Category: Committee Reports

By Tom Dixon, Social Secretary

Authorbox_social G’day Brewers, I hope you have all recovered from the festive period, because the 2010 Canberra Brewers Calendar is going to be bigger and more chock-full than Hagrid’s Y-fronts! For the first time in five years, we are going to bring back the Brewer Bus Tours, with a couple of road trips currently being mapped out. You can also expect all of your old favourites including Oktoberfest and the Wig and Pen Brew Day. We have also introduced the ‘Social Scene’ Forum to advertise and organise official Canberra Brewers events throughout the year. Feel free to also use this forum to advertise your own events, everything from brew days to BBQs.

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By Paul Haesler, Treasurer

Authorbox_treasurer Hi guys, i'm Paul Haesler – phaesler on the Forum and mostly referred to as Brother Mozzie. For my sins I'm your treasurer for the third time. We're starting the year from the strongest financial position the club has yet enjoyed, and although the committee is determined not to piss it all up against the wall, we are not a for-profit organisation and I hope to plough much of those funds back to the members who make this the best brewing club in Australia.

If you want to enjoy the benefits of this unprecedented spending spree, you need to be a fully paid-up member. All memberships expired at the December meeting, so unless you paid me in cash then, or have paid electronically since, your membership is technically lapsed.  We usually allow a month or two's grace for you all to get your acts together, but after the March (or maybe April) meeting, I will be asking our new Web Minion to deactivate the web accounts of non-financial members.

Membership is still the low low price of $30 for the year. Payment may be made in cash at meetings, or by direct electronic transfer to the club account. Contact me for the bank account details, and please make sure you include your name in the description, or I won't know that you've paid.

I look forward to seeing you all at club meetings throughout the year. Bro Mozzie

By Peter Devries, Competition Secretary

Authorbox_compsec Welcome all to the first Ferm of 2010! The club competition's for 2010 will follow on from last year’s excellent effort coordinated by the outgoing Competition Secretary, Charles Newton. The same beers and style categories will appear this year, with the major difference being that the beers from competition three have been swapped for those in competition one. There were a few reasons to make this switch, but the first one was to get your fresh-is-best summer ales and wheat beers into the first competition of the year.

Not all of our members have the ability to adequately cool their fermenters during warmer weather, and this may have presented an issue for those wishing to brew Lagers and Pilseners. The beers that may need cooler weather can therefore be brewed in the middle of the year, and then entered into competition three in August. We also have the stronger beers — that need some quality time spent in the keg — in competition three. So, think about those strong beers now, and get brewing!

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Graham Achilles, Web Minion

Authorbox_webminion Hi fellow brewers, my name is Graham and I’ve taken over admin of the Canberra Brewers website and forum for this year. I would like to say a thanks to Jamie (pome) for his great work last year, particularly with having to handle the Nationals and his development of the new online competition form. Jamie took the time just prior to Christmas to go through the webmaster job with me in detail. I’m anticipating that I’ll need support from both Jamie and Chris (Duffbowl) throughout the year.

I joined Canberra Brewers at the start of 2007, and started all-grain brewing at the end of 2008, after completing the 2008 BJCP course. I hope to start putting some entries into this year’s competitions. I have three kids which places some challenges into finding time on the weekends for brewing. One new member joined the club in December and he has been added to the forum. The usual cleanup of forum accounts will occur after the March meeting, to allow everyone time to pay their membership renewals. (Editor: Graham, how about a photo?)