Category: Editor’s report and club news

This month we will be doing more for beginners with education and the start of our mentoring program. We will also have some opportunities for the mead lovers.

Education Session @ 7:30pm

Water, how hard can it be? – Improving your beer via water modification

Mark ‘Billy’ Billbrough, our long standing club member, will be explaining the ins and outs of brewing water and how to optimise it for your brew.

Billy will be covering three levels of depth:

• The Shallow End (Beginner) – essentials of brewing water treatment, what is and isn’t important, how to get started. These are the core things for brewers with kits up to basic all grain;
• Up to your Neck (Intermediate) – Basics on salt water additions, how to squeeze the flavour from your hops with water modification;
• The Deep End (Advanced) – Running through some software tools to assist brewers in modifying water, and covering a “seasoning” approach to water additions.

Mead experiments

We are organising a pile of mini mead experiments. We plans to have members make small batches. The aim is to improve the club’s mead making and judging skills. If you are interested, talk to Tarun (Tunips) at the meeting and if you know a good supply of honey, please step forward.

Asset Easter hunt

As we now have a new assets manager our first task is to catalogue what assets the club actually has. Over the years the club has obtained an assortment of items, many of which we are trying to locate and we ask the following of long term members to PM Turnips with a list of all assets you have, know about or have helped the club acquire over the years – the more specific the better, even if the assets have not been seen for a while. Knowing what items are missing will greatly help in locating them. Hint – hold an Easter egg hunt in your brew shed and see what you find!

Library

We are looking to increase our library in the Mead, Cider and alternative areas. If you know of any books, catch up with Turnips and give him your suggestions.

Make sure you check out the library account. Go to https://canberrabrewers.librarika.com/ and check out some great resources and reserve a book or two to read over the next month.  You can reserve a copy of something and we’ll deliver it at the meeting.  If the book is on loan, email education@canberrabrewers.com.au and we’ll arrange it to be brought back for you to borrow.  Don’t have access to the library? Email us and we’ll hook you up.

Raffle & NOOKIE !

Again there will be some great raffle prizes including grain from Voyger Malts (thanks Stu), hops from Mashematics (thanks Kurtz) Beer from Catpial Brewing and they are the minor prizes. Also the new NOOKIE is still being sorted but is garanteed to be an interesting brewday at a great brewery. Remember every time you enter the raffle at club night and buy $5 or more of tickets you get an entry into the Nookie, bring a bottle(s) of beer of 750ml or more and get another ticket, bring a keg get 3 Tickets! Get on it!

Mentor brewing competition.

We are asking for volunteer mentors to assist new brewers to get their first beer into one of the local competitions. The mentor and new brewer get paired up to design and brew a beer on the new member’s kit. We have started to call on mentors and will be asking for new brewers on Wednesday. They will be judged against each other as well as be aimed at comps. Details will be announced at the meeting.

‘Dark Fest’ brewing competition

If you felt the buzz on social media, you will know there is a Dark Fest brewing comp coming to Canberra. This is not a club or ANHC event but something completly different. Mitch, one of the organisers will be at the meeting to tell all and answer questions.

Social outing to GABS

If you have never been to GABS, here’s your chance. If you have, you will want to go again. The club is looking to organise a trip to GABS on the weekend of 1-2 June. Please ask at the meeing or check the forum to register interest.

New Members please check out the forum

The forum https://www.canberrabrewers.com.au/forum/index.php is a great place to find out what’s on, get tips and info and exchange equipment. Whether you need a few bottles or want to sell your excess brewing gear, it is they place to do it.

 

Education Session @ 7:30pm

Stu Whytcross of Voyager Craft Malt fame is back this month to take us through a malt sensory evaluation process using a hot steeping method. Stu will also give us a rundown on all the exciting things happening at Voyager. Stu’s had a long association with the club and his presentations are always popular so make sure you get to Gorman House at 7.30pm hear from this local legend.

2019 Annual General Meeting (AGM)

A reminder that we have our Annual General Meeting (AGM) in March where all positions are up for re-election as per Rules of Association.

The office-bearers of the club are:

·         The president;

·         The treasurer;

·         The social secretary;

·         The competition secretary;

·         The education officer;

·         The editor;

The ordinary committee members of the club are:

·         (The webmaster;

·         The Assets Manager;

·         assistant committee member.

If you are interested in nominating yourself or someone else for one of these positions, please send an email to Tom Dixon at Dicko on the forum or speak to him at the start of this month’s meeting.

Memberships!

Ladies and gentleman we are going to be much swifter in asking for you to pay you membership dues this year. You will have until the end of March before we start the cut off of non-paying members. A reminder the all membership renewals are online through our payment portal. http://www.canberrabrewers.com.au/about-us/become-a-member/

Another Multicultural Festival done and dusted

The 2019 Multicultural festival was a great success thanks to the help from our members and club supporters. We will announce how we went at this month’s meeting.

Raffle Prizes

Another great raffle this month with bags of grain courtesy of Voyager, a Gift voucher for you and friend to enjoy a meal and beers at “To all my friends”. Some Evil eye from local brewers Capital brewing.

Library

Make sure you check out the library account.  Visit: https://canberrabrewers.librarika.com/ and check out some great resources and reserve a book or two to read over the next month.  You can reserve a copy of something and we’ll deliver it at the meeting.  If the book is on loan, email education@canberrabrewers.com.au and we’ll arrange it to be brought back for you to borrow.  Don’t have access to the library? Email us and we’ll hook you up.

NOOKIE !

Bring beer, get NOOKIE. Remember every time you enter the raffle at club night and buy $5 or more of tickets you get an entry into the Nookie, bring a bottle(s) of beer of 750ml or more and get another ticket, bring a keg get 3 Tickets! Get on it!

