Belated Southern California Homebrew Fest Report
On the first weekend in May, Pacific Graviteers gathered at their Fortress of Solitude (Lake Casitas’ Owl Creek Campground) for the 2010 Southern California Homebrew Festival.
Our beer heroes (beeros, much more powerful than winos) led as always by Josh “Beer Viking” Jensen, brought along 22 examples of superbrewing, which included a Maibock (Carl), an Imperial Stout (Bob K.), an English Mild (Bakofskys); a Tangerine Wit (Bob H.) and many others (see photo). Ian “Safetyman” Fraser kept us extra-safely sustained with a fabulous menu: Friday night we feasted on pulled pork, sausage explosion or Portobello mushroom sandwiches served with coleslaw and broccoli slaw (prepared by Mimi “The Smiler” Bardet); Saturday morning we indulged in two kinds of fried rice (meat and a veggie/fish version) and eggs; Saturday evening we over-indulged on two types of steak, two types of salmon, fresh grilled bluefin and yellowtail tuna (courtesy of Bob “Zenbrewer” Kaisaki), roasted garlic potatoes, salad with blue cheese or green goddess dressing, and enough desserts to choke a legion of superbeeros; Sunday morning we breakfasted on bagels with smoked salmon plus leftover salmon and tuna from the night before, scrambled eggs and an array of fruit.
A few memorable moments: The Hill-Lindsays—Linda “The Gadfly,” Audrey “The Listener,” and Carmen “The Wanderer”—fortifying us Friday night with Powerful Spirits and Rum Balls ; Mike “The Talker” Steinberg reciting from memory the opening prologue to TVs “Superman”; Vic “Rasputin” Macias sharing with us each morning the home-roasted coffee that makes him, as his superbeero name suggests, unkillable; PG co-president Peigi “X-Mormon” Robinson leading us like the Donner party into the brewfest; Dean “Summerpartyman” Sussman pretending (for about ten minutes) that he’d rather lounge about camp than go to the fest; Bob “The Electrician” Henderson once again generously tattooing young women; Carl “The Chemist” Townsend fooling us all for a moment by pretending not to know the exact recipe of something he was tasting; Terry “El Leprechaun Grande” exhausted after a day pouring too many pots of gold, Tim “Soccerboy” Bardet and Bob “Silentman” Partridge actually talking—a lot!, and Neil “the Durnk” Saund communicating with invisible spirits through a language only he and they understand.
If you have yet to attend the homebrew fest, despair not! Be assured that next year the beeroic Graviteers will once again stumble forward in their never-ending battle for Malt, Hops, and the Homebrewers Way!
