Recently I had the opportunity to visit the USA on a business trip/ holiday. Never having visited before, I was very keen to have a look at the Craft Brewing & the Home Brewing industries in the country that leads the world in these fields.

I timed the break to coincide with the National Homebrewers Conference in Baltimore in mid June & made arrangements to meet with companies I have been dealing with for some years - Wyeast, Beer, Beer & More Beer and Steinbart.

As I said, this was a combination holiday and business trip. My wife Jane, while extremely tolerant is not a beer drinker & neither is my 4 year old Georgie. (Luckily there was plenty of good shopping almost everywhere we visited.)This necessitated quite a bit of diplomacy. Given that I was to spend quite a bit of time on Business & Conference activities, I tried to avoid conversation relating to beer as much as possible & left much of my sampling to surreptitious late night drinking in my room. Luckily the range and quality of bottled beer was fabulous everywhere we travelled.

That having been said, I was able to have a look at a great brewing culture.

Fisherman's Wharf, Alkatraz, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Castro, Haight Ashbury, Streetcars and Union Square. All great. Couldn't really compare with the opportunity to sample beers from Sierra Nevada, Anchor Steam etc. though. The classic Sierra Nevada Pale Ale was an early highlight - the classic of the style. Malty & hoppy - great aroma. Beautifully balanced.

On our second day we all visited Beer, Beer & More Beer. Over the past year or so we have been bringing in many More Beer products. Jason has been a great help to us and very easy to deal with. It was terrific to meet Jason, Olin, Darren, Chris & Regan as well as James, John & Phil who were very friendly & welcoming. We hade a tour of operations and then retired to lunch at the Rogue Ales brewpub in North Beach. After a burger,

Beer, beer & more beer headquarters

Our remaining time in San Francisco was a round of tourist sites, Disney shops and shopping. A puppet show and a 1906 carousel were highlights for Georgie. The Museum of Modern Art and the Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant (a malty amber lager) were highlights for us. My only regret

was not getting around to a tour of Anchor Steam. I was on a roll in San Francisco in trying some classic American beers. These included of course the famous Anchor Steam Beer which lived up to its great reputation but which I felt was a bit overshadowed by some others such as the Gordon Biersch Blonde Bock, Anchor Liberty Ale and Sierra Nevada Porter. If you're in San Francisco or the Bay area other highlights could include the 21st Amendment, Magnolia and Marin brewpubs. It's also well worth dropping by Beer Beer & More Beer.

We then flew to New York after a mild scuffle with security at the airport. Georgie drew the short straw & was singled out for extra attention. After emptying the contents of her bag and scanning her soft toys we were able to continue. I had no beer related business in New York so tried to keep beer off the agenda during the day. The city was every bit as amazing as everyone says. Huge and noisy but familiar and easy to get around. Central Park, Greenwich Village and Soho, the Museum District on the amazing Upper East side and bustling Times Square and midtown.

Georgie & Jane at Barbie World Toys'r'Us Times Square.

As food & wine lovers, we were amazed at the range of produce from all over the world. There was a large range of Australian wines at our local liquor store. A huge range of beers almost everywhere. Brewpubs were also very much in evidence with the Heartland Brewery in the Empire State Building and Times Square Brewery the only stopping points. Here Smuttynose Old Brown Dog Ale and Magic Hat IPA were two great beers from two very good consistent & inventive breweries. Other tried & enjoyed were the more mainstream Brooklyn

Lager, Samuel Adams Boston Lager and Winter Lager and Stoudt's American Pale Ale.

All in all we had too brief a time in New York & we will return.

We took a train to Baltimore - a relaxing trip after the enthusiastic airport security. On arrival I headed to the Conference to register and catch a presentation on Yeast Floculation by Jess Caudill of Wyeast. That evening was the first social event of the Conference - the Star Spangled Brewfest at which over 20 Baltimore and National

breweries presented their wares. It was a great night & a great opportunity to catch up with & meet many of the names of brewing in the USA.

John Palmer, Jeff Renner & John at Star Spangled Beerfest.

