Brew Con London - A Home Brewing Conference and Expo

Members' meetings, Beer Festivals and the like - bung it on here. Old topics will be pruned after 3 months.
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Jocky
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Brew Con London - A Home Brewing Conference and Expo

Post by Jocky » Tue Jul 04, 2017 10:22 am

I've been thinking for a while that it would be good to see what a home brewing conference would be like in this country. I'm not the only one and an event has now got a kickstarter campaign going: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/71 ... escription

I've backed it, I hope others will too so it can be a success.
Last edited by Jocky on Tue Jul 04, 2017 1:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Crastney
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Re: Brew Con London - A Home Brewing Conference and Expo

Post by Crastney » Tue Jul 04, 2017 10:27 am

what, you mean a bit like The Home Brew Festival? been going for three years now.

bobsbeer

Re: Brew Con London - A Home Brewing Conference and Expo

Post by bobsbeer » Tue Jul 04, 2017 2:47 pm

I guess nobody reads posts. :roll: The Home Brew Festival has been going since 2015. They have had some great speakers and demos, Dr Keith Thomas from Brewlab, author and blogger Ron Pattinson, plus Grainfather and others, a fantastic competition, and by no means least, the sublime Malt Miller Bar where we had over 20 different home brews on tap. But I guess it was happening north of Watford Gap. :roll:

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Brew Con London - A Home Brewing Conference and Expo

Post by demig » Tue Jul 04, 2017 8:24 pm

To be fair though I live north of Newcastle and would actually find a London event easier myself. Train is quicker and faster and no need to take the car although transporting beer would be an issue with that approach! It's a sad reality of life that the transport in this country makes it easy to get to London from lots of places but other directions are not so easy.

I've thought of going but the drive puts me off as I spend so much time in the car the rest of the time. Letting "the train take the strain" is appealing.

I see your point though!




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Jocky
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Re: Brew Con London - A Home Brewing Conference and Expo

Post by Jocky » Tue Jul 04, 2017 8:30 pm

It's a fair comment - I've seen the posts about the home brew festival, and I certainly intend to go when I next can.

For me though I have been hoping for something more city based to make transport easier for everyone, and I think that Simon has a great vision of what this event will be.
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Re: Brew Con London - A Home Brewing Conference and Expo

Post by bobsbeer » Tue Jul 04, 2017 9:51 pm

Why is it that people from the south are unwilling to travel? I travel 4 hours to get to the festival and have a great time. Others come from Scotland. Yet people from London think it's too far. My heart bleeds. Sorry but all the people from the south that seem to think that it should be on their doorstep disgust me. What a totally selfish attitude.

I hope the Brew Con is a success, but not because it is in London. I hope it is a success because it will help our hobby. Any event that promotes our hobby has to be celebrated. It's the people that let it down. The Home Brew Festival was started as a national event to celebrate our hobby. Yet the very people who it was meant to help and promote let it down. Go figure.

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Dennis King
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Re: Brew Con London - A Home Brewing Conference and Expo

Post by Dennis King » Tue Jul 04, 2017 10:06 pm

Sorry Bob but I think you are a bit disingenuous there. There are plenty of us who travel from the south and like yourself encounter 4 hour journey's to get there. Other's come from the south west and probably travel further. Demig has stated he is north of Newcastle and is happy to travel further to London as there is good train connections compared to Market Bosworth that has no station.

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Brew Con London - A Home Brewing Conference and Expo

Post by demig » Tue Jul 04, 2017 10:13 pm

Dennis King wrote:Sorry Bob but I think you are a bit disingenuous there. There are plenty of us who travel from the south and like yourself encounter 4 hour journey's to get there. Other's come from the south west and probably travel further. Demig has stated he is north of Newcastle and is happy to travel further to London as there is good train connections compared to Market Bosworth that has no station.
Spot on Dennis, and if my brew buddy hadn't cleared off to Berlin we would have probably car shared down to the current one this year. I'd love to attend but I spend far too much time on the road during the week to want to do it at the weekend if I can avoid it. Birmingham for example would be a good central location and probably a lot of easier.

Any big city is easier to get to. Believe me I'm rather anti London, that's why I moved away 20 plus years ago just about as far north as I could get without hitting Scotland.

All that aside I take my hat off to the organisers of the current festival as lord knows it's a thankless task putting this kind event on.


