Texas District
Spring 2008 MBAA meeting in San Antonio!
MBAA District Texas President Peter Takacs convened the Spring 2008 MBAA meeting in the Alamo City. Registration opened with refreshments and heavy appetizers at our hotel in San Antonio on Friday, February 29. Many MBAA Governors, fresh from the Board of Governors meeting, chose to come up the river and enjoy the company of brewers.
On Saturday, March 1, a casual breakfast and the district business meeting at a nearby Mexican sala Hacienda Santa Maria followed by a brief update by Amy Hope of our administrative staff, and then three very special technical presentations:
MBAA President Gil Sanchez of Sierra Nevada Brewing Company, Candace Wallin of UC Davis, and Phil Phillips of Cargill Malt delivered informative presentations on the role of the development/pilot brewery in our industry in research, product development, material qualification, and in education.
Mexican lunch followed and then attendees enjoyed golf, and exploring the famed Riverwalk, visited the San Antonio Museum of Art (a famous pre-Prohibition brewery readily recognizable as such), the Alamo, etc.
We reconvened at a unique venue nearby, The Gambrinus Company Development Brewery (a working 30-bbl brewery) for a special cuisine a la biere dinner created by Chefs Brian Montgomery and Randy Lofton from Texas Farm to Table featuring local produce and specialties which were prepared with beer as an integral component, and where attendees had fun pairing contributed beers from all of our breweries with the courses at hand. British brewing scientist Steve Livens from BRi offered an entertaining dinner talk, following by petites fours service, barley wine, and a special distilled spirit made from the special Helles beer brewed for the occasion at the development brewery.
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