Author: Gus K

Appreciate beer more at our meeting this Wednesday

Gus K

Club meeting this Wednesday at the Wheaty at 7pm.

This month we’re going to do another round of beer assessments in groups. It worked well last time and it suits our COVID restrictions.

Each table will be given a bottle that is unlabeled and with no hints as to what the inside beverage is. In tables, taste the beer and discuss things like aroma, appearance, flavour, mouthfeel and try to see if you can come to a consensus about what this beer is and any extra additions that may have been included.

***CALL OUT***  if you have a long neck of a beer or a couple of stubbies that you have brewed that you would like to get some feedback from the group, please let us know in an email so we can ensure that we have enough.

It’s a great opportunity to have a new brew tasted, or if you’ve tried something completely different.

Bottle Bingo!

Yeah baby, it’s on! Bring one bottle or many to swap with fellow members! A great way to taste some sensational beers (and clear out that stock of your own bottles)

SABSOSA judging us underway.

Please check your emails (including updates or promotions or spam folders) for details of judging or stewarding sessions if you nominated to help.

The awards announcement and presentation is on Sunday, September 27 at The Wheaty from 12pm. Put it in your diaries. 

Left Barrel Brew Day

October 17 is the date. Clinton is project managing it. Talk to him on Wednesday night or send us an email if you want to be in on it but can’t make the meeting. More info to come so don’t worry.

COVID stuff

Remember to sign in to the meeting by pointing your phone camera a the QR Code/ or use the URL to get to the form on your phone.

State Amateur Brewing Show is open for entries

Gus K

Better known as SABSOSA to its mates, the 2020 competition is now open to enter for 2020. Most of you know the drill but if you’ve never entered a competition before, it’s easy. Read on.

Everything you need to know is on the website at https://www.sabsosa.com.au/ Read all the information carefully as it has changed.

Register for 2020, even if you’ve done it before, and add your beers, pay ONLINE and then print out the labels. Fix to bottles with a RUBBER BAND ONLY and drop them off.

Tell your brewer mates too. We want lots of entries this year.

Follow SABSOSA on Facebook for updates and after judging is over on Sept 18/19, check your scores, sweep in and pick up your loot of medals and tell your craft-loving brothers in law that you have proof your beers are good.

Judge training opportunity at Pirate Life

There is a judges ‘training session’ on Tuesday 8 September, 6.30pm at Pirate Life. Numbers limited to 20. You must register as a judge in the portal. Invites will only go out that way. More details to come.

If you have registered, log in and then choose Edit Account from the My Account menu indicated by the icon on the top menu and edit your preferences to judge (and/ or steward).

Cancelled – Important update about BeerBQ

Gus K

Crying SABC member2020 has been a year, huh? Just when we thought Australia might be on the tail end of things and returning to a bit of somewhat normalcy.

The state government has implemented restrictions in an attempt to prevent any catastrophic outbreak of COVID here. Mostly this is around very large gatherings, however, it does also impact the ability to have gatherings that have shared food and drink outside of licenced premises.

We’re not permitted to serve beer from shared taps. Shared food must have dedicated servers. This means that the heart of what we do at BeerBQ — share beer, food, and catch up — can’t be done. 

We as a committee are as bummed about this as you are. We are working hard to make sure that you — as paying members — will get the best value out of your membership. 

Of course, we have already reduced your membership in 2020 by way of extending it from 12 to 16 months for $60.

In the meantime, if you have bookmarked the day off, got a babysitter, organised transport — let’s try and catch up for some casual beers and food. 

If conditions still allow this — and who knows in two weeks time —and if you’re able, come along to Big Shed Brewing Concern at Royal Park to chat and socialise on August 15 from 6pm. We will need to check with the brewery and adhere to what Big Shed asks. So, TBC and stay tuned for updates. 

We are investigating what COVID friendly events we can do. If you have any ideas, let us know.

We hate to have to do this but it’s the right thing to keep you and the SA community safe.

The SABC Committee.

Win a 40L SS Brewtech kettle

By simply making sure you are a paid, financial member before 5pm AUGUST 18th, 2020 you will go into the draw to WIN this sick SS Brewtech 5.5 gal | Brew Kettle Mini.

Read more in last week’s newsletter post.

