The on-line registration deadline for the California State Fair is this Friday, February 8th.  This one has been moving earlier in the season each of the last several years.  Registration is already open at http://home.castatefair.beer/.  You can drop off entries at South Bay or Eagle Rock shops, but they must be packed for shipping.  Local drop-off is February 11 – February 15, 2019.

Coming up right behind the State Fair is the 5th Annual Los Angeles Belgian Brew Challenge comes up next.  Since this is one of our own competitions, we will need help in planning, bottle organizing and judging.  On-line registration for Judging and Stewarding is already open at http://comp.belgianbrewchallenge.com/.  General registration of entries will be open February 8th.  As in past years, this is a competition limited to Belgian styles and will be held at Los Angeles Ale Works.  Entries will be due on March 8^th, with judging on Sunday March 24.

April will include the Jeff Sanders Memorial Competition, run by Strand Brewers club.  This is another limited-style competition focusing on the styles Jeff liked most.
Also in April will be the Maltose Falcons Mayfaire Competition

Rounding out the competition year are the following:
July – Los Angeles County Fair
September – Pacific Brewers Cup
October – California State Homebrew Competition

Although not part of the Pacific Gravity Homebrewer of the year cycle, here is a local competition you might want to enter:

• The Romancing the Beer Competition, held by the Thousand Oaked Homebrewers.  Registration is open now at http://www.romancingthebeer.com/ Entries are due February 8^th, and can be dropped off at the Eagle Rock, Woodland Hills or Steinfillers brewshops. They need judges on Feb 23rd, at Five Threads Brewing Company in Thousand Oaks.

If you are hard-core competition junkie, there are a bazillion other contests to enter.  The AHA has their master list at http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/competitions/aha-bjcp-sanctioned-competition/.

Thanks to a roadtrip offer by Peter Moran, we have personalized handling of our homebrew competitions entries for America’s Finest City Competition to Alesmith Brewing Co.  But, you must drop off your entries to me (Carl) no later than Thursday, January 24th.

Registration is open at https://quaff.org/AFC-2019/ .  2 bottles are needed for each entry, but if you throw in a 3rd bottle, Peter will make sure it gets extra special handling!

Carl’s Address:  3621 Redwood, LA 90066.
On Thursday night, I’ll be at Los Angeles Ale Works from 7:30 to 9:00 PM, so if you like swing on by and hand them to me in person.

If you miss the Thursday deadline, you can still ship your bottles to AleSmith Brewing Company 9990 AleSmith Ct, San Diego, CA 92126 no later than January 31st.

Rain, Rain, while you’re here,
Keep things cool to lager my beer.

With a new year upon us, I hope you are taking advantage of the cool winter weather to get some fresh batches of beer going.  I’m currently working on a “garage lager”.  At some point, it will need to go into the beer fridge, but in the meantime, the garage is holding it at a steady 54 degrees.  Also in the works is an “aquarium heater ale”, kept at a comfy 72 degrees, despite a rather chilly house temperature.

Last year, Kingsley Toby had a bang-up year and walked away with the coveted Pacific Gravity Homebrewer of the Year award. Who will win this year?   Here is a rundown of the competitions eligible for point awards in 2019: Read more →