Multicultural Festival 2012
By Nick Wiseman, Editor
Thirty eight kegs of beer poured freely through the taps of the highly successful Canberra Brewers Club stall at the 2012 National Multicultural Festival in Canberra during February 10 – 12.
Run in collaboration with the Wig & Pen the club had Malty Cultural as the flagship beer while also offering 61 Brewers Barley Wine, Kembery Kolsch, Midas Imperial Pilsner, Ballyragget Irish Red Ale and Thirsty Worm Cider over the course of the weekend.
Despite initial weather reports forecasting rain, the weekend remained fairly dry, which resulted in what initial records have indicated as more than 260, 000 visitors across the three-day festival.
The festival organisers have reported it to be the biggest crowd in the events 16-year history resulting in what seemed to be a never ending queue of customers eager to quench their thirst and enjoy a better quality beer at the clubs stall.
Months of planning and preparation by both the 2011 and 2012 committees came to a head the weekend prior when club members Tom Dixon, Craig Webber and Wig & Pen Head Brewer Richard Watkins joined forces to create the bar for the upcoming festival.
After a day in the Wig & Pen basement building and welding away, a thing of beauty was given life and a hard working team earned a well deserved beer.
The bar featuring eight taps and a glycol cooling system was put through its paces during the event and apart from a few foaming issues during peak times worked brilliantly.
Throughout the weekend 28 club members donated their time, pouring and mathematical skills to man the bar while also educating customers on beer and brewing with ‘How to Brew’ and kit demonstrations over the weekend.
The Canberra Brewers Club stall proved to be a massive success, having exposed our Club, Brewing and the Wig & Pen to a huge audience while selling more than twice the beer initially expected – we’ll be looking forward to seeing plenty of new faces at our March meeting.
The committee would like to personally thank all those involved both over the weekend and behind the scenes. Without those volunteers the club would never have made it to the event and enjoy the success it did.
Those members are Tom Dixon, David Gilks, Richard Watkins, Andrew Blencowe, Ben Harmer, Brendan Linton-Smith, Brian Molloy, Charles Newton, Craig Stokes, Craig Webber, Daniel Seaton, Darren Cullerne, David Steel, David Van Der Vlist, Gareth Prescott, James Kyburz, Keenan Fahy, Mark Bilbrough, Megan Watson, Nick Wiseman, Owen Andrews, Chris Duffy, Patrick Baggoley, Paul Haesler, Pete Daffern, Peter Collins, Richard Fitzpatrick and Steve Sargent
The Club President Tom Dixon and Treasurer David Gilks should be singled out with the massive amount of work behind the scenes they put into getting the clubs participation in the event up and going.
The beers they enjoyed at the Wig and Pen with the rest of the volunteers Sunday afternoon were well deserved and they’re now able to finally get some rest…although the festival organisers are already promising that next year will be even bigger and better.
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