Category: Social Report

By Kevin Hingston, Social Secretary

Thanks to a little something called the Sydney Craft Beer Week, the club’s 2012 Sydney trip had to be delayed.

Never ones to be kept apart from their beer, Canberra Brewers wasted no time getting things moving for 2013 and on the refreshingly mild morning of January 19, two carloads of Canberra Brewers headed for the big smoke.

After finding our hotels, hostels and holes in the wall we headed to 4 Pines.

Unfortunately the weekend visit left us unable to see the brewery in action but we did take the opportunity to check out the range on offer and catch up with some members of the Macarthur Ale and Lager Enthusiasts (M.AL.E.) brew club who were also in town for the day.

Most of us were familiar with the 4 pines range and didn’t really find anything too exciting but the limited edition “Keller Door” beer – a handpumped Summer Ale, was definitely a talking point.

Had we been there the day before the beer may not have had the chops for a 44 degree day, but as the sea breeze kicked up and I regretted my thin t-shirt it proved a very refreshing English summer beer for what felt like a very English summer day.

With food in our stomachs and beers in our belly we headed to the Bavarian Beer Cafe.Read more »

By Joel Baines

A
collection of brewers set off early Saturday August 18 to the Thirsty Crow
Brewery in the fast passed, cosmopolitan city known as Wagga Wagga.

 We arrived
in anticipation of a great day to come heading straight for the bar devising
our own drinking order strategies where we were all introduced to Craig Wealands – the head brewer at Thirsty Crow.  

With
expectations a little unknown in our level of involvement of the brew day, we
were delighted when Craig put all of us straight to work carrying the grain
from the milling room to the brewery floor.

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By David Gilks, Treasurer

A contingent of the Canberra Brewers headed off to Melbourne for the recent Great Australiasian Beer SpecTAPular put on by The Local Taphouse. Fifty-eight beers were on tap over the weekend with more than 15 making the trip across the Tasman from Beervana (a.k.a New Zealand), none of which had ever been made before.

Following a stressful journey in which some took on the Hume Highway while others relaxed in the Qantas Club the group took on the challenge of trying all 58 beers on offer. The set-up at the Royal Exhibition Building was great with 4 bars set up to serve the mighty hoards. Some of the zymurgical highlights included:

Watermelon Warhead (Feral Brewing, WA) – a deliciously puckering Berliner Weisse with a tempting addition of watermelon.
Stonecutter Oak (Renaissance Brewing, NZ) – a rich, warming Scotch Ale aged in oak barrels.
Zythos (Epic Brewing Co, NZ) – a fresh, floral and fruity IPA using the new Zythos hop blend from the US.
Mr Mistoffelees (Moon Dog, Vic) – a Wild Ale brewed with passionfruit and mango.

Some brewers struggled to get their heads around a 2.7% IPA, a Chilli Pilsner, a Red Pilsner and a Christmas Tree Ale brewed with spruce. Throughout the event we headed off to guided tasting sessions and a cooking with beer session with Paul Mercurio.

Some lessons were learnt on the day. For instance, fried shrimp are a great beer snack, liquorice in beer must be used in moderation, sarsparilla shouldn't go anywhere near beer and Dicko's taste buds are not to be trusted.

Of course, we didn't spend all our time at GABS. In between there were visits to Mountain Goat Brewing, The Royston Hotel, Temple Brewing and Josie Bones for yet more fantastic beer and food and real proof that Melbourne is the best beer city in the nation.

A few of us are already talking about heading down again next year and I think the group may just be a little bit bigger.

Check out the other photos on Flickr.

By Tom Dixon, President

International Home Brew Day was celebrated in true home brewer style on May 5, with members of the Canberra Brewers putting three brewing styles to test. 

The three brewing styles being pitted against each other were a Heat Exchanged Recirculating Mash System (HERMS), a ‘traditional’ three vessel system and the newer Brew in a Bag (BIAB) method. Half of the HERMS brew also got ‘cubed’ to experiment with a no-chill method prior to fermentation.

With the meeting place already decided at Craig “Stagger” Webber’s fine Brewery/Bar, all that was left were the brewers themselves, their equipment and then beer, food and the rest of the club.

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