First Sunday Jan 4 at Firestone Propagator

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>Happy New Year Pacific Gravity!

I hope everyone has survived & thrived during the holidays and was able to spend some quality time with family and friends in addition to wonderful libations!

Our Holiday party was a huge amount of fun as always, and a big thanks to Ian for awesome food, Carl and Tom for getting the serving system happening, Terry and Craig for raffle fun, Neil for hosting (and of course providing an amazing quantity of beers and food), and everyone who helped with setup/cleanup and provided beer/potluck items for everyone to enjoy.  It takes a village and, once again, the group came together to make this  legendary party happen!

We successfully ended the year with 5 anniversary beers brewed at commercial breweries.  A big thanks to Rives for providing a keg of the very tasty Project Barley English Barley wine as a donation to the club!  He has said the beer is now available in bottles for purchase at Project Barley, Lomita, so make a trip and grab some while you can!!  Porter from Smog and Alex from Cellador provided some pre-release bottles of their Anniversary beers and they were much enjoyed – definitely looking forward to full availability!

Our Firestone Anniversary beer, St Amburanas, a Belgian Strong Dark on Amburana wood,  also made an appearance and was well liked.

Which brings us to our first First-Friday for the new year, which will actually be a First-Sunday at the Firestone Walker Propagator.  They have our St Amburanas on tap.  Sam says they also have a West Coast/NZ Pils with nelson and riwaka that they are excited about, so that should be interesting.  Please come on down this Sunday noon-3 and join us in starting off the new year right!!

Parker Waechter – President, Pacific Gravity Homebrewers

Jan First Sunday – Sunday 1/4/2025 at 12-3 PM
Firestone Propagator
3205 Washington Blvd
Marina Del Rey,  CA  90292
(310) 439-8264

 

Upcoming Events

  • Jan 4   :  First Friday (Sunday) at Firestone Propagator 12 pm
  • Jan 15 :  Club Meeting at Tortugo Brewing Company 7:30

Holiday Party 2025 Saturday Dec 6th

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Ho Ho Ho Pacific Gravity!

The time is here! Our 2025 Holiday Party is this Saturday 12/6 at 5pm at Neil’s Duplex.  We will also announce announce the Member of the Year and the Brewer of the Year awards.

The menu will likely be similar to past holiday parties featuring meat on the BBQ, deep fried turkeys, spiced ham and much more!
You can help! Although the club will be providing many of the main dishes, this is still a pot luck party – so bringing your favorite party dish will surely be appreciated!

If you have a favorite family holiday recipe and want to share it with the rest of us, this is your chance!  If you have any questions about what to bring you can ask Chef Ian (masterchef@pacificgravity.com).  Some general suggestions would include any kind of main dish but especially all side dishes, veggie dishes, salads, desserts and appetizers! People have traditionally brought Carbonnades ala Flamande – if anyone wants to go for it and has fear, there is a simple instant pot recipe that can give you a starting point.

This is an outdoor event… it will be cold!  Please plan accordingly!

Bring a chair if you can!

Holiday Party Clean up will be Sunday, December 7th at 10am – Please help out if you can.

Holiday Party: Saturday December 6, at 5:00 PM.
12966 Rubens Ave
Los Angeles, CA. (at Alla Road)

Beer
Got beer?  We need all types of beer, meads, cider and sodas for this event.  Pull out your favorite holiday beverage, dust off the bottle or keg and bring it down!  We’ll have front bar portion of our serving system set up to help dispense your holiday homebrews.  If you plan to bring beer, soda or other seasonally festive beverage, please contact Carl at: Competitions@pacificgravity.com & let him know what you will bring.  Everyone who signs up in advance will have a festive tap tag.

Anniversary Beer News
I believe we will have kegs of both the Project Barley English Barleywine (donated by Rives – THANK YOU!) and the Firestone Belgian Dark Strong on Amburana.  We should also have some pre-release bottles of the Smog City belgian single and the Cellador sour on cherries and black currents for sampling.

