[udubdawg]

My lame strategy is to try beers from those I know that make good beer.

Ugh, this old dude won't stop following me around.   

You? Ciders and meads please. 

last year I brought 10 ciders and 4 meads; since we're in the land of 10,000 Mead Makers Of the Year I expect that will be reversed.  I've got beer and will bring a little but I'll mostly let the rest of KCBM handle that.  (and yes, the KC Bier Meisters will have a booth)

on the subject of Club Night, I know it is a lot of people's favorite event and I can see why.  However I find the quality to be very hit and miss and have preferred Pro Night for years.  Please, dumping a keg of mediocre beer that your friends don't want to drink into your club pool isn't what it should be about!  It doesn't have to be rare or expensive but I think this event deserves our best efforts. 
/soapbox

[sapperbrew]

on the subject of Club Night, I know it is a lot of people's favorite event and I can see why.  However I find the quality to be very hit and miss and have preferred Pro Night for years.  Please, dumping a keg of mediocre beer that your friends don't want to drink into your club pool isn't what it should be about!  It doesn't have to be rare or expensive but I think this event deserves our best efforts. 
/soapbox
[/quote]
This is one thing we are paying attention to. We plan to do a little vetting of beer prior to bringing beers. Luckily, the members that are participating aren't generally the type to pass off crappy beer at an event like this.

[Schemy]

on the subject of Club Night, I know it is a lot of people's favorite event and I can see why.  However I find the quality to be very hit and miss and have preferred Pro Night for years.  Please, dumping a keg of mediocre beer that your friends don't want to drink into your club pool isn't what it should be about!  It doesn't have to be rare or expensive but I think this event deserves our best efforts. 
/soapbox

This is one thing we are paying attention to. We plan to do a little vetting of beer prior to bringing beers. Luckily, the members that are participating aren't generally the type to pass off crappy beer at an event like this.
[/quote]

We'll see.  What club should we all be looking for?

[dsmitch19]

last year I brought 10 ciders and 4 meads; since we're in the land of 10,000 Mead Makers Of the Year I expect that will be reversed.  I've got beer and will bring a little but I'll mostly let the rest of KCBM handle that.  (and yes, the KC Bier Meisters will have a booth)

on the subject of Club Night, I know it is a lot of people's favorite event and I can see why.  However I find the quality to be very hit and miss and have preferred Pro Night for years.  Please, dumping a keg of mediocre beer that your friends don't want to drink into your club pool isn't what it should be about!  It doesn't have to be rare or expensive but I think this event deserves our best efforts. 
/soapbox

Yes. Dump buckets are your friend.

For the OP: Enjoy the craziness! Make sure members take shifts so everyone can walk around and experience other clubs. There are a ton of booths, so some kind of interesting theme, costumes, gimmick can entice people to stop by. It's when they come back for a second or third sample when you are doing it right. Some clubs just have the name recognition, regardless of theme. Take notes for ideas you can make your own in future years. Drink water.

[sapperbrew]

We'll see.  What club should we all be looking for?

Homebrewers Local 402 out of Omaha, NE

[sapperbrew]

For the OP: Enjoy the craziness! Make sure members take shifts so everyone can walk around and experience other clubs. There are a ton of booths, so some kind of interesting theme, costumes, gimmick can entice people to stop by. It's when they come back for a second or third sample when you are doing it right. Some clubs just have the name recognition, regardless of theme. Take notes for ideas you can make your own in future years. Drink water.

Water? Never heard of her...

I started carrying a Camelbak to beer fests...I tend to feel a lot better the next morning when I do.

[Schemy]

We'll see.  What club should we all be looking for?

Homebrewers Local 402 out of Omaha, NE

Hey, that's the club I'm in.

[toby]

on the subject of Club Night, I know it is a lot of people's favorite event and I can see why.  However I find the quality to be very hit and miss and have preferred Pro Night for years.  Please, dumping a keg of mediocre beer that your friends don't want to drink into your club pool isn't what it should be about!  It doesn't have to be rare or expensive but I think this event deserves our best efforts. 
/soapbox

I tend to be pretty selective for club night for that reason. I also make liberal use of the dump buckets when necessary.

[sapperbrew]

I tend to be pretty selective for club night for that reason. I also make liberal use of the dump buckets when necessary.

