Gus K – Page 9 – South Australian Brewing Club

October club news

October 14, 2018October 15, 2018 Gus K

As the warm weather arrives it’s time to start thinking about summer smashable beers to brew and what could be better than a simple well-made pilsner? This Wednesday we’re meeting at the German Club for what is probably the final time before the building goes under the auctioneer’s hammer. We’ll meet from 7pm. The kitchen is open and if want to eat, it’s advisable to get there early

The theme in part will be German beers — last year Gary presented a history of altbier, this year it will be lager. We’ll have lots of tastings too — a couple of German beers but we’re also welcoming anyone who wants to share any beers they’ve made with the Vic Secret hops many members got as a gift baggie. If you’ve got a beer to share, let us know ASAP by email.

Bottle swaps. If you just want to bring a just a single bottle or two to swap and taste later, that’s fine too. We’re trying to encourage more one to one random bottle swapping at meetings. Bring it in, label what it is, who you are and a contact if you like — even get fancy and link to the recipe online — and drop it on the beer bingo bench. If you bring a beer, you leave with a beer. Simple. Feedback to the brewer is encouraged.

The committee is also planning the next six months soon. If you have a meeting idea, want to present a talk or an experiment, let us know by email. All ideas welcome.

Events

Last Saturday a group of members had a brew day at Left Barrel Brewing at Balhannah while the rest of us stood around the bar watching and enjoying the beers. By all accounts it was fun and a bit of a learning experience and they’re all looking forward to tasting their beers that are now fermenting separately with brewer’s choice of yeast and dry hops. The results will be presented at the December Xmas drinks meeting. Thank you to everyone who signed-on. We’ll do it again next year.

While on Christmas, our club end of year event will be on Saturday, December 8 at the Flinders Uni Tavern. Put the date in your diaries now. As always, it’s free for members and that includes a meal by Burger Theory and some homebrew tastings. The bar is open with a wide range of ‘crafties’ on tap too. Guests welcome – non-members ticket price TBC.

We’re also announcing a breweries tour by bus in February at Wednesday’s meeting too.

Free beer. The Wheaty is presenting Bridge Road Brewers – Mayday Masterclass with Bridge Road founder Ben Krauss this Thursday, October 18. Jade has offered a free pint to SABC members who want to go. You need to get your name to us by email by 5 pm Tuesday to get on the list.

Membership

Phew! thinking about what’s been happening and putting a value on it — brew day wort, hops, free pints, Xmas party meal as well as raffles and meetings — it adds up to more than the cost of membership. That’s pretty good. If you’ve got a friend who’s interested in joining, or you’re reading this and have a membership that has lapsed, now’s a great time to join SABC.

Forward dates

October 25-37: Aust Nat. Homebrew Conference, Melb.

November 21: November monthly meeting

Dec 8: SABC Summer event at Flinders Tavern.

December 19: December monthly meeting – Christmas drinks at The Wheaty

January 16: January catchup at Little Bang’s new digs.

February 20: Monthly meeting.

September meeting this Wednesday

September 14, 2018October 12, 2018 Gus K

Just a quick reminder email this week that the regular club meeting is on Wednesday at the Wheaty. As the newsletter post said last week, we’ll be having a casual Q&A chat and hear tips and tricks from winning brewers, judge’s advice and comp organisers on what makes a great entry, how to improve your own beer by taking on the feedback from the judge’s scoresheets.

We’ll have some member’s beers to taste and have an opportunity to apply BJCP judging to them. Even if you’re not competition driven, it’s still about making the beer you brew even better.

If you have a beer you want to share at the meeting, or you’ve made something with the Vic Secret hops, drop us a note on Facebook or email us.

There will be a food truck serving as well.

Also, get thinking of what we can brew for ANHC Club challenge with 1kg of Southern Cross (NZ) hops (there’s already been some discussion in the FB group.)