Parker Waechter – President, Pacific Gravity Homebrewers

Upcoming Events

  • Dec 6   :  Holiday Party at 5:00!
  • Dec 7   : Holiday Party cleanup at 10 am
  • Jan 4   :  First Friday (Sunday) at Firestone Propagator 12 pm

Holiday Party Setup Sunday, 11/30

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Ho Ho Ho Pacific Gravity!

Our 2025 Holiday Party is rapidly approaching, but first we need your help!

This Sunday 11/30/25 at noon we will be doing the setup (and drinking beer!) over at Neil’s, so come on down and lend a hand! Not only do we need help with setup we will also need supplies and equipment from those who can provide it.  This is our First Friday Event for the month of December.
In addition to setup help, things we likely need are:
Beer – Details/Sign up Info below
Firewood
Outdoor fire pit
Propane heater\outdoor heater
Chairs
Tables,
E-Z ups (canopies)
Power strips
CO2 Tanks

Holiday Party Setup  Sunday, 11/30 at 12:00pm.
12966 Rubens Ave, Los Angeles, CA. (at Alla Road)

Holiday Party 2025 will be Saturday, December 6th at 5pm
12966 Rubens Ave, Los Angeles, CA. (at Alla Road)

Holiday Party Clean up will be Sunday, December 7th at 10am – Please help out if you can.
12966 Rubens Ave, Los Angeles, CA. (at Alla Road)

Holiday Party Details

The Holiday party will be a Neil’s Duplex on December 6th at 5:00PM.  Also, we will announce the Member of the Year Award and the Brewer of the year award.

The menu will likely be similar to past holiday parties featuring meat on the BBQ, deep fried turkeys, spiced ham and much more!
You can help! Although the club will be providing many of the main dishes, this is still a pot luck party – so bringing your favorite party dish will surely be appreciated!
If you have a favorite family holiday recipe and want to share it with the rest of us, this is your chance!  If you have any questions about what to bring you can ask Chef Ian (masterchef@pacificgravity.com).  Some general suggestions would include any kind of main dish but especially all side dishes, veggie dishes, salads, desserts and appetizers! People have traditionally brought Carbonnades ala Flamande – if anyone wants to go for it and has fear, there is a simple instant pot recipe that can give you a starting point. 

Beer
Got beer?  We need all types of beer, meads, cider and sodas for this event.  Pull out your favorite holiday beverage, dust off the bottle or keg and bring it down!  We’ll have front bar portion of our serving system set up to help dispense your holiday homebrews.  If you plan to bring beer, soda or other seasonally festive beverage, please contact Carl at: Competitions@pacificgravity.com & let him know what you will bring.  Everyone who signs up in advance will have a festive tap tag.
This is an outdoor event… it will be cold!  Please plan accordingly!
Bring a chair if you can!

Holiday Party: Saturday 12/6, at 5:00 PM.
12966 Rubens Ave
Los Angeles, CA. (at Alla Road)

Anniversary Beer News
Last weekend we had a blast bottling our collaboration beers with both Smog City (Belgian Single) and Cellador (most excellent sour on cherries and black currents) – thanks to everyone who came to help out!  Both Porter and Alex were great hosts as always and shepherded us through the process. Both beers will be better with a bit more age on them, so not SURE they will be available at the holiday party or not, but we shall see – hopefully we will have a keg of the Smog.  The Firestone beer is doing well, and hopefully we can get a keg for the holiday party.  The Project Barley beer (English Barleywine) is tasting pretty great and Rives plans on bringing some to the the party!

Upcoming Events

  • Nov 30 : Holiday Party Setup at noon
  • Dec 6   :  Holiday Party at 5:00!
  • Dec 7   :  Holiday Party Cleanup at 10:00am

Club Meeting This Thurs Nov 20 at Tortugo Brewery

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Please come join us for our last meeting of the year at our home base at Tortugo this Thursday 11/20 at 7:30. Our styles of the month are ambers and browns.

