South Australian Brewing Club (SABC) is a club based in Adelaide where beer and brewing enthusiasts can collaborate and discuss the brewing of beer at home or at the craft brewing level. We welcome members from all over South Australia.
We kick off 2020 with our regular monthly meeting this Wednesday at the Wheaty from 7pm (yes, it’s the third Wednesday of the month already). Traditionally we’ve met at Little Bang in January but because of the Wheaty’s availability during Fringe, we’ll go to LBB next month.
This week, apart from a catch-up and beer, we’ve got some hop sensory kits to use courtesy of Wally who donated them. This isn’t the off flavours identification session we were planning before Christmas. We know there is a lot of interest in that so we’ll do that in March. This is a way of experiencing the different aromas hops can produce — earthy, piney, floral, tropical etc…
With the devastation of the current bushfires, we as a club would like to contribute something in the way of a donation. We have some ideas but we’d like to hear any you have as well. Ideally, a donation of around $2000 is our goal. It could be we sell something, we donate all entry fees from Summer Comp — all ideas welcome.
Summer competition: The summer competition will be judged on Saturday, March 21. The entry portal will be open in early March and entries can be dropped at the March meeting, BeerBelly and on the day by 12.15.
It’s the end of another year, and we’re going to wrap up with a super casual get together at The Wheaty this Wednesday night from 7pm. Nothing says Christmas like beer and pizza and a hot day right? Hey, at least you’re not cooking and you get to hang out with rad peeps — win-win! it’ll be a hot day too. Our meeting last month was also on a 42C day and the back room at the Wheaty was surprisingly cool.
SECRET SANTA!
Please bring a bottle of your homebrew beer for Secret Santa. Please don’t bring a bought bottle from behind the bar or anywhere else. You can decide to pop your name on it if you like, or leave it a complete secret!
There will also be beers from the Left Barrel Brewing brewing day to taste on the night. If you brewed at LLB at at the club day in October, bring some along for comparisons.
Brewer of the Year 2019
Brewer of the Year is SABC’s annual award that recognises a member’s consistency in brewing throughout the year. It also acts as an encouragement to everyone to just enter beer in competitions because you can always learn from feedback and might even be surprised that it’s actually better than you thought.
This year’s Brewer of the Year is John van der Zalm. With a young family and demanding job, John doesn’t brew a lot but when he does, everything he makes is excellent. Over the last two year’s at least his beer has won or placed in every category he’s entered at our comps, SABSOSA and even does very well nationally. Last year his simple ‘thrown together’ English bitter won best of show at SABSOSA. Congratulations John!
John van der Zalm wins the 2019 Brewer of the Year award.
Wrapping up 2019
Some words said at the end-of-year BeerBQ summer party last weekend.
Thank you to everyone who came to the SABC end of year summer party last weekend sharing your beers. Also, thank you to everyone who helped cook or contribute something.
So it’s another year and the club has had a good one – from our Southern vales brewery tour, brewing at Left Barrel, Summer and winter competitions getting really big and our successful running of SABSOSA.
Then there were all the monthly meetings that saw really great attendances and I think everyone enjoyed coming along. That’s all because of you, the members, but also the club’s 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.
I also think we need to thank and acknowledge our families – the partners and spouses who let us not just make beer but take time out from family life to sit around and talk about it – and maybe drink it a bit too.
The club is about community – 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. Certainly online there is often offers to help within minutes and I’m sure it’s not just about brewing.
It’s under a week now before our summer club event that we are calling BeerBQ ‘lite’ with petanque. It’s this Sunday, December 8 from 1 – 5 pm at the Prospect Petanque Club in Broadview and the weather is looking like a lovely sunny and warm 33c.
It’s a great spot to relax on a summer afternoon and have a beer and toss some boules. Because you’re a club member, it’s free, but we need you to RSVP for you and your family members in the shop via Santa pic below.
Just select the number of family coming — kids and spouse/ partners — and go through the checkout. It only takes a minute.
Bring your beer, either in some bottles or a keg your own dispensing gear. We’ll supply the glassware.
We’ll have a BBQ for everyone, nice and simple, snags for the kids and Zooper Doopers. There’s heaps of space for them to run around too with a playground in the same park.
If you would like to contribute some food, snacks, treats or just help, please let us know – info@sabrew.com
We’ll also be presenting the club annual award for Brewer of the Year.
We wanted to do another off-flavours tasting session this month but unfortunately, despite ordering a while ago, the kit hasn’t arrived. We’ll reschedule it for next year. This Wednesday we’ll meet at the Wheaty at 7 pm as usual and we plan to do something new.