This will be drawn at our next meeting, Wednesday August 19, 2020 a the Wheaty. You don’t need to be there to win but it makes for a better photo op.

Join or renew your membership now.

WIN a 40L SS Brewtech Kettle just by being a member

Gus K

By simply making sure you are a paid, financial member before 5pm AUGUST 18th, 2020 and you will go into the draw to WIN this sick SS Brewtech 5.5 gal | Brew Kettle Mini.

This will be drawn at our next meeting, August 19, 2020.

CHECK OUT THESE FEATURES!

  • Heavy-duty 18 gauge 304 Stainless
  • 10.7 Gallons total volume (40 Litres)
  • 1.2 x 1.0 height to width ratio
  • Triclad bottom – no scorching!
  • Silicone handles for safe handling
  • Internal etched gallon markings (start at 2 gals!)
  • Thermometer port positioned at 4 gal level
  • 7/8″ Re-Circulation Port
  • Weldless fittings
  • Robust riveted handles for safety
  • Hang lid on side handles
  • Optional bimetal thermometer (thermometer not included))
  • Optional coupling for thermometer (thermometer not included)
  • Optional false bottom (not included)
  • Optional whirlpool attachment (not included)
  • Dimensions: 16.5″ H x 13.8″ W

To check your membership expiry date, simply log into the online shop at shop.sabrew.com and head to My Account, click on Membership, and then Manage – this will show the expiry of your current membership.

*winners will be notified by email or phone. Prize is ‘as is’. Cannot be exchanged for money. Winner must collect from a location in Adelaide withing 60 days.

SS Brewtech Kettle
Win this SS Brewtech Kettle

Winter comp results, AGM wrap-up and BeerBQ update

Gus K

At last Wednesday’s meeting, the first face to face one in three months, we announced the winners of the club’s Winter competition judged the weekend before. See the medals in the Competitions portal and entrants can download judges scoresheets.

The best brewer was Wolfgang Trenkler with a Dunkles Bock. Congratulations Wolf.

Ales
1st Gary Waters Belguims are a bit funky 23B: Flanders Red Ale]
2nd Joel Gaskin The Rookie 11A: Ordinary Bitter SABC
3rd Chris Kerr Biere de Darke 24C: Biere de Garde

APA
1st Joel Gaskin Scallywags Demise 18B: American Pale Ale SABC
2nd Adrian Reich Dr Keneth Noisewater 18B: American Pale Ale
3rd Ryan Campbell Columtennial Pale Ale 18B: American Pale Ale

Dark
1st Chris Marciniak The Runaway Black IPA 20A: American Porter
2nd Brenton Schoemaker B.A. 13B: English Brown Ale
3rd Gavin Pennell All Aboard 20A: American Porter

Lager
1st Wolfgang Trenkler Bock 6C: Dunkels Bock
2nd Brendan Macey No Thrills 3B: Czech Premium Pale Lager
3rd Thomas Michl Red Dog 9C: Baltic Porter

Stout
1st Nicky Thomas: Oatmeal Stout
2nd Leon van der Linden: Foreign Extra Stout
3rd Bjorn Elix Co-Brewer: Daniel Johnson: Imperial Stout

IPA
1st Luke O’Brien, Co-Brewer: Ryan Campbell & Shane Warren NEIPA
2nd Giles Hussey : Black IPA
3rd Lachlan Johnson Hazei: New England IPA

Specialty
1st Luke Beard maximum stupid: hazelnut 34C: Experimental Beer
2nd Lachlan Johnson Pinage 30A: Spice, Herb, or Vege Beer
3rd Ali Holden Spontaneity No.15 34B: Mixed-Style Beer

AGM 2020

We held out AGM at the July meeting. Thank you everyone who came (we had 40 people). The minutes are available to read here (thank’s Leon). The committee looks forward to bringing you another year of club activities.

BeerBQ

Just in case you missed the update, the club’s postponed winter event will now be held on Saturday, August 15 now due to access to the venue. Watch out for more info soon and we’ll put up a Facebook event. Be aware, the capacity is strictly 60 people due to COVID restrictions so if you want to come, jump on a free member’s ticket asap.

Bring a homebrewed beer to share and we’ll put on the food.

