2019 National Homebrewers Conference

The 41st annual National Homebrewers Conference (aka HomebrewCon) was held on June 27-29, 2019 at the Rhode Island Convention Center in Providence.

Wednesday June 26. I rode up a day early with fellow CRABS members Rob and Trevor in order to hit some breweries along the way. It was a gorgeous sunny day, and not too hot out. The traffic near NYC sucked, especially around and on the George Washington Bridge. This was at midday, midweek; we could only imagine what it was like at rush hour.

First brewery of the day: New England Brewing Company in Woodbridge CT. It was a festive place. There were families and dogs. All the beers were well made. We sampled:


On the next leg I caught a nap in the back seat and before I knew it we were at Proclamation Ale Company in Warwick RI. We tried 6 hazy beers:


A half hour later we arrived in Providence. They dropped me off at the Hotel Providence, where I would be rooming with CRABSter Les, while they went over to the Omni Providence. After we checked into our respective hotels we caught shuttles from the Convention Center to a pre-conference event that was put on by Country Malt Group at a brewing co-op in Pawtucket called The Guild, which makes its own beers and also lends its space/equipment to 8 breweries who brew their beers there. We met 5 other CRABSters and collectively tried:

There were hundreds of people, a great band called Future Dads, and giveaways. There was a VIP area for industry people with free beer, so Chris, Mike, and Ed were allowed in since Chris owns Maryland Homebrew and Mike and Ed work there.


Afterward we caught shuttles back to Providence. The Maryland Homebrew folks had another event to attend. Trevor and I met Les, who had been visiting breweries throughout New England with two other Marylanders for the previous 4 days, at a restaurant called Black Sheep. We had some great wings with various flavorings and tried:


We left around midnight and crashed.


Thursday June 27. Slept pretty well -- almost 6 hours, which is a lot for me. Was it the beer? The wings? The roofie? Anyway, Les headed out early to judge at the final round of the National Homebrew Competition, which had 9189 entries this year, with 1327 advancing to the final round. I worked on this page for a while, then went to a couple of grocery stores to pick up some wraps, hummus, and bread to keep in the room. It was a nice sunny day. The streets of Providence are narrower than in Baltimore/DC, and less trafficky, making it pleasant to walk around.


After dropping the food off I walked over to Trinity Brewhouse, which wasn't open yet, and took a few photos of the exterior.


After that I headed to the Convention Center, checked into HomebrewCon, and spent several hours looking at the various brewing equipment and ingredients, drinking free beer, and stuffing my swag bag with about 4½ pounds of free hops. Of course, "free" is a loose term since each attendee pays hundreds of dollars to attend this event.


Melvin Brewing had a neat speaker case.


I went back to the room to nap and eat, then returned to HomebrewCon for the Kickoff Party, which featured beers from dozens of breweries. Here is what I sampled alphabetically by brewery name:

  1. Apponaug Berliner Weiss with Raspberries
  2. Apponaug Rosales Saison
  3. Arcpoint Fiddler's Green (wheat NEIPA)
  4. Baxter Stowaway (IPA)
  5. Beer on Earth Standing on the Shoulders of Giants
  6. Castle Island F*ck Brett (barrel-aged Brett saison)
  7. Connecticut Valley Sherwood
  8. Connecticut Valley Trailblazer
  9. Flying Dreams Syzygy (Belgian IPA)
  10. Foolproof Experiment #3 (IIPA)
  11. Galaxy Far Star (good barrel-aged sour)
  12. Galaxy Clouded Perception (NEIPA)
  13. Great North Hazy Rotation
  14. Grey Sail Chill Haze (NEIPA)
  15. Grey Sail Small Craft Advisory (NEIPA)
  16. Hog River All the Hops (sour IPA)
  17. Jersey Girl Rake Breaker (NEIPA)
  18. Kinsmen Dinoswords
  19. Kinsmen Illford (good whiskey-inspired sour ale)
  20. Lawson's Finest Liquids Triple Sunshine (there was a very long line for this)
  21. Lawson's Finest Liquids Scrag Mountain Pils
  22. Lawson's Finest Liquids Sip of Sunshine (DIPA)
  23. Lawson's Finest Liquids Maple Nipple (amber)
  24. Lord Hobo Hazy Boomsauce (DIPA)
  25. Lord Hobo Pilot Series Tart IPA
  26. Maine Another One (IPA)
  27. Maine Woods & Waters (IPA)
  28. Melvin Dream Domicile (NEIPA)
  29. New Holland Kombucha IPA
  30. Newport Annual '18 (English barleywine)
  31. Night Shift Whirlpool (hoppy lager)
  32. Night Shift Santilli (IPA)
  33. Proclamation Phantom Fist (sour IPA)
  34. Proclamation Derivative (pale ale)
  35. Samuel Adams Kettle Soured Farmhouse Ale
  36. Shovel Town Fly Away (NEIPA)
  37. Shovel Town Hoppy Kolsch
  38. Sierra Nevada Trip in the Woods (barrel-aged Bigfoot)
  39. Stony Creek Saison du Kos (Nordic saison) (collaboration with Yakima Chief, Briess, and Country Malt Group)
  40. Strange Cosmic Hash
  41. Strange Resting Sour Blue in the Face: Strawberry Rhubarb
  42. Strange Butterfly Dreams (saison)
  43. Taproot Brett Blanc
  44. Trillium Peach Super Duper Soak (nice sour ale)
  45. Trillium Blackberry Super Duper Soak (nice sour ale)
  46. Trillium Floppy Disk (IPA)
  47. Trillium Coconut PM Dawn (stout with cold-brewed coffee)
  48. Wallenpaupack Paupack Cream Ale
  49. Wallenpaupack Large Mouth IPA (good)
  50. Wallenpaupack Hawley Hefeweizen (good)
  51. Whalers Rise (pale ale)
  52. Whetstone Big Stoner (NEDIPA)
  53. White Labs Belgian Tripel (yeast company, not a brewery, but they do some brewing)
  54. Woodbury Collusion (IPA)
  55. Woodland Farms Blinky (IPA)
  56. Wormtown Birthday Brew Saison
  57. Wormtown Birthday Brew Barleywine
  58. Wormtown African Queen Bee Hoppy
  59. Wormtown Spies Like Us (imperial stout)
There were also a couple of meaderies:
  1. Moonlight Sweet Cherry Pie (18% ABV)
  2. Moonlight Importance (blueberry / black currant / black cherry mead aged in a port barrel)
  3. Spacetime Collaboration Raspberry Melomel (nice) (collaboration with Honey Hole Winery)
  4. Spacetime Coffee Mead (nice)
  5. Spacetime Dry Cider
  6. Spacetime S-Tea-S


Afterward a bunch of us hung out at Blake's Tavern til the wee hours.


Friday June 28. Mostly sunny and warmer than yesterday. Went to the Convention Center and walked around the trade show, picking up a couple of pounds of free hops. Vendors must have given away hundreds of pounds of hops throughout the weekend. Didn't take many photos since I'd taken plenty the day before.


Around mid-afternoon, Maryland folks, mostly CRABSters, poured 8 homebrews at Social Club.


After that I went back to my room for a much-needed nap, ate some food, and returned for Club Night. Dozens of clubs served beer at theme-decorated tables and wore creative costumes. The two groups representing Maryland were BADASS and Free State Homebrew Club Guild. Austin Zealots had 11 taps of barrel-aged sours. Rhode Island Brewing Society (RIBS) offered 54 different beers and meads, including a carrot mead, a garlic mead, a taco mead, a peppermint cocoa nib mead, a cotton candy mead, and a cherry cheesecake mead. I spent an entire hour at RIBS.

BADASS
Free State Homebrew Club Guild


Saturday June 29. Went to the trade show to get free stuff that vendors were giving away because it was the last day and they didn't want to lug it back home. Yakima Valley was selling 8-ounce cans of hops for only $5 each so I got a pound of Citra for $10. This brought my hops total to 8 pounds. Melvin Brewing had finalist homebrews from their Boil Rumble contest, in addition to some of their own beers.

Melvin Brewing.
Yakima Valley hops.


I dropped the loot in my room and returned for the Knockout Party, which featured leftover homebrews from the National Homebrew Contest, as well as food.


Afterwards, Les and I napped and then hosted a beer share in our room, where close to 20 of us shared dozens of craft brews.


Sunday June 30. The pack-up-and-ship-out. Rob and Trevor picked me up. Rob and I were in rough shape. It could have been the food at the Knockout Party. Or the 17 gazillion beers we had. Anyhoo, we made it back safely to Maryland. Another successful HomebrewCon in the books.