South Australian Brewing Club

I was pleased to nominate Julien Gibson for SA Brewing Club Life Membership at the AGM last week. It was seconded and passed without opposition. As he was unable to be there, the award will be presented at a meeting in the future.

There’s a theory of clubs and groups that says, for every 100 people in a group, nine will be active and one person will be super-active. Julien Gibson is SABC’s one. He has been a key member of our club since its inception and puts a lot in to make it run well. 

He oversaw the club’s transformation from a group of homebrewers to an incorporated club.

Introduced a modern cashless and online membership system — said to be one of the first brewing clubs to offer it. This reduces the workload for everyone else from the treasure down.

We have a shop to manage and buy club merchandise.

Our website is never down and is an important feature in presenting what the club is to the interested outsider.

He has set up and managed the competition portal for all our club competitions and SABSOSA is also said to be the first in Australia to do so.

He is the club’s public officer to keep us legal and within the associations’ laws.

He’s won many Best Beer of Show awards and places in competitions.

He was a club president and has been on the club committee for all of its existence.

His contribution to the ideas and progress of the club is highly valued.

Another year is done — a year that wasn’t without Covid disruptions but we managed to work around it.
The club finally managed to host its premier event, BeerBQ, in its old format in June. All brewers bring whatever creation they want to share, food cooked and provided by the club and everyone digs in. The new venue at the ETKG Tennis Club was great and my only regret was I couldn’t be there (bloody Covid).

Our alternative events were also well attended and enjoyed — like our British cask beers night at the Hilton Hotel.
In an attempt to work around the restrictions on gatherings, we introduced the team’s brew-off. The first was the supermarket challenge that resulted in some interesting and very drinkable creations.

The second was Brew The Burra — a brewing challenge to replicate Lady Burra beers. Something closer to known styles than the supermarket beers.

While fun, the team events allowed newer members to connect with others often in their local area and in turn strengthened connections within the membership.

Again we successfully ran SABSOSA, won by our own Brendan Macey, and two club competitions.
Throughout the year members had some social catch-ups at local venues including Shapeshifter, Kickback and Brightstar.

All of this including regular monthly meetings couldn’t be organised by a single person and I thank the committee for all their work, even with life’s commitments, serious illness, Covid and weddings.

I won’t be standing again for president this time. I’ve enjoyed it a lot and I feel it’s time to let someone else have a go and new committee members to share their fresh ideas.

I’ll still be a part of the club of course.
Thank you.
Gus

It’s been a big few weeks in beer with our Winter competition and Beer n BBQ on the weekend. We hope you can join us for the regular monthly meeting at the Wheaty on Wednesday from 7pm.

Our AGM meeting special guest is a club founding member, president, brewer and owner of Left Barrel Brewing, Brad Bown. He is also now 2022 Champion Beer of Show brewer with his Bob’s Ya Dunkle judged at the SA Beer Awards last week. He always has a lot to say about brewing and going pro.

We’ll also hold our AGM and to begin the celebration of the club’s 10th anniversary, the club will put on some special treats for everyone attending.

The AGM agenda is here (but will probably be updated on the night), including nominations received so far, and the minutes of the 2021 AGM here. You can still nominate for a committee place now via email or on the night at the meeting. As we wrote before, joining the committee is rewarding, fun and helps steer the best brewing club in Australia in the right direction.

We’ll also be presenting the medals to the winners of the Winter Competition.

Greetings. It’s that time of SABC’s year for two things — the winter competition and its AGM.

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Is your SABC membership up to date?

Go to https://sabrew.com/join-sabc/

Check your membership by going here and log in, navigate to My Membership and then Member and Manage to see the expiry date. Alternatively, look at Membership/orders to see the most recent payment.

Tips on joining, renewing or checking here.

The Annual General Meeting for the SA Brewing Club will be held on Wednesday, July 20 at The Wheatsheaf Hotel, George St Thebarton at 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.

Our monthly meeting is on this Wednesday night from 7pm at the Wheaty. Bring a beer to share and swap. If you would like to present your beer to the meeting and talk a bit about it, bring two or three long necks along.

Thank you to everyone who helped cook, set up and make our BeerBQ event on June 4 a great success. Despite the poor weather, there was around sixty in attendance enjoying more than thirty home brewed beers and awesome low and slow BBQ and smoked salmon.

