Mashing in Michigan – National Homebrewers Conference 2014

June 9, 2014 Blog, Homebrewing Leave a comment

How the last 12 months have flown by since we were at the National Homebrewers Conference (NHC) 2013 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, when during the Grand Banquet the following years event called ‘Mashing in Michigan’ was announced. Now with barely a week left we are getting ready to pack the car and head up to another quality craft beer city, namely Grand Rapids next to Lake Michigan in the west of the state.

During May 2013 we were fortunate enough to go on a brewery tour of Michigan and visit a number of well known Craft Breweries including:

Founders & Brewery Vivant – Grand Rapids
New Holland – Holland
Bell’s Brewing – Kalamazoo
Arbor Brewing & Jolly Pumpkin – Ann Arbor

Phil Gowling from Beer Infinity with 3 x Ninkasi winner Gordon Strong

Many of these breweries will be pouring their beers at this years event and I am sure that plenty of avid homebrewers will be popping along to visit some of these breweries whilst in Grand Rapids, the surrounding areas, and either en-route to or returning from the NHC event.

This year’s event will be held at DeVos Place in Grand Rapids on June 12-14, 2014 – the PDF flyer can be downloaded here. NHC 2013 saw around 3400 attendees so the capacity has been increased to around 4000 for NHC 2014 given both the popularity of the conference and also the rate of growth in membership to 43k and homebrewing in general thought to be around 1.2m within the USA.

Conference schedule

The agenda follows a similar format to previous years with some tweaks…

Wednesday June 11:

10:00am – 6:00pm : Attendee Check-In
3:00pm – 6:00pm : Homebrew Expo (Industry Only Session)

Thursday June 12:

8:00am – 6:00pm : Attendee Check-In
8:30am – 6:00pm : AHA National Homebrew Competition Final Round Judging
9:00am – 12:00pm : Industry Workshop
11:00am – 5:00pm : Homebrew Expo & Social Club
2:00pm – 5:00pm : Sponsored Demonstration from LaMotte Company featuring John Palmer
2:00pm – 5:30pm : Seminars
5:30pm – 7:30pm : Welcome Reception & Toast
6:30pm – 9:00pm : Attendee Check-In
3:00pm – 3:30pm : Book Signing by Michael Tonsmeire
3:45pm – 4:14pm : Book Signing by Colin Kaminski & John Palmer
3:00pm – 3:30pm : Book Signing by Mike Karnowski

Friday June 13:

8:30am – 3:30pm : Attendee Check-In
9:00am – 3:00pm : Seminars
11:00am – 5:00pm : Homebrew Expo & Social Club
11:00am – 5:00pm : Sponsored Demonstration by Spiegelau – The Beer Connoisseur Tasting Seminar
4:15pm – 5:00pm : Keynote Address
5:00pm – 6:00pm : AHA Members Meeting
7:30pm – 11:00pm : Club Night
10:30pm – 12:00am : Social Club
10:00am – 10:30am : Book Signing by Stan Hieronymus
11:15am – 11:45am : Book Signing by Mitch Steele, Chris White & Jamil Zainasheff
11:45am – 12:15pm : Book Signing by Ron Pattinson
1:45pm – 2:15pm : Book Signing by Ray Daniels & John Palmer
2:30pm – 3:30pm : Book Signing by Ian Coutts
3:00pm – 3:30pm : Book Signing by Charlie Papazian

Saturday June 14:

8:30am – 3:30pm : Attendee Check-In
9:00am – 3:00pm : Seminars
10:00am – 3:30pm : Homebrew Expo & Social Club
11:00am – 5:00pm : Sponsored Demonstration by FastRack Speed Challenge Championship
4:30pm – 5:30pm : BJCP Members Meeting
7:00pm – 8:00pm : Attendee Check-In
7:30pm – 10:30pm : Grand Banquet & National Homebrew Competition Award Ceremony
10:00pm – 12:00am : Social Club
10:00am – 10:30am : Book Signing by Michael Tonsmeire & Ken Schramm
3:00pm – 3:30pm : Book Signing by Gordon Strong & Randy Mosher

Note: The main change from last year is that there is no Pro-Night on the Thursday evening, instead local breweries will be pouring in the Social Club alongside the usual Homebrew clubs. The Brewing Network will also be holding their Anniversary Party from 8:00pm – 11:00pm so check their website out for details.

Further information

A list of Seminars can be found here.
Details on the 2014 Speakers can be found here.
The First Time Attendee Guide can be found here.

Whilst at NHC 2014 we will be attending a number of the Seminars, visiting Homebrew Suppliers to check out their latest offerings, going to Club Night, sampling the delights of the Grand Banquet, and frequenting the Social Club so stop us and say hello.

If you are attending NHC 2014 please let us know in the comments below and tell us what your are looking forward to most. Following the event we will be posting a write-up in our Blog.

Enjoy Mashing in Michigan at the National Homebrew Conference 2014.