Category: Editor’s report and club news

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!

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.

Returning officer David Gilks dissolved the 2024 committee and members elected a new committee for 2025. All members were elected unopposed. Anthony Ween as returned as president, supported by Amber Hutchison (treasurer), Ed Wunsch and Nicole Coombe (competition secretaries), Daniel Davenport (editor), Andrew Lewis (education).

Ordinary Committee Members: Simon Watt, Stephen Nielson (memberships), Charles Newton and Jason Reilly (Multicultural Festival).

Before the AGM, the president and treasurer delivered an annual report.

The next Canberra Brewers meeting on 6 March 2025 at the Polish White Eagle Club in O’Connor.

There’s no education this month as we make way for the AGM, but the six pack swap is on again (sign up on FB or the forum) and the raffle will have a range of amazing prizes up for grabs (we promise it’ll happen this time). Plus don’t forget to bring your latest and greatest brews to share!

AGM and Committee positions

With each new year comes a new committee. If you’ve previously thought about volunteering, why not make 2025 the year to give black to the club.

All committee positions are up for reelection, including office bearers (the president, treasurer, social secretary, competition secretary, education officer and editor) and ordinary committee members (the webmaster, assets manager and assistant committee member/s). If you’re interested in finding out more about these roles, please don’t hesitate to contact one of the current (or previous) committee members.

Gilks has generously offered to be the returning officer this year, please send all nominations to him at bjcp.e3506@gmail.com

Club Competition

Registration for the Canberra Brewers Autumn Comp (Saturday March 29) has opened today. You can register your brews as well as sign up for judging or stewarding here. The venue is yet to be confirmed.

BJCP Judging Exam

The Canberra Brewers have booked a Beer Judge Certification Program judging exam for 10 May 2025 and need 6-12 participants. We will host an information session in the coming week and then a series of exam preparation sessions in the weeks leading up to the exam. For more information, and to express interest, send an email to bjcp@canberrabrewers.com.au or check out the recent posts on the Facebook group or club forum.

NOOKIE 2024

Big congrats to Amber who was lucky enough to win the N.O.O.K.I.E. raffle for 2024! For those not yet indoctrinated, the N.O.O.K.I.E. (aka the Newcastle Or Otherwise Kind of Interstate Experience) is the Canberra Brewers end of year raffle where the lucky winner is welcomed by a brewery (typically somewhere on the east coast) for a brew day and good time.

This is a great prize, and the only way to get tickets is by coming along to the club meetings and sharing your brews! So if you want to be the N.O.O.K.I.E. 2025 winner, then come along!