Canberra Brewers 2025 Annual Report
May 2025
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President’s Report
Cheers to another great brewing year for Canberra Brewers!
It was a productive and successful year with great attendance at meetings and events. The highlight of the year has been the dedicated commitment of our brewers and our engagement with sponsors and club supporters.
Last years success in brewing club members’ beers for the National Multicultural Festival was a main driver of club efforts. The weather for the 2026 festival was good and we sold out of all beer prepared. The festival raised funds to keep the club financially solvent, enabling modest expenses for membership, competitions and special events. This year saw ongoing support from Christoph Zierholz in enabling us to use the 150L pilot system at Zierholz Brewing to brew most of the beers for the 2026 Multicultural festival. To help cut down the number of brew days an additional fermenter has been acquired, which will continue to be a useful asset for the club into the future.
Three beers were brewed with our brewery partners; Andrew Lewis’s (Stretch) Bent Brewer beer, a collaboration with Jervis Bay Brewing to brew Richard Brown’s Berry Sour and Paul Haesler (Mozzie) winning beer from the first club competition brewed at Cypher.
A huge shout-out to Charles Newton (Chuck) and Jason Reilly who led the way in coordination and brewing for this event. Special thanks to the many people who participated – from turning up to a brew day, posting on social media, brewing their beers on a larger scale for the first time and just helping out at our festival stand.
Competitions are a foundation of the club for both brewers and judges. Ed Wunsch and Nicole Coombe ran the events for 2025 and did a wonderful job. We had a judging trial at BentSpoke in Mitchell throughout the year and refined the process for the ACT championships. We purchased a large commercial fridge to help with logistics and avoid moving small club members fridges for these events. Mozzie’s Eisenbock won best of show in competition 1, with Cypher brewing the beer later in the year which was also able to make a guest appearance with the Multicultural festival. In the ACT championships Stretch prevailed with some great scores, with one of his entries later judged as the Champion beer and crowned the Bent Brewer champion of the year. Thanks to all who had a go entering beers and those who judged and stewarded. We did not run a Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) course during 2025 but we did have a tasting exam where there were excellent results.
Throughout the year we had support from Richard and BentSpoke in continuing the Draughter’s offer to financial members and enabling the use of the Mitchell facility for judging and the Christmas party. We also partnered with BentSpoke for Floriade and ran a Crankshaft clone competition won by Corey Fisher. This was a pilot for a larger competition later in 2026.
We again had generous support from Zierholz and Mashematics for brew-days leading up to multicultural festival and a few peeps ventured to Jervis Bay Brewing Co. to brew Richard’s beer.
The committee worked well together and I want to thank Amber Hutchison and Chuck in particular for pushing ahead whenever I needed assistance. Whilst not on the committee proper – Patrick Baggoley was just fantastic in helping Daniel Davenport with social media and monthly updates. We don’t have a lot of experience in this area and I think we did better this year directly through your efforts.
Once again Dave Johnson did an extraordinary job at keeping the 6-pack swap going and organizing the carton swap with donations from Cypher Brewing Co, BentSpoke, Wild Polly, Capital Brewing Co with donations from Mashematics, Belco Brew Supplies and Brew Your Own At Home.
I also want to congratulate Jason Rielly who took out Club Member of the Year.
Cheers and brew strong!
Treasurer’s report
Another incredible financial year is over for the Canberra Brewers. This year we were keen to put the club in an even better financial position than last year. Our biggest fundraiser of the year was the Multicultural Festival. Selling our own brewed beers meant a higher profit then buying kegs off of the local breweries. Last year the festival landed us with an extra $10,000 in the bank, this year we increased that by $5,000, providing Canberra Brewers with approx. $15,000 in profits. Of course, this wouldn’t be possible without all our hard-working volunteers, especially Chuck who continually goes above and beyond to organise this event.
Sponsors are also an essential cost-saver for the club. BentSpoke Brewery came through again as our Major Sponsor saving the club many thousands in storage costs as well as providing their space for our events for free. Their partnership continues to support the clubs financial viability and sustainability.
