clubs were in charge of the suite for shifts of 2 hrs during which they were responsible for keeping the beer flowing and munchies available. If you were ever in-between sessions, or just wanted a place to hang out, the hospitality suite was the place to be. And it didn't close down till the wee, wee hours of the night. It was also the place to be for late night singlemalt scotch tastings, but that's another story.

And then there were the presentations. I'm not going to list them all here (look at the AHA's Beertown website if you'd like to see a complete list), just some of my favorites. They were all good -- I don't want to slight anyone and all the ones I got to were informative and interesting. I didn't see them all, some overlapped with the judging schedule, and there were often two presentations scheduled at the same time. Anyhow some of my favorites were Dan McConnell & Ken Schramm on mead judging, Ray Daniels on IPAs Past Present and Future, Larry Bell on Pride & Passion in Brewing, and Jeff Renner on Classic American Pilsners, and Chris White (of White Labs Yeast) on Fermentation 101. Then there was Fred Eckhardt (a beer legend) on neo-prohibition, Al Korzonas on Small Improvements, Big Dividends, and Morton Meligaard on his flavor wheel and beer tasting. There were also a number of others that I didn't get to see but would have loved to. Suffice it to say that they had quite a line up of educational and entertaining presentations.

Friday evening was the Blind Pig Roast and the Michigan Brewers Guild reception. Two whole hogs with fresh corn, and all the fixins (including my mustard) was prepared by Mike O'Brien (of Pico Brewing Systems) assisted by the rest of the Ann Arbor Brewers Guild. Members of the Michigan Brewers Guild, including both brewpubs and microbreweries, offered their beer along with the dinner and for several hours afterwards. Some of these breweries were Arcadia, Bell's, Michigan Brewing, the Bonfire, among others -- I've got a complete list somewhere but I can't find it at the moment. Perhaps the highlight of the evening was seeing Larry Bell climb up on a table, ring the Bell's Brewery bell to get everyone's attention, and then declaim his version of a Rimbaud poem celebrating beer and drunkenness (the original was an ode to wine, but Larry took some poetic liberties). After the hotel chased us out of the banquet room (about 11), everyone retired to the hospitality suite (well, I guess there were those few that went off to bed) to finish off the night.

Saturday morning and early afternoon were filled with more lectures and presentations. The mid-afternoon was taken up by the AHA members meeting. There are some very positive changes in the AHA, including the improvement of Zymurgy with Ray Daniels as editor, the democratization of the AHA board of advisors, more involvement of member and clubs (the fantastic conference itself was organized and put on by a group of Michigan clubs), and a more open dialog between members and the AHA staff. I think these changes will go a long way towards making the AHA a more viable focus for our hobby.

Then after another visit to the hospitality suite, it was time for the awards banquet. After a fantastic dinner, followed by chocolate cake drenched in the commemorative cherry mead, and some after-dinner single malts; it was time for the award presentations. What a celebration of fantastic beers! It was really a lot of fun. I picked up the medal for our buddy Jeff Gladish (of the Tampa Bay Beers); he took a bronze for his smoked braggot. He's only got a few bottles left but he promised me a taste of it sometime soon.

I know I've been babbling on about this for too long, probably lost some of you several paragraphs ago. And there's so much I haven't mentioned -- all the great homebrew friends that I got to catch up with, all the new friends I made, putting faces with the names I've come to know on the Home Brew Digest, some of the great beers I tasted (Phil Wilcox's eisbock, and the case of Hansen's lambics we drank, Steve Ford's wit, Ken Schramm's mead, etc etc), or the suitcase full of beer that I brought back (most of it gifts), well I could keep going but I better stop.

I hope I've been able to convey a sense of how enjoyable it was so that some of you will want to go next year. The location hasn't been chosen yet; but I'm there -- hope you'll join me too. To quote Bill Phieffer, brewer of the commemorative mead; "Man, I really LOVE this hobby!"