Gifted with a kilo of Galaxy, a Brissy home brewer concocts eight beers inspired by the recent Tour De France and throws a party to raise money for charity… As the last hops were being plucked from the bines down at Bushy Park in Tassie, as a part of our Ingrained Community Program,we were bidding in HPA’s ‘Premiere Crop […]
Gifted with a kilo of Galaxy, a Brissy home brewer concocts eight beers inspired by the recent Tour De France and throws a party to raise money for charity…
As the last hops were being plucked from the bines down at Bushy Park in Tassie, as a part of our Ingrained Community Program,we were bidding in HPA’s ‘Premiere Crop of the Hops’ Charity Auction. With 100% of the proceeds going towards fighting depression and men’s health with beyondblue, the auction raised $10,000. We came away with 10 kilos of the freshest Galaxy hops and decided to give it away to home brewers to pack some punch into their next brew.
For the chance to win a kilo of it, we asked home brewers to describe how they would continue the fundraising love for a charity of their choice and do their own ‘Karma Keg‘. One of the winners, Daniel Angus and his brewing partner Michael, well and truly took this to the next level, holding their own version of our Karma Keg last weekend called ‘Tour De Keg’.
The idea was an adaptation from an event him and his mates threw last October, called Octokeg, where they filled eight kegs and threw a massive party with proceeds going to Plan International. Armed with a kilo of Galaxy and coinciding with the Tour de France, they brewed eight tour inspired beers and planned the unveiling last Saturday with all money raised going to the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre.
Dan has been a home brewer for 10 years, starting off kit brewing but then moving to all-grain brewing about 5 years ago.
“I have a passion for hoppy American style Ales, but try to mix it up as often as I can,” he said.
“[Having the Galaxy] encouraged me to try to reinvent some classic styles. The saison with Galaxy worked particularly well, with the tartness from the French saison yeast mixing well with the passionfruit of the Galaxy. I’ll be brewing that one again!”
Just some of the beers brewed included the The Gutiérrez Gluten-free Pale Ale, the KOM Red Ale, Stage 5 Saison and a Richie Porte Port Porter.
“The American Red Ale proved to be the most popular early in the night, and was replaced by the Robust Porter which given the cold night went even faster, particularly given that my wife Kath had made a chocolate cake to pair with it.”
With 80-100 friends and family packing into Dan’s backyard, by 1:30am (nice effort) the donations jar was brimming and we are told the crew raised $1105.70!
Good on you guys, we’re stoked to see that the fundraising love was passed forward and even more so that some great beers were able to be born and shared with the addition of that special little hop Galaxy!
