Beginners Sessions
Ever dabbled in homebrewing and given up? Got a mate you avoid because he keeps pressing his latest concoction on you? Just sick of the same old brew? Want to give it a shot but not sure where to start?
ANHC Beginners Sessions
Don’t let the name fool you – you’re about to get a turbo kick to the brewing skills you’ve been looking for. Five hours of some of the world’s most knowledgeable brewers here to help you get a handle on starting up, stepping up and being able to put quality beer into the hands of all your mates.
From basic brewing techniques, right through to yeast wrangling and brewery bling, we’ll be covering the A-Z for brewers at the start of their journey.
Ten 30-minute sessions to take you from beginner to being an ANHC accredited homebrewer! Hard work, we know, so there will be plenty of our favourite amber fluid around to help keep those minds lubricated.
Summary
When: Saturday 27th October 12noon-5:30pm
Where: William Angliss Institute, 555 Latrobe St, Melbourne
What: Ten 30-minute beginner-oriented sessions
How to register: Click here. Choose “Beginners Sessions or Beginners Experience” when prompted
Cost: $99 Beginner Only Sessions (includes all Ten sessions, morning tea and lunch)
$199 Beginners Experience (Access to the introductory sessions held for beginners on Saturday along with access to the Gala Awards dinner on Friday night and Club Night on Saturday night)
Beyond Kit Brewing
Let us open your eyes to ways you can improve the beer that comes out of a kit. BeerSpace’s George Theodoridis takes you through techniques like steeping grains, partial mashing, brew-in-a-bag, no chill – your gateway to new but not intimidating brewing techniques that will quickly step up the quality of your brews
Cleaning up your act
If you’re going to spend time perfecting anything in brewing, cleaning up should be at the top of your act. Jon Herskovitz from Five Star chemicals will be here to guide you through the easily confused steps of cleaning and sanitizing.
Make or break your beer with fermentation
The second most important thing for you to spend time on is your fermentation – it doesn’t matter how good the rest of your process is, if you mess this bit up, you can kiss all that good work goodbye. This is undoubtedly the most frequent cause of bad beers, so pay attention while Jess Caudill from Wyeast Labs helps you understand the best ways to ensure your yeast are happy beasts…
Introduce some new friends to your beer...
Once you have fermentation under control, it’s time to hear about how different yeast frolic in your beer to create the wonderful characters of wheat beers, Belgian ales and all those luscious beers you’ve been trying to recreate. Yeast selection plays a seriously important role in your beer, and Chris White from White Labs will be guiding you through some of the varieties available on the market today, and why you shouldn’t be scared to use them.
Water - a simple ingredient... or not?
The German purity law, states that there are 4 ingredients in beer – malt, hops, yeast and WATER! Yes, who would have thought such a simple thing could be so complex? Homebrewing legend John Palmer will guide you through the most important stuff, and sort our why those dark ales are causing you so much trouble…
Spice up your beer!
A lot of brewing kits come pre-hopped, but what does that mean? What does a hop look like? What does it do to your beer, and how do you get the most out of them? XXXXXX from Ellerslie Hops will guide you through the wonderful world of hops, helping you understand the difference between hop families and how you can use them as a kit brewer and beyond.
Working with malt
Last but not least, malt is arguably the most important ingredient in beer, but there are so many types – which one should you use, and why? Luckily we have Dale Meddings from Bintani here to help you out of the maze, introducing some of the key malt varieties and how you can use these to completely change the nature of your everyday brew – for the better!
Ahmakeggin!
It’s not as easy to share your beer around as homemade cookies, but getting your beer into something to carry around shouldn’t be a drama. Andy Davison will be on hand to take you through options you may be familiar with, or might never have considered… want your beer on tap? Andy’s your man…
Beer Bling
We’re all suckers for shiny stuff, so not surprisingly there are plenty of ways to part with your cash and pimp up your brewery. Kee Doery will show you some of the newer innovations that will catch the eye of all brewers, beginner or otherwise. And he may even have a little bling to give away.
Breaking out of your box
So you can brew a kit. Great – now what are you going to do for your signature beer? Dan Dainton from James Squire’s Brewhouse will give you a few tips on ways to use your new found knowledge to create that beer that stands out from the crowd and makes you proudly sing “I AM a homebrewer, and my beer is BRILLIANT!”.
And don’t forget – if this isn’t enough for you, there is always the mainstream conference.
Get those dusty old beer kits out and brew with pride!
Click here to register today!