Craig will be bringing some of our 30th Anniversary Tee Shirts ($20) and glasses ($5) – this will be the last opportunity for purchase in 2025!

Voting – Member of the Year and 2026 Board
We will also be voting for member of the year and the board for 2026. If you have additional nominations, you may email elections@pacificgravity.com by midnight Wed 11/19 and they will be added to the ballot (or people can also write in if need be). If you will be unable to attend, members may vote by email by sending to that same address on Thurs 11/20 until 9pm.

Current Nominations:
    Member of the year: Joe Kovatch, Dean Sussman, Carl Townsend, Parker Waechter
    Board Nominees:
President – Parker Waechter
Vice President – Terry Molloy
Treasurer – Craig Corley

Holiday Party
The annual PG holiday party is rapidly approaching and will be held on Saturday 12/6 at Neil’s Duplex (12966 Rubens Ave, Los Angeles, CA. (at Alla Road)).
Carl will have a signup sheet at the meeting for kegs you will be bringing so he can make his traditional festive tap tags(tm). Chef Ian will be doing his culinary magic as always, but we always need some more salads, sides, deserts etc, so please start thinking about how you can dazzle with kitchen skills to match your brewing skills!

The weekend before the party (Nov 29/30) we will be doing setup for the party.  I know it is Thanksgiving weekend, so at the meeting we will vote on Saturday vs Sunday to get the most people to help out.Many hands makes for light work…yada yada.

Anniversary Beer News
We have completed the final 2 brews (Smog City and Firestone Walker)!  This Sunday we could use help bottling the Smog City Batch, and likely also the Cellador batch (both at Cellador across the parking lot from Smog).  More details will be provided as soon as they are available.  We successfully had club anniversary collaboration brews at 5 breweries (Tortugo, Cellador, Project Barley, Smog City and Firestone).  The Tortugo beers have been sold out for months and mostly happily consumed – thanks Joe!  I believe all the others will be available for tasting at the Holiday Party.  We should be very proud that we have this much support from the professional brewing community!

Hope to see you all at the meeting Thursday!

Parker Waechter – President, Pacific Gravity Homebrewers

November Monthly Meeting Thurs 11/20/2025 at 7:30 PM
Tortugo Brewing Co.
916 W. Hyde Park Blvd.
Inglewood,  CA  90302
(424) 227-9963

Upcoming Events

  • Nov 20  :  Club Meeting at Tortugo Brewing Company 7pm (Styles: brown and amber beer)
  • Nov 29 or 30 – Holiday Party Setup
  • Dec 6    :   Holiday Party!

Anniversary Brews at Smog City and Firestone

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This is a reminder that this Saturday 11/8 is our Anniversary brew at Smog City at 9:30 am.

We will be using Porter’s new 5 barrel pilot system, so even if you have been to brew events at Smog in the past, this will be something exciting and new!

The recipe will be an adaptation of Craig Corley’s Trappist Single.  Rather than traditional Belgian grains, we’re going to use micro-malted grains from Admiral Maltings up in the Bay Area. We’ll use German Hercules for bittering and a blend of Tettnanger and Saaz for flavor/aroma additions.  We’ll likely use a dry yeast like Mangrove Jacks Belgian Tripel M31.  We’ll use first wort hopping and a large dose at knock out.

Unlike our usual Smog visits, this is not a “Monster Brew”.  We are not selling wort, so no need to bring sterile buckets.  Instead, we will ferment the whole batch at Smog and then bottling in a couple of weeks (and we will need some help then too!).  You are not going to want to miss this event!

Next, just 2 days later, on this Monday November 10 at 9am(ish) (NOTE NEW DATE!) we will be at Firestone Propagator, where Sam will be helping us craft a Carl/Tomm/Parker/Sam Belgian Dark Holiday Beer with Aburana wood.  Brewing this beer at the Propagator should be epic!

So there you have it – some action-packed days o’ brewing with a Smog-Saturday and Firestone-Monday – Two glorious days of brewer-fantasy-camp!  I encourage you to take advantage of this opportunity to attend one if not both.  I, for one, have requested the day off work!  Also note that these 2 events will count as our “First Friday” for November.

