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 committee has held its first meeting for the year and rest assured we’re already working to fill the diary with beer and brewing related events. We’re also looking at a few changes to how we do things at the club, but I won’t steal the thunder from the other committee members so you’ll just have to wait a bit longer on that. What we do hope is that through the year the events will all feed into the club’s aims (as stated at the first meeting in 1995 and paraphrased since) “to promote the brewing of beer and the art of making it, to improve the quality of the beer we brew, to promote the sensible use of alcohol, and to create a social atmosphere”. With that said, or written, we’d still love to hear from you with any ideas or possible events we could include on our calendar.
 
I’m sure it will be another great year for the Canberra Brewers so remember…. it’s your club – get involved.

Darryl — president@canberrabrewers.org