Next meeting – win big

August 19 at The Wheatsheaf (COVID permitting). More to come but what we are doing is giving away a SS Brewtech kettle in a draw. All you need to do is make sure your membership is up to date or renew or join now. We’re giving 16 month of membership for the cost of 12 until July 31. Get on this good deal now. Join or renew membership here.

President’s report, 2020

Gus K

So it’s another year gone and it’s been an unusual one but a good one. 

Our regular meetings have been really well attended when we could meet in person either here at the Wheatsheaf Hotel or at Little Bang Brewing Co. 

In the time of isolation, we want to keep providing value for money for members to feel a part of a club, so we went online. COVID was the curveball of the year. We managed to give everyone some connection via Zoom and I think everyone understands it’s not the ideal scenario for holding meetings but we tried to make it different and still give everyone the feeling they were part of a club still.

While we continue to grow and welcome new members we also acknowledge that asking people to bring in beers for tasting is getting harder so we worked on new ways of sharing our beers. We introduced bottle swap or bingo and as we did in February, a beer assessment night tasting more beers from members. We’ll keep on looking at ways of making sure everyone’s homebrew is shared because that’s what a homebrewing club is about.

As a club, we brewed again at Left Barrel Brewing and we will do that again in October this year. I think a highlight was the brew days at Glen’s house too. 

Despite setbacks as COVID forced us to nearly cancel, we managed to pull off the Summer competition judged in isolation with two new members in the top three overall.

The Winter competition was judged last weekend and was a success as was our running of SABSOSA last September. Thanks to the team behind that, Gary, Julien and Brendan as well as everyone who volunteers to judge or steward. 

Our events took a bit of a hit with the Hills breweries tour having to be postponed. The summer event at the Petanque club was a new venue and worked well. Along with BeerBQ in May (that will be mid-August this year) these social events remain highlights of our calendar. 

We continue to strive to offer the best value for money for members through all our events, maintaining virtual meetings, prizes like the kettle we gave away and will give away another one in the next month too and brew days, connection, discounts and offers. But overall… 

The club is about community, especially in these times. It gives members a connection to others who love doing what they do and a support network of friendships that isn’t just about brewing beer but a whole lot more in life.

It’s been really heartening to see the members use the club’s network to call out for help when their equipment fails or are in urgent need of advice and mentorship.

The club works because of you the members but also the committee which really makes this stuff happen and I want to personally thank them for always being there to step up, step in and come up with the ideas and shoot down the not so good ones.

Thank you all.

Gus

SABC acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the land on which we meet, the Kurana of the Adelaide Plains pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging.

Remember the Wheaty?

Gus K

That’s where we get to meet again on Wednesday from 7pm.

After we knock off our AGM requirements (nominations open… email us info@sabrew.com), we’ll be watching a session from the American Homebrew Association conference that was forced online. Its called Making Sense of Terpenes, Thiols, and Biotransformation in the Quest for Unique Hop Expression. These sessions are currently only available to attendees of the recent online event, however in 2021 all sessions will be available to AHA members so it’s well worth joining. For more information check out there website: https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/

Winter competition judged and pending

We judged the entries for the SABC winter competition on Sunday. We unusually like to announce winners online ASAP on Sunday but we just couldn’t get to it, so we’re presenting all the medals on Wednesday. All the scoresheeting will be uploaded to the portal after Wednesday.

If you haven’t renewed your membership, now is a good time to check. As a club comp, only members at the time of announcement are eligible.

Log into the shop and check or renew now and get a COVID special of 16 months for the price of 12. https://shop.sabrew.com/product/membership/

BeerBQ now Satuday, August 15

We had to push back the date a couple of weeks because the new toilets weren’t finish at the Colonial Light Gardens Bowlo. Now we’re set for Saturday 15 August. That gives you four weeks to brew something.

More details to come. It’s free for members as usual and bookings will open soon. We are limited to 60 so again, be aware and it might be non-members and partners won’t be able to come. Stay tuned.

We’re back

Gus K

With the easing of restrictions we are now able to meet at The Wheaty again but with some limits. Our capacity in the shed is 45 and we need to spread out. Please be considerate of this next Wednesday at our meeting.

