Category: Editor’s report and club news

Hot off heels of a successful International Homebrew Day, it’s time for our May meeting!

Meeting Details

When: Thursday 6 May 2021, 7:30pm – late
Where: Bentspoke Brewery, 79 Lysaght St, Mitchell ACT 2911 (enter via side entrance on Lysaght St facing the petrol station – not the front door)
Who: Attendance for non-members is free for their first meeting, but after then a paid membership is required. Visit this link to join up – Become A Member

Bring your beer/brews to share

Remember, our meetings are all about brewing – which includes sampling. Bring your best in bottles, growlers or kegs, and remember you earn NOOKIE entry points for the annual prize draw.

Education

Australian and multi-ACT champion brewer Lawfo will be taking us through the Czech Premium Pale Lager style – including his tips to brew a great one and a tasting! This is a really great opportunity to hear direct from one of the top brewers in the country. He’s also a top guy! Always a great source of advice or to discuss your latest brew.

6-pack swap

This month’s 6-pack swap is looking good and can always do with more contributions! Last month had some huge numbers and huge beers so let’s keep that up. Our wonderful sponsor Mashematics has yet again thrown in 3 bags of malt to be drawn out and taken home by 3 lucky swappers. This month it’s 2kg of Gladfield American Ale, 1kg of Gladfield Brown and 1kg of Gladfield light crystal.

Just bring 6 of your brews and you’ll go home with a mixed 6 of beers made by your fellow club members. The more people we get the better, there isn’t a limit on the number of people who can take part and it’s a great way to get feedback for brewers of all abilities. Label your beers and post what you’re bringing on the forum https://www.canberrabrewers.com.au/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=8708&sid=ba937b2753bf4cc3cf5db8e026a36ef2

2021 Club Competition

Entries for the 2021 Club Competition are now open at https://canberrabrewers.com.au/clubcomp2021

Entries close 29 May (end of this month!) and judging dates will be 5-6 June.

The link above also has the option to volunteer as a judge and/or steward.

Further details will be posted on the forum but the club competition is a key feature of the brewing year. If you can judge or help out, or want to see what judging is like then definitely get involved.

Raffle

We’ve got a variety of great prizes again in this month’s raffle, from our valued sponsors – more details on the night.

Library

Did you know the club has a library? Well, it does! It’s an amazing resource of books about brewing, about beer, about cooking things to go with beer…really, there are heaps of books! Ask anyone in the committee or who looks like they’re in the know, or look it up on the forum.

Hoping to see you there on thursday or sometime soon! Cheers!

Kip.

Brewers,

Time for our April meeting!
Now we’ve got the Committee sorted we’ll be back to normal meetings – Education, the Swap, Raffle, Brews – all the good things!

Meeting Details

When: Thursday 1 April 2021, 7:30pm – late
Where: Bentspoke Brewery, 79 Lysaght St, Mitchell ACT 2911 (enter via side entrance on Lysaght St facing the petrol station – not the front door)
Who: Attendance for non-members is free for their first meeting, but after then a paid membership is required. Visit this link to join up – Become A Member

Bring your beer/brews to share

Remember, our meetings are all about brewing – which includes sampling. Bring your best in bottles, growlers or kegs, and remember you earn NOOKIE entry points for the annual prize draw.

Education

I happen to know that our new Education Officer Charles Newton (you likely know him as Chuck) has a bunch of great education sessions in the works for the coming year. Keep an eye out with each coming meeting for what we’ll be doing.

This week he’ll be giving us a primer on the bane of anyone who’s used a truckload of hops to make a facemelting (or, nowadays) juicy IPA – oxidation. In some styles a little bit is acceptable but in most cases it’s a great way to ruin your beer! Chuck will be taking us through how a beer can get oxidised (there are some obvious ways and some which are a regular source of debate) and ways to avoid it. These sort of fundamental concepts always lead to interesting discussions so make sure you arrive by 7.30pm and get involved.

6-pack swap

This month’s 6-pack swap is shaping up to be pretty amazing! If you’ve never taken part just bring 6 of your brews and you’ll go home with a mixed 6 of beers made by your fellow club members. The more people we get the better, there isn’t a limit on the number of people who can take part and it’s a great way to get feedback for brewers of all abilities. Label your beers and post what you’re bringing on the forum https://www.canberrabrewers.com.au/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=8683

International HomeBrew Day

International Homebrew Day (IHBD) is coming up on 1 May 2021! We’ll have more details soon but suffice to say a recipe is being adapted and we’ll have some details soon. I only took part in my first IHBD last year and, even done remotely, it was really fun brewing something you know others are brewing all around Canberra (and the world) at the same time. This year, COVID-willing, we’ll have a venue where people can bring their systems and brew alongside each other, so watch this space.

Raffle

We’ve got a variety of great prizes again in this month’s raffle, from our valued sponsors;

• Craft beers from our friends at Page Bottler
• Stuff for brewing from Mashematics & Belco Brew Supplies
• Other goodies as determined closer to the night

Library

Did you know the club has a library? Well, it does! It’s an amazing resource of books about brewing, about beer, about cooking things to go with beer…really, there are heaps of books! Ask anyone in the committee or who looks like they’re in the know, or look it up on the forum.

