PG May Club Meeting May 15th at Tortugo Brewery

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Our May club meeting this Thursday at our home-base Tortugo Brewing.

Our style of the month is is Dark/Black beers so please bring your schwarz, dunkel, stouts, black IPAs or mysteriously darkened beers of your choice.

The So Cal Homebrew Fest was a monstrous ball of fun. Everyone who wen participated in helping out (particularity with some tasty beers!), so thanks to all, but special thanks to Terry for organizing it all, Ian for the great eats, and Carl/Tom for all the serving setup/transport.

I hope to see you all at the meeting Thursday!

Parker Waechter – President, Pacific Gravity Homebrewers

February Monthly Meeting – Thursday 5/16/2025 at 7:30 PM
Tortugo Brewing Co.
916 W. Hyde Park Blvd.
Inglewood,  CA  90302
(424) 227-9963

Competition Corner

Results have been released for two recent competition:  Mayfaire and the California State Fair.  Congratulations go to Craig Corley for picking up ribbons in both events. Two of his beers scored twice!
His Belgian Pale Ale BP24 picked up 1st place in Mayfaire and a 3rd place in the State Fair.
His Belgian Blonde #21 picked up 3rd in Mayfaire and 2nd in the State Fair.
In addition his Weissbier Sa #9 – Weise Färse took 1st place in the State Fair.
Craig takes a commanding 10 point lead in the PG Brewer of the Year tally.

The next competitions on the horizon are the Red White and Brews competition run by Long Beach in July, and Pacific Brewers Cup, run by Strand Brewers in September.

Here is a run-down on the rest of this year’s future competitions:

  • July – Long Beach Red White and Brews
    • American beers, 30 different styles
  • September – Pacific Brewers Cup
    • Strand running it in 2025
  • October California State Competition

It’s Time to Do the Dues!

It’s May, so and that means its time for our annual Pacific Gravity membership dues collection.  All club members need to pay their dues to keep their membership active until March 2026.  Annual dues are $48 for individuals or $72 for couples and are prorated for members who joined the club within the last year.

Keep in mind that your dues are the primary way we fund such club activities as club parties, monthly meetings, club brews and much more.  Your paid membership also ensures that you’ll continue to receive the many club benefits available, access to various brewing activities, discounts and information.

There are several ways you can renew your annual dues.  Club Treasurer, Craig Corley will be collecting dues at the upcoming March club meeting and other upcoming club events.  You can go old school and send Pacific Gravity a check to PO Box 2451, Culver City CA 90231. And for the ultimate in convenience, you can renew your dues online via the PayPal links below:
Individual Membership – Full 1-year Renewal: https://py.pl/121AAr
Couples Membership – Full 1-year Renewal: https://py.pl/5LD8s

Along with your dues renewal, we need all members to complete a Membership Application/Liability Waiver. And in the case of couples memberships, we need this for both members.  You can fill out and submit your Membership Application/Liability Waiver at the following link: https://forms.gle/f2xCjNBAp5qoJjFK8

All current club members should have gotten a renewal notice via email detailing their dues renewal amount and member information on file. This is a good opportunity to update our membership records, so please let Craig know of any changes to your member information (address, email, phone, etc) or include changes with your check/renewal form.

For any individual members who might be interested, the couples membership provides full membership status/benefits to both partners of a couple including membership cards, emails, etc. Note that the couples membership is optional, couples can continue with one partner being an individual member and the other being their guest.  It’s an additional $24 to upgrade your individual membership to a couples membership and you’ll need to include your partner’s name and email along with your payment.

Have questions about your dues or how much you owe? Check with Craig at the club meeting or by email at Treasurer@PacificGravity.com.

Upcoming Events

June 6:    First Friday (TBD)

June 19:  Club Meeting at Tortugo Brewing Company – Style: Sour Smoked and wood aged beers

First Friday April 4 (TOMORROW!) – Firestone Walker Propagator

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Our First Friday event for April will be this Friday (tomorrow!) 4/4 7:00 at Firestone Walker Propagator in Venice.

