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Dave: There’s a little school of thought that I’ve got that the homebrew community and general craft beer community are kind of divided. Do you know what I mean about that?
Hendo: How so?
Dave: Like here tonight, aside from the pro brewers, I don’t know anyone here. I don’t know anyone except for the pros.
Hendo: You know, you’re right. You know, I’m looking around the room now and there’s not the usual craft beer people that you and I both know.
Dave: Yeah that’s right. And I think when you look at who is part of the homebrew clubs that are around the place, I don’t think there’s a big cross over with people that we see out at other events, and I think it’s just..
Hendo: Yeah, I wouldn’t call it a division as such. I think, you know, I would say that these guys who are here, the homebrewers that are here, their craft beer experience is different to…
Dave: Yeah exactly, that’s what I mean. Where my thought process was going was that an event, for example this dinner tonight, there’s no reason why anyone wouldn’t pay $90 or $95 or whatever it was for this divinely paired five course dinner.
Hendo: You know, the good thing is that a lot of our friends in the broader craft beer scene would have come to this thing tonight and they would have raved about it, and they’re missing out. It’s so funny.
Dave: Exactly. Exactly right. I don’t know if the term ‘homebrewer’, for people that don’t do it a lot, if that is an immediate turn off? Do you know what I mean?
Hendo: Yeah.
Dave: People that hear that might stop thinking “Maybe this is for me” and then I was looking at a few of the previous speaker lists from the previous conferences, and they’re all amazing.
Hendo: Yes.
Dave: They’re all really solid. None more than 2014’s line up.
Hendo: Oh this year. Yeah it’s huge. Huge.
Dave: I was thinking that loads and loads of craft beer geeks would love, even if they don’t necessarily think they’re going to apply the knowledge in making a beer, but they can use that to appreciate different styles, they can use the knowledge to gain a better understanding of the industry.
Hendo: Yeah. There is a cross over there. I think about people who really cross over between the craft beer and the homebrewer scene, and I do it because I’m a homebrewer myself and I love hanging out with homebrewers. Ross Kendrick from Bacchus and his crew do it really, really well because Ross runs a big home brew shop and runs a craft brewery as well. But you know, I guess it comes down to each individual’s experience. Some people just like their craft beer experience, I mean I’ve been talking to home brewers tonight about beers that they’ve made, and I’m like “Yeah that’s cool.” and I love it. If any homebrewer ever says “I want to make a beer like Hop Zone, I’ll just give them the recipe. Here you go. Go make it. Have fun. Save me some.
Dave: I just think there’s an appreciation that non homebrewers could get from an dinner such as this obviously, because there is an immediate satisfaction you get.
Hendo: Yes, I agree.
Dave: But also from the conference that I don’t think is really being tended to, if you know what I mean? And I understand that they have a certain capacity of tickets this year, and they’ve almost sold out of them, so they’re not losing out on that market, but it could be a really big event.
Hendo: Yes.
Dave: Which seems like it would be easy for people to buy into. I don’t know, I just wanted to..
Hendo: Yeah I don’t think it’s a division, I just think it comes down to each individual’s experience of consuming craft beer and there are people that drink craft beer from purely a consumer perspective.
Dave: Of course.
Hendo: And that’s it. They’re happy with that. And that’s awesome. You know? Do that. There are some people who when they start on their craft beer journey, or get in to their craft beer journey they start to actually want to understand the ingredients and the process and that sort of thing, you know, who start home brewing because of their craft beer experience. Mine was the other way around, you know. I used to drink shitty VB and all that sort of thing, then I started homebrewing, then I got into the craft beer scene. So there’s multiple paths on the way to better beer enlightenment.
Dave: Yeah fair enough.
