About Us
About The Melbourne Brewers
The Melbourne Brewers is an amateur craft beer brewing club, based in Melbourne's outer Eastern suburbs. The Club is all about enjoying the company of people who are passionate about brewing beer and learning & sharing knowledge about craft brewing. The Club focuses on All Grain brewing, however also caters for kit, extract and new brewers.
Through involvement in the Club, you'll increase your knowledge of beer styles, beer history, beer making techniques, ingredients, beer evaluation, equipment and resources available to help you brew great beer. And of course you'll get to sample and share some very good beer along the way.
Club Activities
The Melbourne Brewers Committee organises and runs a range of activities including:
Monthly Meetings
Meetings are held on the last Wednesday of each month. Activities vary - we may taste and discuss a particular beer style, construct/demonstrate equipment, discuss brewing techniques, have intra-Club beer competitions or sample and provide feedback on Member's beers.
Brew Days
Periodically, Members volunteer to have a Brew Day at their brewery and invite Club Members or guys who may be interested in brewing to have a look at how they brew, equipment used etc. Brew Days are a good way for novice brewers to learn how to make all-grain beer. Brew Day dates will be advised to Members via the newsletter or e-mail.
The beers made at Brew Days are usually consumed at the Annual Dinner in June/July.
Activity Days
Every so often, days are organised for a group of members to build or assemble equipment eg convert kegs to boilers, make immersion chillers, yeast stir-plates, counter pressure bottle fillers, temperature controllers. Again, dates will be advised to Members via the newsletter or e-mail.
Events & Excursions
Periodically the Club organises events/trips eg trip to Maltings, visits to Melbourne microbreweries, weekends away at country pubs, fishing trip.
Annual Club events include the Annual Dinner, Xmas party, Steinbeer weekend and Beerfest weekend (Club run comp).
Competitions
There are normally 5 competitions in Melbourne each year (Beerfest, Stout Extravaganza, Pale Ale Mania, VicBrew and Oktoberfest. Each comp is organised by one the 5 Melbourne Brewing Clubs or VicBrew.
Entering your beers in competitions is a great way to get feedback on your brewing techniques. By judging at comps you will learn a lot about particular beer styles, what differentiates good examples of a style from the great ones and how to identify brewing faults.
The Club allocates points to Members who place at comps and these points count towards the Club Brewer of the Year.
Club Committee
The committee meets monthly, 2 weeks before Club meetings to organise activities and Newsletters.
2009/10 Committee
| President: |
Andy Davison |
| Secretary: |
Andrew Inglis |
| Editor: |
Micheal Hillery |
| Treasurer: |
Chris Taylor |
| Members: |
Peter Howell, Linton Young |
| |
|
| Webmaster: |
Brad Merritt |
All Club Members are welcome to attend Committee meetings and get involved in organising and running activities. Committee elections are held in June/July each year.
Member Communications
Newsletters, containing details of the next Club Meeting, upcoming Club events and competitions as well brewing information, tips etc, are distributed by email/mail monthly, a few days before Club Meetings.
Members are also advised of upcoming events by email. Email is also used as a forum to discuss topics of interest and to provide brewing information.
If you require any further information please E-mail: The Melbourne Brewers
History
Note: The information on this page represents the history of the club through the eyes of one or more individuals. Please forward corrections, additions, etc. to Melbourne Brewers.
Contents
- Melbourne Brewers Club History
- Club Presidents
- Anecdotes and War Stories
- Beerfest
Melbourne Brewers Club History
In the year 2000, our club changed its name from the ABAV (Amateur Brewers Association of Victoria) to The Melbourne Brewers.
The ABAV was formed in 1972 by Gordon Clark to act as an association to co-ordinate the activities of the Victorian brew clubs. This concept never got off the ground as the clubs wanted to remain independent.
