By Mark Bilbrough, President

9381537481_319e806853_oAnother fantastic day of judging on Sunday, July 28, saw 18 brave souls rock up bright and early to the Wig & Pen to judge the second and final club competition for the year.

We powered through many great beers covering the spectrum of lagers, bitters, specialties and Belgians (with a few stray IPA, stout, wheat and a no-yeast to round out the 60 beers in competition).

Thanks to all who entered and I hope everyone gets value from the feedback on the day.

A big thanks to the judges and stewards:

  • Craig (Stagger)
  • Joel (Bainsey)
  • Kev (Mr No-Tip)
  • Richard (Bro Lionheart)
  • Brian (Irish)
  • Steve (Lawfo)
  • Charles (Gravity)
  • Richard (Semaphore)
  • Darren (Spaz)
  • David (Gilksy)
  • Rohan (Rohan)
  • Steve (Hoggy)
  • Ben (Mashhead)
  • Paul (Moz)
  • Stephen (Dr K)
  • Jeremy (Jeremy)
  • Michael (Bunyip)

Results are below. Those of you who entered should receive your score sheets via email in the next couple of days.
BJCP points should be registered in the next couple of days.

Pale Lager, Pilsner and Strong Lager

  • Stuart Whytcross – 133 – Gold – Traditional Bock
  • Ben Solly – 128 – Gold – Munich Helles
  • Matt Hogan – 117 – Silver – Traditional Bock
  • Sean Lillywhite – 109.5 – Silver – German Pilsner
  • Stephen Lawford – 98 – Bronze – German Pilsner
  • Sean Lillywhite – 95 – Bronze – Australian Lager
  • Stephen Lawford – 94 – Bronze – Traditional Bock
  • Rohan Lilley – 84 – – Bohemian Pilsner
  • Danial Pymont – 73 – – Australian Lager
  • Stephen Lawford – 70.5 – – Munich Helles
  • Tom Dixon – 63 – – Traditional Bock

Amber and Dark Lagers

  • Steve Hogarth – 128 – Gold – Schwarzbier
  • Matt Hogan – 125 – Gold – Oktoberfest/Marzen
  • Paul Haesler – 118.5 – Silver – Schwarzbier
  • Kevin Hingston – 116 – Silver – California Common Beer
  • Matt Hogan – 115 – Silver – Schwarzbier
  • Danial Pymont – 114.5 – Silver – California Common Beer
  • Stuart Whytcross – 111.5 – Silver – Oktoberfest/Marzen
  • Rohan Lilley – 110 – Silver – California Common Beer
  • darren blackhurst – 107 – Silver – California Common Beer
  • Stuart Whytcross – 107 – Silver – Schwarzbier
  • Tom Dixon – 103.5 – Bronze – Schwarzbier
  • Tom Dixon – 101 – Bronze – Oktoberfest/Marzen

Bitter Ale

  • Matt Hogan – 118 – Silver – English Extra Special/Strong Bitter (ESB)
  • Steve Hogarth – 112 – Silver – American Amber Ale
  • Mark Bilbrough – 111.5 – Silver – English Best Bitter
  • Paul Haesler – 111 – Silver – Düsseldorfer Altbier
  • Paul Haesler – 108 – Silver – English Best Bitter
  • Stuart Whytcross – 108 – Silver – English Extra Special/Strong Bitter (ESB)
  • Tom Dixon – 106.5 – Silver – Düsseldorfer Altbier
  • Stephen Lawford – 104 – Bronze – Düsseldorfer Altbier
  • Steve Hogarth – 103 – Bronze – Australian Bitter Ale
  • Tom Dixon – 96 – Bronze – English Extra Special/Strong Bitter (ESB)
  • Steve Hogarth – 95.5 – Bronze – English Best Bitter
  • Stuart Whytcross – 88 – – Düsseldorfer Altbier
  • Matt Hogan – 70 – – Düsseldorfer Altbier

Wheat & Specialties

  • Paul Haesler – 133.5 – Gold – Other Speciality
  • Kevin Hingston – 124 – Gold – No Yeast Beer
  • Stephen Lawford – 122 – Gold – Other Speciality
  • Paul Haesler – 121 – Gold – Classic Rauchbier (Smoked Marzen)
  • darren blackhurst – 117.5 – Silver – Belgian Specialty Ale
  • darren blackhurst – 113 – Silver – Fruit Beer
  • darren blackhurst – 111 – Silver – Other Speciality
  • darren blackhurst – 108 – Silver – Other Speciality
  • darren blackhurst – 99 – Bronze – Christmas/Winter Speciality Spiced Beer
  • Kevin Hingston – 96.5 – Bronze – Spice/Herb/Vegetable Beer
  • Danial Pymont – 95.5 – Bronze – Fruit Beer
  • Sean Lillywhite – 89.5 – – Weizen/Weissbier (Wheat)

