Subject: Digest for the period 4/20/2005 - 4/21/2005 Date: Thu, 21 Apr 2005 01:00:59 -0400 Table of contents ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Re: Knock on AHA (was Shipping Beer) (Kevin Cotter) 2. RE: Back to Shipping Beer (Houseman, David L) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Kevin Cotter Date: Wed, 20 Apr 2005 01:03:34 -0700 Subject: Re: Knock on AHA (was Shipping Beer) David, I don't know anything more about the AHA than the average homebrewer, I can only judge from news available to me, which seems to be much less than information available to you! If the AHA is active in legislation for helping homebrewers mail homebrews to competitions, such as the NHC 2005, they aren't making it well known. The only info I get on the AHA is from Zymurgy, a few speeches at the national conference, and occasionally I check out beertown.com Look, I didn't mean it to be a rip on the AHA, I just don't hear much about what the AHA is doing for homebrewers. I thought the reason for the merger was so the BA and the AOB could merge forces. Where does the AHA fit into this? I've chosen to be active locally with brewing clubs and competitions instead of on a national level partially because I have no idea what the AHA does for homebrewers. I view my AHA membership as a magazine subscription, discount to the national conference, and pub discounts with my card. In contrast I've always felt the BJCP organization is in a constant state of improvement directly for the judges and brewers that enter competitions. Since you are so active in the AHA and are on the board of advisors how about an article in a future Zymurgy about everything the AHA is currently doing for homebrewers? Now go back to my email; In my first comment I can see how it could be taken as a rip. Perhaps I should have done a better job of explaining myself. I assumed since we had a thread about the issue of mailing homebrew to competitions that if I made a comment about AHA's representation of homebrewers, readers would tie the two together. If there is legislation the AHA is working on to assist homebrewers with mailing to competitions, then it's your fault, as a board member, for not getting the word out better. Whether it would be you writing an article or assigning that task to somebody else. My second sentence states that it is "my opinion", (I typed "seems to me"), that the homebrewer has fallen of the radar. My third sentence was in regards to legislation activity. Where was I factually incorrect in my post? After looking at my email again, I can't see why you let loose on me the way you did, beside possibly poor English for not better explaining my first sentence. Instead of being so aggressively defensive perhaps you could have cured my ignorance with information about the AHA's activities. Kevin Cotter "David Houseman" wrote in message news:19164647.1113829828347.JavaMail.root`at`vms073.mailsrvcs.net... > Kevin Cotter says: > > "Wouldn't it be cool if the AHA represented homebrewers. Seems to me since > they became the Brewers Association that the homebrewer has fallen off > their radar. They have gotten very active with legislation - for > professional breweries." > > So, Kevin, why don't you tell us all what you know that we don't? Please > explain how you know the fine details of what the AHA does and doesn't do? > Let us know what the BA is not doing that the Association of Brewers was > doing. Outline the current AHA programs and how they have changed? Are > you a member of the AHA and have you volunteered to work on any of its > programs? I for one would love to know, since I've been a member for many > years, on the Board of Advisors for quite a few (and still am) and read > the monthly AHA activity and status reports. I can tell you that you do > are seriously mis-informed! Yes the BA is active with legistration for > professional brewers; that was a principal function of the Brewers > Association of America, the organization that merged with the Association > of Brewers. Please, ask questions before you shoot yourself in the foot. > > David Houseman > > ********************************************************************** > * JudgeNet - the beer judge digest * > * Send plain text only, no HTML, MIME, encoded text or attachments * > * Manage your subscription online: http://synchro.com/judge * > * Send subscription requests & changes to judge-request`at`synchro.com * > ********************************************************************** ********************************************************************** * JudgeNet - the beer judge digest * * Send plain text only, no HTML, MIME, encoded text or attachments * * Manage your subscription online: http://synchro.com/judge * * Send subscription requests & changes to judge-request`at`synchro.com * ********************************************************************** ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Houseman, David L Date: Wed, 20 Apr 2005 10:20:50 -0400 Subject: RE: Back to Shipping Beer Brian, Good question. Perhaps you read this month's Zymurgy; there's an article on shipping beer -- mine just arrived and I haven't had a chance to read it yet? Shipping of beer for home brew competitions has been an AHA Board level discussion for a number of years. Meetings have been held with major shippers, but so far with no hard results. This hasn't been ignored; we just haven't been successful in convincing shippers as yet. Some of the shippers seem to be pretty hard-nosed while others are less so. The merger of the BAA and AOB, to form the BA, is good because the BA is resolved to find a solution to this problem, not just for homebrewers but also for the craft brewers who want to enter competitions, like GABF and WBC, and need to ship as well. The BA does have a lobbying component that can be brought to bear on the subject. But as you know the shipping of alcoholic beverages is currently in a case before the Supreme Court, so nothing is likely to be resolved until the Supreme Court rules. Until then, it seems that "don't ask -- don't tell" is an appropriate way to handle shipping of entries. Competitions need to pick commercial locations without "beer" or "brewery" in the name so that there are less questions on the part of the shipper. Wrap and pad well but don't put tell-tale labeling on the box, like "Fragile" or "bottles" or "liquid." We've been doing this since the early competitions. That's probably hundreds of thousands of bottles successfully shipped. Hopefully this will be resolved. Perhaps the BA can sign up a shipper to work with us, someone like DHL, who is trying to make inroads in the USPS and UPS business. Until then as Nike says, "Just Do It." Dave Houseman ********************************************************************** * JudgeNet - the beer judge digest * * Send plain text only, no HTML, MIME, encoded text or attachments * * Manage your subscription online: http://synchro.com/judge * * Send subscription requests & changes to judge-request`at`synchro.com * **********************************************************************