And if you’re interested in taking part in the brew day at Left Barrel, it’s on Saturday, Oct 13. It’s free and you’ll get to brew with Brad Bown and take away 20L of wort. You’ll need to clear your diary and be ready to sign up on Wednesday because spaces are limited. See more about it HERE. If you can’t make the meeting, let us know now if you’re super keen.

Other future dates for your calendar:

October 13: SABC brew day at Left Barrel

October 17: October(fest) monthly meeting at the German Club.

October 25-37: Aust Nat. Homebrew Conference, Melb.

November 21: November monthly meeting

Nov 24 or Dec 1 {TBC}: SABC Summer event.

December 19: December monthly meeting – Christmas drinks

SABSOSA success for club brewers, next meeting and forward dates

September 10, 2018September 10, 2018 Gus K

SABSOSA best brewer Keiren Vercoe (L) and best beer winner John Van der Zalm. [photo: Gary Waters/ SABSOSA/ Composite image] — SABSOSA best brewer Keiren Vercoe (L) and best beer winner John Van der Zalm with Tim Harriss. [photo: Gary Waters/ SABSOSA/ composite image]

The State Amateur Brewing Show of SA (SABSOSA) is over for another year and SA Brewing Club members didn’t go empty handed placing in most categories but most impressively, John Van der Zalm won best beer with his English best bitter, 46.33 points, and Kieren Vercoe winning best brewer (as he did with Gawler Show too) with 3 x 1st, 2 x 2nd, 3 x 3rd = 16 points.

Congratulations to both of them and everyone else who entered. All the scores are now online. {PDF}.

With 362 beers judged from 128 brewers, it was the biggest field in the competition’s 21-year history. Now as SABC takes over the running of the competition, it’s only set to grow but it’s a challenge we’re ready for. Congratulations to Mike Leupold, Tim Harris and all the team for building it into a strong and respected competition. Also huge kudos to everyone who helped judge and steward. A competition of so many entries cannot run smoothly without volunteers.

At our next meeting we’ll be having a casual Q&A chat and hear tips and tricks from winning brewers, judge’s advice and comp organisers on what makes a great entry, how to improve your own beer (and enter to win if comps are your thing) and how to read judge’s scoresheets and act on the feedback to make your brewing better. We’ll have some member’s beers to taste and have an opportunity to apply BJCP judging to them. Even if you’re not competition driven, it’s still about making the beer you brew even better.

If you have a beer you want to share at the meeting, or you’ve made something with the Vic Secret hops, drop us a note on Facebook or email us.

September meeting is at the Wheatsheaf Hotel on September 19 from 7pm. There will be a food truck serving as well. See the Facebook event for more closer to the date.

Other future dates for your calendar:

October 13: SABC brew day at Left Barrel (see next post).

October 17: October(fest) monthly meeting at the German Club.

October 25-37: Aust Nat. Homebrew Conference, Melb.

November 21: November monthly meeting

Nov 24 or Dec 1 {TBC}: SABC Summer event.

December 19: December monthly meeting – Christmas drinks

Brew day at Left Barrel Brewing

September 10, 2018October 12, 2018 Gus K

One of the excellent opportunities our events co-ord Lachlan has been working on for members is a brew day at Left Barrel Brewing with Brad Bown on his 250L system on Saturday, October 13.

This is a great opportunity for 10-15 members to come together and brew a 250 wort and all take away 20L each (or split in pairs/Left Barrel keep 50L). It’s then up to brewers as a group choose what to make and as individuals to ferment with their own choice of yeast and add dry hops. The club will cover the cost of the grain and boil hops.

So not only is this a great opportunity to brew with knowledgeable, award-winning brewer (and foundation SABC member and prez) but brew a top notch beer for your enjoyment saving about $50 on brewing your own. That’s the same value as your club membership. The only catch is we’d like to have tastings (2-3 longnecks/2L) to compare the different decisions made on the ferment side at our Christmas drinks meeting in December.

