By Darryl Barbour, President

Flash Brewers, the Club meeting is just two days away now, and with the ACT Amateur Brewing Championships just around the corner, which are themselves the qualifier for the Australian Amateur Brewing Championships (AABC), we’ll be hosting a presentation this month to help you get your best beers to the judging table, in the best condition possible. And just to show you we are serious, we’ll be rolling out a guest presenter with a host of titles: Former-President; Former-Social Secretary; Club Champion, AABC Champion, all around good guy and the deacon of Dortmunder … It is of course our own Craig Webber.

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By Darryl Barbour, President

Authorbox_presidentAdelaide, San Francisco, Seattle and beyond. It has been a busy month travelling the country and the world, but alas there have been fewer brew-pub visits than I would have liked. I can complement The Pike Brewery in Seattle though, with a lovely “Kilt Lifter” Scottish Ale (around the 80/- mark?) and “Tandem” Belgian Dubbel. Of course, this is a poor excuse for not getting a President’s report out for the August meeting, but it is the best I can offer!

And so while it has been a busy and tough few weeks I was really encouraged to see the turnout of members, both those working towards BJCP recognition and those who are not, to the faulted beer tasting this week gone by. I hear that a report it being prepared, but can confirm that we had some absolutely horrid samples to work through. We did, however, get a better understanding of what the different flavours (that may or may not be considered faults) are like in beer and a few ideas on how to address them. Hopefully we will be able to offer that session each year that a BJCP course and exam is run.

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By Mark Bilbrough

No-sparge OK, I admit it, I like low gravity session beers. I can avoid the guilt of having a beer most nights, without feeling like I have a drinking problem. After spending a couple of years in Scotland, and another in England, I’ve developed a taste for Scottish Ales and Bitters.

The problem is my brew system does not work well with low gravity beers. Mashing in (even) at a very generous three litres/kg on a small beer leads to around ten litres of strike water, which is way too small in my 55-litre mash tun.

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By Stuart Whytcross

Bamberg Bamberg, unlike most German cities, managed to escape obliteration during the Second World War. Because of this, its architecture reflects around 1000 years of history, and this brings many tourists to the town. In 1993 UNESCO declared Bamberg to be a World Heritage City, and in 2006 the European Beer Consumers Union declared Bamberg to be a World Beer Heritage City.

With nine breweries producing over 60 different beers, two large malting facilities in Weyermann Malz and Bamberger Mälzerei, the world’s oldest manufacturer of brewing systems, Kaspar Schulz, and the Franconian Brewery Museum, it’s a title that this town rightfully deserves. And all in a geographic area smaller than Bendigo!

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