The Canberra Brewers improved financial position has been used to support the clubs activities with the purchase of a 200L Fermenter NANO-X 2.0 Jacketed Unitank, a fridge for club competitions, an additional tablet and square and keg weighing scales. Club funds supported two club competitions, ACT champs, Cranky clone competition, the Judging exam, member of the year, the NOOKIE prize, barrel project brews and the Christmas party.
This year while we maintained our membership at around 50 members, the increase to memberships last year supported our ability to pay for our administrative costs such as hall hire, insurance, web hosting and other admin costs.
Sponsors and supporters
We would like to thank all our amazing sponsors and supporters who are integral to the survival of Canberra Brewers.
Sponsors:
Club supporters
- Belco Brew Supplies
- Capital Brewing Co.
- 3 Sons Cider
- Stone Dog Meadery
- Plonk
- Page Bottler
- Brew Your Own at Home
- Polish White Eagle Club (un-official)
Club Member of the Year
Congratulations to Club Member of the Year – Jason Reilly. There was an overwhelming number of nominations for Jason which consistently recognise his motivation, dedication and drive to establish his nano-brewery at Zierholz Brewing and making this available for club use. His dedication has:
- allowed the club to produce our first homebrew beers to serve and showcase our craft to the wider community at events like Multicultural Festival,
- created the opportunity for club members to brew together, and
- supported the club to remain solvent.
All of this wouldn’t be possible without Jason’s time effort and coin. He has been and will continue to be at every brew day, pre brew setup and preparation, kegging sessions and periodic going in and checking on process. All of this to make sure the beers are the best they can be. Nominations also recognised Jason’s efforts to continue to foster relationships with breweries including Zierholz which has been crucial in being able to brew our beers under Zierholz’s licence.
Key events
National Multicultural Festival – ‘Global beers brewed at home’
This year the Canberra Brewers went all in for the Multicultural Festival serving on all eight taps with Canberra Brewers brewed beers raising significant capital for the club.
The line up contained only award-winning recipes matching the theme ‘Global beers brewed at home’. We were able to really lean into the multicultural nature of beers. Beers were selected on the basis that they presented variety to the punters, spanned many different styles from different countries, showcased the depth and quality of Canberra Brewers talent, and were recipes created from medal placing beers entered into the home-brew competitions in 2025.
- Adrian’s Helles Export – Germany
- Amber’s Dark Saison – Belgium
- Ant’s ESB – England
- Bent Brewer 7, Stretch’s Kölsch – Germany
- Chuck’s IPA – Australia
- Craig’s Pevo – Czech Republic
- Jervis Bay Brewing Co Colab Berry Sour – Brazil
- John’s IPA – USA
- Ken’s Oatmeal Stout – England
- Stretch’s Vienna Lager – Austria
Canberra Brewers were lucky enough to get a prime position at the festival. The beers poured smooth and chilled, quenching thirsty punters and selling all 1000L by the second day. There was lots of engagement from interested beer enthusiasts about Canberra Brewers which will likely see new members. Canberra Brewers were highly visible in our bright red shirts. Amazing efforts by Chuck, and honourable mention to Stephen Lawford, Ed Wunsch, Darren Blackhurst, Craig Evans, Jason Reilly, Michael Donavon for setting up and tearing down the bar.
Canberra Brewers Competitions
2025 was another outstanding year of competitions for Canberra Brewers. Our Competition Secretaries, Ed and Nicole, once again delivered a well-run program, using the proven model of two club competitions to give brewers, judges, and stewards valuable experience ahead of the ACT Championships.
The Autumn Competition held in late March was smaller in scale but provided an excellent opportunity for brewers to trial beers in preparation for the ACT Champs. The Winter Competition held in June marked our first use of the BentSpoke Budding Cells facility, which proved to be a great success. Valuable lessons were learned that will help shape future competitions. A Best of Show (BOS) was held for the Winter Comp, with congratulations going to Mozzie for his outstanding dunkelweizenbock. This dark wheat beer has since been brewed commercially by Matt and the Cypher team, who continue to be generous supporters of Canberra Brewers.