These include - Jeff Sparrow who was to launch his great new book "Wild Brews" at the conference, Jeff Renner from the AHA Committee who took me under his wing, John Palmer, Charlie Papazian, Paul Gatza in addition to having a chance to catch up

with Dave Logsdon & Jess & Greg from Wyeast. It was a big night. Lots of fun & noise & I guess about 500 home brewers having fun. Pliny the Elder a super charged IPA from the Russian River Brewing Co was the highlight. After a late wake up I had a day with the family & made a great presentation on Advanced Decoction Mashing by Kevin Kutskill. That evening was the Club night & while being a bit crowded it was yet another opportunity to meet a great bunch of American brewers - this time drinking Home Brewed beer. The quality & variety of beers was great as I guess would be expected from some of the biggest & best clubs in the country. An emphasis on big beers - lots of hops & malt & quite a bit of alcohol too. Spent quite a bit of time with Jason & the guys from More Beer & had a lot more fun.

After an even later wake up I made three presentations on the last day of the conference. Chris Graham on Building Your Dream Brewing System helped me come to some conclusions on the brewing systems we are developing. I walked out after a presentation on Advanced Brewing Chemistry by AJ deLang with a glazed expression & a bit of a headache vowing not to attempt such a foolish thing again (I was not alone).

The most entertaining & interesting presentation of the conference was by Jeff Sparrow on making Lambic, Flanders Red & Brown beers. Tasting examples of these styles made by Jeff with an audience of 200 was a great experience. This inspired me to have another go at these classic styles and we have that planned for the next few months here.The book is the most readable home brewing book I have ever found.

Baltimore was a great experience & I would encourage any Australian home brewer who is contemplating a trip to the US to try to tie it in with a future Conference. Every time I opened my mouth I got a group around me. They love Australians & were keen to make me feel welcome. It is always in mid June in a different city and next year is in Orlando Florida.

We spent a couple of extra days in Baltimore as family time visiting the National Aquarium and having a bit of a rest. The one beery experience I had was at Max's pub in the Fell's district which had an amazing 65 beers on tap. Have a look at www.maxs.com

Our final destination was Portland Oregon. I had looked forward to it for a long time (from a beer point of view) because it has more breweries per head of population than just about anywhere in the world. Craft brewed beer is certainly more visible here than anywhere we visited.The bar in the smallish hotel we stayed in had 7 craft brewed

beers on tap. And everyone we spoke to was aware of Craft Brewing. The city is small and easy to get around and the people are very friendy. It has a feel a bit like a smaller version of Melbourne.

The hotel bar in Portland

Here I resumed my drinking in the hotel room late into the evening. Some highlights were a Dogfish Head Imperial IPA - fabulous, Bridgeport IPA - a great local brewery and really great very bitter but balanced American IPA, and De Schutes Black Butte Porter - smokey roasty and very tasty.

taking notes for future Grain and Grape expansion. On the way back I dropped in on one of the best known pubs in the Pacific Northwest - the Horse Brass www.horsebrass.com

Bar of the Horse Brass

A similar feel to Max's with a great range of beers on tap and very friendly clientele. At Belmont Station, the bottle shop next door I picked up a number of beers to take home for a little staff get together. It has a huge range of bottle beer. As I walked in I found

that a crowd of about 10 had followed me in from the bar to advise me on what to buy. They certainly are friendly.

That night we had a great meal in an old Portland institution Jakes Famous Crawfish Grill, with real bowtied waiters, fabulous Willamette Valley Pinot Noir and wild Alaskan Salmon.

The next day was one I'll remember for a long time. Dave Logsdon picked us up & drove out through the spectacular Columbia River Gorge to Hood River, a town of about 20,000 where Full Sail, the brewery he co-founded about 15 years ago is located. It is a dream location right on the river and for a craft brewery would be the envy of everyone in the industry in Australia.

After a tour and lunch we went on to Wyeast Laborotories. As Wyeast distributor it's probably best that I don't rave on too much about the lab. However I must say I was very impressed

with the professional approach to running such an organization. I was also very pleased to see the expansion and upgrading under way. It was great to catch up with Jess and Greg again after the Conference and to meet Candy, Jenni, Les and Carolyn after dealing with them for so many years by email and phone.

Microbiologists three. Jess, Les and Greg of Wyeast.

We then drove on up to Mt Hood, a spectacular snow capped mountain dominating the area all around, for Georgie's first view of snow.

The following day we headed back home. There's no doubt in my mind that along with a tour of the great brewing countries of Europe, and I've spent quite a bit of time in Germany, Belgium, Czechoslovakia & Britain, a trip to the US is indispensable to the education of any beer lover. The range of beers is great & they are breaking new ground with big flavoursome styles.

Along with Oregon, Colorado is the big beer state and the Great American Beer Festival in Denver in late September some year is definitely next on my beer tasting agenda. This year there will be 1669 beers to taste.