More info on this and sign on will be at our next meeting. The numbers are limited for brewers so jump on the offer. Everyone is welcome to visit the brewery on the day and be part of the social side of course.

**Event open to SABC financial members only. You need your own 20L vessel to take away wort. Own transport required. Two litres to be made available for club tasting. Does not include yeast or dry hops or any food or drinks consumed on the day.

SABC brewers dominate at Gawler Show, SABSOSA this weekend

August 27, 2018August 27, 2018 Gus K

The annual Gawler Show brewing competition results were announced over the weekend and SA Brewing Club members dominated the podium with their entries as well as taking out best of show and best brewer. Greg Wieder won best of show beer with his Dark Mild and Keiren Vercoe took home best of show brewer with three first places, two second and four third-place medals.

Congratulations to both of them for this outstanding result as well as; John Van der Zalm, Gary Waters, Gus Kingston and Neill Gardner for places in categories. This is hopefully a good indication that SABC will also do well in the State Amateur Brewing Show, SA (SABSOSA) that is being judged this weekend.

This year’s field is the highest number of entries in the competition for a long time (if not a record) at 372. The judges and stewards will surely have their work cut out for them.

The results will be announced next week with the presentations being held on Sunday 9th September at the Wheatsheaf Hotel at 12:30 pm. We’re making this a club social gathering, so drop by for a beer and celebrate the state’s top brewers.

Gawler Show – Best of show results.

Place	Brewer	Entry Name	Style	Club
1st	Greg Wieder	Dark Mild	Dark Mild	SA Brewing Club
2nd	Kieren Vercoe	Rum A Stout	Experimental Beer	SA Brewing Club
3rd	Paul Sparkes	Secrets of the Hangman Apa	American Pale Ale

Click continue reading for the full results list…

Continue reading “SABC brewers dominate at Gawler Show, SABSOSA this weekend” →

August monthly meeting this Wednesday

August 12, 2018August 13, 2018 Gus K

TAFE SA Regency Campus Brewery (courtesy TAFE SA)

Our monthly meeting time has come around again — Wednesday 15th at the Wheaty from 7pm. Our guest is head brewing lecturer at TAFE SA’s Regency Campus, Stephen Nelsen. Apart from educating and homebrewing, he’s also had a long career helping start-up breweries get off the ground here in SA and interstate.

We’re encouraging your questions about brewing in a Q&A session. Stephen is also bringing us some tastings brewed at Regency including a new beer that he’s very excited about and is not part of their core range. He’s also going to help us detect, understand and avoid astringency and metallic off flavours in beer with spiked samples.

It’s going to be a great night and we’re expecting a large turnout. thanks to the Wheaty’ generosity, we will also be using the PA for the night. Also, there will be a lucky door prize for club members.

SABC members will also all be getting 100g of Vic Secret hops. It’s a share of 5kg of hops given to us by Wheaty Brewing Corps.

SABC does Aust Nat Homebrew Conference

August 12, 2018August 12, 2018 Gus K

ANHC - 25 October - 27 October — ANHC – 25 October – 27 October

The Aust Nat Homebrew Conference is on October in Melbourne and the website and program are now up.

Our events co-ord Lachlan is starting to get a clearer picture of who is going and how they’re getting there to see if there are some ideas for car-pooling and transporting kegs over.

The club is taking part in Club Night, a great event to get together and meet other brewers and show off our beers. This year’s theme is All Things British India, so think the Raj but IPAs of course. ANHC are also putting on a hop challenge. We don’t know what the hops are yet but when we do and they land we’ll offer them to a club member(s) who want to take on the challenge.

Check out the post on our Facebook group or send Lachlan an email at Events@sabrew.com.

Tickets are on sale now at early bird prices.

Over the last 10 years the conference has grown in leaps and bounds, providing a forum for amateur brewers from all over the country to come together and gain wisdom from some of the best and brightest minds the beer world has to offer.

