Intro to Home Brew

Intro to Home Brew

Saturday 25th November

3 - 5pm, Allwood House (Artspace), 901 Main Rd. Hurstbridge

Part 1, 3-4pm– Getting started

Beginners feel free to just attend this part if preferred!

• What / where / how, i.e. brief history of beer and 4 key ingredients (with samples to touch and smell)
• Equipment required, i.e. kits, bottling gear, best places to buy them
• Tips for optimal fermentation
• Brewing outcomes and variances in flavour

Part 2, 4-5pm – Next steps

Current home brewers can just attend this part if preferred!

• Where does home brewing lead, i.e. improving processes and beer quality
• Better equipment, i.e. fridges to control temperature, kegs rather than
• bottles, kegerators
• Competitions, social and other outcomes

Bookings essential.

Facilitated by (T)Hursty Brewers Homebrew Club

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Biographies of members

David Morton (main tutor)
1990s Australia was a tough time and place for beer drinkers even though we didn't realise it. After exhausting my love of Victoria Bitter I started trying the few import lagers that were on offer and nothing landed. In 2004 I moved to the UK, and within months my palette had come alive. Real Ale saved my life! I dove headlong into this exciting world and started having a go at brewing myself in 2008. I used a typical starter kit and quickly moved up to a modified catering urn so that I could boil malt extract and hops, until I burnt a hole through the bottom! I moved back to Australia and thankfully Craft Beer had well and truly arrived! I started afresh with brand new kit, moving straight to All-Grain brewing, and have been obsessed ever since! During my brewing life I've been mostly working in IT, but one day hope to start my own brewery!

Brian Jones (Hurstbridge Men's Shed)
I have been home brewing since the age of about 16, with my Dad. Back then you just mixed it all up, chucked it in a bucket with some yeast and 10 days later - beer! The rudimentary skills came in handy when I worked in Saudi Arabia for a year - a dry country but you could still buy the ingredients in the local supermarket - go figure ! I moved on to a draught keg system some 20 years ago - largely to avoid having to wash and prime all those bottles. Shortly after I graduated to All-Grain brewing, and recently bought a Grainfather system which really speeds up brew day.  

Holger Detje
Local resident in Diamond Creek/Hurstbridge since 2002. German background, dual citizenship. Started brewing when on an overseas assignment in New Zealand in 2015, moved from kit to All-Grain brewing soon after. Moved back home to Diamond Creek in 2019. Joined the Merri Mashers home-brew club and (T)Hursty Brewers. Participated in a number of competitions with a few prizes won for various beer styles. Passionate about growing my own hops which probably relates to my professional background working for International Agricultural Science companies (last job as Head of Bayer CropScience in Korea). 4 beers brewed by two brewers with home-grown hops from our small hop-yard this year won prizes (1st (x2), 2nd and 3rd) at various competitions this year.

Jo Skuse
I've always drunk beer, but it was just your standard Ozzie lagers on a hot day after work. A trip to Belgian and Germany sparked my interest in dark ales and lagers. When my husband, Jeremy, bought a Brewzilla I instantly became interested in the brewing process and especially whole grain brewing. I already had a love of creating layers of flavour in my food cooking and I've applied this to beer. I love researching and tweaking beer recipes and flavours with different grains, hops and yeasts. I've entered a few home-brew competitions and amazingly done quite well. I can't accurately recreate my beers cos I'm always tweaking and adding things, or something goes wrong in the process. But I always like my end results, and sometimes they even match the style guidelines. I have a goal to brew every style of beer there is.