The Windischeschenbach district Neuhaus (as well as Windischeschenbach itself) is famous for its “Kommunbrauhaus” (a commonly shared brew house, in which the citizens can brew their own beer) and its Zoigl tradition – and from 28th to 30th September 2012 the annual meeting of the Home and Hobby Brewers’ Association took place in the area around the many Zoigl pubs. Centre of all activities was the Schafferhof in Neuhaus – in its great hall, the Annual General Meeting (AGM) was held on Friday night, as well as the great Homebrewers’ Evening Party on Saturday.
As always, the Home and Hobby Brewers’ Meeting followed a choreography tried and tested many times. First part, as always, was the AGM on Friday evening – this time with a real election! Markus Harms, the long-time deputy chairman of the German Home Brewers’ Association, had decided to step back and make his position available. Following the AGM’s votes, Walter Geißler followed him on this position. Walter is known in the beer scene not only as a home brewer, but as the owner of the recognized by the Guinness Book of Records Wheat Beer Glass Museum in Nuremberg, too.
Saturday traditionally offered a nice programme of excursions, but this time it was following the leitmotif “Home Brewers’ Days without Stress”. Those, who wanted, could enjoy both villages, both communal brew houses, a lot of Zoigl pubs just by walking around – there was no need for a bus tour packed with programme in order to get a huge choice of different beers and experiences around beer and brewing.
Parallel to the tour, the pre-degustation and the home brewers’ contest took place in the Schafferhof in the early morning and the afternoon. In three categories (Brown Ale, Wheat Beer / Hefeweizen and regional Kellerbier) the judges evaluated the submitted home brews. And in parallel to their hard work, in the large barn of the Schafferhof some brewing accessories retailers, hop growers, beer book publishers and malt houses had set up their booths, and many of the home brewers left significant parts of their pocket money at the scene.
The great Home Brewers’ Evening started with a bombastic programme: The famous band of the regional fire brigade, the Altneihauser Feierwehrkapell’n marched in with a loud fanfare, and during the next half an hour, performed a stage show second to none. With weird music and cheeky, short satirical poems, the fire brigade’s commander left no one in the room without verbal injuries. The people were raging for fun! Of course, after this brilliant start, the buffet, the award ceremony, and the tasting of many, many home brews could not be that exciting any more – but this was accepted as a kind of collateral damage.
Sunday morning saw the already traditional lectures, but for obvious reasons, not that many club members were present. Be it that they still had some hundred kilometres to drive, or be it that the evening before had been a bit too challenging… Anyway, the brilliant presentation on the history of the communal brewing in the region, given by Egon Klöff, was an extraordinarily interesting one!
A nice end to a nice annual meeting under glorious weather conditions and well organized by the local hosts! Many thanks for their dedication and work!
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