April Meeting – Yeast

By Nick Wiseman, Editor

Education took on a new spin this month with Phil and
Dale Meddings from Bintani Australia giving a comprehensive talk on yeast.

In front of a quiet audience, beaten only by last year’s talk by Canberra Brewer turned professional brewer Scott ‘Cougar’ Hargrave, Dale spoke in length about today’s dry yeast strains.

Many myths and common misconceptions were thrown aside with the talk and most certainly turned many brewers back to trying dried yeast who may have gone wholly to liquid strains.

Dale went into great detail about the range of Fermentis yeasts currently available on the market as well as some other strains not yet available in smaller homebrewer-friendly packs.

Also visiting on the night was Feral Brewing owner/brewer Brendan Varis who gave the club insights into how he brews adding to Dale’s talk about yeast.

Between the two of them and Richard Watkins, members of the club left that night knowing a lot more about yeast – and in particular, the dried yeast variety.

The North vs South challenge was on with south side taking it out and Joel ‘Bainesy’ Baines having the favourite brew on the night – which was not bad at all considering it was brewed and supplied in seven days!