Nik started brewing during his first year of uni with second hand fermenters and a bottle capper from the 60's. Three batches later, and a lot of time spent on the internet, his brew-partner and he had built a rudimentary all-grain system for $200. Looking back it was a terrible system, the HLT and kettle were combined, but they managed to produce beers they thought were good. A year later he managed to bluff his way into a job at Grain and Grape where his beer knowledge quickly grew.

Working at Grain and Grape also allowed him to brew at the shop on the prototype HERMS system. Very quickly his home system went into disrepair.

After finishing his undergrad in 2008 he spent 2009 collecting equipment to set up a tiny (500l) commercial brewery. The year also saw him brewing and re-brewing the same recipes to get the flavors he wanted to see in commercial beers. He thinks it was this slow process that has taught him the most about beer. Unable to put off postgraduate study any longer he is back at Melbourne Uni doing his Masters in Physics. This will mean a few more years before he produces anything commercially.

Paul (Riggers) is a passionate homebrewer, family man, BJCP judge, ex-cartographer, general ‘handyman’ and past winner in both Vicbrew and the Australian National Championship.

Paul started home brewing 25 years ago when money was tight and cheap beer the major requirement. A black plastic rubbish bin covered with a tea towel was his fermenter and Paul admits, “the beer was hideous, but it was cheap!” Home renovations, career and family then suspended his brewing pursuits for a number of years.

Following a number of trips to England and the Continent where he sampled many regional and CAMRA beers and ales, Paul found the commercial brews available on the home front were uninspiring and restrictive while imported beer was prohibitively expensive. He decided to put his spare time, experience and technical skills into concocting ‘a reasonable brew’. Starting with kits, then on to extract brewing his zeal, obsession and know-how grew and led him inevitably to all-grain brewing where his knowledge and technical expertise continues to grow.

Over the years he has won many awards both locally and nationally, demonstrated grain brewing techniques at Grain and Grape for over 10 years, become a Certified BJCP judge, judged at brewing competitions for many years and lectured about brewing to interested groups outside the brewing fraternity. Paul has been a member of Westgate Brewers for over 15 years, President twice, and was Treasurer of the Vicbrew committee for 6 years.

Above all Paul is very passionate about beer and brewing.

In late 2005, Geoff turned his back on 23 years of IT management and looked for something better to do. An impulse buy of a Coopers homebrew kit started what can now only be described as a fermentation odyssey. Geoff's main focus is trying to make beer and he is probably best known for his passion for single-vessel brewing, but nothing fermentable is safe when he is in the right mood.

When not brewing, Geoff can usually be found in his workshop building yet another piece of bespoke brewery equipment, maintaining his off-grid energy system or pretending to look after his small commercial olive grove.

Dan is an Evil Mega Brewer. As such in the 4 years since he began all-grain brewing at home and generally hanging around with other people who do the same, he's become quite adept at the neat sidestep when particularly evangelistic homebrewers thrust towards his heart region with a pointy wooden stake.

In between helping to make vast quantities of somewhat unexciting beer at work, brewing much smaller quantities of (hopefully) more titillating beer at home, and extinguishing the flaming torches that are so monotonously tossed in through the windows of his dark and gloomy mansion, Dan is 2/3rds of the way through his IBD Diploma in Brewing and has managed to inexplicably become a bit of an advocate for Brew in a Bag.... even though he actually does most of his own brewing on an unnecessarily complicated RIMS.

Dan is not afraid of the ANHC!! Even though there are 263 of you, and you all seem to have pitchforks.........

Jess is a microbiologist and brewer at Wyeast Laboratories. He has been a professional brewer since 1995. During his last semester of college at the University of Idaho studying Microbiology, he began his brewing career at Treaty Grounds Brew Pub in Moscow, Idaho. In 1997 Jess returned to his native Oregon as brewmaster for Elliot Glacier Public House in Parkdale and then later became a production brewer at Full Sail Brewing Company.

Jess joined Wyeast Laboratories in 2002 and has been involved with the production, QC, and technical services departments. He also stays active as a brewer using Wyeast’s 3.5 hectoliter pilot system to perform research and run test brews for breweries (and maybe a little for personal consumption).