They always have a wide selection of different styles available for tasting including sours, stouts, some barrel aged things and yes, even some IPAs…

Their food is also quite good, so it should be the full First-Friday experience!

Parker Waechter – President, Pacific Gravity Homebrewers

April First Friday – Friday 4/4/2025 at 7-10 PM
Firestone Walker Propagator
3205 Washington Blvd.
Marina Del Rey, CA 90292
(310) 439.8264

Southern California Homebrew Festival

The Southern California Homebrew Festival will be held May 2-4, 2025 at Vail Lake near Temecula.  Sign up is available now at https://www.calhomebrewers.org/ . Remember, you need to join CHA first, ($10) and then you can sign up for the fest itself.  The last day to buy festival admission is April 30, so get to it if you have not!

Ian’s stellar food plan is also available this year, so contact him directly if you would like to participate.

If you have not already contacted Terry Molloy abut attending, please let him know ASAP at tmsoccercoach@gmail.com .  If you plan on camping or food with the club, there will be a separate fee payable to Terry. SCHBF fees for tent campers ($35 to Terry) and food plan ($50 to Ian).

This fest is always a blast; you won’t want to miss it.

Competition Corner

We have three competitions right on top of each other in April.

  • First of all, the next deadline is the annual Mayfaire Competition.  Sign up now at https://competitions.maltosefalcons.com/2025Mayfaire/ . Entries are due due between March 24th and April 11th at local homebrew shops.  Judging is right in our neighborhood at Santa Monica Brew Works on April 26th.
  • Next up is the AHA National Competition.   if you have already reserved entry space, note that the entry submission window runs from April 14th to 18th.  AHA should have sent you the info packet.  San Diego entries need to be shipped to Alesmith Brewery.
  • Finally, we have the California State Fair.  Sign up now at https://calexpostatefair.com/competitions/california-homebrew/  Local entries are due at Angel City Brewery between April 14 – 26.

It’s Time to Do the Dues!

It’s March and that means its time for our annual Pacific Gravity membership dues collection.  All club members need to pay their dues to keep their membership active until March 2026.  Annual dues are $48 for individuals or $72 for couples and are prorated for members who joined the club within the last year.

Keep in mind that your dues are the primary way we fund such club activities as club parties, monthly meetings, club brews and much more.  Your paid membership also ensures that you’ll continue to receive the many club benefits available, access to various brewing activities, discounts and information.

There are several ways you can renew your annual dues.  Club Treasurer, Craig Corley will be collecting dues at the upcoming March club meeting and other upcoming club events.  You can go old school and send Pacific Gravity a check to PO Box 2451, Culver City CA 90231. And for the ultimate in convenience, you can renew your dues online via the PayPal links below:
Individual Membership – Full 1-year Renewal: https://py.pl/121AAr
Couples Membership – Full 1-year Renewal: https://py.pl/5LD8s

Along with your dues renewal, we need all members to complete a Membership Application/Liability Waiver. And in the case of couples memberships, we need this for both members.  You can fill out and submit your Membership Application/Liability Waiver at the following link: https://forms.gle/f2xCjNBAp5qoJjFK8

All current club members should have gotten a renewal notice via email detailing their dues renewal amount and member information on file. This is a good opportunity to update our membership records, so please let Craig know of any changes to your member information (address, email, phone, etc) or include changes with your check/renewal form.

For any individual members who might be interested, the couples membership provides full membership status/benefits to both partners of a couple including membership cards, emails, etc. Note that the couples membership is optional, couples can continue with one partner being an individual member and the other being their guest.  It’s an additional $24 to upgrade your individual membership to a couples membership and you’ll need to include your partner’s name and email along with your payment.

Have questions about your dues or how much you owe? Check with Craig at the March club meeting or by email at Treasurer@PacificGravity.com.

