Canberra Brewers

President, Redux

By Nicholas Wiseman, Editor

The club held its final end of year bash and annual general meeting (AGM) on Friday 2 December, with the old committee dissolved and the 2012 team voted in. Leadership of the club continues on next year with Tom Dixon resuming his role as club president along with treasurer David Gilks.

Joining them are Chris De La Rue as competition secretary, Bruce Arnold as social secretary, Ben Harmer as education officer and Nick Wiseman as editor. Leaving the committee after a busy and successful year is Steve Norrie, Sam Highley, Mark Bilbrough and Dan Rayner.

Also announced on the night was the winner of the Craig Robinson Trophy which went to Ben Harmer with his behind the scenes and never requested assistance and the fact “he was not a wanker”. Honourable mentions for the award went to Chris De La Rue, Mark Bilbrough, David Gilks and the IT team.

This year’s NOOKIE ("Newcastle Or Otherwise Kinda Interstate Experience") prize went to none-other than the President, Tom Dixon, despite initial protests and offering it back for a redraw, the club spoke and he grudgingly accepted! This is the third year in a row that the President of the club has taken out the NOOKIE prize.

Memberships are now due for 2012 for those who missed the meeting and details can be found online on the forum, for those who did turn up and opted to pay by transfer please don’t forget! Next year is looking to be big with the club taking part in the National Multicultural Festival in February as well as the usual mix of competitions and social events.

Feast of the beast

By Sam Highley

Over at 666 ABC Canberra they've been running a series known as Feast, where they're looking at the culinary aspects of life in Canberra and the region. The series covers everything from growing, buying, cooking and consuming food and drink, and back in September they focussed on brewing. Of course, no focus on brewing would be complete without delving into beer, and Canberra Brewers member Chris De La Rue showed Jo Laverty from 666 around his garage with a tour of his equipment and process.

 

 

 

Wig & Pen Brew Day

By Sam Highley, Editor

One of the most popular days on the Canberra Brewers calendar each year is the Wig & Pen Brew Day. The extremely generous support of Lachie McOmish (owner) and Richard Watkins (brewmaster) of the Wig & Pen allowed about sixty members and friends to gather at the crack of 9am on Saturday 4 June, for a day full of beer, coffee, cheese and food.

Richard set out to provide evidence that a focus on the process, rather than the ingredients, is the best way to improve your brewing. With this in mind, he designed a beer featuring no less than sixty ingredients, including twenty different types of both malt and hops. The resulting beer was on-tap recently at the July club meeting, and the general consensus was that it was a definite winner.

Canberra Brewers Incorporated

By Sam Highley, Editor

The Canberra Brewers club reached a significant milestone on 10 March 2011 when the club successfully incorporated as an association in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). This followed the successful vote on various motions at the February meeting that allowed the club to proceed to the formal registration process.

Incorporation as an association allows the club to, amongst other things, obtain public liability insurance. Having this insurance will mean that the club can participate in a greater number of public and community events. Club President Tom Dixon (aka Dicko) points out that being able to provide fully insured brewing demonstrations and tastings at events like the Australian Science Festival, National Capital Craft Beer Festival and Multicultural Festival, is a great way of enhancing the connection of the club to the community.

Stagger's brew day

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.

A Night with Chuck Hahn

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.

Sydney bus tour — part two

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.

Evolution of "The Ferm"

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.

Sydney bus tour - part one

By Sam Highley, Editor

The Canberra Brewers Sydney bus tour kicked off early on the morning of Saturday May 15. Collective thoughts of suffering the wrath of our illustrious leader, Dicko, had club members all over Canberra struggling out of bed, long before even the keenest Passer domesticus had uttered a single waft of wind from their avian backsides.

The time was 7am, eyes were bleary, and Richard Watkins, brewmaster and all-round fantastic supporter of the club, opened the doors of the Wig & Pen early for us. Not only did this provide a suitable meeting place, but also the first stop on the brewery tour. Mindful of the early hour and the potential of 16-hours of beer consumption ahead, most of us kicked the day off with a light English or Belgian ale.

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.