Report from L.A.
By Mark Tumarkin
I talked briefly (though I know you don't think I ever do that·) at the last meeting about my trip to LA for the AHA National Homebrewers Conference. I knew that everyone was anxious to get on to Fred's presentation and tasting on Pale Ales and IPAs. But people keep asking me questions about the trip so I'll try to get down at least the highlights.
Let me start by thanking those of you who voted for me for the AHA Board of Advisors. I really appreciated your support and will try to justify it. If you have any issues, suggestions, complaints, ideas you'd like to see incorporated into the AHA, etc.; please let me know. I want to be your rep. I really want to help make the AHA a more member-driven organization.
There were many topics covered at the BoA meeting, but I'll just touch on two of the most important ones here. The first is the need for more AHA members; the second is the need to provide more tangible benefits to AHA members. Obviously, these two things are closely inter-related.
As you may know, the overall number of people in this hobby has been dropping since the high point in the mid 90's. This is reflected in the number of people in homebrew clubs, supply shop closings, drop in the number of AHA members, etc. Part of the drop in AHA membership can be attributed to problems with the AHA itself. These problems were reflected in many things; a general lack of responsiveness from the leadership, problems with the relationship with the BJCP, problems with running the National Homebrew Competition, etc. However, there has been a real change over the last several years, including the practice of electing BoA members, rather than appointing them. The current staff is truly doing a great job. Paul and Gary are both homebrewers themselves and are committed to making the AHA a more grass-roots organization.
In order to build the AHA into an effective organization that can truly be a voice for homebrewers, we need to increase the membership. In the past, the AHA has targeted brewers new to the hobby as the potential new members. There has been a change in attitude, most of the BoA (esp. including us newer members) feel that we should be looking at building a better relationship with homebrew clubs. Brewers that are already members of their local clubs, but are not members of the AHA, are the people we really need to attract into joining the AHA. They are more likely to stick with the hobby long-term and are the type of passionate, committed brewers that the AHA needs as well. If you are at all interested in joining the AHA, let me know. I'd like the chance to talk with the rest of you about it as well, in person.
The other topic is the need to create more tangible benefits to membership. Many people think that the Zymurgy subscription is the only thing they get with their AHA membership. Ray Daniels has done a great job as editor and Zymurgy has improved tremendously over the last year. Since the demise of Brewing Techniques, Ray has been able to attract many of the writers that made BT great to writing for Zymurgy. If you haven't seen Zymurgy for a while you should really take a look. I think the subscription is worth the price of the AHA membership but there is much more to the AHA. We want to increase the benefits and relevance of the AHA to its membership. I'd love to hear any suggestions you might have as to programs or directions that you like the AHA to take.
Once the Board meetings were done, the conference really began. After the conference opening toast, the judging began. The National Homebrew Competition is the largest contest in the country. Eight regions send on a possible three entries in each category from the first round, so there are often 20 to 24 beers in each flight. Most tables will have at least four judges, so the beers are split in half for judging and then a mini- Best of Show round determines the winners and the beers to advance to the Best of Show judging. There is a large core of highly qualified judges, so the feedback tends to be quite good. The beers that tend to be sent on to the second round are quite good too, so it's a great contest to judge. The only downside is that the judging stretches over two days and you miss a certain number of the presentations and talks.
But there were so many incredible talks that it wasn't a great disaster to miss some of them. Among my favorites were John Maier of Rogue on his stouts, John Oliver of BJ's on hop usage, Clive LaPensee on malting and historical brewing issues, and Byron Burch on mead making, among others. Rob Moline taped a great many of the presentations and I will be getting a copy from him. So you'll be able to get a real taste of the conference presentations.
Of course, the beer was the reason and center for the entire thing and I wasn't disappointed. There was more homebrew than you can imagine. There is a homebrewers festival in So. California at Temecula, they estimated over 1200 gals of homebrew were served. This may not have been that large, but there was always homebrew on tap in the Hospitality Suite. Club night was awesome, with many of the area clubs vying to have the best display and to serve the best beer.
The 2001 LA Beer Odyssey was a beer festival and LA Brewers Open contest held in conjunction with the Conference. There were three prizes offered, with the top prize being $1000 to the brewer (not the brewpub, or micro but the brewer himself) of the best cask conditioned real ale. There were over 30 cask ales on beer engines, more on gravity feed. It was hard to pick a favorite - how could you choose one from among Russian River's IPA or Old Gubbillgoch, Stone Brewing's Arrogant Bastard or Old Guardian, Rogue's I2PA or Charlie 1981, or Ale Smith's Horny Devil or Speedway Stout? All right, if I had to pick one it was the Russian River IPA, malty with a major charge of West Coast hoppiness.
Then in the hotel bar, remember this is The Beer Hotel, it was Samichlaus, or Rogue Brutal Bitter, or Cantillion, all on tap. Or order a bottle of Fantome Saison, or Scaldis Noel, or a vintage Old Crusty· it was hard to make a choice from the 50 or 60 selections. I'm not going to even get started on the food, other than to say that the hotel brought in their best chef from Hawaii to cook us feasts pairing great beers with fine cuisine made cooked with great beers. Oh, did I mention that Carlos Solis, the chef, is also a homebrewer? I had the chance to sample his second ever batch and he's going to be a great brewer as well. And don't get me started on the late night single malt scotch tastings - or we'll be here all night.
Well, I hope I've given you some idea of what the AHA Conferences are like. I'm already looking forward to next year's conference will be in Dallas. Hopefully, some of you will be there too.