Author: Admin

A group of five people wearing Canberra Brewers T-shirts, seated around a barrel at BentSpoke's Floriade bar
Soaking up the sunshine at Floriade

September has been a huge month for the Canberra Brewers, with even more coming up in October! Some details below, but to get the full story you’ll have to come along to the club meeting this Thursday, 2 October at the Polish at the  Polish White Eagle Club, 38 David St, Turner, from 7.30pm.

We had the ACT Amateur Brewing Championships on 12-13 September, with Ed and Nic steering a dedicated team of judges and stewards through 220 entries over three sessions at BentSpoke’s Budding Cells facility.

First, second and third places for each category have been published on the competition website, with the first three places qualifying for the national competition in early November. You’ll have to be there on Thursday night to learn the winner of ACT Champion Brewer for 2025!

The top entry from each category heads into the BentBrewer Award judging for beer of show on October 23, with the winner announced and all ACT medals handed out at the meeting on 6 November.

Attack of the Clones

Spot the difference

At the September meeting we heard from BentSpoke brewer Dan Rayner who announced an epic new homebrew competition, where BentSpoke is offering a $500 cash prize for the brewer who can clone Australia’s favourite IPA, Crankshaft!

Recipe tips and entry details will be coming soon, and the beers will be judged at the club Christmas party on December 14. It will be maximum 1 entry per person, at a cost of $8 per entry for club members. Non-members can join in for $20, which also gets them invited to the Christmas party and membership until the end of the financial year.

Tiptoe through the tulips

Keen to get some early tips on brewing Crankshaft for the competition? Come and help out as the Canberra Brewers run brewing info sessions at Floriade each weekend! Led by Chuck, the gang is taking Floriade visitors through the brewing process and giving away a few tips on how to brew BentSpoke’s flagship beer.

Always keen for more helpers, so you can sign up to help out between 10.30am-12.30pm for the next two Saturdays and Sundays.

Sign up on the club forum

Chunky fermentation

The education session is taking a slightly different direction this Thursday, with a bit of a nod to Oktoberfest. Education Secretary Stretch is going to slice up the cabbage (not a euphemism) and get into the art of fermenting sauerkraut. Sounds delicious.

Live, Laugh, Lederhosen

After winning beer of show at the June club competition, Mozz has brewed his weizenbock at Cypher Brewing Co! We’re going to get together for an Oktoberfest celebration and beer release in a few weeks time – details to come.

Swap season

As well as the monthly six-pack swap, we’re also gearing up for the yearly case swap! Need a few extra homebrews to get through the Christmas season (and make up for no January club meeting)? Get brewing now so you can bring along 24 beers to the Christmas party so you can then take home a mixed case – every year a heap of local sponsors get on board offering giveaways and beers to those who take part, so get amongst it. Details are on the Facebook group and club forum.

What does membership get you?

Ever wondered what you get with a Canberra Brewers membership? Club meetings provide brewing support, education, access to the club library and brew-ship (brewing plus friendship – get it?). Our sponsors support you through discounts at your favourite brew and beer shops; Mashematics, Belco Brew Supplies, Plonk, Page Bottler. Events and brew days at Zierholz, Cypher, Capital Brewing Co, and BentSpoke. And the cherry in the stout: Draughters membership (and club comp and infrastructure support) at BentSpoke!

Sign up today!

Got to be in it to win it! Get your ACT Amateur Brewing Championship entries in now…

It’s Spring, which means competition season!! Join us at the Canberra Brewers meeting, Thursday, 4 Sep 2025 at the  Polish White Eagle Club. We have some big news for activities over the coming months, including a special announcement from Richard Watkins of BentSpoke.

The raffle will have some great prizes and we’ll have some light refreshments to go along with your beers. Don’t forget to try some of the interesting Euro beers over the bar and also bring your latest and greatest brews to share.

Competition – ACT Championships

The ACT Championship Brewing Competition is upon us! The competition will be held on 12-14 Sep 2025, Entry’s Close Wednesday, 3 September. This competition is open to club and non-club members, so if you have brewer mates not in the club, let them know they can enter! Remember that this is also a qualifying event for the Australian Amateur Brewing Championships (AABC), so make sure you have spare beer ready in case you place 1st, 2nd or 3rd  in a category.