The first order of business is our AGM that we are required to hold. It doesn’t take long. All financial members are invited to nominate for officeholders and committee positions and vote. If you want to play a part in the generating ideas for the club, steering it or just helping in any way, please nominate by email to info@sabrew.com.au or on the night. It’s not onerous and we do have fun meetings involving dinner, beers and thinking about ideas for SABC.

The notification and agenda here.

Following the AGM, and with the permission of the American Homebrewers Association, we’ll be screening a replay from the recent HomebrewCon Online virtual conference. The session we’ll watch is:

Making Sense of Terpenes, Thiols, and Biotransformation in the Quest for Unique Hop Expression.

Brewing modern, hop-forward beer styles requires us to look beyond alpha acids and focus on hop oils, their constituents, and how addition timing and fermentation processes affect hop aroma. Centred around the latest hops research, we will examine several families of hop compounds and their contributions to bitterness, flavour, and aroma. We will discuss brewing conditions and hop addition timing to optimize hop oil extraction, biotransformation, and aroma expression.

These sessions are currently only available to attendees of the recent online event, however in 2021 all sessions will be available to AHA members so it’s well worth joining. For more information check out there website: https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/

If you’ve got a beer you want to share and talk about or a presentation on a topic, let us know for now and the future.

Everyone else, please bring a beer or two to swap in bottle bingo.

Winter comp

Our winter competition is being judged this weekend. The portal is open now to enter your beer. We are now able to offer BeerBelly as a drop off location as well as 12 midday on Saturday at the Irish Club. Judging is Sunday. If you want to offer to judge or steward, you need to nominate in the competition portal. It’s not really clear how to do this. You need to edit your profile to make the changes.

Everything you need to know on the competitions page.

BeerBQ

Reminder to block out August 1 in your diary for BeerBQ. It’s free for members as usual and bookings will open soon. We are limited to 60 so again, be aware and it might be non-members and partners won’t be able to come. Stay tuned.

Winter competition open , membership fee extension and BeerBQ

Gus K

Last weeks meeting on barrel aging beer was on Zoom again. If you missed it you can see it here. The password is 7A*6#99j. Or just the audio as mp3 here.

Next month we will be at the Wheaty and hopefully back to normal.

Winter competition open

By now you would know our winter competition is being held over the weekend of July 11 and 12 at the Irish Club.

The entry portal is now open. This time, thanks to work from Brendan and Julien, the time of entry will bear no relationship in the order your beers are presented in the flights. So enter early and print your labels well before cut off.

In good news, we can now offer bottle drop at BeerBelly, Pooraka and Goodwood Cellars.

Everything you need to know (ie the rules) are on the Competitions page on our website. https://sabrew.com/competitions/

Membership fees extension

While we managed to keep meeting, albeit online, the committee made the decision that because of COVID-19, we will extend SABC membership fees. So all members will get an extra four months on this current year’s fees. If you just renewed, you’ll get an extra four months from the date you renewed, if you are due to renew in the next few months, it’ll be pushed out an extra four months.

What this also means is that for new members, they will get 16 months membership for the cost of 12. Now’s a great time to join the club and benefit from everything we offer.

BeerBQ is on August 1

After being postponed, our annual winter get together is on August 1. More details to come soon. As usual, we put on the food, it’s free for members and $20 for guests. All we need you to do is brew great beer.

More to come soon but lock in the date….

This week’s virtual meeting learning all about hops IRL

Gus K

Howdy brewers and Iso-lords! (If you’ve not been watching Nat’s What I Reckon cooking videos, you’re missing out. I’d like to see him do a homebrewing vid).

So this week’s meeting on Wednesday night is virtual again using Zoom. It was a lot of fun last time but please be aware it is starting at the earlier time of 6:30pm to accommodate the time zone of our guest. 

Our special guest is Susan Wheeler from Hop Revolution NZ. Hop Revolution is the biggest hop farm in New Zealand and has just got their first crop in. 

Susan is a Plant Scientist and molecular biologist. She did her PhD here in Adelaide at CSIRO PLANT Industry at Waite. 

Check out their crops here https://www.hoprevolution.co.nz/ 

If you have any questions about growing hops or the biological specifics behind certain hops, this is the session you don’t want to miss! Bring a beer, settle on the couch, and join us via the internet to have a catch-up and learn! 