The committee is conscious that as the club grows, having members bring beer for tasting with a group of 40+ members is a big ask but sharing our beers and learning from the feedback of others is, at its core, what the club is about.
Starting this week, and repeating a few times a year, we will taste beers and provide feedback in smaller groups working together. BJCP accredited judges will help guide the group to provide honest feedback and advice on what to try next time. It’s good for brewers and great to teach people who have not judged before start to learn more.
The beers can be submitted anonymously with no information or a with starting point — style, hops, ABV etc. Or, you can tell us it’s your beer and hear the feedback.
So if you have a beer you want to share and get feedback on, bring it along. Just a longneck or a couple of stubbies is fine. You don’t need to bring excellent beer. Beers that didn’t quite hit your goals are encouraged.
Don’t forget beer bingo. Bring a bottle and leave with a different one.
Christmas Party
Our party is on Sunday, December 8 from 1 pm – 5 pm at the Prospect Petanque Club, 14 – 32 Buchanan Street, Nailsworth. It’s a fantastic little place under shady trees in the middle of a park between Main North Rd and Galway Ave.
As we crash headlong into end of year parties and summer ales, we’ve got our club season festivities.
For our Christmas event, this year we’re getting together for a summer ‘lite’ version of BeerBQ — like our annual winter event but on:
Sunday, December 8, from 1 pm – 5 pm at the Prospect Petanque Club, 14 – 32 Buchanan Street, Nailsworth. It’s a fantastic little place under shady trees in the middle of a park between Main North Rd and Galway Ave.
As a homebrewing club, we want to celebrate our brewing skills and, like BeerBQ, we welcome members to bring their beer to share in bottles or kegs. We’ll put on a BBQ and there’s petanque to be played as well.
This is a family-friendly event and we welcome you to invite your partner and kids. There’s a playground nearby and they can play petanque and run around on the pistes too.
Being a club subsidised event, there is no cost to members or family. This time it’s not an event for friends and other non-members. Beer is BYO but wine and soft drinks need to be bought from the club bar.
Watch out for a link to RSVP in the club shop and an event in our Facebook group soon.
We need your help. If you’re able to help set-up or pack up, help cook the BBQ (even just half an hour), bring something along to eat like snacks or a salad please or occasionally collect glassware and put it in the glasswasher, please let us know. We appreciate the help (and the committee also wants to relax and enjoy ourselves too).
The venue is great and as you can understand, convincing a club to let us come along and drink beer is a challenge but the Petanque club have been understanding and we’re paying a bit of ‘beer corkage’ and throwing a slab of Hahn Lite their way to cover their losses that they’d usually make from beer sales.
Membership reminder: You can renew your membership online easily yourself. If it has lapsed or about to lapse, you won’t be able to RSVP to events. https://sabrew.com/join-sabc/
Next club meeting: November 20 at the Wheaty for off flavours identification. We’re buying a Siedel off-flavours kit to spike beer so you can get a better understanding of oxidation, acetaldehyde, diacetyl, DMS, solvents and more.
The monthly club meeting is on this Wednesday at the Wheaty from 7 pm. After a flurry of activity managing a successful SABSOSA, we’re back to core business — almost.
On the feedback we got on last year’s post-SABSOSA meeting, we’re going to do it again. Some of our winning brewers will reveal the story and secrets behind the brewing of their winning beers and share their tips and advice for what might have given it marginal gains to earn a medal.
We know not everyone cares about competitions but comp winning brewers make good beer and it’s good to learn how we can make our beers better.
If you did well and can bring in some of your beer for a tasting, that’d be great. Drop us a message to let us know (info@sabrew.com)
Gary accepts his Best Brewer of Show award from Jade at The Wheaty
SABSOSA Results SABC, again, did really well in the show. Congratulations in particular to winners of Best Brewer Of Show, Gary Waters and Highly Commended Beer (Imperial Stout), Julien Gibson.
Also, Luke Scrivens, Wolfgang, Thomas Michl, Rafael Aragon, Brenton Schoemaker, Wol, Brendan Macey, John Van der Zalm, Liam Yorke, Craig Milnes, Lachlan, Ali Holden, Neill Gardner and Paul Sparkes.
A big thank you to Gary and Julien who shouldered the majority of the work organising the competition and everyone who helped judge, steward or did anything to make it the successful and smoothly run comp it was… and of course all of you who entered.
Left Barrel Brew Day #2 We held one last year and Left Barrel has invited us to brew again. For members who didn’t get to do it last time, we can offer it to about 15 to brew on Saturday, October 12. Express interest on the Facebook event or email us. We hope we don’t have to have a rock-paper-scissors playoff to select the final 15. Get in fast. More on Wednesday.