Upcoming Events

  • March 24th – April 11th: Mayfaire Competition entries are due
  • April 4: First Friday- First Friday Firestone Walker Propagator 7pm
  • April 11: Mayfaire Competition entry deadline
  • April 14 – 18: AHA National Competition entry submission window
  • April 14 – 26: California State Fair entries are due
  • April 17: Club Meeting at Tortugo Brewing Company – Style: German Beers
  • April 26th:  Mayfaire Competition Judging

Club Meeting Thursday March 20

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What’s the craic PG! Happy March!  It is leprechaun season with a lot of fun to be had!  This Thursday 3/20 will be our monthly club meeting at the usual time and place:

March Monthly Meeting; Thursday 3/20/2025 at 7:30 PM
Tortugo Brewing Co.
916 W. Hyde Park Blvd.
Inglewood,  CA  90302
(424) 227-9963

Being it is only a few days after St Pat’s, there will also be some St Patrick’s Day type goodies provided by Club Chef Ian and Club Monkey Parker.  It is possible there MAY even be a leprechaun sighting…

This Saturday 3/22 will be our 2025 Monster Brew at Smog City – you wouldn’t want to miss it (even if you don’t need wort)!  – details below.

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Smog City Monster Brew March 22

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Monster Brew 2025 at Smog City – Sign Up Now!

Porter has once again graciously offered to host a monster brew at Smog City Brewing Company.  This will be our 9th Monster Brew with Brewmaster, Jon Porter (and 14th if you count the ones he hosted previously, going all the way back to his days at Tustin Brewing!).  These events are always a highlight of the year’s activities and an unreasonably huge amount of fun, so please come out and join us!

Date:  Saturday, March 22, 2025
Time:  ~7:00 AM Mash-In
~12pm Fermenter Filling
Location:  Smog City Brewery 1901 Del Amo Blvd, Torrance, CA 90501

If you have never participated in a Monster Brew, here is how it works:

  1. FOR THE NON-BREWER – this is an exclusive once a year opportunity to hang out behind the scenes and do tours and tasting with the owner and brewmaster of Smog City Brewing while a batch of beer is being brewed for the group. We’ll explore the brewing process from grain to glass and taste through super limited and small batch experiments for the most in depth exploration of local craft beer ever offered.
  2. FOR THE HOMEBREWERS -Pay now with Paypal.  Use the following links for the amount of wort you want:
    For 5 Gallons of wort click here.
    For 10 Gallons of wort click here.
    For 15 Gallons of wort click here.
    An inside tour of the brewery and tasting experience is included!   If you do this your reservation is good to go.
  3. Plan out your modifications  ahead of time.  I strongly suggest you purchase yeast and any ingredients desired for modification to the wort – I suggest supporting local South Bay Brewing Supply (call ahead to verify stock)
  4. Arrive at the Monster Brew with a clean plastic or metal fermenter (NO GLASS!) which we will fill with UNFERMENTED wort.
  5. Take it home and modify as desired and pitch your yeast
  6. Ferment until ready for bottling or kegging.

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Smog Monster Brew Modifications

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This Month’s Question: How do I modify my wort from the Monster Brew at Smog City Brewing?

Answer:https://www.smogcitybrewing.com/
Regardless of wheterh you are a homebrewer or merely a craft beer aficionado, I hope you are all planning to join us at Smog City Brewing Company’s ninth Annual Monster Brew, Saturday, March 22nd, 2025, from 7:00 AM to noon hosted by our very own Jon Porter. We’ll explore the brewing process from grain to glass and taste through super limited and small batch experiments for the most in depth exploration of local craft beer ever offered. We’ll be brewing up a batch of wort based on the recipe for Little Bo Pils. Where it goes from there is up to you! We’re hoping to have as many variations on the theme as possible for upcoming events such as club meetings, Southern California Homebrew Fest, and the summer party.

First of all SIGN up NOW!
Hombrewers, sign up here to get wort

For 5 Gallons of wort click here.
For 10 Gallons of wort click here.
For 15 Gallons of wort click here.