As you should. I would think most homebrewers are aware that not everyone is going to enjoy their beer. When we were able to serve at commercial beer fests in Nebraska, you could tell people wouldn't like some of the beer they tried and were, at times, shocked when you offered to dump their glass for them.

If you aren't okay with people dumping your beer, you probably shouldn't be serving to the public...just my opinion though.

[Schemy]

So yes Sapper and I are in the same club.  I was giving snarky remarks to try to prove the point the ultimately the quality of the beer will win out.  He and I are on the same page, but there are those in our club that have gotten scared that we don't have a good enough gimmick and we won't see a lot of traffic at our booth.  Honestly, I think we'll be fine and we are worrying about things that won't matter. We need to focus on bringing quality beer to Club Night and hit it out of the park. 

As far as dump buckets, yes they should be utilized.  Water should be consumed. And fun should be had. 

See you guys at Club Night.

[69franx]

As politely as I can say it, So glad to find out that you are in the same club and you were playing to the crowd. I thought you were another belligerent troll. Well played as it definitely piqued my interest in the thread.

Sent from my XT1635-01 using Tapatalk
Edit to add: I almost posted this earlier when I found out you were in same club, just didn't want to come off as the troll

[Schemy]

As politely as I can say it, So glad to find out that you are in the same club and you were playing to the crowd. I thought you were another belligerent troll. Well played as it definitely piqued my interest in the thread.

Sent from my XT1635-01 using Tapatalk
Edit to add: I almost posted this earlier when I found out you were in same club, just didn't want to come off as the troll

Oh that's ok.  I kind of figured I'd get some blow back from how I went at him. 

[smkranz]

There is nothing at all wrong with simplicity at Club Night.  One year (in Philly) we did a fairly ornate booth.  We had a great theme and it was an artistic success.  But it was also a h.u.g.e. pain in the rear to set up.  And then there was the break-down part.  Never again.  (It didn't help that the convention center in Philly seemed like it was a mile-long hike back to our rooms.)  That part was almost as fun as filling out I.R.S. forms (we don't do that, either).

My personal m.o. as a Club Night consumer, is to taste anything that sounds different, or if someone tells me they tasted a great beer at a particular booth.  Rarely have I been disappointed.

On pre-screening beers before going, we have never done that.  Someone in our club wants to serve a beer to the country, I trust their judgment, and no one around here wants hurt feelings if someone thinks another member's beer is unworthy.  The only thing we have done is to try to avoid having duplicates of the same style.

[ethinson]

last year I brought 10 ciders and 4 meads; since we're in the land of 10,000 Mead Makers Of the Year I expect that will be reversed.  I've got beer and will bring a little but I'll mostly let the rest of KCBM handle that.  (and yes, the KC Bier Meisters will have a booth)

on the subject of Club Night, I know it is a lot of people's favorite event and I can see why.  However I find the quality to be very hit and miss and have preferred Pro Night for years.  Please, dumping a keg of mediocre beer that your friends don't want to drink into your club pool isn't what it should be about!  It doesn't have to be rare or expensive but I think this event deserves our best efforts. 
/soapbox

Yes. Dump buckets are your friend.

For the OP: Enjoy the craziness! Make sure members take shifts so everyone can walk around and experience other clubs. There are a ton of booths, so some kind of interesting theme, costumes, gimmick can entice people to stop by. It's when they come back for a second or third sample when you are doing it right. Some clubs just have the name recognition, regardless of theme. Take notes for ideas you can make your own in future years. Drink water.

I think quality will always be hit or miss with homebrew.  Hell, my own beer ranges from award winning to sink dump pretty frequently. I've only been to NHC once, in San Diego 3 years ago, and above and beyond the quality issues that could arise, one thing that really overwhelmed me with club night is that was when everyone, understandably so, pulled out their wildest and crazy thing to show it off.  Denny Conn's clam chowder saison anyone? I totally understand why people do that and I don't fault them, but there was a bunch of stuff there I just wasn't interested in.  Nothing against the guys that want to go crazy and inventive, hell that's what this hobby is all about, I'm just not gonna drink a blueberry bleu cheese brett sour.  I felt a little guilty for being more stoked about pro night, glad to hear I'm not the only one.

+1 to just have fun! Enjoy it and soak it in.  I was planning to go to Minneapolis this year but it just wasn't in the cards. 

[udubdawg]

so far KCBM is mostly bringing the stuff that advanced to the Finals in NHC.  And I mixed up a keg of the cider that won a medal last year.