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Jocky
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Re: Brew Con London - A Home Brewing Conference and Expo

Post by Jocky » Wed Jul 05, 2017 7:51 am

bobsbeer wrote:Why is it that people from the south are unwilling to travel? I travel 4 hours to get to the festival and have a great time. Others come from Scotland. Yet people from London think it's too far. My heart bleeds. Sorry but all the people from the south that seem to think that it should be on their doorstep disgust me. What a totally selfish attitude.

I hope the Brew Con is a success, but not because it is in London. I hope it is a success because it will help our hobby. Any event that promotes our hobby has to be celebrated. It's the people that let it down. The Home Brew Festival was started as a national event to celebrate our hobby. Yet the very people who it was meant to help and promote let it down. Go figure.
Where has anyone here said that they're not willing to travel beyond London?

Personally I said I'd like a city based event. Not just London.

I'd happily go to Newcastle or Glasgow - as it is I already travel to Manchester for a beer related event most years. Travel is simpler where consuming large amounts of alcohol is concerned, and there's things to do/facilities outside of the event that make a long weekend away worthwhile.
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Re: Brew Con London - A Home Brewing Conference and Expo

Post by jaroporter » Wed Jul 05, 2017 8:27 am

is this 'bout a homebrew event or the north-south divide.. :roll:

i'd actually really like another excuse to get back up to glasgow! i think being in a city, with alternative options and facilities would be a lot more appealing for some with families or friends that have less of an obssesive interest.. :lol:
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bobsbeer

Re: Brew Con London - A Home Brewing Conference and Expo

Post by bobsbeer » Wed Jul 05, 2017 8:38 am

I didn't say that people didn't travel from the south to the festival, they did, but the majority were from the midlands and north. With any event you can never please everyone, but it seems that southerners are less willing to travel. Why I don't know. Maybe it's because London hosts most of the events and people are used to them being on their doorstep. I can understand why organisers would opt for London. The south has a huge customer base to draw upon, so it makes commercial sense to host it in an area where they are likely to get the most attendees. I wish them all the best as it can only help raise the profile of home brewing and improve the perception by the general public.

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Re: Brew Con London - A Home Brewing Conference and Expo

Post by TheSumOfAllBeers » Wed Jul 05, 2017 2:51 pm

bobsbeer wrote: With any event you can never please everyone, but it seems that southerners are less willing to travel. Why I don't know.
Because car ownership is lower in London. And it takes 60-90 minutes on a Friday to get out of it and actually start the rest of your journey. And anyone south and east of London has to get through it to go anywhere else.

If you don't have a good rail link you lose a lot of your audience. I do a lot of long drives through the UK and the London gravity well is horrible.

That said, the HBF is promoted well in our club and a group of 5-6 car pooled up.

Market Bosworth is not that far from London though, that a determined car pool can't solve.

I don't think that logistics are the main reason for lack of attendance at HBF by Londoners. London clubs are quite new and unaware of things outside their sphere.

Might be something to discuss for next years event, and we could help out with some grassroots outreach.

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Re: Brew Con London - A Home Brewing Conference and Expo

Post by Robsta » Wed Jul 05, 2017 8:20 pm

Some great feedback and many thanks we do have a festival forum.....so if you can help or do have another event you want to promote feel free to make a post.

Brew Con is not a new Group they first had a meeting in Dublin

http://www.nationalhomebrewclub.ie/word ... wcon-2015/

Whether you are north/south or midlands, if you can make it great, if you can't then you are going to find one that is easier to get to, obvious as you enjoy brewing and entering competitions..

At the end of the day http://www.thehomebrewfestival.co.uk will keep running as long as you the brewers allow us too.

You supply the beer and we organize a place to meet and learn how to be better brewers, thats what make it fun...

It should never become a North v's South and if it does, then that is the time, to call it a day...

As the retired chairman i know how much works goes into organising such event and when Brewcon comes to London i am sure some of our team will be their to support it and hand out flyers for our festival.

All we want is for top brewers whether they can come or not is to enter their best beers into the competition...

Even if it just for the feedback......

bobsbeer

Re: Brew Con London - A Home Brewing Conference and Expo

Post by bobsbeer » Wed Jul 05, 2017 9:09 pm

Not sure they are the same group who are promoting the London event. They have already had BrewCon 2017 back in April in Dublin. Con may be the operative word here. :) I hope not.

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Re: Brew Con London - A Home Brewing Conference and Expo

Post by Haydnexport » Thu Jul 06, 2017 8:31 am

I've backed it, evn if it's crap we can have a gander around london

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