We will need some volunteers to help bottle both of these once they are ready – we will send out an email when we know more.

These are the final two brews of our 30th Anniversary Series that have included: Tortugo, Cellador, Project Barley, Smog City, Firestone-Walker Propagator.

Parker Waechter – President, Pacific Gravity Homebrewers

Smog City PG Anniversary Beer Brewing – Saturday 11/8/2025 at 9:30am(ish)
Smog City Brewing Company
1901 Del Amo Blvd
Torrance, CA, 90501
(310) 320-7664

Firestone PG Anniversary Beer Brewing – Mon 11/10/2025 at 9am(ish)
Firestone Walker Brewing Company – the Propagator
3205 Washington Blvd
Marina Del Rey, CA, 90292
(310) 439-8264

Upcoming Events

  • Nov 8    :  Anniversary Brewing at Smog City 9:30am(ish)
  • Nov 10  :  Anniversary Brewing at Firestone 9am(ish) NOTE DATE CHANGE!
  • Nov 20  :  Club Meeting at Tortugo Brewing Company 7pm
  • Dec 6    :   Holiday Party

Pacific Gravity Anniversary Brews at Smog City and Firestone (NEW DATE!)

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In a couple of weeks we have 2 more anniversary brew days now within a couple days of each other!

The first is our collaboration at Smog City on Saturday November 8 at 9:30am(ish).  We will be brewing a riff on one of Craig’s Trappist Single recipes on Porter’s brand spankin’ new 5-barrel pilot system, so it will be a new experience even to those who have attended many a monster brew!

Then, just 2 days later, on Monday November 10 at 9am(ish) (NOTE NEW DATE!) we will be at Firestone Propagator, where Sam will be helping us craft a Carl/Tomm/Parker/Sam Belgian Dark Holiday Beer with Aburana wood.  Brewing this beer at the Propagator should be an interesting experience!

So there you have it – some action-packed days o’ brewing with a Smog-Saturday and Firestone-Monday – Two glorious days of brewer-fantasy-camp!  I encourage you to take advantage of this opportunity to attend one if not both.  I, for one, have requested the day off work!  Also note that these 2 events will count as our “First Friday” for November.

Thanks much to Tomm for helping to get Firestone going!

We will need some volunteers to help bottle both of these once they are ready – we will send out an email when we know more.

Parker Waechter – President, Pacific Gravity Homebrewers

Smog City PG Anniversary Beer Brewing – Saturday 11/8/2025 at 9:30am(ish)
Smog City Brewing Company
1901 Del Amo Blvd
Torrance, CA, 90501
(310) 320-7664

Firestone PG Anniversary Beer Brewing – Mon 11/10/2025 at 9am(ish)
Firestone Walker Brewing Company – the Propagator
3205 Washington Blvd
Marina Del Rey, CA, 90292
(310) 439-8264

Upcoming Events

  • Nov 8    :  Anniversary Brewing at Smog City 9:30am(ish)
  • Nov 10  :  Anniversary Brewing at Firestone 9am(ish) NOTE DATE CHANGE!
  • Nov 20  :  Club Meeting at Tortugo Brewing Company 7pm
  • Dec 6    :   Holiday Party

Pacific Gravity Chili Cook-Off This Saturday 10/11 12:00 at Tortugo Brewery

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Greetings Pacific Gravity!

Please join us for the much-loved and feared Pacific Gravity Annual Chili Cook-Off this Saturday at noon, this year at Torgugo Brewery.  All attendees vote for the “Best” and “Most Unique” chili,  so amaze and baffle our palates as only PG can! Winners will receive the much-coveted “bragging rights and a beer”.  Our style of the month is “Meads and Sours” or any other alternative fermentable or alternative fermenting organism, so it should compliment the heat/and weird well.

