The BREW Fellowship is one of the newer Fellowships within Rotary. It started in California in 2013 with a goal to create an international community of Rotarians who shared a love of beer.
One of the oldest and most widely consumed alcoholic drinks in the world, beer is brewed from cereal grains, most commonly malted barley, but also from wheat, maize (corn) and rice. Historically, the brewing of beer goes back a long time. As almost any cereal containing certain sugars can undergo spontaneous fermentation due air-borne yeasts, it is possible that drinks similar to beer were independently developed throughout the world soon after a tribe or culture had domesticated cereal.
China is known to have brewed a type of beer using grapes, honey, hawthorns and rice about 7,000 years BC. Barley beer was first brewed in Iran approximately 5,000 years ago. During Medieval times in Europe, beer brewing was a home activity, but by the 14th and 15th centuries it gradually became massed produced by pubs and monasteries with hops being added to the brew to keep the beer fresh for longer. Yeast was also added following Louis Pasteur’s 1857 discovery that it prevented souring during the fermentation process.
Beer first came to Australia with British colonisation, and has continued to remain popular. In recent years craft beers have gone from strength to strength. Brewed by small brewery businesses, craft beers have their own individual taste and style, adding to the wide variety of available beers.
The BREW Fellowship publishes a quarterly newsletter, What’s Brewing, which provides members with information on a variety of beers from around the world, as well as recipes and tips for home brewers. The newsletter also keeps members informed about Rotary Club Beer Fests throughout the world, as well as activities at the Rotary International Convention.
As water is fundamental to beer, the BREW Fellowship, in collaboration with the Water and Sanitation Rotarian Action Group, has chosen to financially support Rotary Foundation projects that focus on bringing clean water to places in the world where it’s needed most.
For more information visit: https://www.rotarybrew.org/.