We need as many volunteers as we can for judging and stewarding. No experience needed. If you’ve never done it before it is a fun experience and a great way to improve your own brewing. All the details are on the ACT Amateur Brewing Competition (ACT Champs) website.

Floriade

If you haven’t seen the posts on FB and the Forum yet, the club is conducting brewing demos at the BentSpoke stand at Floriade. All the details are on the Club website and you can sign up to assist on the club forum. We need to fill all the positions over several weekends. If you can, please volunteer your time and expertise to promote and support the club! This will be a great opportunity to boost our membership!!

Barrel Project canning

A big thank you to all those who assisted with the brewing, barreling, maturing and canning of our latest Barrel Project! The beer, a Barley Wine, will be available at the September meeting for tasting by members. 

Education

Sometimes not everything on a brew day goes to plan. Or maybe it does go to plan, but the beer doesn’t turn out as planned! For this month’s education session, Stretch will be exploring troubleshooting. This is a key brewing skill and is great preparation for judging at the ACT Champs.

Six pack swap

The six-pack swap is on again! Add your beer details to the Facebook group or the forum, bring your 6 beers to the meeting and walk away with a mixed six-pack to enjoy at your leisure!

Raffle

The raffle will be on again with great prizes up for grabs! Thanks to our sponsors who donate prizes or provide significant discounts on great products. Don’t forget to bring your latest brew along to earn double NOOKIE points with raffle tickets purchased.

Christmas Party Save the Date

Save the date 14 December for the Christmas Party. More details to follow…

See you at the September Meeting!

A garden gnome wearing a Canberra Brewers T-shirt, standing next to a can of BentSpoke Crankshaft, surrounded by tulips.
The Canberra Brewers and BentSpoke are sharing the secrets of beer and brewing at Floriade

Partnering with our biggest supporter BentSpoke Brewing Co, the Canberra Brewers are heading to Floriade this Spring to give visitors an introduction to brewing.

Each weekend of the festival, at Commonwealth Park, Canberra, from 11am-12pm we will be giving brewing demonstrations and talking all things ingredients, recipes, mashing and boiling. Eager participants might learn a few things about the hops, yeast and secrets behind BentSpoke’s own Crankshaft – Australia’s favourite IPA, as voted in the yearly GABS Hottest 100!

We are always looking to introduce people to the ‘Science and Nature’ of brewing good beer and knowing the providence of what you consume! Come and watch, smell and taste and meet some of the Canberra Brewers members.

Come along and find out how easy it can be to make world-class beer at home!

Club members – head to the forum to see how you can lend a hand.

Will Stretch be telling us about his experiments, or are we the experiments? No actual intelligence was harmed in the generation of this image.

Brewers, Join us at the Canberra Brewers meeting, Thursday 7 Aug 2025 at the  Polish White Eagle Club. The raffle will have some great prizes and we’ll have some light refreshments to go along with your beers.

Don’t forget to try some of the interesting Euro beers over the bar and also bring your latest and greatest brews to share. Extra NOOKIE points for those who bring a keg to share.

Membership renewal

It’s that time of year again…time to renew your Canberra Brewers membership. Remember for the low-low price of $60 per year you get the benefits of monthly meetings, discounts from our sponsors, opportunities for bulk grain buys through Mashematics, free Bentspoke Draughters membership etc. etc.

Go to the online membership form and sign up today!

Education

For this month’s education session, Stretch is keeping us guessing. The topic will be “what can we learn from 566 experiments?” I’m sure we’ll get to the bottom of this rabbit hole, or at least the bottom of our beer glasses!

Six pack swap

The six-pack swap is on again! Add your beer details to the Facebook group or the forum, bring your 6 beers to the meeting and walk away with a mixed six-pack to enjoy at your leisure!

Raffle

The raffle will be on again with great prizes up for grabs! Thanks to our sponsors who donate prizes or provide significant discounts on great products. Don’t forget to bring your latest brew along to earn double NOOKIE points with raffle tickets purchased.

ACT Competition

The ACT Championship Brewing Competition is just around the corner! The competition will be held on 12-14 Sep 25 and this is the big one!! There can only be one ACT Champion Brewer!

To deal with the usual large number of entries (mostly from Craig, Stretch and Weenie) we also need volunteers for judging and stewarding. A great opportunity to get experience and be a part of the comp.

More details will be announced at the club meeting, in club emails, the forum and Facebook memes. You can also keep an eye on the competition page for when entries open.

See you at the August Meeting!