The seminar was an hour long, but went by in what seemed like minutes. Other beers, such as Porters and Stouts, were also being shipped to India. While it was massively hopped, most of that hop character that we love today would have faded in the aged October Beer as it was originally called. In reality, the beer that was being sent was a big barley wine like amber ale that would be aged for two years or more and was popular in England prior to ever being shipped to India. For example, the IPA myth states that the English made highly hopped beer to send to India with high amounts of hops intended to help preserve the beer. People are story tellers and in a vacuum of knowledge, they will make things up. I thought that I had a decent understanding of beer history, but what I really had was a decent understanding of beer myths. Mosher literally has books worth of knowledge to share and has been writing about brewing and beer since 1989. Seminar: (Almost) Everything You Know About Beer History is Wrong – Randy Mosher. This was one of the few homebrews that I felt the need to have seconds of. Fruity sweetness dominated and was set against a supportive malt character. The Mango IIPA had aroma reminiscent of opening a bag of gummy worms. It was not until I got home that I learned that this brewer had won last year’s Ninkasi award for the most awards won in the National Homebrew Competition. However, there was one brew that made me take note a Mango IIPA brewed by Jeremy Voeltz of the Arizona Society of Homebrewers. The homebrew clubs that were represented changed daily. There were three stations, each pouring a minimum of ten homebrews. Long communal tables, covered with checkered table clothes, set the scene for many conversations with other homebrewers. Walking through the homebrew side led one to the Social Club, which was where the homebrew was pouring. The commercial side had Stone, Ballast Point, Green Flash, Coronado, Bells and Samuel Adams to name a few. When it came to brews being poured, the Homebrew Expo and Social Club was split in half, with a very obvious line between the homebrew side and the commercial side. I ended up buying my BeerSmith from Brad Smith (I should have had him sign it).
My partner in conference was standing at the BeerSmith booth talking with someone that I did not at first recognize and lo and behold, it was Brad Smith.
#Bjcp 2015 beersmith software#
I had been on the fence about buying a well-known piece of brew software called BeerSmith, but that changed when I got to meet the creator of said software, Brad Smith. There were too many booths for me to discuss in detail, but I will share a few of my highlights. As I strolled by the exhibitors, I would ooh at one then ah at the next. Walking through the doors we were greeted by booth after booth of brewing equipment and ingredient exhibitors. The first thing on our schedule was to hit up the Homebrew Expo and Social club.
Not once did I go to the bathroom without waiting in line and not once did I see a line for a woman’s restroom. The intake of so much liquid led to a phenomenon often found at male prevalent events, the “bathroom line role reversal”. We sampled 4 ounces at a time and quickly lost count, but we made sure to stay hydrated with plenty of water. I say “a lot of a little bit of beer", because this is not a beer drinking event, but a sampling event. The walk from our hotel to the conference was fueled by a hearty breakfast. The hearty breakfast was a necessary buffer due to the anticipation of the consumption of a lot of a little bit of beer. Day one: A palm tree lined freeway separated us from most direct route to the conference and therefore a stroll past hotel after hotel after hotel was necessary.