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’ve made a few tweaks to our 2021 calendar. The winter competition bottle drop now has a window of 3-10 July. Judging is on 14 July and the winners annoucned at the meeting on 21 July.
We are also unsure if there will be a National Homebrew Conference in October 2021.
Download it as a PDF to stick on your dunny door.
Thanks to all the members and families who came to our BeerBQ yesterday at the Prospect Petanque Club. We had perfect weather for excellent members’ home brew beers, slow cooked pulled pork in crusty rolls with homemade slaw and some Petanque to work it off.
If you missed out, make sure you put the evening of May 1 in your diary for BeerBQ2. That’s only six weeks away, best get Brewing. (TBC).
As we had a get together yesterday, this week’s scheduled monthly club meeting at the Wheaty won’t be on. Also because it is a Fringe venue.
Instead we are catching up for casual beers at Sparkke on Whitmore Square, City. You’d remember their brewer Carla who was a member of the brewers panel at Suburban Brew at our January meeting.
We’ve never been to their brewery/ bar so it’s a great opportunity to check it out.
Meet there from 7pm.
We’re excited for our first club BeerBQ for fifteen months this Sunday, March 14 from 1 pm – 5 pm at the Prospect Petanque Club, 14 – 32 Buchanan Street, Nailsworth. The weather is looking cool but fine.
We need RSVPs in ASAP so we can plan for numbers. Register here.
This is one of the two club events for financial members of the club (renew here now if you’re not). It’s also our one for families, partners and kids.
If you’re new to the club, it’s a simple concept. We put on the food and you bring your beer in kegs with serving equipment or in bottles.
It’s a great opportunity to meet other brewers and try lots of homebrew.
We’ll be setting up a two beer serving system bar and rotating through a couple of beers at a time. Brewers pour their own beers.
You don’t need to bring any serving taps or gas. We’re supplying it all. As long as you’re using corny keg/ ball lock connectors. If you’re got something different, let us know. Bottles are fine.
For food we’re serving a simple pulled pork and coleslaw roll to keep COVID safe. If you’re kids are picky, bring something along to keep their sugar levels up.
We need RSVPs in ASAP so we can plan for numbers. Register here.
There’s wine and soft drinks available at the bar and the club accepts card and cash. No BYO wine, only beer. Our ‘full winter version’ BeerBQ to invite your mates to is on Saturday, May 1.
You and the kids can also have a go at Petanque with instructions from the club members. They love showing it off so have a go.
The committee locked in a stack of dates and events for 2021 and they’re in our website calendar and printable calendar poster here (v1.2)
Thank you to everyone who entered a beer in the summer comp and joined us last night for judging. Congratulations to the winners who all received a Beerbelly Brewing Equipment voucher.
| Place | Brewer | Entry Name | Style | Club |
| 1st | Gregg Stevenson | Lager 679 | Czech Pale Lager | SABC |
| 2nd | Daniel Healey | Raspberry Berliner Weisse | Berliner Weisse | SABC |
| 3rd | Daniel Davenport | “All Night Long” Lager | German Leichtbier | SABC |
| Place | Brewer | Entry Name | Style | Club |
| 1st | Lachlan Johnson | Throat Cream | Hazy | SABC |
| 2nd | Ali Holden | The Acronyms Are Strong Ddh Oat Cream DIPA | Hazy | SABC |
| 3rd | Ali Holden | Watermelon Gose | Hazy | SABC |
The competition entry portal is open for our summer comp and we’re judging at our meeting on Wednesday night where’s it’s on like Donkey Kong.
Here’s a quick list of the key points;
This recent article from Crafty Pint about blind tasting hazy beers has a lot of good points. Many we’ll follow. Have a read and you’ll get where we’re coming from. Getting Blind with Crafty. How we judge
Sunday, March 14 from 1 pm – 5 pm at the Prospect Petanque Club, 14 – 32 Buchanan Street, Nailsworth.
How does it work? It’s simple. We put on the food and you bring your beer in kegs with serving equipment or in bottles. It’s a great opportunity to meet other brewers and try lots of homebrew.
We’ll be setting up a bar and rotating through three beers at a time.
We need RSVPs in ASAP so we can plan for numbers. Register here.
Note, this is an event for financial members of the club who are up to date with their $60 membership. It’s also for families, partners and kids. If you’re not a member you are not able to come. You can join of course here.
It’s not an open invite for anyone and not for your mate who likes beer. We’ll offer that in winter on Saturday, May 1 for BeerBQ ‘full winter version’ on our regular scheduled date too.
The committee locked in a stack of dates and events for 2021 and they’re in our website calendar and printable calendar poster here (v1.2)
The committee locked in a stack of dates and events for 2021 and they’re in our website calendar and printable calendar poster here (v1.2_
First event! We are not going to promise it will happen but we are strongly confident that this time, we will have our thrice postponed BeerBQ Summer Lite.
