Welcome to the 2012 AHA National Homebrewers Conference!

• Speaker(s):
• Gary Glass
• Mark Emiley
• Senator Ken Jacobsen
• Tom Schmidlin

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1:30 pm - 3:30 pm Michigan Coalition of Homebrewers Brewing Network 3:30 pm - 5:00 pm Cascade Brewer’s Guild LOADED Visit the Hospitality Suite to sample homebrews from local and out-of-state homebrewing clubs as well as meet fellow homebrewers from across the country. Homebrew clubs take turns hosting the suite and serving club beers. The Exhibitor Hospitality More »

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Interactive Seminar Schedule 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm Brewing Techniques for Historical IPA Mitch Steele Grand Ballroom (A-D) 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm Brew in a Bag Brad Smith Grand Ballroom (E-G) 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm Brewgyvering Your Brew Day Kent Fletcher Grand Ballroom (H-K) 3:15 pm - 4:15 pm Exploring Fermentation Attenuation Greg Doss Grand Ballroom (A-D) 3:15 pm - 4:15 pm Thank You; More »

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A discussion of the brew in a bag brewing method, its advantages and how to use it to brew all-grain beer.

• Speaker(s):
• Brad Smith

Kent discusses how to build gadgets to make your brew day easier and serving your brew more fun! This talk covers automatic HLT temp control, the easy way to mash in big batches without help, brew rig frame construction, continuous hop feeding, making a Randall, and more!

• Speaker(s):
• Kent Fletcher

India Pale Ale has gone through several stylistic revisions in its 250 years of existence. In this presentation, a brief summary of the history of IPA will be reviewed, along with two complete recipes taken from brewlogs from the 1800s and one more recent recipe. The recipes will be compared More »

• Speaker(s):
• Mitch Steele

Coming out to the National Conference this year in Seattle? Why don’t you give our Hop Stoopid recipe a go?? Brew a batch and see how it turns out. Then bring a bottle of your finished product to the conference and join us in our suite. We’ll have OUR version More »

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Jennifer will explore the growing popularity of session beers and why they are a perfect fit for the craft industry. In addition, the differing ways to tackle a session beer recipe will be discussed, including the malt bill, mash profile, hopping and more.

• Speaker(s):
• Jennifer Talley

Presently, there is incomplete information regarding fermentation attenuation. This talk will identify and discuss the factors involved in how well a beer will attenuate as well as explore the development of a predictive model for calculating terminal density.

• Speaker(s):
• Greg Doss

What if your brewing system could provide instant, on-demand hot liquor, precise, rapid step mashing and responsive boil control with no more boil-overs? Using diagrams, schematics and photos of an operating electric brewing system, Joe will walk you through (or talk you out of) the process of building a safe More »

• Speaker(s):
• Joe Rovito

Do I need a starter? Am I growing new yeast? Can I freeze yeast? Are vials really pitchable? Isn’t the rule of thumb for pitch rates 1 million cells/ml/P? Is there anything wrong with overpitching? What is the origin of some yeast strains? Want to know the real answers to More »

• Speaker(s):
• Neva Parker

Berliner Weisse can be a tough beer to produce. This presentation will cover the process the speakers have examined over the years and also provide a practical description of how they brewed and fermented this beer at a 7 bbl brewery.

• Speaker(s):
• Jason Kahler
• Jess Caudill

Recipe formulation creates many opportunities for creativity-and many distractions from your goals. This seminar will discuss ways to pursue recipe formulation so that you both learn and create beers that are satisfying and enjoyable to drink. Along the way, we’ll talk about the basic tasks of recipe formulation in a More »

• Speaker(s):
• Ray Daniels

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Pro-Brewers Night offers attendees a private beer festival within the conference with 1800 of their closest homebrewing friends, clubmates, and professional brewers from across the country. This year, there’s a pro-am competition taking place. Just to add to the fun! 2012 Participating Breweries Alaskan Brewing Co. American Brewing Co. Anacortes Brewery/Rockfish Grill Bainbridge Island Brewing BJ’s More »

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11:00 pm - 1:45 am Homebrewers Guild of Seattle Proper (HGSP) Beer Renegades of Everett, WA (BREW)  

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Daytime 8:30 AM - 3:30 PM

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Join author Gordon Strong as he discusses how to apply favorite reader tips from Brewing Better Beer. Understand the decisions and reasoning used to create two new all-grain recipes. Learn the approach, not just the recipes, as you see how your target beer preferences affect the decisions you make throughout More »

• Speaker(s):
• Gordon Strong

Warren will walk participants through the simple philosophies needed to make your next beer and food pairing affair a resounding success. He

• Speaker(s):
• Warren Peterson

Jennifer will explore the growing popularity of session beers and why they are a perfect fit for the craft industry. In addition, the differing ways to tackle a session beer recipe will be discussed, including the malt bill, mash profile, hopping and more.

