Club ‘hoppy’ beer event, teams brew, summer comp details

Gus K
  • New hoppy club social event, Nov 2
  • Summer Comp 2026 announced
  • ABCSA wrap
  • Monthly meeting wrap and forward dates

From feedback from members, we know you are keen for another club social BeerBQ like get-together. We’re excited to announce a Sunday afternoon event dedicated to celebrating homebrewing. As an early end-of-year show, on Sunday, November 2, members and families are invited to a showcase of hoppy beers made by member teams. Despite our efforts to find a venue, it’ll be at the East Torrens, Kensington Gardens Tennis Club. Expect a relaxed, outdoor vibe. There is a great playground next to the club.

Spark up the WhatsApp chats and lock in a brew day. Groups  — North, Sounds, East and West —  that have got together before, lock-in a recipe and brew day, but we aren’t calling this a challenge (or are we???). Brew a hoppy beer so there will be 5 or 6  to enjoy on the day. We’ll put on a BBQ and we’re asking groups to contribute extras like snacks and salads too.

Styles are wide open, but as long as it’s ‘hoppy’.

To help, thanks to Kickback Brewing Aldinga, we have a lot of free hops for you to use. They are not super fresh, and we recommend using them in the boil and grabbing something new for dry hopping.

Brew team leaders, drop us a line to lock in your contribution info@sabrew.com. It’s only 6 weeks away, so fresh is best!  We’d like you to extend the invitation to join brewdays to all members if you can. If you’re keen on joining a brew, let us know too and we can organise invites.

It’ll be a super simple, fun event, like BeerBQ lite, but we need your contributions. If you’re not a member of the club and would like to get involved, set up your membership easily here and drop us a message to express your interest.

Summer Competition, 2026

Next year’s summer comp was announced at last week’s meeting. To be called The Battle For The Ashes, it will offer a choice of 4 or 5 English and Australian styles. ESB, golden ales, English IPA, Australian Sparking and a couple of other Australian popular beers that don’t have styles but we’ll pick commercial versions to aim for. Fresh, summery, crushable.

Judging will be in late February/ Early March. A little later than usual to let everyone get back up to speed after the summer break. More to come.

September meeting wrap

Oxidation was demonstrated with a fresh Balter hazy poured and resealed, resealed with metabisulfite and opened and left for an hour in the room. The results were dramatic but maybe not surprising.  We also tasted 27-year-old Cooper’s Vintage Ale. Mmmmmm. You had to be there! More in the Facebook group here.

A big thank you to Jason and Tali for participating in a blindfolded taste assessment and ranking the beers as we predicted. The oldest bottle, which didn’t have sodium metabisulfite, was dull, lifeless, and lacked aroma. However, both the bottle with sodium metabisulfite and the one-hour-old pour also lacked freshness and were similar in flavour and aroma.

October meeting

We’re at the Wheaty on October 15 for the annual post-ABCSA wrap. Hopefully, members were winners and will share their secrets and beers too.

ABCSA

Judging was held on Saturday. 144 entries allowed for a long but tight judging day. Well done to the organising committee for again running a smooth competition. No doubt SABC will feature heavily in the medals. The presentation is on Saturday, Oct 4, from 2.30 at the Wheaty. Come along for a beer and congratulate all the winners.

Thanks ot the judges and stewards who gave up their Saturdays to help. Many were rewarded with a chocolate wheel raffle with generous prizes from competition sponsors.

ABCSA organising legends. Kudos to everyone on the committee.

Forward dates:

  • October 15: Monthly meeting at The Wheaty
  • November 19: Monthly meeting at SHAPESHIFTER
  • December 17: Monthly meeting – Christmas pizzas (and Xmas Case Swap tbc)

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