Want to brew a beer with kviek? We’ve got the ingredients to brew a beer using kviek yeast — the Norwegian monster yeast that knows no temperature boundaries. Come on Wednesday and put your case forward — again it might involve a rock-paper-scissors playoff to select a winner. Resident kviek professor, Mark Pirates, is going to share his boundless passion for his favourite Norwegian product other than Aha.
Got any ideas? We’re always looking for meeting night presentation ideas. If you’ve got something you want to share or group experiment — let us know. We can help buy ingredients if needed.
Case Swap Glen is hosting another case swap on Saturday, November 9. A case swap is a good chance for brewers to get together to enjoy beer, talking brewing and of course, talking crap. Attendees typically bring a keg or bottles of homebrew beer along to share. Talk to Glen or send him a message if you want to know more (like where he lives). More on Brew Adelaide forum here.
Merch! If you want a t-shirt or cap for summer or a hoodie to warm up on chilly spring evenings, order from the SABC shop. If you order now, we can deliver to you on Wednesday night. https://shop.sabrew.com/ You can also join or renew your membership too!
Robe Beer Festival Homebrew Competition
Enter your beers into the Robe Beer Festival and compete for gold, silver and bronze awards in 10 categories, up to $1000 in prize money. Gain recognition for your crafty brews and valuable feedback from the competition’s judging panel. This is your chance to win the BEER OF SHOW prize, where you get the opportunity to roll up your sleeves and brew your winning beer on a commercial scale at the local Robe Town Brewery in Robe, South Australia.
Awards will be announced on the main stage at Robe Beer Fest 2019, Saturday 26th October.
The Entry deadline for entry to the Robe comp must be received by email: October 13th. Entry Form is here.
They also need judges. Contact Tom O’Reilly on 0434 497 131.
They’re also organising a masterclass for homebrewers that will be held in Robe on the afternoon/evening of Friday, October 25th, during the final judging stages of this year’s homebrew competition. Learn about classic homebrewing faults and how to avoid them, as well as tips for making great beer from experienced brewers and beer judges.
Congratulations to Nicky Thomas who was the winner of the 75l stainless kettle valued at $300. It was drawn by luck from the kettle from the list of members at our August meeting.
At the club meeting on Wednesday, we’re going to be joined by three brewers who took their homebrew developed recipes to commercial release. James from Shapeshifter, Tony from The Suburban Brew and many of you will know our member Stuart Kirk, SK Beverages. All three have released beers on the market this year.
We’re going to discover what lessons they learnt when scaling up their homebrew to commercial scale. Can you just press the scale-up button on BeerSmith and know the beer will be the same and how does the cost of ingredients factor. An IPA with five hops might be spectacular as a 20L batch but it’s not economically practical at 1000L.
So the theme is about recipe design and ingredients and not so much about barcodes, marketing and tax but the brewers will be available for a chat after the formalities. We’ll also have some goodies to raffle!
Win a 75L Stainless kettle
We’re going to draw the winner of the stainless 75L kettle at the meeting as well. Everyone who is currently a financial member of the club will be in the draw. If your membership has lapsed, or you’re not sure what status it is, check or renew online before you miss the draw. Tips on how to do it here.
SABSOSA entry assessment. Brewed an IPA but the hops haven’t quite popped? Maybe it’s a winning American Pale Ale. A stout but with some adjuncts? Possibly it’s better suited to the experimental category.
As we’re on the eve of the state competition, we are also asking everyone to bring along a bottle of your entry and our experienced club judges can offer some advice on if you’re entering it in the right category. It seems straightforward but many great beers lose points and places because they’re simply in the wrong category.
SABSOSA It’s getting close. Bottle sorting is on August 31 and judging on September 6-7. If you are willing to help, either judge or steward, can you please express your interest via the portal. You need to EDIT your profile and indicate in the fields that you can help. It helps us plan things much more easily and with over 400 entries, we need to be methodical. You can also help at bottle sort and even at the award presentation on Sept 14 at the Wheaty.
The entry portal is open and closes on Aug 30. Like our comps, you should enter, pay and print labels well in advance of the deadline. You won’t be able to get in after that. Fix your labels to bottles with rubber bands.
Bottle drop off. Club members who have bottles ready can bring them to the Wednesday meeting. We’ll look after them. Goodwood Cellars are now a drop-off point too. Follow SABSOSA on Facebook for updates.
Understandingbeer Speaking of the language of beer, TAFE SA is offering its Beer Flavour Training course again. Over four weeks, it aims to teach anyone seeking a detailed and comprehensive understanding of beer styles, flavours, faults and evaluation. The course is delivered by Stephen Nelsen.
