Since its inception in 2012, the South Australian Brewing Club (SABC) has swiftly grown to become the largest and most successful brewing club in Adelaide and the country. The club embodies a diverse membership of individuals with a broad range of brewing expertise, all coming together to share knowledge and enhance their homebrewing skills. Central to the club’s calenda is the popular monthly meeting on the third Wednesday of each month, regularly attended by over 30 participants, thanks to the generous support of The Wheatsheaf Hotel. In addition to these gatherings, the club also hosts special events and brewery visits in Adelaide and the surrounding region. Find out more on our About SABC page.
We all hope to learn from your experience brewing the best home-brewed beer in Australia.
SABC Summer competition styles are published here.
Spring-tober-fest-hoppy-beers-BBQ
We dodged the lightning and most of the rain yesterday to get together and taste the freshly brewed beers made with the Kick Back Brewing donated hops (along with a few others) and a BBQ. Thanks to everyone who came and brought their family too.
Next meeting: Wednesday, November 19, at Shapeshifter Brewing, Crittenden Road.
Thank you to the many members who have RSVP’d and are bringing family this Sunday. It’s shaping up to be a great event. There will be a simple BBQ with hand-held food showcasing the beers brewed by the club members in groups using the hops kindly given to us by Kick Back Brewing, Aldinga.
We know there will be a NZ IPA, XPA, IIPA, Hazy and a Saison to enjoy and more to come. If you have a hoppy spring beer you’d like to share, drop us a line and let us know.
Please RSVP in the form so we can plan catering.
It’s from 1pm at theEast Torrens Kensington Gardens Tennis Club, East Terrace & South Terrace, Kensington Gardens. There are playgrounds nearby and we have access to two tennis courts. If your family members would like a hit, you’ll need to bring your racquets and balls.
We’ve been asked if a different venue could be used for a change. The reality is, finding a venue with facilities that will allow us to bring kegs of beer to share is very hard to find. Most don’t even reply. We’re always open to ideas if you have a place in mind.
This will be a great arvo. Don’t miss out. This is the club’s last event for the year, apart from monthly meetings.
AABC judging this Saturday. We will hopefully also be celebrating our brewers winning at AABC, which is being judged on Saturday. Fingers crossed, best of luck to all our entrants.
Shapeshifter Brewing for the November meeting
The November 19 meeting is atShapeshifter Brewing Co. We’ll get insider tips from brewer and Brewing from Beer & Brewing’s 2025 Brewer of the Year nominee, Carla Naismith, and enjoy its fine beers.
October meeting wrap.
We heard from our ABCSA award-winning members and tasted some of their beer. Everyone who came also took home quite a swag of the vacuum-sealed Kick Back Hops that were not used. Right time, right place. The members now have a head start on making Christmas case swap beers.
The rivalry moves from the pitch to the pint. SA Brewing Club’s Battle for the Ashes invites brewers to celebrate the shared brewing traditions of Britain and Australia. Summer vibes — ales that capture the spirit of the summer session, old country and antipodean rivalries and the sound of leather on willow.
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.
Brewer Of The Year
Speaking of competition, things are heating up at the pointy end of the Brewer Of The Year scoreboard. With only a few weeks to go, who will take it out? It looks like it might be down to the AABC place points. https://sabrew.com/boty-leaderboard/
Xmas Case Swap 2025!
It’s time to start organising the Xmas case swap for 2025. If you already know what to do, put your name down here ->YES, I’m IN
If you’re not sure what this is about, read on. Each Christmas, SABC runs a “case swap” where members brew and bottle a batch of beer, then swap their bottles with everyone else participating. If you put in 12 x 750ml bottles of your beer, you’ll receive 12 x 750ml bottles from 12 other brewers. 12 beers to keep you busy over the Xmas break! You can also put in a mixed 12 from two or more batches. It’s up to you.
The beer swapping generally takes place during an afternoon gathering (or the last meeting of the year). We’ll advise a date/location in the lead-up. Expect it to be mid-December.
If you’d like to participate, add your name to the spreadsheet here. We only need your name for now; you can add the remaining details, such as the beer style, later.
Membership
Please make sure your membership is up to date. We know the reminder emails often go to spam. Log in to check or renew.
A reminder the regular club meeting is this Wednesday night from 7pm at the Wheaty. We’ll be interrogating ABCSA placegetters about their magic touch and secrets to brewing winning beers. Of course, we’ll get to try some too.
November 2 club event – Spring-tober-fest BBQ and beers
Despite our efforts to find a new venue, our good friends at East Torrens, Kensington Gardens Tennis Club, will have us on their excellent deck. Unlike BeerBQ, it’s just us this time. Expect a relaxed, family-friendly outdoor vibe. We’ll do a BBQ with low-fuss handheld food. There is a great playground next to the tennis club for the kids.
Congratulations to Brewer of the Show Kieren Vercoe, and runner-up Mark Lehmann. Other club brewers who won a place and are going on to the nationals are: Nick McAuley, Lucas Veitch, Nick Hauschild, Adam Forbes, Leon Van Der Linden, Paul Quirk, Chris Marciniak, Russell Saint, Darren Williams, Gary Waters, Brendan Macey, Bruce Tonkin, and Michael Handran-Smith.