So the ABAV actually became a club in its own right, and it held its meeting on the last Wednesday of each month in Gordon's Glen Waverley brewery. Gordon was, and still is, a legend in amateur brewing circles throughout Victoria. He is referred to as the father of amateur brewing because of his pioneering brewing even before it became legal in 1972.
Gordon served as President of the ABAV from 1972-1981, and Barry Hastings from 1981-1992 and 2000. We have had a variety of Presidents since 1992. Meetings at Gordon's brewery were legendary . He malted his own barley and grew his own hops, Bullion, in his back yard. He had a million and one contraptions in his brewery and scattered around his back yard . At one stage, I think he had 5 lauter tuns. He would improve on his last invention, and the predecessor ruthlessly consigned to the back yard.
From 1981 - 1992 the meetings alternated mainly between the Clark and Hastings breweries.
In 1992, Barry Hastings suggested to a meeting of members of the ABAV, that the club go national and call itself the ABAA. This was rejected by the membership as they did not want the responsibility of running and financing the proposed new national magazine, Ausbeer.
Subsequently, Barry Hastings resigned as President of the ABAV to form the new national amateur brewing association, the ABAA. This association at its peak boasted 650 members, who all received Ausbeer by mail. Ausbeer lasted 22 issues over approx 7 years. I was voted in as President for one last time in 2000 to reform the ABAV and change its name. It was ridiculous to be known as the ABAV because it never was an association, it was a regular club. Also, we wanted the club to be open to all brewers in Melbourne and not just a region within it, hence the new name, The Melbourne Brewers.
The ABAV started running Beerfest around 1999 under the due care of Michael Guenzel.
Club Presidents
The year shown here is when the presidency began. Until the year 2000, the club was known as the Amateur Brewers Association of Victoria.
| Year |
 |
President |
| 1972-1981 |
|
Gordon Clark |
| 1981-1992 |
|
Barry Hastings |
| 1993-1994 |
|
Andy Graham |
| 1995-1998 |
|
Doug Blair |
| 1999 |
|
Martin O'Connor |
| 2000 |
|
Barry Hastings |
| 2001-2002 |
|
Shane Ward |
| 2003 |
|
David Yeske |
| 2004 |
|
Paul Sorenson |
| 2005-2009 |
|
Haig Jason |
| 2010 |
|
Andy Davison |
Anecdotes and War Stories
- Beer Jelly
- On a lighter note, there was one meeting at Gordon's place when I opened a bottle of someone's brew and couldn't get the beer out of the bottle. It had set like jelly. No one owned up to it at the time and, to this day, I have no idea who the culprit was. - Barry Hastings
Beerfest
Please see BeerFest History.
The History of "The Old Dick"
Since 1999, the Club Brewer of the Year trophy has been an unusual mechanical device, affectionately known as "The Old Dick".
The trophy was built about 22 years ago by former Member Dick Seville who was a popular and eccentric Member of the Melbourne Brewers and the ABAV which preceded it. The Old Dick is designed to hold a 750ml bottle of beer and to gradually tilt it in order to pour the contents without disturbing the sediment, thereby obtaining a crystal clear beer.
Dick an engineer by trade would regularly take the device with him when dining at BYO restaurants and drinking his own beers, mostly bottle conditioned brown ales.
Longstanding Members will remember Dick as the quietly spoken gentleman who would bring a large plate of cheese and onion sandwiches to every club meeting which would be unveiled late at each meeting after the standard Club nibbles had been consumed. These would rapidly be devoured and were a traditional part OF Club meetings for many years.
Dick was an inventive guy having a hand in building one of the first commercial washing machines ever built in Australia. Unfortunately, Dick passed away several years ago but much of his brewing equipment was donated and subsequently auctioned by the Club so many current Members have equipment designed and built by Dick and his legacy lives on.
The Old Dick was donated by Dick's family and Colin Penrose. So next time you see "The Old Dick" remember that it, like our Club, has a rich history built on the efforts of eccentric good blokes like Dick Seville.
Previous winners of the Old Dick have been:
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