Ideas Do you have an idea for something the club can do or offer? It could be a simple meeting theme or a weekend event or even a service for members to benefit from. Let us know either by email or chat to a committee member.
July is the time many memberships lapse because we used to do it manually around this time. Please take a moment to look at your records or login and see if you need to renew before next week’s AGM.
You can easily renew, or join, on our website. You can easily reset your password if you need to. Select the membership item in the shop, login and go to your dashboard. From your account dashboard you can view your recent orders (including the last time you renewed, manage your shipping and billing addresses, and edit your password and account details. sabrew.com/join-us
You can pay by PayPal/ credit card or bank transfer. Proceed throught checkout and at the end it will show you your order number to use as reference in your transfer and the account numbers to pay into. You’ll also receive an email with all this in it within five minutes too. Note, they might be different to a/c numbers you’ve used before. Any questions, please email us.
This year’s winter competition is set to be hot hot hot on a cold cold cold day. Judging is happening this Saturday, July 6 from 12-3 at the Irish Club, 13 Carrington St.
Thanks to everyone who has said they can judge or steward. We always welcome more help, even if it’s just to steward for an hour or so or clean up at the end. We’re going to run this as a SABSOSA dress rehearsal and give experience to new participants.
At the time of writing, there are 55 entries and we’re expecting this to be our biggest competition yet.
Please enter, pay and print your labels before the portal closes on Thursday night. After that, you won’t be able to access your entries. We can’t accept bottles without competition labels. Bottle drop off at BeerBelly, on the day by 1215pm (strictly) or by arrangement.
We’re also doing the prize announcements at the end of judging. Come down for a beer for that. We’re also hoping to broadcast it as a Facebook live event for those who can’t make it.
The prizes for SABC members who win are engraved prize glasses for winners, medals for silver and bronze and Best of Show will receive $100 in cold hard cash (more likely a Visa gift card). Runner up wins $50.
Also this month: July 12-14: Beer n BBQ Festival member’s casual catch-up. All days if you shout out you’re going but Sunday afternoon is likely to be the main day.
July 17: Monthly meeting. SABC AGM and beer and cheese pairing night.
Membership renewals can be done online. Make sure your membership is up to date to vote or join the club committee.
The Annual General Meeting for the SA Brewing Club will be held on Wednesday, July 17 at The Wheatsheaf Hotel, George St Thebarton from 7pm.
All financial members of the club are invited to attend. The agenda can be downloaded here. Nominations for all positions can be submitted by email in advance.
This week’s club meeting is on Wednesday at the brand spanking new Pirate Life Brewery in Port Adelaide. It’s an awesome investment for beer, brewing and the industry right here in little ol’ Adelaide.
The gang at PL will be conducting a tour for us as well, but numbers are limited to 40 (two groups of 20). Please ensure that you arrive early to sign up for the tours to so you don’t miss out. Facebook event RSVP.
The tour is open for club financial members (join or renew here). There is a small cost of $15 for the tour but this includes a beer. The club will also buy a few jugs of beer so we can also sample some other beers you might not want to buy a pint of.
Casual meet up We’ve not held one this year but our first casual meet-up for a beer and a burger will be on Sunday afternoon, June 9, at the new Sparkke Change brewpub on Whitmore Square. Put it in your diaries and stay tuned for more soon.
Winter competition Judging for SABC’s winter comp with the theme of All Things American will be on Saturday, July 6. Entries open on Saturday, June 1 and bottle drop off will be available at some of the usual venues or at the Irish Club in the CBD on the day. More on our competitions page.
Judging and SABSOSA ‘training’ session SABC will be hosting a series of judge and steward information sessions leading up to the judging weekend for SABSOSA on September 7 – 8. We hope judges with experience and anyone interested in learning will be available to judge SABSOSA on that weekend. If you’ve judged before, check your email for more information.
These sessions will be somewhat formal but will also have a fun and social element to them. For some, it will be going over a well-trodden path but we need your experience to help hone the skills of others to build the quality of judging for our competition and in turn, produce better beer to take to the national competition. We will endeavour to cover as many facets of judging as possible without making these afternoons a chore.
The first session and SABSOSA 2019 launch is this Saturday, 25th May from 2 pm – 3.30 pm at the West Thebby. Lots of beers to taste to train your palette and we’re asking for a small contribution of $10.
New judges and interested helpers, please email info@sabsosa.com.au or talk to Gary Waters. Forward events June 19 – Monthly meeting at The Wheaty with BeerCo July 6 – Summer comp judging July 12 – 14 Beer n BBQ festival July 19 – SABC AGM and a special event at the Wheaty