Hoping to see you there on thursday or sometime soon! Cheers!

Kip.

Time has come for the Canberra Brewers club to hold its Annual General Meeting.
There’ll be normal club activities minus the Education Session this month, but in addition the new club Committee will be elected.

If you’re interested in helping to run the club, please consider nominating yourself before the meeting! More info is below.

Meeting Details

When: Thursday 4th March 2021, 7:30pm – late
Where: Bentspoke Brewery, 79 Lysaght St, Mitchell ACT 2911 (enter via side entrance on Lysaght St facing the petrol station – not the front door)
Who: Attendance for non-members is free for their first meeting, but after then a paid membership is required. Visit this link to join up – Become A Member

Bring your beer/brews to share

Remember, our meetings are all about brewing – which includes sampling. Bring your best in bottles, growlers or kegs, and remember you earn NOOKIE entry points for the annual prize draw.

Raffle

We’ve got a variety of great prizes again in this month’s raffle, from our valued sponsors;

• Craft beers from our friends at Page Bottler
• Brewing ingredients from Mashematics & Belco Brew Supplies
• Other goodies as determined closer to the night

Committee Election

The AGM covers off a range of club business, but of particular note is the Committee election.
If you are interested in helping run the club as a member of the Committee, express your interest in advance of the AGM by contacting the Dicko via PM on the forum, or email him at committee.nominations@canberrabrewers.com.au.

A list of committee positions can be found here. Paid members only are eligible to apply.

 

Brew Strong
MTB

Please join the committee in raising a glass to the end of a tumultuous 2020. We’re looking forward to an exciting year for the club as restrictions continue to ease.
We are fast approaching the club’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) in March as well, and prospective committee members are encouraged to register their interest – more info on that below.

Meeting Details

When: Thursday, 11th February 2021 from 7:30pm – 9:30pm
Note: Capital Brewing Co closes around 9:30pm – 10pm and the Education Session kicks off at 7:30pm, so you’re encouraged to arrive early – you’ll be in good company!
Where: Capital Brewing Co, Building 3/1 Dairy Rd, Fyshwick ACT 2609
Who: Attendance for non-members is free for their first meeting, but after then a paid membership is required. Visit this link to join up – Become A Member

Capital Brewing Co

With the Bentspoke facility (temporarily) unavailable, Capital Brewing Co are generously hosting us this month. Brodburger is onsite at the brewery, so rather than supplying food, we encourage members to support them instead. Present proof of purchase at raffle time for $5 worth of raffle tickets per burger or hotdog!

IMPORTANT: No kegs this month, sorry brewers. Bottles and growlers only.

Bring your beer/brews to share

Remember, our meetings are all about brewing – which includes sampling. Bring your best in bottles or growlers, and remember they earn NOOKIE entry points for the annual prize draw.

Education – ESB tasting

We’re kicking the first meeting of the year off with beer tastings!
At last November’s meeting the education session looked at different ways of packaging a beer once it’s finished fermenting – bottle conditioning, beergun, counter-pressure filler and a few variations. This included a rundown on an ESB (Experimental Special Bitter) that was packaged with these different methods. We’ll be doing an (ideally blind) tasting of these bottles to see what worked best and what gave different results.
There’ll be plenty to try so make sure you’re there and ready by 7.30 when we’ll start the tasting!

Raffle

We’ve got a few great prizes for this month:

• a flow controller/measurement attachment thanks to Mashematics
• brewing ingredients thanks to Belco Brew Supplies
• beers you may not have tried, thanks to Page Bottler

Present proof of purchase at raffle time for $5 worth of raffle tickets per burger or hotdog.

BJCP Updates – Febuary 2021

The BJCP tasting course will be back on in 2021 as covid-safely as we can. We are after about 16 participants. Looking at nominally 2 Wednesdays (2nd & 4th) each month from 7:00pm on, at John James Hospital in Deakin. First lesson should be 24th Feb. This is a great oppotunity to learn about a wide variety of beers in the context of BJCP styles. This will help you understand what you are after when you brew a style and is a good segway into judging at our competions. More specific details will be on the forum with a sign up list.
Note: the dates may change at the whim of Chief Ministers, Premiers and the cursed pox but we will get there in the end.

Canberra Brewers AGM in March

The March club meeting will also comprise the club’s Annual General Meeting (AGM). It is during this meeting that new committee members will be nominated and elected via popular vote.
If you are interested in helping run the club as a member of the Committee, express your interest in advance of the AGM by contacting the Dicko via PM on the forum or message the Canberra Brewers page on Facebook to request the committee nominations email address (we won’t write it here since spambots will pick it up and Dicko isn’t a fan of spam).

A list of committee positions can be found here.

 

See you on the night – and if you can’t make it, Brew Strong and stay safe.

MTB