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November meeting, Club AGM and Mead Sour and Cider competition

Brewers,

Thanks for coming down to the November club meeting at DTC last night.  Some of the competition beers I had were fantastic. Very inventive things in the mixed ferment category. I'm looking forward to seeing who the winners will be. Thanks to everyone for the support you given me over the last few years in the pres role. It's been a lot of fun.

Some things coming up

  • BJCP judging for the Mead, Sour and Cider competition is on this Saturday at Micks place in Karrinyup. Mick still needs another 4-6 people to be able to hold the judging. Otherwise we'll have to cancel it and Mick will have a fridge full of some great beers.
  • The club Christmas function is planned for 1st December at DTC at 2pm. This is the one where we leave the kids at home and enjoy beers and food put on by the club. 
  • The December meeting will see crowning of the 2018 WCB Champion Brewer. It's a very close race this year with the results of the MCS comp most likely to determine the winner. 
  • Gary is running a BJCP exam on March 23 2019. This is the exam that is part of the accreditation to become a registered BJCP judge. Gary will hold training sessions starting in February. If you are keen to do the exam you need to pass he BJCP online test prior to the tasting training and pay fees of $140-. These fees will cover the cost of the exam and all training materials (including tasting beers, tainting kits and what not). There are only 12 places available and a few have already been taken. Contact the club if you are interested.

Club AGM 2018

A quorum of members and committee were in attendance at the meeting

Presidents address

2018 was a busy year for West Coast Brewers. Some of the more memorable happenings included

  • Seeing a great number of new faces and an increase to overall member numbers. Monthly attendance is also up from previous years
  • Finances more in order
  • New club website (thanks Jeremy)
  • A new order of work shirts (thanks Tim)
  • Autumnfest at Knobseys house
  • Gary putting on Oktoberfest
  • Mick for all the work on competitions
  • All the judges and stewards that have been helping with the comps
  • New prizes for our winning comp entries (thanks Allan)
  • More sensory stuff (thinks Mick again)

The club is in a pretty good financial position despite making a loss for the year (mainly due to liabilities from 2017). These funds will be invested back into the club in the form of the events we run and some better infrastructure to help manage the club.

A big thank you to the outgoing committee: Allan, Mick, Bryson, Jeremy, Tim and Jerome

Thanks to Carlin and Hilly for their work on WASABC

Nominations for committee positions

Nominations were received for committee positions. The successful brewers and your new committee are

President: Paul Hutton

Vice President: Allan Aitken

Secretary: Ed Wilcox

Treasurer: Bryson Derbyshire

Web administration: Jeremy Strong

Event coordinator: Michael Priest

Competition Director: Mick Considine

 

Cheers

Ed ex el jefe

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October club meeting – Freo Beer Fest, BJCP details, Christmas function

Brewers,

Thanks for coming down to the October club meeting at DTC last week.  Mick once again tested us with his beer tainting.  Sugars and acids this time. Interesting to see how much difference in taste a couple of points in gravity can make to a beer.

Some things

  • Thanks to Gary for hosting Oktoberfest again this year. It was a great arvo with lots of good food, beer and company. Thanks to everyone who came down.

 

  • John Clark from Perth Royal Show has donated some flavour tainting kits and Mick is preparing to set something up with these. It will be about a 60-90 minute session which we will hold outside the normal club meeting schedule. Details to come. Thanks very much to John for this.
  • Dan Turley, WABA president, came down to update us on the going ons in the WABA space, and in particular the Freo Beer fest.  Like previous years WABA has asked for some volunteers to come down to help out for the weekend. This is a great opportunity to get involved with a really fun festival that also supports WABA and the the WA brewing industry!  Shifts are 4-5 hours and general duties will include things like running kegs, parking coordination, helping set up and take down stalls etc.  You'll get access to the venue for the session you are in and a ticket to another session over the weekend.  If you are interested drop a line to Dan at wabrewersassociation@gmail.com
  • Gary has managed to secure a BJCP exam date for late March 2019. This exam is the tasting component of BJCP qualifications and will be preceded with 6-8 weeks of tasting training to be held at DTC from early Feb next year. Spots are limited to 12 people and it will be first in first served. I'll open up the sign ups to financial members first before posting to the wider community. To register for the exam and pre-exam training you'll need to pay the fees (between $100 and $150 or there abouts) and complete the on-line BJCP exam.

Upcoming events

  • November is our mead, sour and cider competition and, no doubt, will be the decider for the champion brewer for 2018. The comp website will be up shortly so remember to get your entries in.
  • November is also the club AGM.  We'll run through a number of small formalities and vote for the new committee. If you are interested in nominating for a position check out the details on the website here. Clubs like this can't continue without the people to run them, so if you are interested put your name down.  I guess it's a few hours per month for most positions but it changes with what we have on
  • The club Christmas function is planned for 1st December at DTC in the afternoon. This is the one where we leave the kids at home and enjoy beers and food put on by the club. I was going to see if anyone would be interested in looking into a small collab brew yo put on tap that day - good idea? Let me know.

Cheers

Ed

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September 2018 club meeting and W34/70 results

Brewers,

Thanks to everyone who made it down to the September club meeting at DTC.