The recipe for the wort can be found below. The wort will be a blend of Pilsner malt with a bit of carafoam and acidulated malt to round out the grain bill. Apart from that, the recipe is light-colored and minimally hopped. Consider this a blank slate. This gives YOU the opportunity to spice it up, using your own creativity as broadly as possible. The wort will have a starting gravity of 1.050, with 27 IBUs of bitterness and a color of about 3 SRM. A lot of different beers can be made out of this. With a bit of tweaking, you can make just about anything. Here are some ideas on what to do.

1) Pick a yeast. The wort comes unpitched, so at a minimum, you have to get some yeast for brewing day. As formulated, the wort will make an some of the lighter lager styles or cream ale if you pitch with an American lager yeast such as White Labs WLP840, or Wyeast 1450 Denny’s Favorite. Of course, this means you need to have a lager fridge or other cooler to pull this off. But, you can also pick something like a German ale yeast and make a Kölsch or an American ale yeast and make a blonde ale. Whatever style you go for, I suggest making at least a 1 quart starter a few days before the Monster brew.

2) Boost the bitterness or hop flavor. You’ll have to do this if you want to get to IPA range, and I also recommend it for Pale Ale, ESB, Robust Porter, Altbier and several other styles as well. Boil up a small amount of water and add hops to make a hop tea. Boil for at least half an hour with high alpha hops to raise the IBU level, and for best effect, use pellets rather than whole-leaf hops. To calculate the bitterness, use these numbers: Each ½ oz of 12% AAU pellets will boost the bitterness by 15 IBU. Boil for 10 to 15 minutes with your favorite hop variety to boost the flavor. Note that this will boost the IBU level by a smaller amount.

3) Make it weaker. If you are into session beer styles such as Bitter, the gravity will be too high. You can cut the gravity by adding some water. This is a great way of increasing the yield of your brewing day, and you may need a second fermenter to hold the extra volume. Note that the dilution will drop the bitterness level too, which will fit some, but not all of the lighter styles. So, to create the perfect session bitter you should boost the bitterness as noted above. For best results, the water should be sterilized by boiling ahead of time for a few minutes.

4) Dry hop it. The recipe this year has a low level of Mandarin Bavaria finishing hops, which has a noble but slightly citrusy tang. It will not be enough for the citrusy American styles. You can go American for American Pale or Amber Ale, British hops for ESB, or you can go with Continental Noble hops for something like Saison.

5) Make it stronger. Styles such as Maibock or Belgian Tripel can be made by adding some malt extract or Belgian candi sugar. Just boil up a small amount of water and extract and boil for about 10 to 15 minutes, to make sure it is sterile. Cool, and add to your fermenter.

6) Make it darker. Pick a dark grain like roast barley, Special B, chocolate malt or Carafa. Steep in hot water, then strain out the grains and boil the liquid. Voila, instant dark beer! I made a great porter and Schwarzbier the past couple of years with this approach.

7) Make it malty. Discover the magic of melanoidin malt to make some of the malty German lagers styles such as traditional Bock, or Munich Dunkel. I’d even recommend a bit if you are making a Maibock.

8) Make it Hazy.  Try steeping some malted oats.  In addition, pick a yeast with lower attenuation.

9) Do combinations of the above. Suppose you want to make an American Barleywine out of the wort. Boil up some malt extract, add some hops to boost the bitterness and flavor during the boil. Cool and add to the fermenter. Then, dry hop in secondary.

The attached table has a list of some of the interesting combinations you can do. I came up with 20 variations without even breaking a sweat. You can probably come up with even more.
You’ll want to pitch your yeast as soon as you get your wort home. For most of the variations, you should plan on adjusting the wort at the same time, though you could wait a day or so. Make sure you get it going before primary fermentation is done, since the yeast will need to work on the additional materials.
So, start whipping up your recipe now. Hope to see you on the 9th.

Smog City Monster Brew #9
Recipe for 17 Barrels (527 gallons):
• 770 lbs Pilsner Malt
• 27 lbs Carafoam
• 27 lbs Acidulated Malt
• Pahto 37 oz (FWH)
• Mandarin Baviaria 48 oz (15 minutes)
• Mandarin Baviaria 48 oz (Flame Out)
• Target OG – 1.050
• Target SRM – 3
• Target IBU – 27

To sign-up just pay by PayPal:
For 5 Gallons of wort click here.
For 10 Gallons of wort click here.
For 15 Gallons of wort click here.
An inside tour of the brewery and tasting experience is included!