This year’s speakers will include Drew Beechum from “Experimental brews”, Jay Goodwin from “The Rare Barrel”, Denny Conn from “Homebrew Allstars” and many more, all keen to share their knowledge and expertise.

There will obviously also be the social events: the AABC Awards presentation, The 2018 pairing dinner, Brewery tour and of course, the notorious club night!

August meeting: Stephen Nelsen and Vic Secret hops for all members

August 3, 2018August 13, 2018 Gus K

At our next monthly club meeting on August 15 at the Wheatsheaf Hotel with special guest Stephen Nelsen, head brewing lecturer at SA TAFE and someone who has had plenty of experience in commercial and home brewing. There will be a wide-ranging open Q&A session as well we’ve asked him to talk about astringency and other off flavours in beer. Sort of an extension of our June faults meeting.

Early signs indicate it’s going to be a popular meeting. We always welcome new members to attend a meeting but in this case we are assessing if we will charge an entry fee for non-members to help cover the costs of using a PA and radio mics for the night. Please indicate on the Facebook event if you will be ‘going’. It does help us plan things.

Also, Jade from Wheaty Brewing Corps has gifted SABC a sealed 5kg block of Vic Secret hops. They’re an Australian hop said to be similar to Galaxy. Every financial member who comes to the meeting will get 100grams. There is a catch. We’d like to do a meeting focusing on the beers made with Vic Secret with tastings. You get to brew what you want but if you commit to proving a beer for tasting at the October meeting we’ll give you 200grams. Think about what you can do and talk to the committee at the meeting.

Ideally, it’d be great to have a Vic Secret vs Galaxy tasting challenge. Get your thinking caps on.

In other member news, the committee, with the advice of our social media and comms officer Sam, has decided to change the SABC Facebook group to a closed group. Nothing changes except member comments and post are no longer seen in their personal feeds (great if you want to comment but your boss is watching) and new members have to be invited to join or are invited when they join as financial members. This means it’s a space we can share club member information, discussions and offers but still use our Facebook page to maintain a public side to the club to maintain our profile and be discovered by brewers who don’t know about SABC.

Also for your calendars, we’re looking at a club brew day in October and working on a special plan for the annual free for members summer event.

Gus

State Amateur Brewing Show, SA (SABSOSA) entries open and help needed

August 3, 2018August 6, 2018 Gus K

SABSOSA Entries are now open — Entries are now open to the State Amateur Brewing Show of South Australia.

The State Amateur Brewing Show of South Australia needs no introduction to most SABC members. It is SA’s premier amateur brewing competition and is open to all non-professional brewers in this state. It’d be great if SABC was well represented in the entries and even better if we do really well.

Apart from entering, the competition organisers need help. If you’re a BCJP judge or want to help steward let SABSOSA know. You can also add the times you can help with your entry. The other thing they need help with is bottle sorting on August 25/26. Not only does it help Tim, Gary and Keiran get things straightened out (because we’re expecting record entries this year) but it’s also a cruisy afternoon with some club members and a few beers. Watch out for the event or get in touch with SABSOSA or Gary.

The presentations are being held on the weekend of Sept 8-9 and that will be another opportunity for a member get together social meet-up.

If you’re just catching up, entries are open now at SABSOSA.com using the same competitions portal SABC has pioneered the use of. You will need a different account to your SABC comps one. Beers can be entered now and additional ones later with PayPal and credit cards accepted for the $5 entry fee. Entries close on August 24 and can be dropped off at a number of locations around Adelaide.

A couple of points worth noting: The preferred bottle size is 750mL but 500 ml or two 375mL firmly bound together are also accepted but be aware this is the last year two 375ml bottles will be accepted. Judging Guidelines, as used nationally, can be found on either sabsosa.com or aabc.org.au

Gawler Show entries are also open. You can enter until August 15. They also need judges step up please. Let Steve Wilkins know on 0417 879 774

Membership – join SABC or renew now

August 3, 2018August 6, 2018 Gus K

The new membership renewal page has been a success and member renewals have been coming in flawlessly. Thanks to Julien for his hard work setting it all up. Watch the shop page for more changes soon as we add club t-shirts and merch to it as well as special offers and all the other things we occasionally need to offer tickets to.

