Greeting Westgater’s,

President’s Report

Winter is almost on us and the lager yeasty beasties should be happily fermenting away soon.  This is also a great time to be getting those darker beers underway, just like Grant and I did a few weeks ago with the Craft&Co BrewFC brew day. 

Read more about that below.  Part of the prize was a portion of the proceeds to go to a charity of our choice.  It has been suggested we support the Weary Dunlop Medical Research Fund that has some affiliation with the Naval Association we are all part of. 

I for one am all for that, but if you believe there are other charities we should support, I would be glad to hear at the meeting.

Our Stout comp is also fast approaching, so please participate and assist where you can to make it another successful event. 

Another competition coming up is the Merri Mashers

Specialty IPA at the Terminus Hotel in Clifton Hill.  As, this falls on our June 19^th meeting, I will grant leave passes for those who wish to attend to support the club.  I have tried a few good IPA’s at our meetings, so there should be some entries from our club going in.

With Good Beer Week starting, there are obviously plenty of events to go to, just remember to behave yourselves and have a good time without going too far!!  As part of GBW, the old Matilda Bay Brewery is reopening after changing hands to the Colonial Group. 

I have already been in touch with Justin the brewer and hope to meet him at the opening.  There may be a tour on the cards a little later in the year, so keep an eye on the calendar.

That’s all for now.  Be good and I will see you at the next meeting.
  
BrewFC
 
The brew day at Craft&Co was a quiet affair with only 4 people involved in making the beer.  From Home Make It, we had Cade and from FB Propac/Craft&Co, we had Greg. Westgate was represented by Grant and myself. 

When I arrived at 10:00am, the strike water was just a few degrees under strike temperature. 

This gave me a few minutes to familiarise myself with the shiny Italian brewhouse.  As you can see from the photo’s, it is a pretty piece of bling!  It is technically a 2 vessel system with a HLT off to one side.  The boiler is also the mash tun, and is steam jacketed for fine control.  The second vessel is the lauter tun.  A basic brew would see the strike water heated in the boiler/MT before doughing in with the rakes running to stir it in.  Step mashes can then be done before pumping the whole mash across to the LT for recirculation and sparging. 

If you wanted to do a decoction, you would pump a percentage of the mash across and then boil the residual in the boiler.  Multiple decoctions can be done by pumping back and forth.

I doughed in the grain by dumping the bags in through the hatch one at a time, then came the waiting game.  The mash was stirred continuously at quite a high speed to keep temperatures even.  This assists in keeping the grain in suspension to aid pumping later. 

As this was a single infusion mash, we just held it at 65.6°C for 75 minutes before pumping across to the LT.

After a 15 minute rest to set the grain bed, we recirculated for 10 minutes then started the sparge.  The LT has a grant between the vessel and the pump to allow monitoring of the flow and clarity.  This also eliminates the pump suction causing a stuck mash.  Sparging took about an hour and was stopped once the final volume target was hit (950L), expecting to lose 50L during the boil.


We had a small issue with the bittering addition in that the AA was lower than the recipe required, after a little fast thinking, it was decided to add some of the late hops earlier to increase the bitterness.  Again another long wait while we sampled a couple of the beers available on tap. 

This is when Grant and I had to bow out due to other commitments, but Greg and Cade stayed on to cool the wort and pitch the yeast.  So far the stout has fermented well and is conditioning ready for serving this weekend. 

I am not sure if there are tickets still available, but consider coming along and supporting the club.

Many thanks go to Greg Mace and Cade Butler as well as the staff at Craft&Co for looking after Grant and myself on the day.  If you are ever in the Smith Street area of Collingwood, drop in and have a beer or three and maybe a meal.  Highly recommended.

That’s all from me.  See you at the next meeting.

Michael Bowron