Jess is a member of Master Brewers Association of the Americas, American Society of Brewing Chemists, Brewers Association, and is a judge for the Great American Beer Festival. He enjoys the science behind brewing, but loves the art and craft of brewing. His current brewing passion is cracking the code on brewing an authentic Berliner weisse.

The president of Whitelabs, Chris White started the lab in 1995 after researching and developing a library of brewers yeast strains from around the world. He received an undergraduate degree in biochemistry from the University of California, Davis, and a Ph.D in biochemistry from U.C. San Diego.

Besides his duties at White Labs, Chris is a chemistry and biochemistry lecturer at U.C. San Diego and is a member of the Siebel Institute faculty.

Over the last three and a bit years, Geoff has gone from kit & kilo to AG to becoming a pro brewer at Bluetongue Brewery and is currently the Technical Training Specialist for the new brewery being built by Bluetongue in Warnervale, NSW. The journey has been hard work and very rewarding but it has been his interest and passion for beer and home brewing that has driven the career. He's involved in both of the Hunter Valley (NSW) home brew clubs and is an SAB Certified Advanced Taster.

Frank Vriesekoop started his involvement in yeast related fermentations in the Netherlands as a baker’s apprentice at the age of 15. After a career that meandered through various occupations and countries, Frank began his university education in Melbourne at Victoria University by undertaking degrees in Food Science and Biology. Frank now holds a PhD in Biochemical Engineering from the University of Melbourne. Since 2003 Frank has been associated to the Food Science and Brewing group at the University of Ballarat. Frank lectures in Microbiology, Brewing and Fermentation Technology, with brewing-related sciences making up a large part of his research interest. During 2007 and 2008 Frank was associated to the International Centre of Brewing and Distilling at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, as lecturer in Brewing and Distilling. For various reasons Frank returned to Ballarat at the beginning of 2009.

Frank’s research interest is wide and varied but covers various aspects of brewing and distilling (whisky) sciences. At Ballarat, Frank facilitates research into the inherent factors associated with beer that keep most bacteria out of beer, while he also facilitates some research into the evolution of various vitamins throughout the entire beer-production process. At Heriot-Watt University Frank developed an interest in whisky production and the science involved in whisky. The main aim of the research related to whisky production was to understand the evolution of dextrins throughout the mashing and fermentation of distiller’s wort.

Chan is a microbiologist, and as such, likes to tinker with yeasty beasts. He has now been brewing for 4 years and is currently studying for the BJCP exam. Chan has participated in numerous homebrew competitions as an entrant, a steward, and has now begun judging as well. He has a passion for unusual beer styles and is currently brewing 7 beers to match the 7 courses which will be served at his upcoming wedding to Eileen, who is the other half of his brew team.

Bryce is a molecular biologist with an ancestry that hails from Dendermonde in northern Belgium - two great attributes for a brewer. He's been a passionate and award-winning brewing since 1989, and is President of the Bayside Brewers. He's currently doing the BJCP course and one day plans to sneak a 20 gallon stainless conical fermenter into his shed when his wife isn't looking. He is also interested in beer and cycling.

Sam started out homebrewing with a Coopers kit purchased during a rather long summer. Quickly realising there was something more going on, he starting frequenting the local homebrew shop (Grain and Grape).  Equipped with some more gear and real ingredients, mashing began...

Now working as a distiller at a malt distillery in Melbourne, and undertaking the Graduate Certificate of Brewing at Ballarat Uni, Sam is still brewing beer in the backyard. He can be found hanging around beer shops, venues and events, talking about beer.

Tracy has trained as both a commercial cheesemaker and secondary school teacher, and in her role at Cheeselinks she combines both of her passions when conducting workshops teaching people how to make their own cheese and yoghurt in their own homes.

Tracy comes from a long line of cheese lovers. She is the daughter of two of Australia’s most highly respected cheesemakers, Neil and Carole Willman, who co-authored the book ‘Home Cheesemaking’. She grew up surrounded by the industry, but her connection to cheese goes back far further than that. Her great-great-great grandfather was a convict, deported to Australia for seven years hard labour – for the theft of a cheese!

Barry began brewing with a few K&K’s in the mid 1980’s, but only got serious in 1998 when with gentle persuasion from Mel Robson (ESB Brewing Supplies) he took the leap into mashing and using liquid yeasts. He’s never looked back and has over 600 batches under his belt. He reckons a few of them have been OK.

