A beer-loving ACT resident who scooped Canberra's top home-brewing prize will now take on Australia's best brewers in the national championships next month.
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Lyons resident Kevin Hingston began brewing his own beer at home in late 2011, originally using a 30-litre catering urn and a nylon bag in what's known as the "brew in a bag" technique.
Crushed malted grains are steeped in the bag like a giant tea bag before the grains are removed and the remaining sweet liquid is boiled with hops.
After the boil, the liquid is cooled, transferred to a fermenter and yeast is added. The beer is usually ready to drink two to four weeks later.
In 2012 he upgraded to the German-engineered Braumeister brewing machine and hasn't looked back since.
"I'd been looking at ways to get bigger, more repeatable batches. The Braumeister allows a lot more precision control and certainly I'd say the upgrade has been a factor in my improved success over the last couple of years," he said.
Two weeks ago Mr Hingston was named Canberra's best home brewer for the second year in a row, in an ACT brewing competition at the newly opened Bentspoke Brewery.
This year's ACT championships attracted a record 301 entries across 20 different categories. The top three-placed entries from each category qualified for the nationals.
Mr Hingston had five beers place first in the ACT competition, including a Belgian golden strong ale, an English barley wine, a traditional bock, a white beer and a sweet mead.
Now he will go on to represent the territory in the national competition, which will be held in Canberra for the first time.
"The nationals will be held [in October] at Bentspoke again so we'll have qualified judges coming from around the country to judge that. Then the conference kicks off on Friday at the National Museum, where the winners of all the national medals get announced," he said.
"I'm feeling hopeful. My hefeweizen came first in the wheat beers last year, but I don't want to predict anything. It depends on the judges on the day."
Mr Hingston has also helped organise the bi-annual Australian National Homebrewing Conference, which will be held at ANU's University House on October 17-18. It will be the first time the event has taken place outside Melbourne.
He said the craft beer scene in Australia was growing and the availability of better beers commercially had led him to try and replicate it in his own home.
Mr Hingston said he brewed all his beers in his kitchen, while his understanding fiancee Jing watched on, and will be creating all the beer for their wedding.
"She's really supportive of the brewing. The conference has been like a second full-time job for me. I've had 28 entries in the competition this year so she's pretty understanding of all the time I spend on beer," he said.
"And she likes beer too, so that's always good."
2014 ACT Amateur Brewing Championships
First place winners in each category:
- Low Alcohol (<4% ABV): Andrew Lewis (mild ale)
- Pale Lager: Anton Wood (Australian lager)
- Pilsner: David Steel (German pilsner)
- Amber & Dark Lager: Megan Watson (Vienna lager)
- Strong Lager (>6% ABV): Kevin Hingston (traditional bock)
- Pale Ale: Michael Day (English pale ale)
- American Pale Ale: Mark Bilbrough
- Bitter Ale: Darren Blackhurst (English best bitter)
- Brown Ale: Mark Bilbrough (scottish ale)
- Porter: Mark Bilbrough (brown porter)
- Stout: Steve Hogarth (sweet stout)
- Strong Stout (>6% ABV): Andrew Lewis (Russian imperial stout)
- India Pale Ale: Patrick Baggoley (American IPA)
- Strong Ale (>6% ABV): Kevin Hingston (English barley wine)
- Belgian Strong Ale: Kevin Hingston (Belgian golden strong ale)
- Wheat & Rye Beer: Kevin Hingston (weizen/weissbier)
- Farmhouse Ale & Wild Beer: Tom Dixon (Flanders red ale)
- Specialty Beer: Megan Watson
- Mead: Kevin Hingston (sweet mead)
- Cider: Peter Collins