The full results are hell. Well done, brewers and all the best for the nationals.
Summer Competition, 2026
Next year’s summer comp is to be themed The Battle For The Ashes. English vs 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.
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)
The club was gifted a lot of Mosaic, Citra, Amarillo, Nelson Savin, Simcoe and Motueka hops by Kick Back Brewing, Aldinga (full list). Two groups have brewed their hoppy beers for the club’s EOY beers and BBQ show on Sunday, Nov 2, and we’d love a few more beers from you.
If you’d like to make a hoppy beer and share the brew day with a few members, please send us an email ASAP — info@sabrew.com. It’s a long weekend, so it’s perfect for brewing and leaves time for fermentation and conditioning to drink fresh in 4 weeks. If you don’t want the hops but want to brew, that’s fine. Let us know so we can add your beer to the list. Unlike BeerBQ, it’s a limited beer offering. We can give you hops in exchange later too.
Southern Brewers (top), Northern Brewers (below)
ABCSA Awards Presentation this Saturday afternoon
ABCSA has been judged, and the brewers who placed have been notified (check your spam folders!). They don’t know what place they got.
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)
It’s a busy week on the SA homebrewing calendar with ABCSA judging this weekend but we do have our regular meeting on Wednesday night at the Wheaty from 7pm.
We’ll be looking at freshness and oxidation with some ex-beer-iments. Kind of opposite to freshness, Neil is letting us taste some 20+yr old Cooper’s Vintage Ale.
If you have a beer to present, drop us a note. Extra brewer of the year points on offer.
We’ll be announcing a special event in October, showcasing brews you will make and details of the summer comp. Come along to get the head start on that.
Forward dates
The November meeting is now at Shapeshifter Brewing.
This week’s news is mainly a reminder that entries for this year’s ABCSA Homebrewing Competition close this week! Don’t miss the deadlines.
Important details:
Entry deadline: This Thursday 6pm. Get your entries in, paid for and labels printed!
Bottle drop-off: Friday 5pm at any of our official drop-off partners or Saturday 13 September, strictly between 11am and 1pm at the Irish Club, Carrington Street, Adelaide
All the information you need, including drop-off locations and competition guidelines, can be found here: https://www.abcsa.org.au/
Judges and stewards are also encouraged to register for the judging weekend on Sept 20/21.
We’re at the Wheaty next Wednesday, Sept 17. We’ll be doing some freshness tests and in tune with that, taste some 20+yr old Cooper’s Vintage Ale. More to come on that soon. We’ll be announcing a special event in October, showcasing brews you will make and details of the summer comp. Come along to get the head start on that.
Forward dates
The November meeting is now at Shapeshifter Brewing.
It’s that time of the month again when we get school night out and sneaky couple of beers (you all don’t drink during the week, do you?)
This Wednesday we’re at the Wheaty and it’s all about hops — growing them and using them in your beers. Stuart Binnion from Silver Hop Springs and Fresh Hops Co-op of Australia is our expert special guest to tell us how and the lessons he has learnt from growing hops on his property in Longwood in the Hills.
There’s also a some winter comp beers for tasting, including a A/B comparison taste test of a stout.
We’ll be presenting the awards and generally celebrating the winter comp placegetters. Congratulations Lucas Veitch, who won best beer of show with his outstanding International Pale Lager, scoring a 42.5!
Now on with ABCSA. Entries are open, and bottle drop is only around the corner (Sept 13).
ABCSA has got a schmick new website and entries are open now along with stewarding and judging registrations.
Calendar updates
September 13: ABCSA Bottle drop.
September 17: Club meeting, the Wheaty (*TBC)
September 20-21: ABCSA Judging (Irish Club) — You know what to do.
October 15: Club meeting, the Wheaty
November 19: Club meeting, the Wheaty
December 20: Club meeting, the Wheaty
Subscribe to this calendar in Google (other calendar versions available on the Calendar page).
If you know someone interested in the activities of the club, please forward this email. If you’re reading this and would like to find out more, please email us info@sabrew.com and come to a meeting.
The Brewer of the Year leaderboard has been updated with points scored from the Winter Comp 2025 and the July monthly meeting. Lucas Veitch has built on his points earned at BeerBQ to now sit atop the ladder, followed closely by Mark Lehmann who gained 2 places. Russ has surged up the leaderboard with 3 great Winter Comp entries, and as he has indicated he will present a beer at the August meeting he’ll be just a few points off 1st place by the end of August.
Take note! It’s not just about competition entries now, those extra points from presenting beers at meetings could make all the difference come December. If you have a beer you’d like to present, please let us know in advance of a monthly meeting (email, facebook, DM).
We wanted to get the scoresheets from the Winter Comp up ASAP so members can utilise feedback for ABCSA, and it turns out that means revealing the results.
Congratulations Lucas Veitch, who won best beer of show with his outstanding International Pale Lager, scoring a 42.5!