Additionally, this will be your opportunity to nominate candidates for next year’s Board (President, Vice President and Treasurer) and for Member of the Year. The election will held at our November meeting, so this is the time to get the nominations in!  Craig will be bringing some of our 30th Anniversary Tee Shirts ($20) and glasses ($5).

In anniversary beer related news, we have 2 more anniversary brew days coming up!  First, we have Smog City on Saturday November 8th where we  will be making our Anniversary Belgian Blond with Porter, followed shortly there after by Firestone Marina Del Rey on Thurs November 13 at 9am when we will brew a Belgian Strong Dark with some Amburana wood with Sam.  More details will come before then.  Also, the collaboration we did with Project Barley is nearly ready to bottle, and we will likely put out a call for help with the bottling soon.

October Monthly Meeting and Chili cook-off Saturday 10/11/2025 at 12:00 PM
Tortugo Brewing Co.
916 W. Hyde Park Blvd.
Inglewood,  CA  90302
(424) 227-9963

Upcoming Events

  • Oct 11   : Club Meeting and Chili cook-off at Tortugo Brewing Company at Noon – (styles Meads and Sours)
  • Nov 8    :  Anniversary Brewing at Smog City
  • Nov 13  :  Anniversary Brewing at Firestone
  • Nov 20  :  Club Meeting at Tortugo Brewing Company 7pm

First Saturday October 4 at Rasselbock

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Our October “First Friday” event will be be held this Saturday October 4th from noon to 3pm at Rasselbock in Mar Vista. It is Oktoberfest, so please join us for festivities and of course some most excellent German beer!

Our October club meeting will be the traditional Chili cook-off, but this year it will be held at Tortugo on Saturday October 11th at noon.  So start planning your best/most unique entries now!  Also, this will be your opportunity to nominate members for the Member of the year and the 2026 Board!

Our brew day at Project Barley, Lomita was a lot of fun.  Rives and Stephen were great hosts and let us play brewer fantasy camp for a day.  When it comes time to bottle, we will likely need some help – I will let you know more when the time comes.

Parker Waechter – President, Pacific Gravity Homebrewers

October First Saturday  – Saturday October 4, 2025 Noon – 3 PM
Rasselbock
3817 Grand View Blvd
Los Angeles,  CA  90066
(310) 439-2938

Competition Corner 
Results of Pacific Brewers Cup have been released.  Congrats go to Craig for two ribbons: First Place for 293 – SA #9 – Weise Färse, a  German Wheat beer, and a 3rd place for 294  – Blonde #21, a Belgian Blond ale. Craig’s Blond was edged out by Carl’s Blond, which picked up a 2nd place ribbon.  Full results can be found at   https://strandbrewersclub.org/pbc/bcoem/ .  Thanks to Jeff Hoy and the entire Strand Brewers crew for running the competition this year.

The entry registration cap has already been reached for the California State Competition, which is the last competition of the year.  But the physical bottle entry deadline is rapidly approaching.  Entries are due October 16th.   Shipping details to Morebeer in Concord, CA. can be found at https://chc.brewingcompetitions.com/    There are no local drop-off opportunities.

Upcoming Events

  • October 4: First Saturday – Rasselbock
  • October 11 : Saturday  Chili Cook-off and Club Meeting at Tortugo Brewing Company!

Pacific Gravity Club Meeting This Thursday, September 18, 7:30 at Tortugo Brewery

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Guten Tag Pacific Gravity!

Our September monthly meeting is this Thursday at our home-base Tortugo Brewing.

Zicke Zacke Zicke Zacke Hoi Hoi Hoi! – yes, this will be always epic Oktoberfest meeting (yes, SLIGHTLY early, but…Oktoberfest!), and appropriately, our styles of the month are Festbiers and Amber Lagers, so please bring your marvelous Märzens, Fabulous Fests or whatever excellent homebrew you have to share!

Craig will be bringing some of our anniversary shirts and glasses which will be for sale.  Buy early, buy often.

There will be some traditional Oktoberfest food! There will be ONE, if not TWO, members in Lederhosen!  Oans, zwoa, drei, Gsuffa!!!