• Speaker(s):
• Jennifer Talley

Interactive Seminar Schedule 9:00 am - 10:00 am Brewing Better Beer: Practical Applications Gordon Strong Grand Ballroom (A-D) 9:00 am - 10:00 am Thank You; I’ll Have Another Jennifer Talley Grand Ballroom (E-G) 9:00 am - 10:00 am Plan Your Beer and Food Event: Minimal Effort, Maximum Impact Warren Peterson Grand Ballroom (H-K) 10:15 am - 11:15 am Brewing Techniques for Historical More »

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10:00 am - 12:00 pm Fraternal Order of Wayward Brewers South Sound Suds Society / Good Libations 12:00 pm - 2:00 pm WAHA Cascade Brewers Society of Eugene 3:00 pm - 5:00 pm Strange Brew Homebrew Club Worts of Wisdom Visit the Hospitality Suite to sample homebrews from local and out-of-state homebrewing clubs as well as meet fellow More »

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• Speaker(s):
• Gordon Strong

Dick Cantwell presents a short overview of planning and creating a brewpub or a production brewery. Key elements will be addressed in the primary presentation, followed by a panel discussion with four guest panelists. Attendees will have an opportunity to ask questions, hear the unique experiences each panelist had with More »

• Speaker(s):
• Beaux Bowman
• Dick Cantwell
• Erin Glass
• Jamil Zainasheff
• Jeff Althouse

India Pale Ale has gone through several stylistic revisions in its 250 years of existence. In this presentation, a brief summary of the history of IPA will be reviewed, along with two complete recipes taken from brewlogs from the 1800s and one more recent recipe. The recipes will be compared More »

• Speaker(s):
• Mitch Steele

What are fresh hop beers and how can they be brewed? Jamie will discuss the many aspects of this under-researched topic, how to use fresh hops, what to look for, preparing for the brew day and many other topics related to this wonderful annual tradition.

• Speaker(s):
• Jamie Floyd

A marriage that does come with a manual-how to pair mead and cheese. This seminar will break it down in styles; quickie guide, odd couples, some like it hot!

• Speaker(s):
• Berniece Van Der Berg

Dick Cantwell presents a short overview of planning and creating a brewpub or a production brewery. Key elements will be addressed in the primary presentation, followed by a panel discussion with four guest speakers. Attendees will have an opportunity to ask questions, hear the unique experiences each panelist had with More »

• Speaker(s):
• Beaux Bowman
• Dick Cantwell
• Erin Glass
• Jamil Zainasheff
• Jeff Althouse

What if your brewing system could provide instant, on-demand hot liquor, precise, rapid step mashing and responsive boil control with no more boil-overs? Using diagrams, schematics and photos of an operating electric brewing system, Joe will walk you through (or talk you out of) the process of building a safe More »

• Speaker(s):
• Joe Rovito

• Speaker(s):
• Jamil Zainasheff

• Speaker(s):
• Dick Cantwell

• Speaker(s):
• Charles Finkel

• Speaker(s):
• Charlie Papazian

• Speaker(s):
• Stan Hieronymus

The cider renaissance is directly related to the beer industry’s phenomenal growth. Beer drinkers and brewers that are discovering cider. Ron Irvine, lecturer and cidermaker, teams up with cider maker and consultant Drew Zimmerman to explain the role of cider apples in producing traditional cider.

• Speaker(s):
• Drew Zimmerman
• Ron Irvine

Russell Schehrer, a former AHA Homebrewer of the Year and the man the Brewers Association Award for Brewing Innovation is named after, used a grand total of five different hop varieties the first year after Wynkoop Brewing opened in 1988. Today, the list of new varieties reads like the NATO More »

• Speaker(s):
• Stan Hieronymus

Homebrewers today are lucky! We’re awash in a sea of ingredients, making recipe design a tough battle between ingredients we know and trust and new shiny toys. Sometimes we even give in to our neophilic lust and throw it all in the mix. But it doesn’t have to be that More »

• Speaker(s):
• Drew Beechum

4:00 pm - 6:00 pm HGSP WAHA Single Hop Series

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Brewing With Fruit Aaron Fabbri, The Homebrew Exchange owner, shares his tips and tricks for brewing with fruit. The Mad Zymergist - The Whats, Whys and Hows of Conducting Homebrew Experiments Zot O’Connor, from the Mt. Si Brewing Society, will show you how to apply the Scientific Method to your own home brew More »

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Club Night is “The Party” not to be missed! Where else can you hang out with 1600 of your closest homebrewing friends? The AHA National Homebrewers Conference Club Night has a history of clubs serving some of their finest beers to our amazing community of homebrewers.

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11:00 pm - 1:45 am Greater Everett Brewers League (GEBL) Whidbey Island Zymurgy Assn (WIZA)  

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Interactive Seminar Schedule 9:00 am - 10:00 am Mead Excellence Michael Fairbrother Grand Ballroom (A-D) 9:00 am - 10:00 am Beer in the USSR Alistair Kocho-Willi ams Grand Ballroom (E-G) 9:00 am - 10:00 am Specialty Malts Robert Seggewiss Grand Ballroom (H-K) 10:15 am - 11:15 am Fermentation Mythbusters Neva Parker Grand Ballroom (A-D) 10:15 am - 11:15 am Brew in a Bag Brad Smith Grand Ballroom (E-G) 10:15 More »

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Discover home mead-making tips for excellence, how to choose and use ingredients, yeast varieties and their impact, fermentation techniques and the basics from a professional’s point of view.

