Canberra Brewers

The Brew Off - International Home Brew Day 2012

By Tom Dixon, President

International Home Brew Day was celebrated in true home brewer style on May 5, with members of the Canberra Brewers putting three brewing styles to test. 

The three brewing styles being pitted against each other were a Heat Exchanged Recirculating Mash System (HERMS), a ‘traditional’ three vessel system and the newer Brew in a Bag (BIAB) method. Half of the HERMS brew also got ‘cubed’ to experiment with a no-chill method prior to fermentation.

With the meeting place already decided at Craig “Stagger” Webber’s fine Brewery/Bar, all that was left were the brewers themselves, their equipment and then beer, food and the rest of the club.

The Brewers Showcase - May

By Nick Wiseman, Editor

Dark beers made up this month’s Brewers Showcase with a Robust Porter being presented by Mark ‘Billy’ Bilbrough and a Schwarzbier by Charles ‘Chuck’ Newton.

Upon hearing about the Brewers Showcase earlier this year Billy had already made his mind up to do something for the cooler winter months – a Robust Porter.

Inspired by his homebrewing hero Jamil Zainasheff, Billy modified the recipe from ‘Brewing Classic Styles’ slightly to allow the beer to be enjoyed earlier with little aging.

He also discussed the origins of the style, how it changed and disappeared for quite a while and how it was then rediscovered and has once again become a popular style.

Chuck on the other hand decided to brew a Schwarzbier which despite having a little hit and miss history with lagers was quite happy with how it turned out.

Being one of the first times using Midnight Wheat he said he was very happy with the character it imparted into the beer and would definitely use it in his stouts in the future.

Chuck then explained to the members more details about the German dark lager and how it came to be also mentioning he would be interested to see how it fares in the upcoming club competition.

Big thanks to both members for continuing on the Brewers Showcase and educating the club on two of the darker and popular styles of interest to brewers.

May Meeting

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!

May Meeting Preview

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.

Brewers Showcase - April

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)

April Meeting - The Brewers Showcase

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.

The members listened in with keen interest about the beers and the styles with many compliments  throughout the night.

Keenan provided his Saison while David supplied an American Brown which in his words “managed to get better on the drive to the meeting”.

Available to taste for all members on the clubs miracle boxes the beers went down a treat and had many questions from the floor wanting to know more.

Look out shortly for a dedicated story about the showcase and what it has to offer for the rest of the year.

April Meeting Preview

By Nick Wiseman, Editor

The April meeting is almost here and this month will feature the very first Brewers Showcase.

Club members Keenan Fahy and David Steel will be showcasing a Saison and American Brown for members to taste and will be talking about what went into the beer behind the scenes.

These sessions will continue throughout the year and will give club members an invaluable insight into different beer styles and how the selected brewer went around creating their version of it.

Up for grabs will be a very handy refractometer in the clubs raffles as well as some tasty craft beer packs and a few other items.

Coming up in May is ‘International Home Brew Day’ and details of our involvement will be revealed at the meeting so make sure you’re all there.

Club Competition One Report

By Chris De La Rue, Competition Secretary

The first 2012 club completion was judged on Sunday 18 June 2012, with a fine sunny day and everyone arriving at the venue on-time.  Judging of the 24 entries commenced at 10am sharp and concluded just after 12 noon.

While the number of entries was well down compared to last year, expectations were still high for some quality beers to hit the judges’ palettes.

Two judging flights were setup comprising of:

Flight one: Kurtz at the helm, Dicko and Semaphore, judged 11 beers in the following categories… Low Alcohol (<4%Abv), Porter, India Pale Ale and Brown Ales, and

Flight two: Stagger at the helm, Mozzie and Mashhead, judged 12 beers in the following categories…Pale Ale, Amber & Dark Lager, Bitter Ale and Farmhouse Ale & Wild Beer. (Keenan Fahy  also Apprentice judged on this flight).

As hoped, the quality of the beers was high and by the end of judging four Gold, nine Silver and seven Bronze medals were awarded.

March Meeting Preview

By Nick Wiseman, Editor

The second club meeting for the year is almost upon us being held this Thursday, March 01 at the Harmonie Club in Narrabundah.

New members of the club are encouraged to bring some samples of their beer to share of the night which is not only a great way to share your fermented art but to also get feedback from the more experienced members of the club.

Apart from the usual member samples on offer and wonderful raffle prizes, a presentation on water composition will certainly grab members and most likely teach a few things about the major ingredient in all our beers.

A report on the clubs participation at the highly successful Multicultural Festival will no doubt be of interest to everyone as will the normal social side of the night and talking about the drink we all love to share.

All members are also reminded that the Club Comp #1 is now open for members to register their entries at http://forum.canberrabrewers.org/entries/cb_entries.php.

Get brewing and see you at the meeting!

Multicultural Festival 2012

By Nick Wiseman, Editor

Thirty eight kegs of beer poured freely through the taps of the highly successful Canberra Brewers Club stall at the 2012 National Multicultural Festival in Canberra during February 10 – 12.

Run in collaboration with the Wig & Pen the club had Malty Cultural as the flagship beer while also offering 61 Brewers Barley Wine, Kembery Kolsch, Midas Imperial Pilsner, Ballyragget Irish Red Ale and Thirsty Worm Cider over the course of the weekend.

Despite initial weather reports forecasting rain, the weekend remained fairly dry, which resulted in what initial records have indicated as more than 260, 000 visitors across the three-day festival.

The festival organisers have reported it to be the biggest crowd in the events 16-year history resulting in what seemed to be a never ending queue of customers eager to quench their thirst and enjoy a better quality beer at the clubs stall.

Months of planning and preparation by both the 2011 and 2012 committees came to a head the weekend prior when club members Tom Dixon, Craig Webber and Wig & Pen Head Brewer Richard Watkins joined forces to create the bar for the upcoming festival.

After a day in the Wig & Pen basement building and welding away, a thing of beauty was given life and a hard working team earned a well deserved beer.