Guidelines for varying the beer:

Beer Style Yeast Grain/sugar Hops Fermentation
German Lager Lager Cold
Bohemian Lager Lager Cara-Pils Saaz Cold
American Lager Lager Cold
Vienna Lager Vienna Munich or Vienna Cold
Oktoberfest Oktoberfest Melanoidin Cold
Maibock Bock Melanoidin, LME Cold
Traditional Bock Bock Melanoidin, LME Cold
Doppelbock Bock Melanoidin, LME Cold
Munich Dunkel Munich Lager Melanoidin, Munich Cold
Schwarzbier Munich Lager Carafa Cold
Kölsch Kölsch Cool
Cream Ale Cream Ale Cool
California Common CA Lager Crystal Northern Brewer Cool
Altbier German Ale Crystal Tea/Hallertauer Cool
Blonde Ale American Ale Med
Amiercan Pale Ale Amer Ale Tea/Dry Amarillo Med
American Amber Amer Ale Crystal Tea/Dry Amarillo Med
IPA AM Ale or Eng Crystal Tea/Dry Amarillo Med
Hazy IPA AM Ale or Eng Malted Oats Tea/Dry Galaxy Med
Brown Ale English Crystal, Chocolate Med
Porter English Chocolate Med
Dry Stout Irish Roast Barley Med
Export Stout Irish Roast Barley, LME Med
Imperial Stout Irish LME, Roast barley Tea/Goldings Med
Old Ale English LME Tea/Fuggles Med
Barleywine AM Ale or Eng LME Tea/Centenniel Med
Wheat beer Weihenstephan Wheat malt Warm
Wit Wit spces:  Corriander & Bitter orange Warm
Belgian Pale Ale Antwerp Bel Biscuit Warm
Belgian Dubbel Abbey Dark Candi, Special B Warm
Belgian Strong Dark Trappist Dark Candi, Special B, CaraMunich Warm
Tripel Golden Light Candi Warm
Saison Saison Dry-Saaz Warm

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Club Meeting This Thursday, February 20th 7:30 PM at Tortugo Brewery

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Greetings Pacific Gravity!

W00t!

At our February monthly meeting this Thursday we will be kick off the celebrations of the club’s 30th Anniversary!!

Chef Ian will be providing some tasty eats, and Craig Corley will be bringing an appropriate toasting beer!

Our style of the month is is English Beer, so please bring your milds, stouts, bitters and whatever else tickles your Brit-bone to share with the group.

We have a number of opportunities to celebrate this year, but you don’t want to miss the first!

Also, we have a  minor bit of business in that we will be voting on a small dues increase to support club activities. Club dues collection begins in March.

I hope to see you all at the meeting Thursday!

Parker Waechter – President, Pacific Gravity Homebrewers

February Monthly Meeting – Thursday 2/20/2025 at 7:30 PM
Tortugo Brewing Co.
916 W. Hyde Park Blvd.
Inglewood,  CA  90302
(424) 227-9963

Celebration of Life for Bruce Bode

On a more somber note, the brewing community has lost a significant member recently.  Bruce Bode passed away last week, and the Maltose Falcons are honoring him with a celebration of life at Santa Monica Brew works on Saturday March 1, 12-3pm.  This will be our March First Friday (Saturday) event.  Please come and raise a glass for Bruce!
More details to follow as they become available.

Southern California Homebrew Festival

The Southern California Homebrew Festival will be held May 2-4, 2925 at Vail Lake near Temecula.  Sign up is available now at https://www.calhomebrewers.org/ . Remember, you need to join CHA first, ($10) and then you can sign up for the fest itself. ($60 through the end of February).  The prices goes up after that, so sign up soon.