The results for all tables were as follows:
Table 1: Lager
Place
Brewer
Entry Name
Style
1st
Lucas Veitch
Pale Lager
International Pale Lager
2nd
Nicholas Hauschild
International Dark Lager
International Dark Lager
3rd
Mark Lehmann
The Cockup
International Pale Lager
Table 2: Ale
Place
Brewer
Entry Name
Style
1st
Russell Saint
Sparkylicious
Australian Sparkling Ale
2nd
Paul Quirk
Maaa
American Amber Ale
3rd
Tali Warnock
Even Cowgirls Cry
American Amber Ale
Table 3: APA
Place
Brewer
Entry Name
Style
1st
AndrewHowlett
Dads Pale Ale
American Pale Ale
2nd
Lucas Veitch
American Pale Ale
American Pale Ale
3rd
Russell Saint
Home Grown Cascade Pale Ale
American Pale Ale
Table 4: Stout
Place
Brewer
Entry Name
Style
1st
Leon Van Der Linden
Kingston Delight
Tropical Stout
2nd
Russell Saint
Anise Myrtle Tropical Stout
Tropical Stout
3rd
Mark Lehmann
April Sun In Cuba
Tropical Stout
Table 5: Specialty
Place
Brewer
Entry Name
Style
1st
Chris Marciniak
Southern Hemisphere Xmas Ale (Aged)
Specialty Spice Beer
2nd
Leon Van Der Linden
Mondo Gusto
Specialty Spice Beer
3rd
Mark Murray
Spiced Christmas Ale
Specialty Spice Beer
Congratulations to all the place gettings. BOTY points will be updated soon.
If you had an entry in the competition, head to the competition portal and log in to review your score sheets
Thanks to everyone who judged, stewarded and got this show happening, and of course, everyone who entered.
August meeting, Wednesday 20th at the Wheaty
This month, growing hops in the Adelaide Hills and brewing with them with Stuart Binnion from Silver Hop Springs and Fresh Hops Co-op of Australia.
He will tell us about reviving hop farming in South Australia on his property in Longwood. Also if you do get access to fresh hops, how to brew with them.
August 20: Club meeting, The Wheaty – growing hops and brewing with whole cones.
September 17: Club meeting, the Wheaty
September 20-21: ABCSA Judging (Irish Club) — You know what to do.
October 15: Club meeting, the Wheaty
November 19: Club meeting, the Wheaty
December 20: Club meeting, the Wheaty
Subscribe to this calendar in Google (other calendar versions available on the Calendar page).
If you know someone interested in the activities of the club, please forward this email. If you’re reading this and would like to find out more, please email us info@sabrew.com and come to a meeting.
Winter Comp ran yesterday with 33 entries judged over 5 categories. It was a great Sunday afternoon at ETKG with some outstanding beers from our ‘core range’ categories, as well as some interesting herb and spice combinations in Specialty.
The judges and stewards were thanked with a big ol’ batch of Texas chilli (recipe here if you are interested).
We know you’ll be keen for the judges’ feedback so you can prep for ABCSA. We’ll get the scores sheets scanned and uploaded to the portal ASAP. The winners will be announced at the August meeting at the Wheaty on Wednesday, August 20, with BOTY points added to the leaderboard soon after.
The next comp on the calendar is ABCSA. The entry portal is OPEN, and you still have seven weeks to brew before drop-offs close, so there is still time to knock out a few!
AGM links fixed
In last week’s newsletter, the links to the president’s and treasurer’s reports weren’t shared correctly. This has been fixed so if you had trouble last week please try again.
The winter comp will be judged this coming Sunday, 27th June, at ETKG. Entry registration will close at 5 PM Friday, so don’t delay – head to the competition portal now to register your entries. Please also update your profile in the portal to indicate if you can judge or steward. If you can’t make it to ETKG Sunday, drop your entries off at SA Brewing by midday Saturday.
AGM
The AGM was held last week at the July monthly meeting, and there have been a few changes to the committee. The committee for the next 12 months will be:
Position
Name
President
Lachlan Johnson
Vice President
Chris Kerr
Treasurer
Leon van der Linden
Secretary
Gus Kingston
Competition Director
Gerrard Flynn
General Officer (IT)
Julien Gibson
General Officer
Mark Lehmann
General Officer
Glen Phillis
General Officer
Neil Chappell
Minutes of the AGM can be viewed here. The President’s report is here, and the Treasurer’s report is here.
I would like to thank the outgoing committee members: Gary Waters, Nick McAuley and Sam Beard.
August Hop talk
At next month’s August meeting, we have Stuart Binnion from Silver Springs Hops coming along to talk about growing your own hops. Given the hoppy theme of the meeting, it would be great to pair it with a hoppy beer. If you have something you can bring along, let us know and we’ll gift you some free hops in return (as well a points towards Brewer of the Year)
Keg King Kegscale offer
Keg King is releasing a new product called Kegscale that tracks how much beer you have in a keg. It’s similar to the now-discontinued Plato Keg that I have demoed at a few meetings. See a short video here. Keg King is offering the club a bulk buy price of $70 each (minimum order 20 units). If you are interested in this offer, email the club.
If you have any suggestions on other bulk buys you would like the club to consider, let us know!