You can renew your annual membership anytime now and self-manage it. You do need to create an account but that is not only limited to SABC membership purposes. Soon it will enable you to access a whole lot of member-only content and information.

If you’re not a member and reading this, you can join as well without an invite or renewal.

More information on the process is here in a previous post.

Winter competition wrap and welcome your new committee

July 22, 2018July 23, 2018 Gus K

Winter competition winner Luke Beard with outgoing president Clinton Fisher at the July meeting.

Thank you to all the members who attended our July meeting for the winter competition judging and prizes and the club’s AGM. We had an unprecedented 52 entries. A big thanks to Gary and Julien for wrangling it so well along with everyone who judged and stewarded.

The results and judges’ comment sheets will be available through the portal in the coming week.

Thanks to the generosity of the club’s sponsor BeerCo, our prizes were awesome this year with some excellent ingredients packs. A ticket to ANHC was also a prize — the decision made by the committee to offer this as a prize was to aim to continue to grow our competitions and add great value for our membership by offering prizes of significant value.

The State Amateur Brewing Competition of SA (SABSOSA) is just around the corner so don’t drink your winter comp entry just yet and get brewing for state and national glory. The entry portal for SABSOSA is now open too.

While on SABSOSA, the AGM voted in favour of an amendment to our constitution to incorporate SABSOSA into SA Brewing Club as a subcommittee. It’s in line with how the peak state comps are managed in other states and sees SABC, the state’s top club, manage the state’s top brewing competition. It’s a great opportunity for the club and to help SABSOSA move strongly into its third decade.

The AGM was held and we heard from outgoing president Clinton Fisher who delivered his report on the successes and growth the year had seen. Clinton is reluctantly stepping down due to work commitments this year. On behalf of the membership and the committee, we thank him for all of his hard work as a committee member and president over recent years.

I know it was a tough decision for him and I thank him for his steady hand on the helm and vision (pun also intended… Specsavers Rundle Mall for all your optical needs). The club membership has grown by around 30 per cent, is financially sound and has a great structure for meetings, events, competitions and general good vibes.

The SABC incoming committee is: Luke Moran (VP), Jo Morgan (secretary), Edward Shorne Holden (treasurer), Julien Gibson (IT), Lachlan Johnson (events), Samantha Wallwork (comms and social media), Glen Phillis (general committee and meeting night co-ordinator) and, me, Gus Kingston, president.

The committee might be the heart of the club but it’s the membership that is the blood. There are seven of us but 75 members. If you’d like to help with anything — organising a meeting talk, events, brew days, beer swaps or just something fun (quick quiz for prizes anyone?) — let us know in an email. or share your idea on in the Facebook group. Don’t be shy, all ideas are welcome.

Coming up soon: next month’s meeting is at the Wheaty on August 15 and our guest is local brewing legend and educator Stephen Nelsen for a Q&A, so get your questions ready.

Jade from Wheaty Brewing Corps has always been a great supporter of the club and last week she gifted us 5kgs of vacuum packed Vic Secret hops, the Australian hop said to be very similar to Galaxy. We’re not sure of the plans yet but suffice to say everyone at next month’s meeting will get some and we’re working on a comparative tasting experiment. If you are keen to brew an experiment let us know (Galaxy vs Topaz vs Vic Secret showdown?)

Also as I said before, SABSOSA is coming. Entries close on August 24 with judging on September 1-2 at the German Club. Entries to the Gawler Show are also open. See our website’s calendar for more info.

A final reminder that you can now renew your membership through the new membership portal on our site. More info on how to here.

Until next time, I hope you hit your OGs.
Gus