Will you be among the 11,000 attendees expected at next week’s Craft Brewer’s Conference and Expo in Portland? If so, then you’ll have the opportunity to sample two special beers brewed for Briess that will be served at the Briess–Hopunion beer station. These brews top our list of 10 things to do at Briess BrewExpo Booth #1542 (conveniently located next to the beer station).

We send a very special thanks to Widmer Brothers and Worthy Brewing for making room in their schedules to brew these beers, and to head brewers Joe Casey (Widmer) and Chad Kennedy (Worthy) for their spot-one use of the Briess malt featured in these brews. Additional thanks to Cory Blodgett (RnD Brewer at Widmer) and Jacob Zuchowski (Lead Brewer at Worthy) for lending their brewing expertise.

You gotta try these beers. When you stop at the Briess booth, here’s the complete list of 10 things you can do:

  1. Sample Widmer Brothers “Smoked Mesquite Maerzen” aka “Smoked Cheesehead” brewed with new Briess Mesquite Smoked Malt.
  2. Sample Worth Brewing’s “El Chupacabra Barleywine” brewed with Briess Ashburne® Mild Malt.
  3. Learn how Briess is growing to help Craft Beer grow. Check out our slideshow of Briess operations in Wyoming and Wisconsin, and learn how we’ve transitioned from a malting to vertically integrated “seed to suds” grain processing company…within the past two years.
  4. Briess oval label3Get a Briess Barley Operations belt buckle sticker. For free. It’s just like the solid metal belt buckles our barley growers in Wyoming and Montana wear, only it weighs a lot less and doesn’t need a belt.
  5. Munch on Briess specialty malts. They’re delicious, and pair perfectly with a Maerzen or Barleywine.
  6. Toss your business card in to win a year’s supply of Briess Malted Milk Balls.
  7. Meet Ron Mihalko. He’s the maltster at our Waterloo, WI, malthouse and will be waiting for you to stop and say hi.
  8. Take a selfie, post it and #cbc. We’ll have props.
  9. Pick up your free Briess Malt Typical Analysis wall poster. It’ll look great in your brewery or brewpub and comes folded flat for easy transport home.
  10. Talk to our staff about what you’re brewing, your malt and brewing questions, or anything else on your mind. Besides Ron, some of our staff you’ll find at the Briess booth include Rich Ellis, Penny Pickart, Dave Richter and Rich Tucciarone of our sales team, and Bob Hansen and Dan Bies of Technical Services.

We look forward to seeing you at Booth 1542 because we know there’s more to do at the CBC than time to do it in. To get started, here’s a “by the numbers” look at this year’s CBC in Portland, OR:

  1. 600+—Exhibitors
  2. 11,000+—Expected attendees
  3. 80—Seminars
  4. 19½—Hours of BrewExpo America®
  5. 10—Seminar tracks to choose from
  6. 150—Number of speakers
  7. 6—Symposium/collaboration beers from Oregon breweries
  8. 13—Number of hospitality suites
  9. 21,000—Oysters provided at Welcome Reception (co-sponsored by Briess)
  10. 1—Briess BrewExpo Booth #1542

Actually, I added that last one. Hope to see you there. Cheers!