Also, don’t forget that this Friday is the brewday/monsterbrew for our Anniversary Collaboration Beer with Project Barley in Lomita at 6am (more details below), and Saturday morning is the judging for Pacific Brewers cup at Project Barley Squared in Torrance (note the venue change), so it will be an action packed few days of beer events to kick off Oktoberfest (which actually begins Saturday 9/20)!!!I hope to see you all at the meeting Thursday!

Bis dahin!

Parker Waechter – President, Pacific Gravity Homebrewers

September Monthly Meeting – Thursday 9/18/2025 at 7:30 PM
Tortugo Brewing Co.
916 W. Hyde Park Blvd.
Inglewood,  CA  90302
(424) 227-9963
Project Barley Anniversary Collaboration Brew – Friday 9/19/2025 at 06:00 AM
Bright and early this Friday, we will be brewing our collaboration English Barleywine with Rives and Stephen at Project Barley’s Lomita location.  They are also allowing us to take home 5G of wort for $35 monster brew style – that is a heck of a bargain for an OG 1.095 Barleywine!  We will be brewing about 50 Gallons more than fits in the fermenter, so we need to sell some batches ;)!  If you have grown lackadaisical about your homebrewing, now is an easy time to breeze in an grab a really nice beer, where all you need to add is yeast and love.  It might be possible to have them store the wort for you to pick up later in the day or next day if you can’t make the morning brew – contact Rives or Parker to discuss if that is of interest.  Hope to see you there!
Project Barley
2308 Pacific Coast Hwy
Lomita, CA, 90717
(424) 263-5349

Competition Corner
The venue for PBC Judging on Saturday, Sept. 20th has been moved to Project Barley Square in Torrance at 1109 Van Ness Avenue, Torrance, CA., 90501 – note venue change – no longer Lomita)

Entries are due October 16th for the California State Competition.  Register at https://chc.brewingcompetitions.com/
Entries must be shipped to Morebeer in Concord, CA.  There is no local drop-off opportunities.  This is the final competition for the 2025 Brewer of the Year Award cycle.

Upcoming Events

  • Sept 18: Club Meeting at Tortugo Brewing Company – Festbier and Amber Lagers
  • Sept 19: Project Barley Anniversary Brew 6am – Lomita
  • Sept 20: Judging for PBC (Project Barley Squared – Torrance – note venue change – no longer Lomita)
  • Oct 3 or 4: First Friday or Saturday (haven’t finalized a Fri or Sat as yet) – Rasselbock Los Angeles

First Friday September 5 – Five Point Five El Segundo

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Hidey Ho Pacific Gravity!

Our First Friday event for September will be this Friday 9/5 at 7pm at Five Point Five Brewing Co in El Segundo.

They are a fairly new brewery (in Surfridge’s old spot), but I am told they have some very solid beers and it is a nice space to hang out.

In other news, we have a date for our next Anniversary Brew:
Project Barley will be brewing our 30th anniversary collaboration on Friday Sept 19 at 6am at their Lomita location.  anyone who would like to attend welcome.  Rives has said we should have the opportunity to purchase 5 gallons of wort monster-brew-style for anyone who would like to ferment some of their own – pricing and details TBD.  Standard monster-brew rules – no glass, pitch yeast at home etc.

Parker Waechter – President, Pacific Gravity Homebrewers

September First Friday – Friday 9/5/2025 7-10pm
Five Point Five Brewing Co
137 Nevada St
El Segundo, CA 90245
424-248-8379

Upcoming Events

  • Sept   5: First Friday (Five Point Five Brewing Co, El Segundo 7pm)
  • Sept 18: Club Meeting at Tortugo Brewing Company – Festbier and Amber Lagers
  • Sept 19: Project Barley Anniversary Brew 6am
  • Sept 20: Judging for Pacific Brewers Cup. Judges and Stewards still needed.  Sign up at at
    https://strandbrewersclub.org/pbc/bcoem/