We arrived in Providence the last weekend of June for the National Homebrew Convention with beers, swag and the Boomcase in hand. There would be three days of pouring beer at the convention as well as some after parties, highlighted by The Brewing Network’s official after party Saturday night, announcing the winner of our Boil Rumble competition. Over 80 clubs from around the country entered, six finalists were chosen, and the anticipation was high amongst the whole homebrew community.
The truck with our beer on it was arriving a bit late, so we started off the first day with a limited supply from our private stash, but our distributor showed up with the reinforcements, and all was gravy. The fresh cavalry of beer that arrived was packaged less than a week prior and tasting great! In addition to our core beers Hubert, Melvin IPA and 2×4, we had Cloudy 5000 and our brand-spanking new Dream Domicile, a hazy DIPA and the first in our ExperiMENTAL Series. We were putting our best foot forward for the attendees, and our efforts didn’t go unnoticed. We had a steady stream of drinkers new and old cycling through, enjoying the fresh beers and fresh tunes emanating from the Boomcase speakers. Music was sorely lacking around the convention hall, but you can always count on Melvin to bring the pop up party. The feel inside was similar to Craft Beer Conference, but smaller, and we had tons of great conversations with passionate beer people. In addition to our beers, we also poured some of The Boil Rumble finalists’ beers for people to enjoy.
After the first day of the conference was Industry Night, where over 40 breweries from around the country were pouring beer from 6-11pm. We probably had the most minimal booth set up, but again we were the only booth with our own music, and our Cloudy 5000 rain ponchos drew some attention too. They came for the tunes and bizarre costumes, they stayed for the tasty beers. As if this wasn’t enough, we threw an after party at a local spot called The Malted Barley from 11-2am, complete with six Melvin beers to drink, hip-hop playlists, and incredible gourmet pretzels pumped out of the kitchen. Guessing it’s been a while since they had that many people there at bar close on a Thursday. We wrapped up a good 15-hour day.
Friday was more of the same during the day, pouring our beers and some of The Boil Rumble beers for the incredibly nice people in attendance. Then Friday night after the convention is Club Night. At this party the homebrew clubs from around the country set up booths and pour their beer. The amount of effort these clubs put into their booth set up is incredible! Several of them would have been stand-out end caps at GABF. Merrimack Valley Homebrew Club, one of our Boil Rumble finalists, went all out with their Viking Luau concept. Lots of fun, inventive beers all around and the vibe in the whole room was great. During the convention and the after party events, the crew at the Brewers Association did a phenomenal job as always keeping beers cold and shuffling them around. Props to that whole team!
We wrapped up the final session of the convention on Saturday afternoon with The Boil Rumble official beer judging. Members of The Brewing Network and Morebeer tasted and scored the six finalists while our founder Jeremy poured the unmarked beers from behind a makeshift cardboard box setup. Once they reached their conclusion, they said, “Jeremy, we just want to be straight up with you. The beer we picked may not be feasible for you to brew on your commercial system, and if need be we can bump up number two.” The Melvin crew huddled, but we were already all on the same page. Pick the best beer, regardless of the recipe. It turned out to be New England Breakfast Ale, brewed by Eastbay Homebrew Club from Rhode Island. This dark ale with coffee and maple syrup was delicious and refined, and the home team took down the W.
Next up was The Brewing Network’s official after party at Fete Music Hall, a hip music venue with three bars. We took over all their taps with four Melvin beers, as well as unique offerings from local breweries like Proclamation, Trillium, Foreign Objects, Exhibit A, Springdale and others. As everyone waited in line before doors opening, we went into the parking lot for some shooting practice with the T-shirt cannon. We lost one on the roof but definitely provided some entertainment for the masses. The house was packed with a lively bunch of brewers who were treated to a performance by the local School of Rock chapter. These kids got on stage and absolutely slayed it, covering a range of classic rock and working the crowd into a frenzy. They were having a blast playing to such a fun crowd, and the audience roared for more, to the tune of 3-4 encores. If only Jack Black could’ve seen it.
Eventually we got all of The Boil Rumble finalists on stage and announced the winners. Merrimack Valley Homebrew Club got third with their Viking Luau, a hazy pale ale with Kveik yeast, and took home 22 pounds of hops from YCH. Aurora City Brew Club took second for their Pinky Ring, a red rye IPA, and won a Yeti jockey box. Then the aforementioned Eastbay Homebrew Club was announced the grand prize winner, getting a Morebeer Brew Sculpture system, a podcast feature on The Brewing Network, and their beer canned by Melvin, sent to our entire distribution network, and into GABF as our Pro-Am entry. They were absolutely floored, and it was fun seeing the adrenaline buzz they still had going as we talked to them afterwards. All of the finalists were gracious, congratulating the other clubs and thankful to be a part of the competition. There was a strong feel-good mood all night, and we finished it off with a solid Wu Tang dance party before the venue’s last call.
Overall the entire weekend of Homebrew Con was a blast. It’s always great to be surrounded by people who truly love craft beer, and this was an exceptionally nice crowd. Inquisitive, engaged, inspired, chill, appreciative and knowledgeable are some adjectives that come to mind. Our beers were a huge hit at every event, and we tasted lots of great beers from the home brew clubs and local breweries. The Brewing Network and Morebeer were so stoked with how The Boil Rumble turned out that they want to make it an annual event, and we had so much fun with it and the convention that we couldn’t say no. Until next year! Cheers