Lock in Sunday, March 14 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.
If you’re new to the event, it’s simple. We put on the food and you bring your beer in kegs with serving equipment or in bottles. It’s a great opportunity to meet other brewers and try lots of homebrews.
But that’ not all! Lock in Saturday, May 1 for BeerBQ ‘full winter version’ on our regular scheduled date too.
At our meeting on Wednesday, Feb 17 at the Wheaty we’ll judge the summer competition. To get it underway we’ll be there from 6 and hope to start judging by 7.30.
The entry portal is open on the Competitions page. $5 per entry, max per person. New registration required.
Prizes are vouchers $100, $30 $20 for BJCP low alcohol categories and $50, $30, $20 for the interpretation of hazy beers.
There is no drop off location. You need to bring your beer to The Wheatsheaf from 6pm. Read the other instructions in the entry portal.
Heads up for keen readers. All things lager is the theme. Judged on July 17.
For some unknown and crazy reason, the City of Charles Sturt is banning The Wheaty from having food trucks. If you’ve ever eaten there (or even not), please sign the petition at the pub. Better still, put your feelings in an email and send it to the councillors.
The Wheatsheaf has a template of an email to start you off.
Dear Mayor Coxon and Councilors,
(explain who you are)
I request that the Council amend the ‘City of West Torrens Council Policy – Mobile food vendors’ to allow food trucks to continue to operate at The Wheatsheaf Hotel into the future, as they have done for the past 8 years.
(any other thoughts about the benefits of food trucks in our community and specifically at The Wheaty)
Yours faithfully,
(name)
mayorcoxon@wtcc.sa.gov.au, jwood@wtcc.sa.gov.au,
kmckay@wtcc.sa.gov.au, amckay@wtcc.sa.gov.au, stsiaparis@wtcc.sa.gov.au, epapanikolaou@wtcc.sa.gov.au, gvlahos@wtcc.sa.gov.au, jwoodward@wtcc.sa.gov.au, dwilton@wtcc.sa.gov.au, dhuggett@wtcc.sa.gov.au, spal@wtcc.sa.gov.au
breynolds@wtcc.sa.gov.au, corielley@wtcc.sa.gov.au
Our two Thebarton Ward Councilors, Graham Nitschke and Dominic Mugavin, have been fully supportive of us and our trucks from the beginning, and have been working hard to help us get this change through Council. Feel free to give them a hoy to let them know we appreciate their hard work on behalf of their constituents!
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/
March 14 – BeerBQ
March 17 No meeting. Casual meet at Sparkke Whitmore Square
April 21 – BJCP explained
May 1 – BeerBQ
May 19 – Tasting night (Belgian Barrel Beer)
June 16 – Brewing Zero ABV beer at Pirate Life
July 17 – Winter comp
July 21 – Meeting AGM
This is an end of year message to say merry Christmas and have a safe, fun new year. On behalf of the committee, thank you for your membership and support in this less than ideal year.
The postponed bus tour is on Saturday, January 16. The tickets that are available can be bought from now (Monday evening) from the shop (members only – requires log in).
The itinerary is The Uraidla pub and brewery and then on to Left Barrel. That brewery run by SABC alumni Brad Bown is closing so we’ll be checking in there to support its last hurrah.
See you in 2021.
Not only was our BeerBQ cancelled twice, but we also had to cancel our brewery tour way back in March. We’ve got it locked in for January 16 (and holding our breath!). The tour isn’t the same epic voyage we had planned because of venue availability but we think we’ve just got to do it and move on.
The proposed schedule is:
10:00 Wheaty
11:00 Uraidla Hotel (Café + brewery viewing)
11:30 Uraidla Hotel (Bar opens)
13:30 Depart
13:45 Left Barrel (Brewery + lunch)
17:00 Depart
17:45 Drop off Little Bang
18:00 Drop off Wheaty
Everyone who signed up and paid in March all have valid tickets. If the new date doesn’t suit, we’ll refund you. When the new numbers are established we’ll offer more tickets. It’s a 23 seat bus. Of course, everyone can join us at the venues by their own transport or carpool.
Please watch for more info and let us know ASAP if you cannot use your ticket.
We’re at the Wheaty for our usual Christmas meeting on Wednesday 16 from 7pm.
We’ll put on some pizzas. As is tradition, please bring a bottle of homebrew for secret Santa swapping. Wrap it fancy and pretty or we’ll wrap it in a brown paper bag.
If you missed the news, the Summer Competition was announced a couple of weeks ago. All the details are here.
The focus is low ABV or Hazy beers (or both together).
Judging will be on February 17 at the monthly meeting at the Wheaty at 7pm. Bring your entries on the day or drop off locations will be published later.