If you have not already contacted Terry Molloy abut attending, please let him know ASAP at tmsoccercoach@gmail.com .  If you plan on camping or food with the club, there will be a separate fee payable to Terry.

This fest is always a blast; you won’t want to miss it.

Competition Corner

The registration windows for the first two competitions of 2025 are now open.

First up in the National Homebrew Competition.  You must be an AHA member and then select which site you want to enter at https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/national-homebrew-competition/  There is a cap of 750 entries at each site, but they have removed the entry cap per person, so these are likely to fill  up fast.  If your first pick is full, go ahead and try another site.  The registration deadline is this Wed, 2/19.  The bottle entry window varies by location, ranging from early March to mid-April.

Next up is America’s Finest City Competition in San Diego.  Registration is at https://www.quaff.org/AFC-2025/  Entries will be due by February 27th at Alesmith brewery.

>Here is a run-down on the rest of this year’s future competitions:

  • April – Mayfaire Competition
    • Entries due April 11th at local homebrew shops.
    • Judging April 26th
  • May/June  State Fair.
    • Likely Angel City drop-off site
  • June/July Long Beach Red White and Brews?
    • American beers, 30 different styles
  • September – Pacific Brewers Cup
    • Strand running it in 2025
  • October California State Competition

Upcoming Events

  • Feb 20  : Club Meeting at Tortugo Brewing Company – Style: English Beers
  • March 1: First Saturday – Celebration of Life for Bruce Bode, Santa Monica Brew Works 12-3
  • March 20 : Club Meeting at Tortugo Brewing Company – Style: Belgian Beers

Pacific Gravity First Friday February 7 at Brewport Tap House, El Segundo

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Greetings Pacific Gravity!

Please join us this Friday for February First Friday at Brewport Taphouse in El Segundo.  They have a large selection of craft beer on a self-pour dispensing system that sells by the ounce, so it should be a good opportunity to try some interesting things.  They appear to have decently sized food menu, so we should not go hungry.

I hope to see you there!

Parker Waechter – President, Pacific Gravity Homebrewers

February First Friday: 2/7/2024 at 7:30 PM
Brewport Tap House

204 Main Street
El Segundo, California 90245
(310) 648 8972

 

Competition Corner

The registration windows for the first two competitions of 2025 are now open.

First up in the National Homebrew Competition.  You must be an AHA member and then select which site you want to enter at https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/national-homebrew-competition/  There is a cap of 750 entries at each site, but they have removed the entry cap per person, so these are likely to fill  up fast.  If your first pick is full, go ahead and try another site.  The bottle entry window varies by location, ranging from early March to mid-April.

Next up is America’s Finest City Competition in San Diego.  Registration is at https://www.quaff.org/AFC-2025/  Entries will be due by February 27th at Alesmith brewery.

Here is a run-down on the rest of this year’s future competitions:

  • April – Mayfaire Competition
    • Entries due April 11th at local homebrew shops.
    • Judging April 26th
  • May/June  State Fair.
    • Likely Angel City drop-off site
  • June/July Long Beach Red White and Brews?
    • American beers, 30 different styles
  • September – Pacific Brewers Cup
    • Strand running it in 2025
  • October California State Competition

Upcoming Events

  • Feb 7   : First Friday (Brewport Tap House, El Segundo 7:30 pm)
  • Feb 20 : Club Meeting at Tortugo Brewing Company – English Beer

Pacific Gravity Holiday Party This Saturday

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Happy Holidays Pacific Gravity!!!

One last reminder that our Holiday Party is this Saturday December 14th 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! It would be cool to see a lot of Carbonnades ala Flamande again – if anyone 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 15th at 10am – Please help out if you can.

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.

Holiday Party: Saturday 12/14, at 5:00 PM.
12966 Rubens Ave
Los Angeles, CA. (at Alla Road)

Parker Waechter – President, Pacific Gravity Homebrewers

Upcoming Events

  • Dec 14: Holiday Party
  • Dec 15: Holiday party Cleanup

Pacific Gravity Holiday Party (setup) 2024

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

This Sunday 12/08/24 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, 12/8 at 12:00pm.
12966 Rubens Ave, Los Angeles, CA. (at Alla Road)

Holiday Party Clean up will be Sunday, December 15th at 10am – Please help out if you can.

