Category: Editor’s report and club news

By Sam Highley, Editor

The first big event of the year for the Canberra Brewers kicked off on Saturday 12 February with a brew day at the house of former Club-President Craig Webber (Stagger). As previously mentioned by Dan the event was designed to be both social and educational, providing an opportunity to meet members outside of the normal monthly club meeting, and also get a chance to see the same beer being brewed on two different systems.

The plan was to brew two separate batches of a Stone & Wood Pacific Ale style beer using both Stagger's seriously sweet PID-controlled Heat Exchanged Recirculating Mash System (HERMS), and also his old (but very successful) gravity-fed system now used by neighbour Matt.

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By Sam Highley, Editor

If you’re a fan of the range of brews from James Squire, and you like a good bite to eat, then A night with Chuck Hahn is for you. This event, on Thursday October 28, gives you the opportunity to join Chuck Hahn as he shares his exquisite knowledge of the art of brewing, and how beer can be matched with food to create a unique dining experience. Hosted at the Canberra Club in Civic (brewers, you know where it is, it’s a stones throw from the Wig and Pen), the beers presented for tasting on the night will be the Sundowner Lager, Golden Ale, Amber Ale, Pilsener and the Porter. Poor IPA, left out again.

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By Sam Highley, Editor

After a quick stop at the hotel, strategically located right in the heart of Sydney beer-country, we took off for the Redoak Boutique Beer Cafe. Between all of us we sampled most of the beers on the menu, and I don’t recall a single bad word about any of them. Standouts at Redoak include their signature beer, the Framboise Froment, the various rich lagers like Vienna and Bock, and their sour lagers and ales.

Time was getting away from us, so we took off on foot for the Schwartz Brewery located within the Macquarie Hotel. What can I say? Many of the brewers were excited to see White Rabbit Dark on tap. And then Paul kicked Dicko’s arse in pool. And then we left.

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By Sam Highley, Editor

The Canberra Brewers club has a long history of publishing a club newsletter. In fact, that history goes back to Issue 1 in 1995, when the club had around 45 members, the meetings were held at the Wig & Pen, and Canberra phone numbers had only progressed to seven digits. The newsletter, called The Ferm (from 'fermentation' for those non-brewers), was produced, printed and, being before the widespread adoption of the internet, mailed in hard-copy to all members.

The first issue was published shortly after the inaugural meeting of the club was held at the Wig & Pen on March 8, 1995. The Executive was comprised of John Hamilton as President, Chris Elworthy as Vice-President, Chris Pittock as Secretary and John Nagle as Treasurer, with Bob Quee, Len Temple-Heard, Myles Parker and Tony Maurer serving as additional committee members. An initial club membership fee of $5 covered the period from March to July 1995, and was used to cover mostly the expense of producing and mailing The Ferm.

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