Brewers,
Thanks for coming down to DTC for the February meeting. It’s great to see so much involvement. One thing I would really like to focus on this year is getting more and more people involved in looking after the club and helping it develop. The club and the wider amateur brewing community in WA can only continue to be viable if we have people offering to help out. I think that the WCB contribution to this is raising the ability to not only make better beer but being able to provide feedback to others on their beers. We largely do this through our competitions so get involved in these in any way you can
A few points of note
- We’re doing a new signup sheet which will let you know when your membership fees are cue. It’s a pain in the arse chasing people up for fees so if you want to stay financial and have the right to enter competitions and come down to the social events (like the upcoming Autumnfest) have a look when your fees are due and sort out payment via bank deposit or PayPal.
- I really enjoyed the mystery beer. There was lots of discussion about the beer and, not really surprisingly, it was pretty hard to guess the exact ingredients. Well done to Jeremy in getting the most correct – although it was only 50% of the correct answers. Thanks very much to Pete and Joel for setting up the tap in the back room and great stuff by Innate Brewers. Innate say that the Thunderstruck IPA is a celebration of just how far Australian maltsters and hop growers have come! This beer combines 100% Australian hops and malt to form a symphony of Aus! A big pineapple and passionfruit aroma is followed by round and slightly sweet malt profile, with a clean bitterness cutting through and a dry finish.
- Hops: Galaxy, Vic Secret, Ella
- Malt: Pilsner Malt, Munich Malt, Cara Malt (All Barret Bursten)
- IBU: 50
- ABV: 6%
- Autumnfest is on 24th March this year!! This never fails to deliver as one of the highlights of the year giving members the chance to catch up over what is always a great line up of beers. This year’s Autumnfest will be again held at Knobsey’s place in Hilbert, which is just off Tonkin Hwy or a 10 minute cab ride from Armadale train station (there is a taxi rank at Armadale station so Taxis are no problem). He has a large block with plenty of play area for kids and a pool however we will give Knobsey the day off lifeguard duty so you will need to make sure you keep an eye on your little ones, for the adults he has a killer bar area and plenty of room to relax. Everyone is encouraged to bring along some of their finest brews, we will have access to a cool room with 6 taps and also extra eski’s with picnic taps so everyone’s beers/kegs can get a pour on the day. Members are welcome to bring their partners and family’s along for the day and while this is a day of drinking and food everyone is always extremely well behaved and very respectable. The club will be providing lunch for everyone and just ask that everyone brings a side dish to accompany, we will also have water and soft drink available on the day. Look out for the sign up page to register
- The club was lucky enough to get gifted some hops from South Africa to use in an event in conjunction with Hawkers Beer. 2017 Club Champion Mike Doswell came up with a hope forward Red IPA recipe to be on tap against the Hawkers brews. This event is planned for 9 March at DTC. Thanks very much to Hawkers, DTC and Indian Ocean brewing for making this happen. Get down to Indian Ocean and DTC to show our thanks. You don’t get a lot of Hawkers stuff in WA but, seeing s I’m in Melbourne this week I’m doing a bit of research and it looks like being a good night.
- Club member Chris S has a bunch of ‘Pride of Pemberton’ rhizomes that he got from down south. These are suspected to be the last of the WA grown commercial hops of this variety before the hop farm was ripped up. Chris is keen on sharing these with club members to propagate so we don’t lose this bit of history. Hit Chris up on Facebook if you are interested in getting hold of any of these. From memory Chris will be at the April meeting but not the March one.
- A founding club member, John Manwaring, has a bunch of suspected Pride of Ringwood growing at his place in Belmont. He wanted to see if anyone was interested in heading to his place and harvesting. He thinks there is enough for couple of brews. Send me a message if you are interested and I’ll get you in touch with John
- The IPA competition is to be held in March. People’s choice will be held on March 13th at DTC and the BJCP to be on 17 March. Details of entry are on the competitions website (http://competition.westcoastbrewers.com/). You will need to register for each comp. Mick will be looking for judges and stewards to help out with this event so please put your hand up.
- And lastly, big thanks to Mick Consadine who is our new competition director. Good luck to Andrew who is off to Canberra to do some fancy work with Geoscience Australia. Thank for looking after the comps last year
See you next month
Ed