The Winter competition is still on schedule for Sunday, July 10. We’ll have more info at this week’s meeting and online. We always need judges so make sure you block out that Sunday in your calendar.

Don’t forget our extra meeting tomorrow night, Tuesday 24th, at Lady Burra in Topham Mall Adelaide to taste the Brew the Burra team beers.

 The teams will present their beers to the brewer Mark who will taste the creations. Drop by, join in and have dinner and some of the real Lady Burra Brewhouse beers.

The club committee is also going over a few plans for BeerBQ and our winter competition. Members are more than welcome to join us and share their ideas.

BEERBQ – Saturday, June 4

Free member tickets and $25 for guest tickets are now available for BeerBQ. It’s on Saturday, June 4 from 6.30pm. Bring your beer in whatever container you like to share.

There will be slow-cooked BBQ and excellent salads.

The venue is the newly renovated East Torrens Kensington Gardens Tennis Club. 

Tickets https://shop.sabrew.com/ You’ll need to log in to get your tix. 

This month we’re meeting at the Wheaty. Wednesday 18 from 7pm. Bring a bottle of your beer — good or bad! — to share for anonymous assessment and feedback. A table of members will taste your beer and try to guess the style and give feedback on it. It can be anonymous so bring an unmarked bottle. You can ‘fess up it’s yours too! Add an extra bottle to share in bottle bingo too. New members are welcome to join us.

Brew the Burra team beers. Two months ago, for inspiration, the club formed teams to brew beers emulating Lady Burra Brewhouse beers as a jumping-off point. Also to get brewers together to make some beer as a community catchup while Covid lingered.

At a special extra meeting for all on Tuesday, May 24 from 6.30pm, the teams will present their beers to the brewer Mark who will taste the creations at Lady Burra at a special club meeting.

Drop by, join in and have dinner and some of the real Lady Burra Brewhouse beers.

The club committee is also meeting to knock off a few planning details for the upcoming club event BeerBQ and our winter competition as well as some forward events like Beer & BBQ, brewery visits and more.

Members are more than welcome to join us and bring your ideas to contribute.

BEERBQ – Saturday, June 4

If you missed the news, our club’s premier event BeerBQ is on Saturday, June 4 from 6.30pm . What are you brewing for it? There are no limits on who brings beer, so brew something this weekend! Brew it and bring it! You can serve from kegs with taps, mini-kegs, bottles or growlers. There will be a lot of people to share it with.

Food! We’ll do food too. There’s a plan to slow cook some meats. If you are handy with the BBQ let us know.

The venue is the newly renovated East Torrens Kensington Gardens Tennis Club. 

Tickets https://shop.sabrew.com/ You’ll need to log in to get your tix. Members free. Partners etc, $25.

If you missed the news last week, our BeerBQ is back on Saturday, June 4 from 6.30pm in your diaries. Now we need YOUR BEER. There are no limits on who brings beer, so brew something this weekend!

Brew it and bring it! Kegs, mini-kegs, bottles or growlers. There will be a lot of people to share it with.

Food! We’ll do food too. If you are handy with the BBQ or knock up a great salad, let us know.

The venue is the newly renovated East Torrens Kensington Gardens Tennis Club. 

It’s free for members but RSVP is required and will open soon. Tickets for partners TBC.

Facebook event.

Casual brewery visits on the first Sunday of the month*. Yesterday we visited the brand new Brightstar Brewery in Thebarton and got a bonus tour and Q&A with head brewer Steve. His experience from WA to the USA and Mismatch was worth the visit.

*Next month TBC. Because BeerBQ is the night before we’ll look at the best dates taking into account the long weekend.

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Is your SABC membership up to date? Don’t miss out on great homebrewing experiences like this.

Go to https://sabrew.com/join-sabc/. Tips on joining, renewing or checking here.

It’s been a disrupted start to the year. Some of you have asked about getting a 2022 calendar. Now, thanks to Nick, it’s available. Download as a PDF to print and stick on the dunny door. We hope to fit a few more things in, in particular a celebration of SABC’s 10th birthday. Stay tuned.

Also, this month’s meeting will be a cracker. Our guest host will be Briony from Flavour Logic. She is a cicerone and an avid sensory analyst who enjoys sharing how to boost tasting skills and better appreciate what’s in your glass. She works with the food and beverage industry, general consumers and beer lovers of all kinds. RSVP on the Facebook group event please so we know numbers.