March Club Meeting

Brewers,

Thanks to everyone for coming down to DTC last night for the March club meeting and our first competition of the year. I’ve not tasted so many Belgians in a row before and given they are generally not my favourite styles I probably won’t do it again. I thought it was just going to be a wit competition for a while there.  That being said there were some pretty damn good beers in the ones I tasted.  Thanks to Andrew, Tim, Allan and Joel for coordinating the evening. I'm looking forward to seeing the results at the next meeting.

Other things we touched on

• Dan and Adam managed to get half a tonne of grain to DTC. Thanks very much for arranging this and thanks to the guys at ECU Joondalup. Adam posted details of the grain on FB so plug that in your favourite recipe tool or just wing it. If you weren’t at the meeting and didn’t make other arrangements it’s all gone, so sorry about that.

• Autumnfest is on March 25 at Kobbseys place in Hilbert. We’ve got a BBQ god lined up to slow cook some brisket. Tasty stuff.  If you haven’t already head over to the signup page and put your name down.

• Hayden has offered to do some water sampling for members of the club. We’ll be able to get a better idea of the water supply for March / April than the WaterCorp reports provide us. He will need 500ml of water in a double washed container and $5 to cover the costs of the chemicals. I’ll try and arrange a signup page to put your details down beforehand – More to come

• The Iron Brewer comp is once again to be held with Feral. Andrew’s FB post is repeated below. Head over there to sign up

Hey folx,

The Iron Brewer competition this year will be a special one. The base wort will be from a collaboration with Feral Brewing. For those that can make it, we will go to Feral on the morning of the 6th of May (Saturday) and brew a batch of beer. You bring along a 20 litre cube and Feral will fill it with the hot wort at the end of the brew. You can then change the base wort to make your winning beer.

The main rule is that at least 60% of the fermentable sugar must come from the base wort. So you can use up to 40% of your own sugar, grain, whatever to finish off your beer.

The people's choice awards (coinciding with entry deadline) will be at the June meeting (Tuesday, 13th June), with BJCP judging the following Sunday (18th June), giving you about 6 weeks to finish off your brew.

The base wort will comprise of 100% Munich Type I malt, with only bittering hops added to 24IBU - most likely Hallertauer. This recipe is close to a Munich Dunkel, but Type I will give a lighter colour than a Dunkel. This gives you a bit more freedom to play with recipes.

If you would like to be part of the brew day, please respond to this message. Each person gets to bring along one cube fit for 20 litres of very hot wort. If you would like to take part in the competition but cannot make the brew day to pick up your wort, please let me know that you want your 20 litres. Then organise with someone who will be there to pick up your cube and return it to you full. PLEASE do not ask me to organise your cube for you, I'll be busy enough!

Note: the competition is ONLY open to fully paid up WCB members, with one cube per member, so don't go saying that you want 20 cubes for your mates whose names you can't remember!

After the brewing finishes, I dare say it will be time for lunch. If you intend to stay for lunch, please let me know and I'll organise a table or three.

Final day for registration of this is the 6th of April (one month before the brew day). You need to be confirmed by this day so that we can organise the right volume of wort to brew.

Now, what am I forgetting??

And thanks everyone for cleaning up at the end, taking your empty bottles and generally respecting each other and the venue.

Until next time