Strictly two entries per brewer in a glass or plastic bottle equal or greater than 500ml. $5 per entry for paid club members only. Online entry will close Friday 12th February.
January 20 club meeting – we are going to Suburban Brew‘s new taproom at 96 Goodwood Rd, Goodwood. It’s a great opportunity to support Tony and his team as we’ve done all along their journey.
Well, that sucked. Just when we were all set for the twice-postponed BeerBQ, it’s shut down again. We will get to it sometime. Maybe in the next couple of weeks. Keep an eye out for updates.
How low can you go!
Summer competition is soon upon us and as in tradition with the summer comp, we will be judging at a Wednesday meeting among members and will have some fun with it along with a main category.
Main category: How low can you go,
Brew your best low alcohol beer from the following BJCP categories:
1A: American light lager, 3A: Czech pale lager, 5A: German lightbier, 11A: Ordinary Bitter, 13A: Dark Mild, 23A: Berliner Weisse, 28: American Wild ale (as long as sub 4%.)
Sub-category (just for fun) Hazy beer
Any type of pale hazy beer you like, the hazier the better. Entrants to give a rough style description as well as list any special ingredients or allergins.
Judging will take place on February 17 at the monthly meeting at the Wheaty at 7pm. Bring your entries on the day or drop off locations will be published later.
Strictly two entries per brewer in a glass or plastic bottle equal or greater than 500ml.$5 per entry for paid club members only. Online entry will close Friday 12th February.
Lachlan provides the minutes from our vitual meeting last night. Watch out for notices alerting to them.
We had a smaller turnout for last nights zoom meet, but there was some good discussion and no recording so I’ll post the highlights here.
At this point my laptop overheated and died so I missed the rest. Attendees – is there anything to add? We expect to be back at the Wheaty for the December meeting. No set topic, just the traditional pizza and secret Santa.
Thanks Gavin for storing our barrel project and brewing up an extra batch to fill it. The Flanders red was brewed at Left Barrel Brewing a few weeks ago and fermented by individual members was brought together to the club barrel. Sweet dreams… see you next year.
December 16 – Beers and pizza at the Wheaty
January – Club meeting at a brewery venue TBC
February – Summer Comp judging at the Wheaty.
Our Left Barrel brewday is going ahead this weekend. It’s being managed by Clinton and we still have a few places left.
If you’re just catching up, we’re brewing a Flanders Red that will go in a barrel for 4-6 months. You take home a 20L wort to ferment and bring back fo the barrel in a couple of weeks. So the only catch is you need fermentor space for that time.
We also need you to source a Belgian base yeast to ferment and get it now so it’s ready to go on Sunday or early next week.
We also need somewhere to keep the barrel for this time. If you’ve got some space were we could store it, that’d be excellent. Let us know.
So it’s this Saturday, October 17 at Left Barrel Balhannah from 9am.
If you want to be a part of it, please email info@sabrew.com and watch your emails for more to come. We’ll also set up a discussion on Facebook to fine-tune the recipe and plan.
Everyone is welcome to go to the brewery in the day as well. The bar is open and lunch is available.
Next meeting
We will be at Pirate Life Brewery, Port Adelaide on Wednesday 21 for a special tasting session and a bit of a focus on gose and sours.
Congratulations all the SABC winners in SABSOSA. It was a pretty high standard this year. Members of the club took out 46 of the medals on offer.
John van der Zalm won best brewer and Stuart Garden best beer with a score of 45 for his marzen. The results are now published on the portal and our website. It was a great medal presentation at The Wheaty with a full house.
They both also won a year’s membership to the club.
Highly awarded brewers included, Stewart Garden, Lachlan, Wolfgang, Brendan, Thomas, Rafael, James Edwards, Michael, Wally, Nick, Brenton, Luke O’Brien, Luke Beard, Gavin, John VDZ, Greg, BJ, Giles, Chris Daniel Davenport and Leon along with many others.
All the results are published on the entry portal.
It was a great afternoon presentation at the Wheaty with Bridge Road beers in a tap takeover.
Good luck with entering the Nationals. Any questions, send an email to info@sabsosa.com.
All entrants can access their score sheets from the portal now.
Thanks as always to the team of Gary, Julien and Brendan with Lachlan and all the committee and everyone who stewarded or judged.
There’s a lot of interest in our brewday. It’s being managed by Clinton and more info will be emailed out and shared in the Facebook group soon.
It’s Oct 17 at Left Barrel Balhannah from 9am. You take home a 20L wort to ferment and bring back fo the barrel in a couple of weeks. So the only catch it you need fermentor space for that time.
If you want to be a part of it, please email info@sabrew.com and watch your emails for more to come. We’ll also set up a discussion on Facebook to fine tune the recipe and plan.
We will be at Pirate Life Brewery, Port Adelaide for a special tasting session and a bit of a focus on gose and sours. More info to come.
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.