• Speaker(s):
• Michael Fairbrother

Ali will take you on a journey from a small number of early, surprising and distinct styles in the 1920s and 1930s to a Cold War Era replete with beer (some of which survives today) with influences from across Europe but adapted to the Soviet Union, complete with well-defined style More »

• Speaker(s):
• Alistair Kocho-Williams

Robert will discuss the many types of specialty malts currently available while focusing on how homebrewerers can use them to enhance their beer.

• Speaker(s):
• Robert Seggewiss

10:00 am - 12:00 pm North Seattle Homebrewers Rock Hoppers Mad Zymurgists 12:00 pm - 2:00 pm Mount Si Brewing Society Emerald City Homebrewers Central Oregon Homebrewers Organization 2:00 pm - 3:30 pm Boeing (BEWBC) Impaling Alers Visit the Hospitality Suite to sample homebrews from local and out-of-state homebrewing clubs as well as meet fellow homebrewers from across the country. More »

• Speaker(s):

A discussion of the brew in a bag brewing method, its advantages and how to use it to brew all-grain beer.

• Speaker(s):
• Brad Smith

Homebrewing’s growth is affecting every aspect of the hobby, including your local homebrew club. This forum is less about talking to experts and more about helping everyone get a handle on how to make your club run and have a ton of fun. Come with your questions and ideas, and More »

• Speaker(s):
• Chris P. Frey
• Drew Beechum
• Nate Muller
• Will Fredin

Do I need a starter? Am I growing new yeast? Can I freeze yeast? Are vials really pitchable? Isn’t the rule of thumb for pitch rates 1 million cells/ml/P? Is there anything wrong with overpitching? What is the origin of some yeast strains? Want to know the real answers to More »

• Speaker(s):
• Neva Parker

Kent discusses how to build gadgets to make your brew day easier and serving your brew more fun! This talk covers automatic HLT temp control, the easy way to mash in big batches without help, brew rig frame construction, continuous hop feeding, making a Randall, and more!

• Speaker(s):
• Kent Fletcher

In this seminar, Ted will explore the nuances of tasting beer, the wide range of perceivable flavors, how to taste and ways to improve your tasting ability.

• Speaker(s):
• Ted Hausotter

Recipe formulation creates many opportunities for creativity-and many distractions from your goals. This seminar will discuss ways to pursue recipe formulation so that you both learn and create beers that are satisfying and enjoyable to drink. Along the way, we’ll talk about the basic tasks of recipe formulation in a More »

• Speaker(s):
• Ray Daniels

• Speaker(s):
• Ray Daniels

Many people assume extract brewing is just a step on the path to all-grain brewing. Mark will convince you that it’s not. He will share simple techniques to brew world-class beer styles which are comparable to their all-grain counterparts. Mark uses simple, partial-mash recipes that anyone can brew in 2-½ More »

• Speaker(s):
• Mark Tanner

We enjoy fermented products because of the amazing depth of flavors they present, including many compounds that we can detect at parts per billion and less! Many homebrewers and BJCP judges reach a plateau in their ability to describe beer, relying on borrowed phrases and expectations rather than their own More »

• Speaker(s):
• Nicole Erny

Water: the final frontier. These are the questions of brewers everywhere. Our continuing mission: to explain this strange new world, to define best practices and new considerations, to boldly brew better than you have ever brewed before. John Palmer, co-author of the soon to be released Water - A Comprehensive More »

• Speaker(s):
• A.J. deLange
• Colin Kaminski
• John Palmer
• Martin Brungard

• Speaker(s):
• Charlie Papazian

• Speaker(s):
• Ray Daniels

• Speaker(s):
• Gordon Strong

• Speaker(s):
• John Palmer

• Speaker(s):
• Randy Mosher

• Speaker(s):
• Jamil Zainasheff

The basics of homebrewing lager beer will be discussed in this presentation. Topics covered will include wort production, fermentation, maturation, clarification, and helpful techniques.

• Speaker(s):
• Bryan Cardwell

The inspiration for unconventional brewing ingredients is everywhere, in ethnic markets, the newspaper and your own backyard. Dick will share some of the stories of the beers he has conceived at Elysian Brewing Co. and brainstorm a bit about what he

• Speaker(s):
• Dick Cantwell

Join America’s best and brightest homebrew experts as they get grilled with questions both silly and sublime related to bad beers, balky brewhouses, black bocks, bent burners, barley bugs and who knows what else. Come loaded with your own questions and enjoy learning from the experiences of others. Fun for More »

• Speaker(s):
• Gordon Strong
• Jamil Zainasheff
• John Palmer
• Randy Mosher
• Ray Daniels

4:00 pm - 6:00 pm Maltose Falcons Stilly Mashers Harry Potter  

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11:00 pm - 1:45 am Best of WAHA    

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