Holiday Party Details

The Holiday party will be a Neil’s Duplex on December 14th 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! It would be cool to see a lot of Carbonnades ala Flamande again – if anyone 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 12/14, at 5:00 PM.
12966 Rubens Ave
Los Angeles, CA. (at Alla Road)

Tomm Carroll Beer Collab at MacLeod’s Saturday Afternoon Dec 7th

Our very own Tomm Carroll, club beer historian and industry liaison has created a collaboration brew with MacLeod’s brewer Stephen Reeves.  MacLeod’s is known for there session able British Cask Ales on cask.  This collaboration is a historical Scottish malted oat stout they have named “Sowen’ Oats” and weighs in at 4.6%.  It will be served 5 different ways – cask, keg, nitro and 2 pins (5.4 G casks) with additional flavorings – licorice and heather.
Tomm and Stephen plan to be there and talk about the beer, probably around 1 or 2 pm.
I plan to be there then for a couple hours to check this out – it should be interesting!

MacLeod Ale Brewing Company
14741 Calvert St
Van Nuys, CA, 91411

Parker Waechter – President, Pacific Gravity Homebrewers

Upcoming Events

  • Dec 7    : Tomm Carroll Collab Release at MacLeod
  • Dec 7    : Strand Monster Brew at Scholb
  • Dec 8    : Holiday Party Setup 12:00pm at Neil’s Duplex
  • Dec 14  : Holiday Party

Club Meeting This Thursday, November 21st at Tortugo Brewery

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Please come join us for our last regular meeting of the year at our home base at Tortugo this Thursday 11/21 at 7:30. Our style of the month is is fruit/spice beers, meads, ciders & perries, so it should be an interesting one!

We will also be voting for member of the year and the board for 2025. If you have additional nominations, you may email elections@pacificgravity.com by Wed 11/21 and they will be added to the ballot (or people can write in if need be). If you will be unable to attend, members may vote by email by sending to that same address.  Since we have such a large number of Member of the Year nominees, you may vote for 2 nominees.

Current Nominations:

Member of the year: David Ashe, Tomm Carroll, Craig Corley, Ian Frasier, Joe Kovatch, Terry Molloy, Eric Muhlheim, Neil Saund, Dean Sussman, Carl Townsend

    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 12/14 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 Sunday before the party (12/8) at noon we will be doing setup for the holiday part as our “first friday” in December.  Please stop by and help out… many hands makes for light work and all that…

See you all at the meeting Thursday!

Parker Waechter – President, Pacific Gravity Homebrewers

November Monthly Meeting; Thursday 11/21/2024 at 7:30 PM
Tortugo Brewing Co.
916 W. Hyde Park Blvd.
Inglewood,  CA  90302
(424) 227-9963

Strand Monster Brew At Scholb 12/7 – Deadline approaching!
Sign up no later than November 29th! Strand Brewers club is hosting a monster brew at Scholb Premium Ales (2964 Columbia St, Torrance CA 90503) on  Saturday 12/7/2024 08:00-12:00 noon.  The cost is $35 for 5 gallons of wort (Dills Cornhole Pilsner) and is limited to 44 batches, so if you are interested, sign up with them soon at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe1-CHt01yAVc8KR73id9M1SFghbBmDEZcQfJ7BdNkiXz2oOg/viewform .

Upcoming Styles of the Month

  • November 2024 – Fruit/spice beers, meads, and ciders/berries
  • December 2024 – No style of the month (Holiday Party)

Upcoming Events

  • Nov 21 : Club Meeting at Tortugo Brewing Company – Style Fruit/spice beers, meads, ciders and perries
  • Dec 7    : Strand Monster Brew at Scholb
  • Dec 8    : Holiday Party Setup 12:00pm at Neil’s Duplex
  • Dec 14  : Holiday Party