Six-Pack Swap

You contribute a six pack of your beers and get to sample a mixed six pack of styles, flavours, brewing techniques and ingredients, all packaged up by your fellow brewers. (It doesn’t matter if your beers will need a bit more time in the bottle before they’re ready to drink, join the swap and just suggest a ‘don’t drink before’ date). Add your details in the forum. Please put some kind of identifying mark or label on your bottles and bring them along to swap on Wednesday night.

Education Session @ 7:30pm

Multiple award winning and 2016 & 2017 ACT Champion Brewer, Stephen (Lawfo) Lawford, will be spilling his secrets in how to prepare yourself to brew strong and be in the running to take out ACT Champion Brewer and have a chance at the holy grail of Champion Australian Brewer!. Be early and meet in the training room to hear what it takes.

Multicultural Festival – 15-17^th February

For those of you who don’t regularly log onto the forums this year’s annual fundraiser for the club, the National Multicultural Festival is on in a few weeks from the 15-17th February. We still need volunteers to help on many of the shifts. So if you are available for the weekend, log onto the forum and put yourself down for at least a shift or two, to help us out. Remember this is how we can subsidise our Gorman meeting venue and other events throughout the year, so make sure you do you bit to help out! Everyone who participates will get a Canberra Brewers Multicultural T-Shirt.

To allow for the T-shirts to be printed, the last call for T-shirt sizes will be this Friday 1^st of February. Some extras will be ordered but first in best dressed.

Announcement of the 2018 Clubman of the year!

Announcement of the clubman of the year was delayed until our February meeting. We look forward to hearing who’s is deserving of this prestigious award for 2018.

Raffle Prizes

A FERMENTASAURUS!!!! Will be up for grabs, some Grainfather merch, items from our supports Belco Brew Supplies and Mashematics, and of course Craft Beer.

Library

Make sure you check out the library account.  Visit: https://canberrabrewers.librarika.com/ and check out some great resources and reserve a book or two to read over the next month.  You can reserve a copy of something and we’ll deliver it at the meeting.  If the book is on loan, email education@canberrabrewers.com.au and we’ll arrange it to be brought back for you to borrow.  Don’t have access to the library? Email us and we’ll hook you up.

NOOKIE !

The 2018 Nookie (Newcastle or otherwise kinda interstate experience) was drawn at the December meeting with Dan Childs being the 2018 Winner!. Dan and family will be heading to Brisvegas for the weekend to join White Lies Brewery in a day of brewing and festivities for the family.

With a new NOOKIE year starting this month, remember every time you enter the raffle at club night and buy $5 or more of tickets you get an entry into the Nookie, bring a bottle(s) of beer of 750ml or more and get another ticket, bring a keg get 3 Tickets! Get on it!

Canberra Brewers December Meeting – 7:30pm

 

Education Session

This month we present Tim from Wild Polly, https://www.facebook.com/WildPollyBrews/
a new brewery opening up in Canberra will be giving us a run-down on what he has planned for the brewery, including some of the trials and tribulations of brewing with malted sorghum. Get there for 7.30 to hear all about it.

 

Raffle

Hops, Mosaic pale ale fresh wort kit, keg fridge conversion kit and Inkbird wireless thermometer

 

Library

Make sure you check out the library account. Visit: https://canberrabrewers.librarika.com/ and check out some great resources and reserve a book or two to read over the next month. You can reserve a copy of something and we’ll deliver it at the meeting. If the book is on loan, email education@canberrabrewers.com.au and we’ll arrange it to be brought back for you to borrow.  Don’t have access to the library? Email us and we’ll hook you up.

 

Christmas Party

Christmas has crept up on us with all our focus on the ANHC this year. We’d like to get an expression of interest for a Christmas party around the next few weekends in December.
Like previous years we would like it to be a family event so we’d like to seek availability of members and their families in the coming weeks to make this happen.
Depending on numbers we will consider events for the kidlets and a suitable location.
Proposed dates would be 8th-9th or 15th-16th December?
Please post your preferred day and how many attending, including kids and their ages here.

 

National Multicultural Festival Sub-Committee

The 2019 National Multicultural Festival, colloquially known by us as the Multicultural Festival(MCF) will be held on the 15-17th February.  The Festival is far and away our biggest and most important fundraiser and makes possible such things as International Home Brew Day, Wig and Pen Brew day, Oktoberfest, Christmas party, BJCP,  Club Library and more.  We are looking for people interested in being a part of the MCF sub-committee to be instrumental in organising a successful MCF.  Please talk to the President for more information about MCF.

 

Six-Pack Swap

The last club meeting for the year is next Wednesday 5 December, and along with it is your last chance to join the 6 pack swap. You contribute a six pack of your beers and get to sample a mixed six pack of styles, flavours, brewing techniques and ingredients, all packaged up by your fellow brewers. (It doesn’t matter if your beers will need a bit more time in the bottle before they’re ready to drink, join the swap and just suggest a ‘don’t drink before’ date). Add your details in the forum. Please put some kind of identifying mark or label on your bottles and bring them along to swap on Wednesday night.
A few of us are preparing for the BJCP exam in February 2019 and are looking to hone our beer description skills. This isn’t about passing judgement on your contribution to the swap, but if you’d like to hear feedback on how some of us are learning to describe your beer, mention it in the forum post and we’ll share our thoughts with you.

 

N.O.O.K.I.E !

Please don’t forget to bring beer to the meeting.  Your committee will furnish you with additional entries in the annual N.O.O.K.I.E. raffle.  Brewers who bring at least 750mls of beer will receive 1x N.O.O.K.I.E. entry and brewers who bring a keg will receive 3x N.O.O.K.I.E. entries.  Brewers can claim their N.O.O.K.I.E. entries from the raffle table when tickets are being sold on the night.