The Falcons had a great presence at the 24th Southern California Homebrewers Festival on May 2, thanks to all those who donated kegs of homebrew and of course the valiant work of our barmeisters, Kevin Baranowski, Kent Fletcher, and Craig Frump (who brought the Beanie's Best bar as Richard "Beanie" Webster had some medical problems preventing his appearance). Thanks to all who helped and participated! It was good to see the fest up and running again after some legal problems in 2014 that led to a legislative campaign to amend the law to allow for the event to happen again -- an example of an executive agency's bureaucratic overreach that was successfully countered. Former Assemblyman Brian Nestande came by for a visit and was honored as the legislator who sponsored and carried the legislation for the California Homebrewers Association and the American Homebrewers Association.
There were great techincal presentations by Julian Shrago, brewmaster at Beechwood BBQ and Brewing (large brewpub brewmaster of the year and large brewpub of the year respectively, at the 2014 GABF) on Saison, and by notable homebrewing author John Palmer on brewing water (as essentially an extension course from his recent book on the same subject).
And the Maltose Falcons Brews Band, in its 25th year, rocked the fest to a close!
I'll review your comments posted here about suggested improvements to the fest, for CHA's consideration.
--Bruce Brode, CHA Board Chair
Comments
SCHF was a blast. But you definitely need to improve the Friday night pro-event and not have people in such a small space. It was like being trapped in a cage and could have been dangerous for so many people to be packed in with only one entrance out. I know you might not have expected so many people, but truly a poor design all in all. Safety first next time.
Also, the poor volunteers should have been provided with MUCH better lighting of Friday night so they could see people's names for the check-in (people were using their cell phone lighting to try to help the volunteers out) and signs for alphabetization should have been more visible. Many people got irritated that they got in the wrong line for their last name.