Mark your calendars (Upland Trip)

[Justin Rumbach]

I wanted to extend an invitation to you guys to join the Dubois County Suds Club on March 21 as we travel to Bloomington to tour Upland.

Last year we had such a great time coming down to Evansville and visit Turoni's that we are making it an annual ritual.

We will be leaving Jasper at 2pm eastern time and plan to arrive in Bloomington around 3:30pm. Caleb, the brewmaster, will give a quick tour and then we will stay for dinner and drinks.

We are renting a school bus and driver to take us up and back. If anyone wants to drive up to Jasper and jump on the party bus, it will be $10 a head.

After touring the brewery, I am sure we will wander into a few beer bars after that before making our way back home. We do plan to be back in Jasper around 10pm though.

The Bloomington Hop Jockeys are also on the invite list, so this could be quite the party!

Hope to see some of you there!

Justin

[Chris Norrick]

Thanks for the invite Justin! This sounds like a great trip. We'll announce this at our meetings. I'm putting on my calendar!

[Chris Alvey]

I'd like to go to this too. We'll talk about arranging transport from Evansville to Jasper or, maybe, just crashing in Jasper for the night at a hotel. Sounds fun.

[Justin Rumbach]

We've got 33 signed up so far, with plenty of room left!

If you stay in Jasper, the Hampton Inn is literally 50 feet from The Schnitzelbank.

[sirgiovanni]

Can't answer yet but I really want to go.

[Don]

I'm going to plan on going, but will have to wait till I'm off these 16 hrs. days / nights, before I can confirm it with my wife, and get a hotel room.

[Justin Rumbach]

We are up to 42+ from our group alone. Plenty of room left on the bus if anyone wants to come along from Evansville.

The Hop Jockeys (Bloomington club) are interested in meeting up at the brewery and may bring another 15-20 folks.

We have the banquet hall reserved and are probably looking at doing a buffet style dinner for a set price. I will have more info on that soon.

Following the dinner and brewery tour at Upland, we plan to invade Finch's Brasserie (http://www.finchsbrasserie.com/) for a few beers. Apparently they have an upstairs area that we are trying to reserve.

I hope some of you can join us!

[Chris Alvey]

I can get a better count at our meeting on the 25th but if anyone who knows they're going for sure wants to speak up here it would be a start.

I'll be getting a room and staying also if anyone wants to split that.

[Davin]

I would love to go, unfortunately I'm absolutely positive my fiancee would literally and completely justifiably SHOOT ME DEAD, if I missed our wedding date.

But you guys have fun and drink some samples for me.

[Don]

I can get a better count at our meeting on the 25th but if anyone who knows they're going for sure wants to speak up here it would be a start.

I'll be getting a room and staying also if anyone wants to split that.

Chris;
I'm planning on going and will split the room with you.

Don

[Justin Rumbach]

Things just keep getting better!

I've been talking back and forth with Upland about this event and since it has grown so large, they are going to make it an open event to promote the AHA.

That means they are going to provide all the beer and food FOR FREE.

FREE FOOD AND FREE BEER!

They are encouraging us to bring homebrew to share as well.

I'll keep you updated as I learn more.

[Dwayne_Delaney]

Sounds like a great time, sign me up!

[Chris Norrick]

Oh, I was in before, but now I'm REALLY REALLY IN! I'm not sure if I'll get a room. My parents live in Oakland City, just down the road. I guess it depends on how late we get back.

[Chris Alvey]

I got an email from the AHA this morning for the announcement about this being an AHA rally:

http://www.beertown.com/email/aha/membe ... land09.htm

Unfortunately, it looks like it's $33 if you're not an AHA member. FORTUNATELY, this will give you an excuse to join the AHA if you're not a member already. This is a great organization that does tons for homebrewing (helping keep it legal, for instance) and I would encourage everyone to become a member. Looks like, in addition to some fine beers, we'll be getting some Upland schwag as well.

ALSO, they have an RSVP link from the link above .. (**edit: the link is active now**) ... if you are planning on attending I would say to go ahead and sign-up on that to get your name on the list.

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*** RIDES TO JASPER ***

If anyone is interested in car-pooling to Jasper, here's the place to speak up. If anyone has a van, that'd be great. We may need two camps: those who are staying in Jasper that night and those who are planning on coming home.
I plan on staying at the Hampton Inn. http://hamptoninn.hilton.com/en/hp/hote ... cn=JASINHX. I have access to a four-door car for the 'stayers' but it's not very big. So, if you're a staying and have a bigger car or van and you wouldn't mind driving it would undoubtedly be more comfy than my car.

[Justin Rumbach]

I just got the email from Upland as well about this now being an AHA rally.

A few things to clarify -

- While you are encouraged to join the AHA, it is NOT mandatory for this event. Since we started the ball rolling on this event, and since we have a number of spouses and non-brewers coming along, they said that you do not have to join to come along. That being said, $33 is a small price to pay for a day of free beer and food. Zymurgy magazine is the best homebrewing magazine out there (which is part of the AHA membership) plus you will be supporting a great organization. You will also come home with some Upland swag (including a pint glass). Not bad at all...

- You do not have to RSVP either. If you are coming for sure, go ahead, but they are planning on 50-60 folks coming up with us so they aren't going to run out of room or anything.

- We will meet at 2pm (Eastern Time) at St. Joseph's Church in Jasper on Saturday, March 21. We will be back to Jasper around 10pm.

- We have a club meeting Tuesday night and I will get a feel whether everyone wants to just stay at Upland the entire time or try to go to a second bar before leaving. We have been talking about Finch's Brasserie on Kirkwood. This may be counterproductive, as moving 50-60 people from one location to another may be a royal pain in the butt. I will update this thread with final plans after the meeting.

- The time listed for the event is 3:30-6:30pm. We will not have to leave after three hours, those are just the posted times. We are welcome to stay and drink (both Upland beers and the homebrews) for as long as we want (within reason of course).

- BRING HOMEBREW to share. The Bloomington Hop Jockeys are all over this event as well, so it will be a great opportunity to share your stuff with a whole bunch of folks.

- Feel free to also bring commercial beers to drink on the way up and back.

- We are asking $10 per person to cover the costs of the bus trip. You can pay on the day of the trip (please bring cash - that will make things much easier).

I think that is everything for now. I will post final plans soon.

Thanks and I hope to see a bunch of OVHAers in a few weeks!

Justin

ps - Chris - I met a buddy of yours (name is escaping me) at Gravity Head last night. He works for hosting.com in Louisville. The world of beer is indeed very small...