After the presentation and questions, we’ll have a social catch up and show and tell. Talk about a beer you’ve made recently or something you’ve learnt.

 – – – USE THIS LINK TO JOIN THE ZOOM MEETING – – –

https://zoom.us/j/3308073610?pwd=c243YmhDUTBTNnhCM2RyalZ4VmVjQT09

 Zoom is a video conferencing tool, you can use your desktop, laptop or download the Zoom app to your phone or tablet. You can join via video or audio-only if you don’t have camera access. FAQ here.

Winter Competition and SABSOSA

In other club news, it looks highly likely we’ll be able to hold a winter competition and SABSOSA, although it’s unclear if there will be a national competition. We’ll make an official announcement soon but if you want to get going, the categories will be mostly wide open (Pale Ales, Apa/IPA, Dark, Lagers, Stouts, Wheat and Specialty). Entries will most likely be limited to just two per person to help us keep it manageable. 

Also, Note on bottle sizes. Consistent with AABC, each entry must consist of a single container of at least 500ml and no more than 1000ml in volume. 330ml stubbies are not accepted.

Charity donation

As a club, we made the decision that this year’s Summer Comp entry fees would be donated towards a charity that will help local families that were impacted by the devastating bush fires earlier this year. SABC donated $450 to SA Bushfire Appeal. Thanks to everyone who entered, and thanks to everyone in our community that helped in any way with the fires — your contribution is invaluable.

The virtual brewing club

Gus K

Well, that escalated. One day we were cancelling our meeting and hoping for the competition to go ahead. Now, while we managed to get the competition judged {results below!} at social distancing, we now must postpone our Hills breweries tour and the club’s BeerBQ.

The committee met online last week and are determined to host BeerBQ at the very first opportunity we can after restrictions are lifted.

We want to postpone the Hills tour in hope we can still host it. If you bought a ticket, thank you and they’ll be kept in credit for the new date. If you want a refund, that’s OK too. Just email us and we’ll get it done. 

The new normal (hopefully not)

The club has subscribed to Zoom video meeting platform and we will host our regular meetings online until things change. Our meeting on Wednesday 15 will be at 7pm on Zoom and links/ PIN numbers will be sent out soon. We want it to be a catch-up and ask you to talk briefly about a beer you’ve brewed, something you’ve just done differently or ask a question about something you need advice.

As you’d imagine, everyone talking at once isn’t going to be a good experience so we’re using this as a trial. Mics off, use the chat feature and a host will facilitate speakers and responses. In the future, we’ll have special guests (from around the world) and other presentations. They can be recorded too for watching later.

Before next Wednesday, if you don’t have it or use video conferencing, please get Zoom on your phone, tablet or computer and try it out with friends or family to get used to using it. Here’s a getting started guide or this more blunt guide from the ABC – How to not suck at video conferencing.

In the meantime, if you’ve exhausted your Netflix recommendations, you can listen to our of our meeting presentations from our shop (you need to log in) like this cracker on water and treatment by Leon and Luke.

Summer competition results

The summer competition was judged by a small but to our usual standards of anonymity and independence. Thank you to Gary for making it happen when we thought it was all lost. And thank you all for entering. We were overwhelmed by the response in Belgian entries. We’re sorry we couldn’t judge the other categories. All the entry fees totally over $300 are going to be donated to the CFS Foundation.

The score sheets will be uploaded to the portal in the next few weeks, so please be patient. Medals will be posted. Please make sure your postal address is correct in the portal. In the meantime the winners of the Belgian categories were:

Cat 21 Belgian IPA
1st place. Brendan Macey
2nd place. Gavin Pennell
3rd place. Ali Holden
Cat 24 Belgian Ale
1st place. Gerard Flynn
2nd place. Luke O’brien
3rd place. Christopher Kerr
Cat. 25. Strong Belgian Ale
1st place Sam Wallwork
2nd place. Luke Beard
3rd place. Nick McAuley
Cat 26 Trappist Ale
1st place. Ben Krauth
2nd place. Gus Kingston
3rd place. Nick McAuley
Overall champion scores
1st place 44 points. Gerard Flynn
2nd place. 43.25. Points Ben Krauth
3rd place. 43 points. Luke O’Brien

Stay well everyone … and stay home.