Canberra Brewer August meeting preview

Greetings brewers, another big month of beer in Canberra, with the launch of Tom Dixon’s Wig and Pen Trophy winning Dusseldorf Altbier “Tom, Dick and Harry” at the Wig, another Pact Brewing Co launch, and a Canberra Brewers club trip to Young Henrys and Batch Brewing in Sydney.

So, it’s only fitting we’ve got another  big meeting ahead!

The hard word on brewing software

For this month’s 7:30pm education session, we’ve lined up a couple of club tech-heads to talk about getting the most out of brewing software. We’ll take a good look at BeerSmith (the most popular software for CB members) and if time permits run through the features of some other software.

We’ll also talk about the idea of using a calibration brew to help get all the numbers you need to set up your software correctly for your system.

Solid gold tasting session

To satisfy his fascination for the experimental, Kevin Hingston is bringing two samples of his Belgian Golden Strong Ale using slightly different brewing techniques, and he wants some volunteers for a blind tasting. There are just 12 places available, so jump on the forum and sign up here. If you don’t get on the forum, email education@canberrabrewers.com.au

Barleywine bonanza

Geoff Swan took the IHBD challenge to brew a barleywine back in May, and he’s now set to bring the result along to the meeting. Rumour has it another club member will bring his keg of barleywine as well – but he’s interested to see if anyone can pick the consequences of an unusual step he took in its preparation.

Club raffle coup

This month’s raffle boasts some terrific prizes: We’ve got an Ultimate Growler – with its own mini-regulator, gas supply and dispensing tap,

a temperature controller, a wort oxygenation kit, A Coopers bar mat, a six-pack of beer from Batch Brewing and Young Henrys, a mixed fourpack of beer and a T-shirt from Brewcult and two books: Yeast and Modern Homebrewing Recipes. Make sure you get in and buy lots of tickets so the committee doesn’t scoop them all this time!

Mead and Cider judge training

We’re looking for expressions of interest for a mead and cider training session in August. Put your name down on the forum here, or email education@canberrabrewers.com.au.

Support the club that supports us!

A reminder to new and existing Canberra Brewers Club members that the German Harmonie Club supports the Canberra Brewers by providing the use of their function room (and allows us to drink our own beer), free of charge as part of their support to community clubs.  Please show them your support by becoming a member by filling out this form and paying only $10 for 3 years here or $5 for 1 year if you haven’t already.

Typically we also like to show our support by purchasing a beer as you arrive, which gives you a glass for tastings during the meeting. Please note, the glasses behind the bar downstairs are not there for our free use, so lets try to keep the extra glass use to a minimum. The bistro is open before our meetings start if you are after a feed of schnitzel or pork knuckle.  Also keep in mind that their staff need to clean up after us, so try do what you can to keep the place in a reasonably tidy state.  Any help at the end of club nights to clean up is much appreciated.

Club library

Don’t forget to head to the club’s online library catalogue at https://canberrabrewers.librarika.com/ to peruse this great resource. You can reserve a copy of something and we’ll deliver it at the meeting. If the book is currently on loan, email education@canberrabrewers.com.au and we’ll arrange to have it brought back for you to borrow. Don’t have access to the library? Email us and we’ll hook you up.