Belgians, Stout & IPA

  • Tom Dixon – 117 – Silver – Belgian Dark Strong Ale
  • Stuart Whytcross – 112 – Silver – Belgian Dark Strong Ale
  • Rohan Lilley – 111.5 – Silver – Belgian Golden Strong Ale
  • Danial Pymont – 106 – Silver – American IPA
  • Tom Dixon – 104 – Bronze – Tripel
  • Matt Hogan – 102.5 – Bronze – Belgian Dark Strong Ale
  • Jason Rapley – 100.5 – Bronze – Belgian Blond Ale
  • Sean Lillywhite – 100 – Bronze – Dubbel
  • Steve Hogarth – 98 – Bronze – Australian Stout/Foreign Extra Stout
  • Kevin Hingston – 94 – Bronze – Belgian Golden Strong Ale
  • Rohan Lilley – 89 – – Belgian Dark Strong Ale
  • darren blackhurst – 79.5 – – American IPA

By Nick Wiseman, Editor

Raffle Prizes
Raffle Prizes

A new venue (in a way), more than forty raffles prizes and 14 kegs of beer made this month’s meeting possibly one of the biggest for the year.

Breweries such as Wig & Pen, Coopers, Mountain Goat and Murrays contributed some great tasting beer and merchandise along with Paul Mercurio’s Cooking with Beer, 40+ bags of hops and a 30-plate chiller to make this month’s raffles one of the biggest ever.

Our new venue (ok, room) for the night was the dance hall as the club has got to the point where it has grown too big for the old meeting room.

The new room provided much more space for people to mingle around although the main concentration did stay pretty close to the clubs miracle boxes (now there’s a change!) seeing as there was a massive 14 kegs of beer for the night – not to mention the normal members own bottles floating about.

The 14 kegs of beer were the beers brewed as part of the International Homebrew Day held on May 4, where each brewer had the same base recipe but used a tweak of some sort to make each beer unique.

The beers went down a treat with the first round containing the base beers being taken out by Rob Horsefield.

The second round of beers included the ‘traditional’ tweaks which was also taken out by Rob with a Berry Belgian and the club President Mark ‘Billy’ Bilbrough took out the third round which was ‘Crazy’ tweaks with his American Belgian.

The media crew who filmed the video from the International Homebrew Day made an appearance on the night to mix in with the crowd as did former Canberra Brewer turned pro Scott ‘Cougar’ Hargrave.

The night went well although Chris “Duffbowl” Duffy almost lost his voice with the abundance of raffle prizes to call and everyone continued on the normal socialising and tasting each other’s beers – in between those fine tasting Belgians on tap.

The Meeting
The new room

By Mark Bilbrough, President

This month was a different pace with education still at the forefront but presented with a twist.

Four SMASH (Single Malt and Single Hop) beers from four brewers were put to the test for the club to sample the results.
Each brewer was given a never-before released hop and the club was asked to assess the the hop characteristics for bitterness, flavour and aroma.

This feedback will be provided back to HPA to inform them and help shape these new hops for the future.

The club is still growing strongly with many new members in for their first visit and a great opportunity for them to get straight into it with plenty of other members beers up for tasting.

The raffles were a huge success with previous committee members having the luck (for those who are not aware, the committee has a tendency to win prizes throughout the year).

Just a quick look ahead to next month – we’ll be tasting our Belgian Blonds/Pales from IHBD – hopefully the club will have access to the hall as it looks to be a big night.  Please try and organise car pools/taxis as these beers will be big and there will be many available for tasting.

By Nick Wiseman, Editor

This story was originally printed in the  The Army Newspaper – http://digital.realviewtechnologies.com/?iid=76841&startpage=page0000003 has been reproduced here with permission.

This story is about a beer I made, dedicated to a mate I met in the Army who was tragically killed on duty in Afghanistan and thought I’d share as a nice homebrew-related story.

It was a fantastic day in the pub on Anzac Day and I feel honoured that Ash’s family supported the beer and it was great to finally meet them. RIP Ash.


ANZAC Day was a very special occasion for the family and friends of fallen soldier Cpl Ashley Birt as they sampled a new beer brewed in his honour and bearing his name.

Birty’s Bitter was made commercially available for the day of remembrance in Cpl Birt’s hometown of Gympie, in Queensland, and also in Brisbane near his former unit of 6ESR.

The beer was originally designed and made at home by Cpl Nick Wiseman who is an Army reporter.

Cpl Wiseman met Cpl Birt while at the School of Military Engineering in 2008 when he was on his Geospatial Basic course.

“He was one of those people that everyone liked straight away,” he said.

“I was on my Multimedia Technician course and although we were on separate courses we did PT, sport and other social activities together.”

The next time Cpl Wiseman heard Cpl Birt’s name was after his death from an insider attack in Afghanistan.

Photo Craig Warhurst / The Gympie Times

Cpl Wiseman said he was the first soldier killed that he had personally known and it really hit home.

“When the name was released I didn’t believe it at first,” he said.

“After a few months I knew I had to do something in his honour and as a keen home brewer it made sense to make a beer I could have on tap all year round to remember a mate.”

He designed a mid-strength ale based on the classic English pale ale, or bitter, which was an “easy going beer dedicated to an easy going bloke”.Read more »