Barry still gets fired up by the magic of being able to go out to his shed and brew great beer of any style you wish. He does a bit of kegging but prefers bottling because of the wide range of styles he can have on hand. That way he can sample, appreciate and enjoy up to 20 different styles of his beer a week.

He’s judged in local and state comps for a decade, the national competition in 2008 and 2009, and is a certified BJCP judge. He found the BJCP course really informative and reckons that all brewers would learn a lot from it to help their judging and their own brewing. Barry really enjoys the fun and camaraderie of competitions and judging (Ed: and conferences!).

Dr Evans' research objectives are to make better quality beer and more of it! Though some may see this as a national service, Dr Evans considers this more 'aspirational' research. 'Better quality' beer relates to beer clarity, flavour and foam stability, whilst the 'make more of it' relates to improving the efficiency of beer production in terms of malt characteristics that impact on filtration steps in production (i.e. lautering) and the conversion of starch into yeast-fermentable sugars.

In malting barley research, Evan’s philosophy is to follow malt quality from barley genetics through biochemistry to the finished beer, that is from “grass to glass”. This ensures that the selection of new quality genes by Australian barley breeders results in the desired changes in malt quality without unexpected negative consequences that can occur.

Evan is in awe of the Belgian brewers, in the way they look at the total package of great quality and exciting beer that is served in an appropriately styled glass. Some may have read Evan’s 'research homage' to Belgian beer, "Touch of glass" in the spring 2009 Beer and Brewer magazine.

Randy is the author of Radical Brewing and The Brewer’s Companion, and has written for basically every beer magazine out there. His unique, unencumbered-yet-reverent approach to beer and brewing in Radical Brewing has cemented him as a favourite author of the ANHC Team and homebrewers worldwide.

He has taught at the Siebel Institute and been a decision-maker for the American Homebrewers Association, the Association of Brewers and the Chicago Beer Society.

He lives in Chicago, Illinois.

Gordon is the current President of the Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP), the only Grand Master V beer judge, and one of the first certified Mead Judges. He was the principal author of the 2004 and 2008 BJCP Style Guidelines, and the Mead Exam Study Guide.

He is also an award-winning homebrewer and meadmaker. He won the AHA National Homebrew Competition’s Ninkasi Award in 2008 and 2009.

On top of all that, he’s a member of the AHA Governing Committee, the technical editor of Zymurgy, a panelist on the Commercial Calibration panel of Zymurgy, and author of several articles in Brew Your Own and Zymurgy. He has spoken at numerous conferences and festivals, has appeared on TV, and has been a guest on several internet podcasts.

He’s met a few Aussies at AHA conferences in the past and despite this still agreed to come and visit us!

Peter's original motivation to start brewing was the lack of decent ale in our land of megaswill lager. He has now been brewing for over 11 years, moving to all grain in 2000 after backing Brew (what else) in the Melbourne Cup and buying a 60L kettle, burner and more from his winnings.

He is a member of Extra Special Brewers homebrew club, a great bunch of guys who fearlessly do sensory evaluation every month.

He has completed the Graduate Certificate in Brewing from Ballarat University, has judged at state and national levels and is currently at BJCP Recognised level.

He won the Lallemand scholarship through membership of AHA in 2008 and attended the Concise Course in Brewing Technology for 2 weeks in Chicago in November 2009.

Andrew Walsh started brewing in 1989 with a catastrophic failure where all fermentation occurred in the bottles. Despite this, he continued extract brewing for many years.

In 2001, whilst living in Boston, USA, he started all-grain brewing and became a BJCP beer judge.

After relocating back to Australia in 2004, he brought the BJCP to Australia, running many exams and study courses. He is an avid judge in local, state and national homebrew competitions.

You may also remember Andy for his fantastic speech about beer in space at the ANHC 2008 Gala Dinner.

Although Ross Mitchell started brewing in the late ‘80s, he was slow to discover the competition scene until 2001 when he won best Novice Brewer at VicBrew.

Since moving to Canberra in 2002, he has been a regular competitor in the ACT and national competitions, winning Champion Brewer at the AABC in 2008 and 2009.