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!

The Canberra Brewers have been regular stall holders at the National Multicultural Festival since 2012.

For the first time after more than 10 years of serving delicious local beers at the National Multicultural Festival, the Canberra Brewers will sell beers specially made by some of the region’s best homebrewers.

Visitors to Canberra’s biggest yearly festival from February 7-9 will get a chance to ‘think global and drink local’ with beers designed and brewed by members while chatting with brewers about all things beer and home brewing.

It will be the club’s most diverse tap list yet, selling beers that will only be available at this year’s festival.

Ever since hosting their first stall at the festival in 2012, selling the legendary beers made by Richard Watkins at the Wig and Pen, the Canberra Brewers have been using the festival to showcase the region’s best beer.

Since then, the lineup has been curated to highlight the club’s relationships with Canberra breweries, selling wares from BentSpoke Brewing Co, Zierholz, Cypher Brewing Co and Capital Brewing Co.

World class, home brewed

This year, the club is proud to be serving a range of beers specially brewed by some of its award-winning homebrewers on a pilot system at Zierholz Brewery in Fyshwick, thanks to the support from owner and former club champion Christoph Zierholz. The beers will represent styles from around the world including:

  • Dortmunder Helles Lager (Germany)
  • British Golden Ale (UK)
  • Tropical Fruit Sour (Brazil)
  • Table Saison (France/Belgium)
  • American Amber Ale (US)

Ingredients for these beers were all sourced through local homebrew suppliers Brew Your Own at Home in Kambah, Belco Brew Supplies, and Mashematics.

Best of the best

Alongside these will be two beers from the multi-award winning BentSpoke, made with club members after winning the ACT Amateur Brewing Championships yearly trophy for beer of show, the BentBrewer Award.

Continuing a tradition he started while at the Wig and Pen, BentSpoke co-owner Watkins helps judge the award, and then brews the winning beer with the winner and co-owner Tracy Margrain at their Braddon Brewpub.

Rob Barnsley won BentBrewer 5 in 2023 with his oak-smoked wheat beer, inspired by a traditional Polish grodziskie while Craig Evan’s won the BentBrewer 6 late last year with his American light lager. The smokey wheat beer is sure to be a great match to the festival’s rich, smokey foods while the light lager will be a smash as temperatures head into the 30s.

Two men standing, talking, in a commercial brewery. One is holding a beer
BentSpoke Brewing Co co-owner Richard Watkins with Bent Brewer 6 winner Craig Evans.

Complementing this line-up will be beers from club supporters Zierholz, Cypher and Capital, and BentSpoke’s Crankshaft, again voted Australia’s favourite IPA in the 2024 GABS Hottest 100 beer poll.

Find the Canberra Brewers at stall H27 – in Bundah Street between Akuna and Petrie Streets!

Two men standing next to large, polished stainless steel brewing pots
Canberra Brewers members Daniel Davenport and Jason Reilly brew on the pilot system at Zierholz
People stand around three large brewing pots, one man peeking over the rim with his nose poking into the pot, another adds ingredients to a pot.
Who nose: Canberra Brewers members brewing beer for the National Multicultural Festival at Zierholz brewery in Fyshwick.
Two men beside a stainless steel tank
Corey Fisher and Jason Reilly brewing for the National Multicultural Festival at Zierholz in Fyshwick.
Three stainless steel brewing pots on a stand, in front of the larger brewing system at Zierholz
The pilot brewing system at Zierholz brewery in Fyshwick

Welcome to 2025 and another year of brewing!

The club meetings are starting up with our next meeting on 6 February 2025 at the Polish White Eagle Club at the O’Connor shops.

Kurtz is preparing some great learnings for the education session, the six pack swap is back (sign up on FB or the forum) and the raffle will have a range of amazing prizes up for grabs and we will be drawing the NOOKIE raffle.

Plus don’t forget to bring your latest and greatest brews to share!

All for the N.O.O.K.I.E.

The Newcastle Or Otherwise Kind of Interstate Experience is our 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.

While the experience is to be finalised, if you bought raffle tickets or have been bringing your beer to the meetings in 2024, then you’re in the raffle and you should come along to the February Meeting!

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 re-election, 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 (of previous) committee members.The AGM is scheduled for the March meeting, with more details to come.

A hand holding a plastic cup under a beer tap, pouring a beer.

Canberra Brewers invites you to the combined December meeting and Christmas Function, 3pm-7pm on Sunday 15th December at The BentSpoke Cannery (79 Lysaght St, Mitchell). We would like to thank and acknowledge BentSpoke’s support and sponsorship of the Canberra Brewers throughout the year, the club and the Christmas function wouldn’t be as great without them.

We will have the miracle boxes setup for members to bring beers. Richard has kindly offered to provide some of BentSpoke’s best so we can give the Club Bars a test-run leading up to the 2025 Multi-cultural Festival.

The Club will be putting on a simple BBQ and, following a bit of a club tradition, members are encouraged to bring a gourmet addition such as salads, snacks or desserts. A club forum post will be setup for that.

While the Christmas function is aimed at financial members of Canberra Brewers and their families, non-members will be able to come along and join-up on the day.

Please let us know if you plan on attending to help with catering. You can do this by accepting the Facebook invitation or by responding to the Forum post.

The 2024 Case Swap

This is still on for December, but will now happen at the Christmas function – more details to follow, and arrangements can be made to drop off and pick up your beers separately if needed. Sign up on the forum. There some great prizes for getting involved – least of all 24 beers from Canberra Brewers!

With huge thanks from our amazing sponsors:

Sponsor lucky draw prizes:

  • Mashematics – 25 kg bag of grain
  • Brew-your-own-at-home Kambah – 60 Litre Fermzilla Unitank
  • Belco BrewSupplies – 25 kg bag of Simpson’s Golden Promise, 240g Superdelic Hops, 3 x twin packs of London ale yeast

Local Canberra brewing companies each sponsoring a carton each:

  • Zierholz – carton (Premium Lager)
  • Wild Polly – carton (gluten free – Hop Harvest Ale)
  • Mountain Yetti – (Gurkha)
  • Cypher – carton (new Dream Collision)
  • Capital Brewing – carton (new Haze Oasis)
  • Bentspoke – carton (Bract to the Ditch)
  • Ale Mary – carton (Hazy IPA)