Canberra Brewers

Welcome to 2010

By Darryl Barbour, President

Welcome, brewers, to 2010 and shortly to our first club meeting of the year (4 February). I trust that you had at least a short break over Christmas and New Year to unwind, spend time with family and friends, and of course to brew some tasty beers to get you through the summer. I, alas, only managed a New Year’s day brew, but a Summer/Golden Ale with Palisade, Cascade and Glacier is kegged and on tap. But we’ll soon be rectifying the lack of brewing – after all the club has an AABC title to defend!

However, lets not get ahead of ourselves… who is this new president? Well, I joined Canberra Brewers in 2004, the year I moved to Canberra. I had at that stage brewed one kit (can + stovetop specialty grain steep) and one ginger beer. Colin from Brew Your Own at Home suggested I get along to the club meeting… and here we are. It was great meeting people with a similar interest in brewing and with the guidance from a heap of different members I’ve since moved into partial mashes and all-grain brewing – especially for the creative control over the process. Pale ales (English versions) and wheat beers would be the main styles I brew. If I’m not brewing, I’m probably spending time with the family, flying radio controlled models or getting a sneaky bit of caving in.

The new look website and newsletter

By Sam Highley, Editor

Welcome to the new website of the Canberra Brewers Club, which also incorporates the club newsletter known as The Ferm. Firstly, i'll introduce myself. My name is Sam Highley (aka sammy) and I was elected to the position of Ferm Editor for 2010. I've been brewing for just three years or so, and like most brewers I started out by making kit beers from the likes of Coopers and Morgans. Is that really brewing, or is it just fermenting?

I soon discovered the limitations of hopped-extract kits, and moved into making extract beers with hop additions within just a few months. I was immediately blown away by the possibilities of crafting a beer from malt extract, hops and yeast, and shortly thereafter i'd purchased a mash-tun and was diving into all-grain brewing. I think it's safe to say — and my family will back me up on this — that it has become an all-consuming passion for me, with almost every spare moment taken up with either brewing, or researching brewing and brewing-related topics.

Social Secretary

By Tom Dixon, Social Secretary

G’day Brewers, I hope you have all recovered from the festive period, because the 2010 Canberra Brewers Calendar is going to be bigger and more chock-full than Hagrid’s Y-fronts! For the first time in five years, we are going to bring back the Brewer Bus Tours, with a couple of road trips currently being mapped out. You can also expect all of your old favourites including Oktoberfest and the Wig and Pen Brew Day. We have also introduced the ‘Social Scene’ Forum to advertise and organise official Canberra Brewers events throughout the year. Feel free to also use this forum to advertise your own events, everything from brew days to BBQs.

Treasurer's Report

By Paul Haesler, Treasurer

Hi guys, i'm Paul Haesler - phaesler on the Forum and mostly referred to as Brother Mozzie. For my sins I'm your treasurer for the third time. We're starting the year from the strongest financial position the club has yet enjoyed, and although the committee is determined not to piss it all up against the wall, we are not a for-profit organisation and I hope to plough much of those funds back to the members who make this the best brewing club in Australia.

If you want to enjoy the benefits of this unprecedented spending spree, you need to be a fully paid-up member. All memberships expired at the December meeting, so unless you paid me in cash then, or have paid electronically since, your membership is technically lapsed.  We usually allow a month or two's grace for you all to get your acts together, but after the March (or maybe April) meeting, I will be asking our new Web Minion to deactivate the web accounts of non-financial members.

Membership is still the low low price of $30 for the year. Payment may be made in cash at meetings, or by direct electronic transfer to the club account. Contact me for the bank account details, and please make sure you include your name in the description, or I won't know that you've paid.

I look forward to seeing you all at club meetings throughout the year. Bro Mozzie

Competition Secretary

By Peter Devries, Competition Secretary

Welcome all to the first Ferm of 2010! The club competition's for 2010 will follow on from last year’s excellent effort coordinated by the outgoing Competition Secretary, Charles Newton. The same beers and style categories will appear this year, with the major difference being that the beers from competition three have been swapped for those in competition one. There were a few reasons to make this switch, but the first one was to get your fresh-is-best summer ales and wheat beers into the first competition of the year.

Not all of our members have the ability to adequately cool their fermenters during warmer weather, and this may have presented an issue for those wishing to brew Lagers and Pilseners. The beers that may need cooler weather can therefore be brewed in the middle of the year, and then entered into competition three in August. We also have the stronger beers — that need some quality time spent in the keg — in competition three. So, think about those strong beers now, and get brewing!

Web Minion

Graham Achilles, Web Minion

Hi fellow brewers, my name is Graham and I’ve taken over admin of the Canberra Brewers website and forum for this year. I would like to say a thanks to Jamie (pome) for his great work last year, particularly with having to handle the Nationals and his development of the new online competition form. Jamie took the time just prior to Christmas to go through the webmaster job with me in detail. I’m anticipating that I’ll need support from both Jamie and Chris (Duffbowl) throughout the year.

I joined Canberra Brewers at the start of 2007, and started all-grain brewing at the end of 2008, after completing the 2008 BJCP course. I hope to start putting some entries into this year’s competitions. I have three kids which places some challenges into finding time on the weekends for brewing. One new member joined the club in December and he has been added to the forum. The usual cleanup of forum accounts will occur after the March meeting, to allow everyone time to pay their membership renewals. (Editor: Graham, how about a photo?)

Sargent Arms Bar and Brewery

By Steve Sargent (aka Sarge)

February 2009 marked the start of construction of the “Sargent Arms Bar and Brewery”. Twelve months in the making, it is a purpose built, 24 square metre ‘shed’ in the backyard. It also includes a 15 square metre deck. Footings are 600 mm deep, with stirrups concreted into the holes. 100 X 100 mm treated pine posts support the treated pine bearers and floor joists. There are 16 posts in all, supporting four bearers, plus another bearer that is dyna-bolted to the double brick wall at the rear. The floor is ‘yellow tongue’ particle board. The frames are standard structural pine and the rafters are 4.6 metre long treated pine and span the 4 metre wide floor space with a 600 mm eave. The whole thing is clad with corrugated iron and both walls and roof are insulated. It has two second-hand sliding cedar doors, 1 X 1.8 metre and 1 X 2.4 metre, courtesy of my cousin,  giving a total of 4.2 metres of glass over the 6 metre length. The decking is new timber but was weathered, so I picked it up for $2 per metre.

Disco Stu's European beer adventure

Stuart Whytcross

Hi, my name is Stuart Whytcross (disco stu) from Griffith NSW. I have been all-grain brewing for about two years now. In October last year I was introduced to the Canberra Brewers Club by Dicko at the Nationals. I was amazed to find so many other people as passionate about brewing as myself, and so the next day I became a member of the National Champions!

Being 350kms from Canberra, I have yet to attend my first Canberra Brewers meeting, but I still manage to get to Canberra quite regularly. Since joining the Club my brewing has dramatically improved as well as my enjoyment of the hobby. The friendship and knowledge I have gained from members on visits to Canberra, the forum, ‘The Ferm’ and competitions has been extraordinary to say the least.