The Beers of NHC!

The National Homebrewers Conference is less than a week away and it just can’t come fast enough for me.  I’ve never attended the conference before and from what I hear, it’s the event of the year for anyone who geeks out on all things homebrew.  My club (The Homebrewers Guildof Seattle Proper) and I have been preparing for it since about February of 2011 when we started our sour barrel project and since then, we’ve been brewing up a slew of beers that we’re all excited to share with the conference attendees.  Out of the 45 kegs of beer that we’ll be bringing, here are a few highlights:

• Opacity – A collaboration Russian Imperial Stout brewed with Naked City and aged in a Woodinville Whiskey Co barrel (Pro-Night and Club Night).
• We’ll also have a homebrewed clone that was aged in one of the 8-gallon Woodinville Whiskey barrels that they sell to homebrewers (Club Night).

• Amalgamation Autonomous - An American wild ale aged in a Marsanne white wine barrel that can be had along side the same beer that was aged in a stainless corny (Club Night).  

• GABF Pro-Am Series – A number of brewers in our club have been selected by breweries for the GABF Pro-Am competitions and we’ll showcase 4 of them during our 1^st hospitality suite shift.

• Fountain of Younger Series – 4 brewers, using different recipes, all took a shot at cloning Pliny the Younger (Club Night).

• 7 out of the 15 beers that made it onto the 2^nd round of the National Homebrew Competition will be served throughout the conference.

Although there are only 8 active members in our club, we’ve all been extremely active and focused on NHC.  Because of the copious amounts of beer we’ve brewed, we were allocated two hospitality suite shifts as well as two taps during the Best of WAHA shift after the awards ceremony.  Here’s where you can find us along with my personal beers that will be served at each event:

Pro-Night – Be sure to stop by Naked City’s booth and sample our Naked City collaboration brew, Opacity.  Don mentioned that it’s the best stout he’s ever brewed and we all agreed that it turned out amazingly well.

Hospitality Suite shift #1 – Right after Pro-Night: Thursday from 11pm to 2am

• Polecat Porter – The latest rebrew of my Pro-Am winning Baltic Porter.  
• Leon Phelp’s Chocolate Query – My chocolate rye lager.

Hospitality Suite shift #2 – Friday from 4:30pm to 6:30pm

• Paroxysm – Honey Rye Brett Beer (100% Brett Fermented).
• My Yammy Spice – My latest Autumn Maple derivative…aged on oak with rum and maple syrup.
• Old Clubfoot – A comparatively low ABV eisbock. 

Club Night – Friday from 8pm to 11:30pm – Just look for our logo…you won’t miss us.

•  The Polar Vortex – My eised version of my first Polecat Porter re-brew.
• Mattæus – My Hair of the Dog Matt clone.
• Amalgamation Autonomous – Our club sour barrel project.

Best of WAHA Hospitality Suite – Saturday after the awards ceremony.

•   Eight the Baby! – The 8 members of our club contributed a portion of beer and communally came up with a blend that is complex with hints of roast, bourbon, vanilla, dark fruit and rich caramel..  About 7% of the final blend is myBlack Tuesday inspired Russian Imperial Stout.

You can see the full list of beers that everyone is bringing to all the events by clicking here.