What is Wild Yeast, Where is It, and How do you Brew With It?
What makes a yeast truly wild? What is Brettanomyces, and are all beers with Brett actually wild? Where are the best places to find different types of wild yeast? Based on the latest research from Bootleg Biology, we'll discuss how to classify different types of brewing microbes, where they actually…
What’s New In The How To Brew
Homebrew Con Baltimore features over 90 speakers, and more than 60 seminars for your brewing enjoyment. When the presenters of “Don’t Fear the Fungus…” had to unfortunately withdraw shortly before the conference – we were thrilled to hear that John was willing to step in and offer his brewing know-how…
Wild Alaska, Wild Ingredients
Alaskan Brewing co-founder Geoff Larson shares tips and tales from using local and unique ingredients in the brewing process. The seminar will cover selecting ingredients and the base beer, how flavors can manifest, and methods for adding non-traditional ingredients. Examples include spruce tips in Winter Ale, alder-smoked malt, berries, herbs,…
(Almost) Everything You Know About Brewing History Is Wrong
Modern brewers are inspired by the past to create their own interpretations of the classics. But what if it turns out a lot of our ideas about past beers are just not right? This is the case with far too many classic styles. Often, the truth is even more interesting…
2015 Keynote
2015 National Homebrewers Conference Keynote
A Contrast and Comparison of the Many Variations of India Pale Ale
A review of brewing techniques, ingredients and traditions related to the many styles of IPA, including historical IPA, English IPA, East Coast and West Coast American IPA, double/imperial IPA, black IPA, session IPA and more.
Avoiding a D-bomb: A Key to Understanding Diacetyl
Diacetyl is one of the more common off flavors seen in beer. Learn what causes diacetyl, how to avoid it and what it actually tastes like.
Beer Clarity, In Depth
This seminar will provide an in-depth look at beer clarity, including measuring clarity, potential causes of clarity issues and ingredients and processes to minimize haze in your beer. It also will address the most common causes of haze including tannins and polyphenols, ingredient selection, chill haze and more. Brad will…
Berliner and Beyond: Sour Mashing and Its Applications
Interest in sour beers has never been higher, but to many the idea of making their own sour beer seems like an impossible dream. But what if there were a fast, easy method to get active making sours? Sour mashing is an intermediate-level technique for any beer that would benefit…
Best Practices in Homebrew Retail
Our speakers—representatives from major homebrew wholesale companies—will highlight what it takes to make a great shop.
Blurring the Style Guidelines: Brewing Great, Mixed-Style Beers
Style guidelines provide excellent definitions of world-aclaimed beer types. However, they are only guidelines and the creative brewer can break free to create unique beers that don’t necessarily fall into a single style category.
Brewing Session Beer
Session beers have been gaining popularity over the last several years, especially now that many breweries are making session IPAs. Andrew will discuss traditional session ale styles, newer and less common styles, and recipe and process considerations to take into account when writing recipes and brewing beers with lower alcohol…
Brewing with Coffee: Approaches & Techniques from Dry-Beaning to Home Roasting
Do you dream of making a coffee beer that really stands out from the pack? Jacob McKean, Amy Krone and Michael Tonsmeire will provide an overview of their years of experiments with coffee beers at both the homebrewing and professional levels. They’ll delve into how coffee origins and roast profiles…
Brewing With Experimental Hops: A New Hop Variety Just For Homebrewers
Until now, all experimental hop varieties have been tested and run through the craft beer industry first. For the first time a new hop has been bred and developed for homebrewers. Jason Perrault of the Hop Breeding Company and Perrault Farms, Karl Vanevenhoven of Yakima Chief-Hopunion, and Vinnie Cilurzo of…
Bridging the Gender Gap: Women
Women may be the minority in homebrewing, but the number of females enjoying craft beer is growing. Find out what efforts are being made by homebrew clubs to increase their female membership. Learn how the AHA diversity subcommittee is working to bridge the gender gap and encourage more women to…
Bringing the Brewery Home
Scaling and cloning recipes is challenging, whether trying to clone your favorite craft brew or taking your favorite homebrew from five gallons to 50 barrels. Warren and Jason will discuss recipe scaling and method and equipment use in the process. Raw ingredients, brewing method, fermentation control and packaging will be…
Confessions of a Celebrity Hop Variety: How Did I End Up Beer?
