Category: Editor’s report and club news

By Nick Wiseman, Editor

Interest in the Brewers Showcase continued this month with Mark ‘Billy’ Bilbrough talking about his Robust Porter and Charles ‘Chuck’ Newton talking about his Schwarzbier.

Members were keen to learn about the styles and how they brewed their beers with many questions thrown at them throughout their presentations, more details and recipes will be available in a separate story to appear on the web site soon so keep an eye out.

With International Home Brew Day only a few days after the meeting Stephen ‘Kurtz’ Neilsen discussed with the club the various mashing techniques commonly used by brewers including some of those that would be demonstrated at the brew off day.

Despite most of the talk being of traditional systems such as HERMS, RIMS and three vessel gravity systems Kurtz later moved the conversation to the mysterious and often misunderstood Brew in a Bag (BIAB) method.

Gaining popularity as an alternative method to get into all grain brewing Kurtz gave a rather unbiased talk and informative session on the method noting he was looking forward to seeing the system in practice on the weekend – even posing for a photo with one of the bags that are used in the method.

The raffles for the evening consisted of a complete portable party keg system, oxygen kit and beer pack with the party keg going out to lucky member Mark Wilson.

Club President Tom ‘Dicko’ Dixon briefly spoke about some of the members heading down to the Great Australian Beer Spectapular being held in Melbourne and promised a full report on his return.

Other events to keep an eye out coming up in the next few months include the Wig & Pen brew day and the next club competition – make sure you get those entries in!

By Nick Wiseman, Editor

Canberra Brewers will learn all about mead-making at the May meeting with Dominic “Bro Fatboy” Staun giving the club a presentation of his master skills and tips for brewing the honey based drink.

The raffle will see a keg kit up for grabs including the keg, parka, charger, beer line, disconnects and tap which will see one lucky member going home fully kitted out and almost ready to pour.

Also up for the night will be the next instalment of the Brewers Showcase, this month featuring Mark Bilbrough discussing his Robust Porter and Charles Newton talking about his Schwarzbier.

Destined to be another night packed with entertainment, education and laughs you won’t want to miss out on this one.

See you all there.

UPDATE: May 1.

There’s been a last minute change to the nights educational talks with the mead talk to happen at a later date.

In place of that will be Stephen ‘Kurtz’ Neilsen who will do a lead up talk about the different mashing systems in regards to this weekends International Brew Day brew off.

By Nick Wiseman, Editor

This month saw the first of what will now be a regular part of our monthly meetings – the Brewers Showcase.

Kicking off the new addition to the club meetings was Keenan Fahy and David Steel who provided a keg each of their beer and explained to the club why they chose it and how they reproduced their selected styles.

Keenan presented his ‘Tis the Saison’ Saison on the night enjoying the higher end of the alcohol scale usually targeting around 7%.

With each batch made, he’s been reducing the amount of IBUs as the high carbonation level, dryness and phenolics should add to a higher perceived bitterness.

Although the recipe uses Magnum for bittering, Keenan says any number of hops would do that have a cohumulone level of under 20% alpha acids – check craftbrewer.com.au as they list these on the web site.

Some recipes call for spices added to the boil but Keenan said that the yeast should provide that and doesn’t add any in his recipes.

David brewed an American Brown for the night wanting something hoppy for everyday drinking with matching alcohol content.

He described his beer being towards the amber ale end of the style with a hint of chocolate malt – he would have used choc wheat if he had it on hand.

If someone wanted the beer for easier drinking he recommended pulling back a little on the dry hopping and late additions.

Fermenting wise he likes to use Thames Valley II, Bedford or Burton and the beer we all tasted on the night used Nottingham.

The next showcase will feature a Robust Porter brewed by Mark Bilbrough and a Schwarzbier from Charles Newton.

Brewers of all levels are encouraged to participate in showcase and share a beer with the club, if interested have a chat to one of the committee members.

Click here to download David's Mission Brown recipe (PDF)
Click here to download Keenan's Tis the Saison recipe (PDF)

By Nick Wiseman, Editor

Two club members stepped up to the plate this month volunteering to showcase a beer each in the clubs very first Brewers Showcase on April 05.

Keenan Fahy and David Steel talked about their selected styles and how they reproduced the beers giving detailed explanations on every step of the way.

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