BIG events are abound in Canberra over the next 12 months. Think Floriade, one of the biggest flower festivals in the world! How about the Cricket World Cup, where Canberra will stage several games? Of course Bob Dylan has just come and gone from our sleepy nations capital and coming soon are the Melbourne Cup Day celebrations in Canberra.
It would be clearly prudent of you at this stage to suggest where this article is going; a big plug, with all the bells and whistles, about the upcoming Canberra Beer Week and Beer Day Out celebrations. However, although that is an extremely exciting event which I will no doubt talk about in the weeks to come, that is not the event that I wish to inform and labour on about in this article. Rather, I want to take this time to talk about another outstanding “beery” event set to hit our city, that is the Australian National Homebrewers Conference.
ANHC Four – Tickets now on sale! from ANHC on Vimeo.
If you have ever done any homebrewing, or have an interest in brewing, or heck, just like beer, check out the ANHC website to find out information about just what this event has on offer.
This is the first time that the ANHC conference has been held outside of their spiritual home of Melbourne. The timetable for the conference kicks off on Thursday, October 16 with the Australian Amateur Brewing Championships, where judges will be tasting some of the best beers produced by Australia’s top home-brewers. This event will be followed by the ANHC Magical Mystery Tour, where buses will ship around 60 people to some of Canberra’s finest craft beer locations.
Friday is a massive day as the conference gets into full swing. Some of the guests speaking at the conference include California’s Russian River Brewing Company’s Vinnie Cilurzo, UK brewery Fuller head brewer John Keeling and the Australian godfather of all things micro brewed, BrewCult’s Steve “Hendo” Henderson. Hendo has been known to go beyond the extreme to bring some of the most amazing flavours to beers, including the darling of craft beer, the pepper steak porter, which he coins as the Vegan Beer Experience.
Friday night brings together the gala awards dinner. Here, a four course meal will be expertly matched to seven beers, with awards given out for the previous day’s judging.
Saturday sees dusty heads awaken to day 2 of the conference. This day includes guests like Darren Gamache, one of the people at the forefront of hop development and technology and Brendan Varis, the man behind Feral Brewing, yours truly’s favourite Australian brewery.
Day 2 of the conference comes to a close with a panel of Australia’s finest in brewing, including Brendan Varis once again, as well as Scott Hargrave from Byron Bay Brewing and Canberra’s own Richard Watkins (from Bentspoke). This panel will be intriguing as not only are these guys phenomenal brewers, but also come from all different walks of brewing life. Whilst Richard brews on a smaller scale servicing purely his own venue and its take away customers, Feral Brewing is a large independent. Conversely, Byron Bay Brewing has a relationship with Carlton United Brewery (CUB). I anticipate that this part of the conference will be the most intriguing and interesting time of the whole weekend.
Once the conclusion, the Saturday night “club night” kicks off with amber goodness flowing liberally no doubt. This is an opportunity for people to get out and taste some of the very best beers produced by different club members whilst also having a fantastic dinner.
For more information about the ANHC conference, you can check out their website at www.anhc.com.au
What’s impressing me?
- ANHC conference in Canberra – It’s a real chance for Canberra to showcase our progression in craft beer to the rest of the country
- 250 beers – Brisbane guy blogging all about beer in Brisbane. A really good, “beerey”, read.
Adrian Moran has been pouring beers for over nine years and runs a weekly podcast devoted to craft beer
Twitter: @ausbeerjourney
Website: www.ausbeerjourney.wordpress.comWho can be trusted?
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