by Sam Highley, Editor

Comp_thumb The judging for club competition two kicked off at 9:30 this morning, with entries in the Munich Helles, Light American Lager, Dortmunder Export, Classic American Pilsner, Belgian Pale Ale, Munich Dunkel, Brown Porter, Dusseldorf Altbier, Sweet Stout, Saison and Kolsch styles up for judging. A total of 25 entries were received for judging, and most styles were represented.

As usual, the entries were judged against the Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) guidelines, with each beer being scored on aroma, appearance, flavour, mouthfeel and overall impression, up to a maximum of 50 points. In this case, each beer was judged by three judges, with the individual scores added together to give a final score out of 150. Gold medals are awarded for 120+ points, silver for 108+ points and bronze for 95+ points. Here are the results:


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By Sam Highley, Editor

Intro After a quick stop at the hotel, strategically located right in the heart of Sydney beer-country, we took off for the Redoak Boutique Beer Cafe. Between all of us we sampled most of the beers on the menu, and I don’t recall a single bad word about any of them. Standouts at Redoak include their signature beer, the Framboise Froment, the various rich lagers like Vienna and Bock, and their sour lagers and ales.

Time was getting away from us, so we took off on foot for the Schwartz Brewery located within the Macquarie Hotel. What can I say? Many of the brewers were excited to see White Rabbit Dark on tap. And then Paul kicked Dicko’s arse in pool. And then we left.

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By Sam Highley, Editor

Authorbox_editor The Canberra Brewers club has a long history of publishing a club newsletter. In fact, that history goes back to Issue 1 in 1995, when the club had around 45 members, the meetings were held at the Wig & Pen, and Canberra phone numbers had only progressed to seven digits. The newsletter, called The Ferm (from 'fermentation' for those non-brewers), was produced, printed and, being before the widespread adoption of the internet, mailed in hard-copy to all members.

The first issue was published shortly after the inaugural meeting of the club was held at the Wig & Pen on March 8, 1995. The Executive was comprised of John Hamilton as President, Chris Elworthy as Vice-President, Chris Pittock as Secretary and John Nagle as Treasurer, with Bob Quee, Len Temple-Heard, Myles Parker and Tony Maurer serving as additional committee members. An initial club membership fee of $5 covered the period from March to July 1995, and was used to cover mostly the expense of producing and mailing The Ferm.

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Below, you will find an archive of (almost) every issue of The Ferm, bar the odd technical hiccup, stretching from the club’s beginnings in 1995 until 2009, when The Ferm morphed into this website.

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009