[klickitat jim]

Mark - it was very nice meeting you. And thanks for passing along your yeast knowledge. Seriously - write a book someday. I will buy it!

  Plus, how does one top "Yeast?"

Well that is easy.  Write one that is a fraction of the size.  Just focus on quick how's and whys. 

The Yeast book is intimidating and has way too much peripheral info for the guy who just wants to make good beer.  I'll bet a book like that would outsell Yeast.

Yeast For Home Brewers?  Malt FHB, Water FHB, Hops FHB, then Bugs n Fruit FHB
Each a 100 page paperback. I'd buy them!

[denny]

Mark - it was very nice meeting you. And thanks for passing along your yeast knowledge. Seriously - write a book someday. I will buy it!

  Plus, how does one top "Yeast?"

Well that is easy.  Write one that is a fraction of the size.  Just focus on quick how's and whys. 

The Yeast book is intimidating and has way too much peripheral info for the guy who just wants to make good beer.  I'll bet a book like that would outsell Yeast.

It's time for Brewer's Publications to start putting out books that emphasize the fun of homebrewing and don't put you to sleep. 

[69franx]

Mark - it was very nice meeting you. And thanks for passing along your yeast knowledge. Seriously - write a book someday. I will buy it!

  Plus, how does one top "Yeast?"

Well that is easy.  Write one that is a fraction of the size.  Just focus on quick how's and whys. 

The Yeast book is intimidating and has way too much peripheral info for the guy who just wants to make good beer.  I'll bet a book like that would outsell Yeast.

It's time for Brewer's Publications to start putting out books that emphasize the fun of homebrewing and don't put you to sleep.

+1
I have all 4, started Water way too early in my brewing hobby and gave up before 1/2 way into it. Have not touched the others yet. I will eventually get deep into all 3, 4 but they are in no means easy reads
edit for poor conveyance of thought

[HoosierBrew]

Mark - it was very nice meeting you. And thanks for passing along your yeast knowledge. Seriously - write a book someday. I will buy it!

  Plus, how does one top "Yeast?"

Well that is easy.  Write one that is a fraction of the size.  Just focus on quick how's and whys. 

The Yeast book is intimidating and has way too much peripheral info for the guy who just wants to make good beer.  I'll bet a book like that would outsell Yeast.

It's time for Brewer's Publications to start putting out books that emphasize the fun of homebrewing and don't put you to sleep.

+1
I have all 4, started Water way too early in my brewing hobby and gave up before 1/2 way into it. Have not touched the others yet. I will eventually get deep into all 3, but they are in no means easy reads

+2   Totally agree.

[S. cerevisiae]

It's time for Brewer's Publications to start putting out books that emphasize the fun of homebrewing and don't put you to sleep.

There's a fine balance between too little information and too much information.  I agree that the modern publications err heavily on the too much information side.  The reason may be that many brewers wanted more meat than the original books provided.  Brewers Publications may have also adopted a killing two birds with one stone approach to publishing.  The modern publications are technical enough to be used by professional brewers.  They are written more like textbooks than hobby books. 

When writing about brewing, the trick is always going to be how does one take an activity that is basically applied biochemistry/biochemical engineering and distill it in such a way as to make the information approachable to all.  I have spent a large portion of my life translating between the hardcore technical and layman worlds, and have found that the task is never easy. 

[ibru]

NHC 2015 was my first also and I thought it was great. My favorite part was putting faces to the names at the forum gathering. It is funny, as was mentioned, how people aren't quite how you visualize. Running into the Basic Brewing guys was a lot of fun. Great bunch of people that I'm proud to be a part of.

The app was extremely useful in figuring out where to go next. The free wi-fi was nice also.

I think the facility was well set up for our event. I like that lots of water was available as I consume a lot of water every day.

I agree with Jeff G that some of the seminars were pretty basic and not much "meat" to them. The ones I liked were the New hop (Ron Mexico beer), the Czech lager duo, Mitch Steele's IPA, Martin's water presentation (enjoyed meeting you), and of course the "Two D's" road show.

The beer selection was unending. A couple that come to mind are Charles' kelp beer (no, it doesn't taste like sea weed) and Ballast's grapefruit IPA. Being in San Diego a few more days on vacation, I going to plan on going to visiting their brewery and others.

All in all, if you have never been to a NHC, don't even think about it, GO.