A few remarkable points

  • Thanks to everyone that volunteered at WASABC this year. This was a huge event with about 430 entries judged over the four days. 17 entries scored above 40 and the average of all entries was a smidge over 30. This is a great result for the state.  I'd like to give a big show of thanks to Carlin, Tim and Hilly for organising through the year and ensuring things ran smoothly during the prep and the judging days

  • Gary Drury has managed to secure a BJCP exam date for late March 2019. This exam is the tasting component of BJCP qualifications and will be preceded with 6-8 weeks of tasting training to be held at DTC from early Feb next year. Spots are limited to 12 people and it will be first in first served. I'll open up the sign ups to financial members first before posting to the wider community. To register for the exam and pre-exam training you'll need to pay the fees (between $100 and $150 or there abouts) and complete the on-line BJCP exam. Participating in the club and state competitions is a great way to get experience if you are considering doing the exam. It's also a good time to talk to qualified judges about their experiences.
  • Thanks to Mick for organising the sensory tasting experiment and a shout out to Joel for pouring out all the beers. We were looking to see if we can detect the differences between a 2.8% table beer tainted with lactic acid and acetic acid. This was good fun and i hope that we can do a few more of these sorts of things

  • Big congratulations to the winners of the W34/70 competition.
    • Peoples Choice - Paul Hutton
    • BCJP 1st - Clint Brookes
    • BJCP 2nd - Mick Considine
    • BJCP 3rd - Tim Mains

Thanks to Mick for organising, Allan for sorting the glassware and to all those that helped out with judging and stewarding on the BJCP day (Judges: Gary Drury, Chris Shulha, Jerome Kennedy, Allan Aitken, Craig Hill, Paul Hutton. Stewards: Michael Priest, Bryson Derbyshire, Tim Mains)

Upcoming events

  • Our next club function is Oktoberfest to be held on the arvo of Saturday 6th October at Gary's place. The club will supply meats for this and we ask that everyone coming brings a plate / salad whatever to go with it.  A sign up page is available so fill in your details there.  This is a family event so bring the kids. There is plenty of room out the back for the little ones to run about. Bring down your German beers. I'm pretty sure Gary will have some room for kegs but let him know beforehand so he can get things sorted
  • The club mead, sour and cider competition will be held in November. I'm told there is plenty of time to get a mead up and ready (maybe a bit tight now but give it a go) for this time, but you may be pushing it for non-kettle sours. More details to come and the comp page will be updated closer to the time
  • The club AGM is to be held in November. We all have the opportunity to nominate for positions on the committee to keep the club operational. This club can only continue with people putting in their time, so please consider putting your hand up. All  positions are up for grabs so please nominate if you are interested - the details are here. And it's written in our club rules that if we don't get enough committee members the current committee takes the money in the bank - and we don't want that to happen 🙂
  • We will be holding a Christmas function in late November / early December. This one is not for kids.
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August club meeting and W34/70 peoples choice

Brewers,

Some very quick notes from the August meeting. Thanks for coming down

A few things of note:

  • Thanks to John Clark from the Royal Show for coming down tot he meeting to seek feedback on the PRBA. Great to see this sort of involvement
  • Gary Drury has managed to secure a BJCP exam date for late March 2019. This exam is the tasting component of BJCP qualifications and will be preceded with 6-8 weeks of tasting training to be held at DTC from early Feb next year. Spots are limited to 12 people and it will be first in first served. I'll open up the sign ups to financial members first before posting to the wider community. To register for the exam and pre-exam training you'll need to pay the fees (between $100 and $150 or there abouts) and complete the on-line BJCP exam. Participating in the club and state competitions is a great way to get experience if you are considering doing the exam. It's also a good time to talk to qualified judges about their experiences.
  • The club has bought a barrel to make another barrel beer. The committee is currently sorting out logistics and hope to have more details later - probably post WASABC.
  • The W34/70 peoples choice was certainly interesting. Lots of great beers. I thought that here would be a few more pils, viennas and so on but it wasn't to be. Big thanks to Mick for organising and to Neville, Chris S, Paul H and Allan for helping out on the day. Drinking from glass was pretty good

Upcoming events

  • WASABC is coming up with entries to be in by 31 August. We are still looking for volunteers for the Wednesday evening and Sunday all day sessions. If you can spare the time please head to the website and register there. Entries can be dropped off at Brewmart (Bayswater and Maddington), DTC, TWOC
  • The club mead, sour and cider competition will be held in November. I'm told there is plenty of time to get a mead up and ready for this time, but you may be pushing it for non-kettle sours. More details to come and the comp page will be updated closer to the time
  • Oktoberfest is going to be held on October 6 this year at Gary's house in Girrawheen. This is a great family day. The club will put on some meats of the German variety and all you need to do is bring a plate and some beer to share.
  • The club AGM is to be held in November. We all have the opportunity to nominate for positions on the committee to keep the club operational. This club can only continue with people putting in their time, so please consider putting your hand up. All  positions are up for grabs so please nominate if you are interested. And it's written in our club rules that if we don't get enough committee members the current committee takes the money in the bank - and we don't want that to happen 🙂
  • We will be holding a Christmas function in late November / early December. This one is not for kids.

Cheers

Ed