Category: Member Profile

Woz & Chook at Wayward Brewery in front of a fermenter
Woz & Chook at Wayward Brewery

 

In the next week or so, Wayward brewing will have a limited release beer around town. It is their Banoffee Wheat beer and it is a result of the #mywaywardbrew competition they ran earlier this year that was won by one of our members Warwick Ferguson, AKA Woz, with a toffee malt inspired wheat beer. The focus was on the banana ester from the right yeast with a hit of rich toffee malt to give it a banoffee flavour. Banoffee pie is the classic British dessert that features banana and toffee.

Woz calls his backyard brewery Chook’n’Walrus, a combination of Woz’s wife’s and his nicknames for each other (too cute). He has been brewing since 2016 when Chook gave him the normal Coppers home brew setup. He soon hit the limits of that format and, early last year, moved up to a Grainfather.  His favourite brews are Pale Ales, IPA’s and Porters but he is not scared to get a bit out-there, hence the idea for the banoffee wheat beer.

The Walrus really enjoyed his time at the WaywWayward_Banoffee_Hefeard brewery. They looked after him every step of the way, including delaying things when he had a family medical emergency that delayed the brew day a few weeks.  Fay from Wayward was his main contact through the competition and planning and was incredibly helpful. On the brew day, good things got better. Woz worked with Shaun Blissett, Wayward’s head brewer to scale up the Banoffee Wheat beer to a commercial batch. As Woz put it “Shaun was great. Gave me an amazing run down of all aspects of Wayward brewing. Couldn’t be more helpful or welcoming.” They gave him the full brewery tour and even had him help decide some of the ingredients on their next ‘macadamia’ beer.

For Woz this was an amazing experience and something he can brag about for years. For Wayward, it was a chance to do something new and different again. Sound like a great combination but you can judge for yourself when you get to try some.

More info is here.

https://www.waywardbrewing.com.au/post/mywaywardbrew-winner

 

By Nick Wiseman, Editor

Mark Overton and Richard Watkins
Mark Overton and Richard Watkins

Landing his first job in 1990 straight out of university and not having much money left to grab a beer Mark Overton started into the hobby of home brewing.

Brewing with no temperature control in the sunny city of Brisbane, QLD tended to produce under-par beers with explosive natures sending shard of glass into the pool and ceiling.

Fast forward to today and Mark now brews all-grain but keeps the simplicity of his starting years with equipment held together with superglue and bottle-conditioning all his beers.

Although he does not brew on the latest technological, automated and stainless steel equipment his 20 litre HLT, 15 litre round willow esky and 40 litre urn have won him Brewer of the Year and Best of Show last year.

His beer, Scarecrow Cream Ale, has since been brewed and put on tap at the Wig & Pen for everyone to enjoy.

Mark said he came up for the idea of the beer as he was looking for something simple and low on hops compared to most of his other beers.

“I wanted something that my wife would be happy to drink rather than just sip and pass it back to me then reaching for a glass of water,” he said.

“It’s a clean, bright, lightly hopped and refreshing ale.”

Since his first batch last year he has made it two more times and enjoys the latest batch best which used a different hop variety.

Mark also added that the recipe was best after at least two months in the bottle and that he would most likely be making it more often with the neighbours taking a liking to it.

Scarecrow Cream Ale Wig & Pen label artwork
Scarecrow Cream Ale Wig & Pen label artwork

When told his beer would be brewed by Richard Watkins at the Wig & Pen he said he was over the moon.

“Making it with Richard was a once in a lifetime opportunity and treat – especially as he allowed me to bring my family along,” he said.

“He gave me plenty of advice on how to improve my brewing – many which I have implemented already.”

Mark has been a member of Canberra Brewers since November 2006 after wanting to improve his beer and brewing techniques and to get exposure to other brewers and enter competitions.

Richard Watkins (L), Mark Overton and his two sons Jack and Max.
Richard Watkins (L), Mark Overton and his sons Jack and Max.

Compiled by Patrick Baggoley

Growler headshot People get into serious home brewing for many different reasons. They might enjoy the creative side of learning new recipes, the engineering side of solving process issues or building equipment, the material side of collecting gadgets and toys, the sharing good beer with mates, or just the challenge of creating a quality product from first principals.

Chris De La Rue, aka Growler, is one person who ticks all those boxes, and more. To say he is passionate about beer and brewing is an understatement. Some may say he's obsessive, and who are we to say that’s a bad thing!

Meticulous is the best word to describe both Chris’ brewing and his home brewery. On a brew day, everything is polished (literally) and planned to the nth degree, an impressive sight. The equipment is carefully thought-out, and you know he’s spent just as much time planning the recipe as he has working out the process.

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Compiled by Patrick Baggoley

Billy_profile_pic Like many good brewers, Mark Bilbrough (better known as Billy) started out playing with kits in order to get cheap beer. But the Canberra Brewers helped turn this into a full-blown addiction to American hops and an unsettling devotion to Jamil Zainasheff and the Brewing Network.

Billy’s engineering background makes each brew session an exercise in striving for precision, chasing numbers and playing with gadgets while trying to eliminate unnecessary steps from the process. And this has resulted in some outstanding results.

This year while juggling work travel, family duties and brewing as much as possible (all while listening to BN podcasts), he’s also taken on the role of Competition Secretary, having successfully run our first club comp for 2011 — a huge effort considering we had a whopping 50 beers.

And, like most good engineers, he enjoys the challenge of finding the bottom of a beer glass, whenever possible. Repeatedly. 😉

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