The highlight of the year was, of course, the ACT Championships held in September. With 220 entries received, the competition ran over Friday and all day Saturday. It was fantastic to see a strong turnout of new entrants, judges, and stewards. The event wrapped up successfully with Andrew “Stretch” Lewis crowned ACT Champion Brewer for 2025, closely followed once again by Craig Evans. Several excellent beers progressed to the Australian Championships in October, where Canberra Brewers enjoyed some solid results – though we’re keen to push even harder in 2026.
In addition to being named 2025 ACT Champion Brewer, Stretch also won the BentBrewer competition, hosted by BentSpoke and judged from the top 18 beers of the ACT Champs. As part of this prize, Stretch had the opportunity to brew his Kölsch recipe at the BentSpoke Brewpub alongside Richard Watkins and Tracy Margrain. Bent Brewer 7 was not only featured on tap at the Brewpub but was also a standout success at the Canberra Brewers stall during the 2026 National Multicultural Festival.
A huge thank you goes to everyone who took part in competitions throughout the year. Looking ahead, we have bigger and better plans for 2026. Ed and Nicole will be stepping down from their formal Competition Secretary roles, though their support and experience will remain close at hand. If you’re interested in learning more about beer and helping to deliver competitions, we encourage you to reach out and volunteer as part of the Competition Secretary team.
Finally, a special thank you to all our competition sponsors – particularly Richard and the BentSpoke team. Their continued support of Bent Brewer, along with their generous hosting of our competitions at the Budding Cells facility, has made a significant contribution to our success. Best of luck with your brewing in 2026, and let’s give the Nationals a serious nudge!
waits to serve beer at the
ACT Championships.
Program (BJCP) – Beer Judging Exam
Every few years there is an opportunity for keen club members to sit the judging exam to become a certified BJCP judge. In preparation for online exam and the tasting exam, Patrick ran exam preparation sessions at the White Eagle Polish Club’s upstairs library, with help from Canberra’s own Master-ranked BJCP judge David Gilks and proctor Stretch.
BentSpoke kindly hosted the judging exam at the Braddon tap house for eight Canberra Brewers members in May 2025. Stewards Chuck, Nicole and Lawfo kept things running smoothly while David, Stretch and Weenie acted as proctors. Result came through in January 2026 with some of the judges getting scores of above 80, meaning eligibility to take the exam to become a National Judge. Congratulations to our newest BJCP judges.
Carton swap
The carton swap was an incredible success again with 21 members providing bottles or cans. A large and enjoyable range of beers will last members throughout the year. As always Dave Johnson should be recognised for all his hard work in organising. Standouts included:
Craig’s Roggenbier – ‘Great clarity and that nutty rye flavour and aroma made it a really delicious beer’
Wayne’s Crankyish – ‘thoroughly enjoyable’
Liam’s RIPA – ‘great aroma and nice red colour’
Michael’s Pilsner – ‘Having the pilsner-style ale by Michael after a day of gardening and its exactly what the situation calls for’
Tripels #11 and #13 – ‘both were delicious’
Huge thanks from our amazing sponsors for donating prizes and beers for the swap.
Sponsor lucky draw prizes:
- Brew Your Own At Home Kambah: 10L pressure fermenter, 8L PET keg, 4L PET keg
- Belco Brew Supplies: 25 kg bag of Voyager Veloria Malt
- Mashematics: 30L Fermzilla (including gas and liquid turrets, floating pick-up tube, transfer hose and siphon kit), siphon bottling kit, 2 x 30L pail fermenter kits, 138g packs of simcoe, saaz and ekuanot hops
Local Canberra brewing companies each sponsoring a carton each:
- Wild Polly: Hop Harvest Ale
- BentSpoke: Frenzy and Hazee
- Cypher: Digital Fabric
- Capital: Good Drop