G’day brewers,
What a year! 2025 has been chock‑full of beer, laughs and learning, and it finished on a high last Wednesday at The Wheaty for our end‑of‑year pizzas and, along with the secret‑Santa bottle swap, we announced the club’s Brewer of the Year. After a close race that went down to the wire, Mark Lehmann emerged on top. See the full leaderboard here
Mark maintained the pressure throughout the year. He brewed superb beers for our competitions, shared at meetings and proudly represented SABC at the AABC – where he won first place in American Pale Ale and second in German Pils. Huge congratulations Mark; enjoy the trophy and the bragging rights!
Highlights from 2025
The year kicked off with a summer competition focusing on wheat beers and a deep dive into reverse‑osmosis water brewing. In March we took the meeting to Brightstar Brewing and later in the month a tour of Southern Vales breweries on a packed bus.
At April’s meeting, Darren Williams shared his tips to brewing low and non‑alcoholic beers. In May we headed to Crafty Robot Brewing to hear about Jules’ famous Franken Chiller and have a private event tasting Crafty beers. June brought our annual BeerBQ – around 25 beers were poured and a pig on a spit disappeared quickly; popular‑vote winners Adam, Darren, Wolf and Lucas picked up BOTY points.
Winter Comp in late July drew 33 entries with Lucas Veitch winning Best Beer of Show with an international pale lager scoring 42.5, while Russ, Leon, Andrew, Chris and others filled the podiums.
August’s meeting at The Wheaty focused on growing hops at home and in September Kick Back Brewing donated a mountain of hops and we challenged members to brew hoppy beers for a Sunday arvo family BBQ and hop‑driven beers. Later that month we played with beer oxidation in a fun meeting experiment. November was an “away‑game” club meeting at Shapeshifter Brewing Co. where co-owner and brewer James shared new beers and gave us a tour.
Looking ahead
We’re not taking our foot off the pedal. The first meeting of 2026 will be on the third Wednesday in January and will focus on new brewing technology – expect gadget demos and discussions on how tech is making homebrewing easier and more precise. Details will be in the new year’s email and on the website.
After that, all eyes turn to our Summer Competition on Sunday, 15 March. The 2026 comp is the Battle for the Ashes – a showdown between classic British and Australian styles. Check the Upcoming Competitions page for full style guidelines and start brewing – judging will be on Sunday, 15 March.
Thanks to everyone who judged, stewarded, poured beers, ran presentations, or simply turned up to share a pint this year. The club thrives because of your enthusiasm. We’re already excited about what 2026 will bring. Until then, put your feet up, enjoy the festive season, and raise a glass to Mark Lehman – SABC Brewer of the Year 2025.
Cheers,
Your SABC Committee
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