American Homebrewers Association with Gary Glass – BeerSmith Podcast 44

This week my guest is Gary Glass, the Director of the American Homebrewers Association (AHA). Gary provides us with an overview of the AHA, how it got started and some of the many services and events the AHA sponsors and provides to the homebrewing community.

Download the MP3 File – Right Click and “Save As” to download this mp3 file

[audio:http://traffic.libsyn.com/beersmith/BSHB-44-AHA-Glass.mp3]

Topics in This Week’s Episode (40:40)

Gary Glass, the Director of the American Homebrewers Association (AHA) is my guest this week. Gary runs the 30,000+ member AHA, which provides a variety of services and events for its members.
Gary tells is a bit about the AHA and provides an overview of what it does for its members.
We talk about the origins of the AHA, which was started by Charlie Papazian in 1978, about the same time that home brewing became legal again in most of the US.
Gary provides an overview of the AHA structure and governing board as well as permanent staff.
We discuss the National Homebrewers Conference (NHC), the premier national event here in the US. Next year’s NHC will be held in Philadelphia in late June, and sign up starts in early February.
Gary tells us about the national homebrew competition and awards which are held as part of the NHC.
We discuss the state of the homebrewing industry which has been growing at an amazing 15-20% per year for the last few years
Gary tells us about his parent organization – the Brewers Association which is focused on the craft beer industry and their major event which is the Great American Beer Festival.
We discuss some of the ongoing efforts the AHA is leading in legislation including trying to get homebrewing legalized in the only two states where it remains illegal (Alabama and Mississippi).
We finish with a summary of why you should think seriously about becoming a member of the AHA.