The odds of creating a wildly successful new hop variety are one in several million (so we’re saying there’s a chance…), but every once in a while, we hit a home run. This is the story of a hop variety that was developed over a 10-year period to capture a…
Continuing the Revolution: Taking Your Cider Making To The Next Level
Expand your cider making possibilities by working with fresh fruit. Learn how to press your own juices using easily available equipment. Find out what fruits work best and where to get them.
Crafting Cellarworthy Beers
An in-depth look at how to design and brew beers that have the makeup to improve and mature over years in the cellar. Optimal beer styles for cellaring will be reviewed, along with expectations and recommended time frames.
Czech Lagers: History, Brewing, Judging
In this seminar, Bob Hall and Randy Scorby will describe the four “new” Czech styles in the BJCP style guidelines. Czech lagers are more diverse than simply pilsners and range from delicate light lagers to malty and intense dark lagers. Bob and Randy will describe the history of these beers,…
Does Your Fermenter Affect Your Beer?
A commercial recipe was brewed and then split between an array of fermeters to see if the choice of fermeter had any effect on the finished beer. Plastic buckets, glass carboys, corny kegs and small SS conicals are compared to the 15 barrel SS commercial unitank the beer is normally…
Fermenting Mead with Ale Yeasts
Most mead makers use wine yeasts when fermenting mead. Frank Golbeck and Maurey Fletcher from Golden Coast Mead will detail their experience fermenting mead with ale yeast. Golden Coast Mead uses ale yeast in their four major market mead varieties sold in more than 200 retail locations. They find many…
From 5 to 5,000 Gallons: What to Look for in a Brewery Space
Brewers spend significant resources developing their passion for their craft but often overlook the building and engineering infrastructure that supports them. One may have the best designed brewery system, but poor space planning and a building lacking the necessary utilities can lead to significant downtime, loss of productivity and unhappy…
Hands-On Activities to Help You Master Beer Styles
Just reading about beer styles won’t help you remember them next time you sit down to judge. Really mastering BCJP styles requires hands-on activities to cement your knowledge. Ray Daniels started learning about beer styles more than 25 years ago and today spends a good deal of his time teaching…
Homebrew Club Insurance Program
This seminar provides an overview of the AHA-endorsed homebrew club insurance program. Homebrew club and individual club member’s liability exposures and risks will be discussed. Participants will also learn about appropirate risk transfer procedures to mitigate insurance exposures for their clubs and members.
Homebrew Toxicology: Debunking the Hidden Dangers of Chemicals in Your Brew System
Discussion boards have many active threads warning homebrewers of the hidden dangers of chemicals introduced into their homebrew through plastics, metals and other means. Unfortunately, much of this information is based more on Internet lore more than scientific evidence, and in many cases leads well-meaning homebrewers to invest in costly…
Hops: Grow and Enjoy Your Own
Grow, harvest, brew, drink, repeat! Backyard hops are increasingly common and homebrewers should join in. Practical guidelines will give seminar attendess the opportunity to grow and enjoy their own fresh hops.
Hosting Cask Ale Events
Homebrewers are already experts in making real ale. Take the next step and cask condition the beer! This serving method from the English tradition is a unique way to present your beer, especially when you’re planning on serving an entire keg anyway. Taking care of cask conditioned beer is a…
How to Brew, Blend and Maintain an Acid Beer
Acid beer is an important component for blending sour beers as well as adding complexity to other beer styles. To brew acid beer on the homebrew scale, it’s important to have a practical knowledge base of lactobacillius fermentation and best practices for controlling the environment for optimal results. Samples of…
In Pursuit of Perfection: Hefeweizen Project
This seminar will cover the process of how to eliminate an off flavor in hefeweizens. Processes covered include yeast trial (side by side comparison of four hefe yeast strains on a single batch of beer); grain trial (side by side mashing of six different base malts); and pitch rate and…
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