Over the last several months, Fred Bonjour, Chairman of the “Get the American Homebrewers Association National Homebrewers Conference (AHA NHC) here to Michigan!” effort, has been steadily obtaining support for a 2010 or 2011 AHA NHC to be held here in Michigan. Since the original proposal was submitted to the AHA last fall, several meetings with local fellow homebrewers have been held to build awareness of this effort, and get some preliminary ideas of how a Michigan based conference could be supported, and to identify volunteer resources.

The AHA’s Director, Gary Glass, is coming to Michigan visit potential conference sites provided by Fred in his proposal bid. Gary will be available on Friday, March 13th, at the Corner Brewery from 7:00-8:00PM in the lounge to discuss planning for a National Homebrewers Conference and to answer people’s questions. Additionally, Fred and his assistant chairman, Chris Frey, would like to get additional themes, topics and ideas from Michigan homebrewers for a potential local conference.

With AHA NHC conference attendance averaging 800+ members and growing, the support of the local homebrewing community is more critical than ever to make these events a success. Come and hear what some of the contributions local homebrewing clubs provide to successful Homebrewers conferences and be prepared to provide your input and ideas.

While this is not an AHA Rally, this is a gathering to show support for hosting an AHA NHC here in Michigan! Matt and René Greff, proprietors of the Corner Brewery, are Brewers Association members, and offer AHA members Happy Hour pricing at all times when you present your AHA Membership card. They have also waived their customary fee for reserving the Lounge portion of their facility to further show their support.

Additionally, afterwards, the Ann Arbor Brewers Guild will host their monthly meeting in the brewery area. Homebrew is not allowed in the public area of the Corner, so if you wish to enjoy and share homebrew, you are invited to join us, but please leave it in your vehicle until after the presentation and Q&A session is over and the AABG meeting has moved into the brewery area. Please check out www.aabg.org for meeting information.

Finally, as (hopefully) an added incentive, I will be serving three kegs of a quasi-Dragonmead Final Absolution triple clone, where I did an experiment in aeration. One batch received 5 minutes of pure oxygen through an air stone just prior to pitching the yeast, the next received five minutes of air from an aquarium pump through an air stone for five minutes and the third was shaken 50 times  to receive its aeration. I will have 3×5 index cards for people to share any perceived differences between these three kegs, as well as their guess as to which keg was provided which aeration method. After I have collected peoples responses, I will then share the actual treatment and final gravity for each keg.

Please consider joining us on Friday, March 13th at the Corner Brewery from 7:00-8:00PM to show Gary Glass our support for hosting a National Homebrewers Conference in Michigan. Then share a collective meeting with fellow Michigan Homebrewers in the brewery area. I encourage you to share this invitation with other Michigan homebrewers!

P.S. – Fred is also holding a similar support gathering with Gary Glass the evening before (Thursday, March 12th) at Founders in Grand Rapids (without the homebrew club meeting afterwards). If this works out better for you, feel free to contact Fred directly at nhcmichigan@beerdujour.com for additional details.

Cheers
Chris P. Frey
American Homebrewers Association
Chairman – Governing Committee
Treasurer – AABG
Member – Fermental Order of Renaissance Draughtsmen
Friend of homebrewers everywhere 😉

Categories: meetingsNews

0 Comments

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.