Bruce

[denny]

There's a fine balance between too little information and too much information.  I agree that the modern publications err heavily on the too much information side.  The reason may be that many brewers wanted more meat than the original books provided.  Brewers Publications may have also adopted a killing two birds with one stone approach to publishing.  The modern publications are technical enough to be used by professional brewers.  They are written more like textbooks than hobby books. 

When writing about brewing, the trick is always going to be how does one take an activity that is basically applied biochemistry/biochemical engineering and distill it in such a way as to make the information approachable to all.  I have spent a large portion of my life translating between the hardcore technical and layman worlds, and have found that the task is never easy.

Mark, it's not so much about the quantity or quality of information as the presentation of that info.  You;re right, it's not easy, but that's the trick for the writers.

[wyobrew]

Very nice meeting y'all!
It may take a couple days to recover.
Some impressions:
1) seminars seemed generally less scientific and more basic this year.  Did anyone else feel this way?
2) Need to make sure there's enough light the next time the Reception and Club Night are outside.
3) I love San Diego and even though it is pretty old, I love the Town and Country, too.
4) The conference app was great.

My first conference. Can't wait to do it again. Two thumbs up to the AHA. I can't imagine all the work involved to make something so big operate as smooth as it did. Outstanding job.
Seminars did seem a little basic. My favorite - Brewing Session Beers by Andrew Mitchell from New Belgium. He gave a lot of tips and how to's. Not only how they do it at the brewery but how he has adapted his homebrews.
My wife loved the conference grounds and all the flowers. Room was outdated but very clean.
The app was awesome. Used it exclusively.
Regret missing the meet-up. My plan to attend was hi-jacked by beer somewhere in the homebrew expo.

[theDarkSide]

In sum, if future NHCs are in driving distance I'll definitely go, but maybe not otherwise.  It was very nice meeting forum members though.

Come on Steve...I flew from NH to Seattle for NHC, the least you can do is fly to Baltimore next year

The final social after the banquet is great.  The last chance to hang out with great homebrewers and try some really great beer.

[denny]

5. The worst part of the motel was maintenance.  My wife and I seriously discussed moving to another motel.  The bed was total crap.

What part were you in?  I always try to get a room in the Royal Palm tower and they're pretty good.

[AmandaK]

5. The worst part of the motel was maintenance.  My wife and I seriously discussed moving to another motel.  The bed was total crap.

What part were you in?  I always try to get a room in the Royal Palm tower and they're pretty good.

He was probably in the Regency Tower like us. What a crappy place. Only one elevator worked (barely), the wallpaper was coming off the wall in places, no refrigerators, and the beds/pillows SUCKED. If it ever goes back to the Town and Country, I will be staying at a different hotel.

My impressions, outside of the crap Regency Tower:
- Man, I love the people at NHC. I love finding my beer family every year and adding about 15-20 people to that circle each time. Can't wait for the next time we get to go to NHC!
- The seminars were pretty basic, outside of a handful of them of course (Czech lagers, mead panel, mead recipes, and blending).
- The BJCP judges reception was AMAZEBALLS. Drinking bottles of Utopian and Tart of Darkness was great. The presentations here were better than 80% of the actual NHC presentations.
- I drank a lot of mead.
- The Final round judging was so well organized. Kudos to the organizers there, especially Bruce and Janis, for putting on a great judging experience. I met a ton of great judges there, from Recognized to GM2, that all had something for me to learn. And hey, the Standard American Lager we picked out at mini-BOS got 2nd BOS! Pretty neat!
- The AHA should have made it crystal clear on what beer we could have brought into the banquet. Many people did not bring any beer to share or sniped the beer our table was saving for the awards right off our table. All of that could have been solved by simply telling people they could only bring commercial beer in. Several of our friends ended up taking their commercial beer back to their room instead of bringing it to the banquet.
- Am I the only one who thought the majority of Club Night beers were sub-par?? Sure, there were some awesome clubs who brought their A-game and some awesome mead makers there, but I had about 50% crappy beer until I just stuck around the clubs that had the good stuff. Like... butter bomb Pilsners, aectic ciders, sock-smelling gueuzes, acrid stouts, etc. I watered a lot of plants that night until I found the booths that had well made beers. I actually asked a couple of the clubs how they selected beers and the general consensus was "We asked for kegs and got kegs." No selection process? Dang.

[The Professor]

I was there in spirit. I kept a watchful eye on the forums. Next year is east coast and I will have to make it.

Same here.  Next year's is a very do-able drive for me, so if I'm not on tour or working on the left coast, I fully expect to be able to make 2016 and meet a lot of the folks I've enjoyed reading, comparing notes with, and (open minded old dog that I am) learning from.
 

