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By Nick Wiseman, Editor

With Oktoberfest behind us it’s almost time for the November meeting which is our second last for 2012.

This month will see our Education Officer Ben ‘Mashhead’ Harmer doing a filtering demo and the Brewers Showcase will feature Pete ‘Pedro’ Collins with his American Brown and Malcolm ‘Heston’ Scholes with his Rice Lager.

It’s also time to start thinking about nominations for the Craig Robinson Trophy – Clubman of the Year as well as who you would like to steer the next year of the club as the official committee.

To all those who still have books from the Library can you please ensure they are brought back.

By Nick Wiseman, Editor

Oktoberfest was celebrated in style at this month’s meeting with plenty of great beer on tap and a massive attendance of 100 members.

Richard Watkins brought in a keg of Keenan’s 2011 Wig & Pen Trophy winning American Brown and Chris ‘Duffbowl’ Duffy’s Red Sour Ale was also a hit on the night as well as many other great German drops.

In true German style, Knuckles put on a massive buffet feast of pretzels, goulash, roast pork, sausages, roast potatoes, salad and the all-important sauerkraut.

Normal official procedures were kept to a minimum ensuring the night was left open to plenty of tasting, chatting, more tasting and even more eating!

Special congratulations need to go to Mark Overton on taking out champion brewer as well as Best of Show at the recent competition.

With everything else on the night there was still time for the Brewers Showcase thanks to Duffbowl who spoke on the solera sour setup he is running – it’s just a pity that the samples of his beer had run dry before the presentation started and also to Owen ‘Owy’ Andrews who presented a Foreign Extra Stout.

Congratulations to Ross Mitchell who took out the ‘Best of the Fest’ competition with his Winterweizen which was a maltier variation of a Hefeweizen.

By Nick Wiseman, Editor

It’s time for Oktoberfest!

This month’s meeting celebrates Oktoberfest in style with a feast of German food provided from the chefs at Knuckles starting at 7pm for those who have pre-booked on the forum.

‘Best of the Fest’ will be on again so bring along your best German beer to be assessed on the night with the winner taking home a $100 Mashematics voucher.

There will be some amazing prizes from the raffles on the night including measure and control items such as a refractometer, pH meter and more and keeping with the theme of the month some German beers and books as well.

Entry is free to those members who have registered and if you have not there may still be a place free depending on your bribing abilities – see our social secretary for more details.

See you there for a wonderful evening.

By Nick Wiseman, Editor

Mead-making took centre stage this month with Dominic “Bro
Fatboy” Staun instructing the club on the finer points of brewing the popular
drink.

Providing a demo in front of an almost silent crowd, Fatboy
displayed his skills and shared his knowledge each step of the way, he also had
several examples of his meads available for members to taste.

Describing the drink later Fatboy said sipping mead was like
the sensation of angels dancing on your tongue!

The growing crowd threw all types of questions at him to
which he had an answer to almost everything describing in detail and also
talking of other mead-based drinks such as Metheglin, Melomel, Cyser and
Braggot.

He did stress however that the making of mead takes good
time and can really benefit from extended aging.

His guide to making mead is attached and has welcomed
members to get in touch with him if they want any further information.

A small crowd gathered, keen to learn Mead making

The night also featured ‘The Committee is dead’ range of
IPA’s with the brewers talking to the club about their choice of hops and how
they went about brewing it.

The single hop IPA’s were inspired by BrewDog’s
‘IPA is Dead’ with Stewart Bowman, Head Brewer at BrewDog, kindly providing
feedback on both the malt bill and hopping regime. 

Bruce Arnold brewed his with Pilot, Chris ‘Growler’
De La Rue made his with Kohatu, Tom ‘Dicko’ Dixon used Herkules and Ben ‘Mashhead’
Harmer chose Rakau.

 Our social secretary spoke of next month’s exciting meeting which
happens to be Oktoberfest and for those who were not there or want more
information check out the forum to get your name down so as not to miss out on
this fantastic night of great beer and food.

The Brewers Showcase featuring four single hop IPA’s

Click here to see the rest of the photos.
Download Mead Making notes here.