The IBD APAC Section Members Come Together Across Australia After 10 Months of Lockdown

Despite the surge of the omicron COVID variant across the world, there are still glimpses of hope and reasons to celebrate with the IBD APAC members in Australia able to meet up again.

The NSW regional Christmas event was recently held at the Lord Nelson Hotel & Brewery. Over 30 brewers and distillers attended the event, the first get-together after 10 months of COVID lockdowns.

The Lord Nelson Brewery Hotel is Australia’s oldest pub brewery, famous for its award-winning natural ales. Our gracious host, Head Brewer Andrew Robson and the team at the hotel provided exceptional food and hospitality.

It was a great night that saw some beer trivia, secret Santa and a selection of beers from the Lord Nelson and pre-mixed spirits from Diageo. The generous sponsorship from Ecolab, Lallemand, Micromatic and HPA helped to make the night possible and was much appreciated.

The Southeast Queensland region held its Christmas function at The Flat Lizard Brewing Company in Stafford, Brisbane on Dec 10th. This 15hl Brewery is in the final stages of completion and Dan Kendrick and the team still hope to open to the public before Christmas.

Most of the installation work was coordinated by Anthony Clem from WellBrewd and for an interesting fact, the Brewhouse was the original Young Henry’s Brewery in Sydney. Flat Lizard is showing a wonderful grasp of the value chain by venturing into their own micro maltings plant which certainly adds to their niche appeal. Thank you to Dan and Brett for opening up their venue and showing great Brewing hospitality.

Tully Hadley (IBD chair of Asia-Pacific) gave the opening welcome and talk which included recognising those who had passed IBD exams in 2021. Tully thanked the previous SE QLD leader Simon Rowe, for his passionate work at organising IBD gatherings in the last number of years. 

Tully also announced the 2022 SE QLD committee, who are as follows:

1. Mina Zhu (Balter Brewing)
2. Steven Magarry (Beenleigh Distillery)
3. Narelle Lukasik (XXXX Brewery)
4. David Ward (Aether Brewing)
5. Paul van Der Vyver – (Lion)

The South Australian region met for their Christmas function in Adelaide city with over 40 in attendance. Brett Durand of Durand Distillers spoke about his experience in becoming a distiller and starting up the Barossa Gin School out of Maggie Beer’s premises. The revellers enjoyed a Beer and BBQ style event with beers kindly donated by several local brewers. A crew of dedicated IBD members and supporters then went on to a nearby pub where the publican thankfully insisted on taking a photo to make up for the lack of those from the BBQ – but stay tuned for updates. 

And finally... the West Australian region plan to meet for their Christmas get-together on December 21 – just a little late for this post, but stay tuned for an update and photos.

It was great to see the revival of sociability across AP regions and section members across Australia and NZ are all looking forward to 2022 and the opportunity for more frequent gatherings as we (hopefully) farewell Covid lockdowns (and Zoom!)

Jeff Potter, Executive Manager, IBD Asia Pacific