[theDarkSide]

He was probably in the Regency Tower like us. What a crappy place. Only one elevator worked (barely), the wallpaper was coming off the wall in places, no refrigerators, and the beds/pillows SUCKED. If it ever goes back to the Town and Country, I will be staying at a different hotel.

So if someone got sick in the room after club night, would the resort have even noticed?

- Am I the only one who thought the majority of Club Night beers were sub-par?? Sure, there were some awesome clubs who brought their A-game and some awesome mead makers there, but I had about 50% crappy beer until I just stuck around the clubs that had the good stuff. Like... butter bomb Pilsners, aectic ciders, sock-smelling gueuzes, acrid stouts, etc. I watered a lot of plants that night until I found the booths that had well made beers. I actually asked a couple of the clubs how they selected beers and the general consensus was "We asked for kegs and got kegs." No selection process? Dang.

A friend of mine texted me the same thing.  He said it was the reason he didn't really have a hangover on Saturday.  We have a local fest where some clubs bring 70 kegs...most of which I used to water the lawn at the campground we were at.  Quality, not quantity!

[mchrispen]

I second Amanda's comments... wound up standing around the Zealots booth and just socializing. Fortunately we ran out of spam mead pretty quickly. We were next to ASH and they were pouring pretty good stuff. Otherwise it was hit and miss... Societe de Lambic was pretty awesome... and had a few of the Maltose Beers, all good - even the trepidation of Drew's Clam Chowda Saison which was a really well made beer, just a bit salty/minerally for my taste, but good. Of course, Denny cannot completely disassociate himself with that one - he was there. Martin and Yooper picked up some diacetyl in my BoPils, but I got a lot of compliments on it. So apologies if anyone got a butter bomb from it. As a consolation - Eric Lowe was pouring some of his best meads (commercial) and I had a petilant semi sweet standard mead on tap.

Really annoyed with the Regency Tower and the lack of serviceable (and air conditioned) elevators. I have a bum knee and finally just walked the 6 floors in the stairs - not pleasant... smelled like a few thousand homebrewers dirty socks in there. The lack of decent food (like the $30 hamburger/brat buffet) nearby was a real challenge. That said - I came for the seminars.

My biggest frustration and disappointment was showing up to judge or steward and being brusquely turned away. I was there to help. Everyone seemed too busy to answer questions and finally I was told I didn't respond to a steward email that I later found in my spam box from someone's personal email. "The best way I can help is to get out of the way." Part of my motivation to attend was to learn more about judging and get points toward my Certification. Fortunately, Sandy C and a few others sat with me and asked me to send them sheets to give me some feedback, of which I will take advantage. To be clear - not angry, but the judging/stewarding organization could have had much better communication.

[brulosopher]

It was inspiring to try so many great homebrews, and it was a sincere pleasure to meet all of you (especially, but in no way limited to, the crew I was out with Friday afternoon).

I couldn't agree more, Franklin, thanks for letting us tag along. I made some great new friends.

I am stuck in Denver. My flight was late leaving SD. I missed my connecting flight.  Other than that minor hiccup, NHC 2015 was a blast.

Mark, you're an incredible guy, I meant it when I said I'd buy your book

Mark - it was very nice meeting you. And thanks for passing along your yeast knowledge. Seriously - write a book someday. I will buy it!

I got such a kick out of meeting everyone. Except for Marshall, Denny and Drew - nobody looked like I expected! Hopefully - the beginning of some long standing friendships.

Mark - it was very nice meeting you. And thanks for passing along your yeast knowledge. Seriously - write a book someday. I will buy it!

I got such a kick out of meeting everyone. Except for Marshall, Denny and Drew - nobody looked like I expected! Hopefully - the beginning of some long standing friendships.

So you're saying the rest were handsome athletic and well behaved?

Pics of me blowing into siphons and eating yeasty yogurt gave it all away.

Mark - it was very nice meeting you. And thanks for passing along your yeast knowledge. Seriously - write a book someday. I will buy it!

  Plus, how does one top "Yeast?"

Well that is easy.  Write one that is a fraction of the size.  Just focus on quick how's and whys. 

The Yeast book is intimidating and has way too much peripheral info for the guy who just wants to make good beer.  I'll bet a book like that would outsell Yeast.

It's time for Brewer's Publications to start putting out books that emphasize the fun of homebrewing and don't put you to sleep.

Seriously!