October Meeting & PBC Awards

/in /by

Good evening PG members!  First Friday at Phantom Carriage was very fun and comfortable in our reserved seating made even better by our special guest, the founder of Kauai Beer Company. VP Terry and he hang out from here to Kauai and back, both are a lot of laughs.

Tomorrow night at 7:30pm we’re meeting at Culver City Homebrewing Supply for our October meeting. Lederhosen are completely optional but we will have some German food in the spirit of Octoberfest. The one and only Elijah has been collecting British Style Strong Ales all year long for his commercial tasting too, so prepare for that. As usual, we’ll be collecting pitch-in for the food so bring a little mad cash. 🙂

We’re slated to discuss some current and future events, including the fact that our annual holiday party is officially scheduled for December 9th at Neil’s duplex. That’s Saturday December 9th, 2017 at Neil’s duplex starting at 5pm. It will be a ton of fun and more info will be coming around on that topic soon.

Keep in mind that we rely wholly on volunteers to make these events successful so please take a look at your calendar and let’s discuss how we can work together to get everything done during our meet up tomorrow.

Until then, cheers!

Michael

First Friday Tonight and Cal State Update

/in /by

PG!  Super quick reminder: We’re meeting at Phantom Carriage Brewery ( 18525 S Main St, Carson, CA 90248 ) tonight starting at around 7:30p for October’s First Friday.  Their food menu is one of the best in it’s class and the beer on hand ranges from traditional European and American ales to a wide range of sour and wild ale options.

Also a quick note to our competition brewers. Unfortunately we were not able to find a volunteer to drive club member entries up to this year’s California State Homebrew Competition. If you are entering beers, get them shipped out as soon as possible. As much as we’d like to help, you are on your own!

See you tonight!

Michael

6oct7:00 pmFirst Friday - Phantom Carriage7:00 pm Phantom Carriage

Pacific Brewers Cup Winners

/in /by

The Best of Show judging is complete and the winners have been announced!

Congratulation to Best of Show winner James Hilbing of Strand Brewers’ Club for his winning Wood-Aged entry Oaked Old Ale #2. As an eligible English style beer, James will get an invitation to brew his beer as a Pro-Am entry at Yorkshire Square Brewery.

Congratulations to Runner-up Best of Show winner Mike Neice of Brewluminati for his American Pale Ale, Tri-Centennial. Mike will get an invitation to brew his beer at Los Angeles Ale Works.

Congratulations to 2nd runner-up Best of Show winner Bart Schaefer for his Vienna Lager Cerveza Vienna.

Congratulations to all the winners. Complete results have been posted at http://comp.pacificgravity.com/

The awards ceremony will take place Thursday, October 19th at the Culver City Home brewing Supply Company, starting at 7:30 pm. Thanks to all who pitched in to make this an awesome competition. And thanks to all our sponsors too!

September Club Meeting @ CCHBS

/in /by

Good afternoon PG!

I hope this reminder reaches you all well and enjoying your end-of-summer. Thursday is our September club meeting at Culver City Home Brewing Supply and it should be a very fun one, so I hope you’ll come out. We get started at 7:30p and finish up around 10:30p usually.

September’s host Keith is bringing out a flight of IPA’s for the commercial tasting and we’ll have some hot food on hand as well. Bring out your IPA styled home brew for the Best of Meeting competition. It’s a great way to get feedback on your beer and winner takes a nice prize.

In other news, the board and I are looking ahead to the chili cook-off on November 11th, and we’re thinking elections too as they are usually held around that time of year. If you are interested in running for an elected position (President, Vice President, Treasurer) or might like to be club Secretary or any of our other volunteer positions please reach out. Having been on the board for almost two years now, I can confirm it’s a satisfying way to spend some free time. There is a work aspect to it, but that’s really about perspective. If you already attend most events, and have enough time to put in one more evening per month to help plan (and talk beers,) it’s worth considering and we’d love to have you on board.

I’ll end with a link to our events calendar for you. Take a peek at the next few months and plan ahead. I realize there are hundreds of things to do in this city but I’m hopeful you’ll keep us on your radar!

http://pacificgravity.com/event-calendar/

Thanks!

Michael

Pacific Brewers Cup Activities 2017

/in , /by

Pacific Brewers Cup is almost here and I could use a hand from you folks to make sure it all runs smoothly.  The entry deadline has passed and we are ready for bottle organizing day.

Sunday September 17th, 11AM Bottle Organizing day at Los Angeles Ale Works
Many volunteers needed!  We need to borrow just about every ice chest this club can come up with.   Make sure they are well labeled.   If you have a cooler to lend, but can’t make it down to LAAW, drop me a line or swing by my place to this afternoon (Saturday Sept 16th).   We need about a dozen folks to come by LAAW to help sift through the 430 entries (860 bottles) and arrange them by category, and put them into the coolers until judging.  LA Ale Works is at 12918 Cerise Ave., Hawthorne, CA 90250.

Also NOW!  Volunteer to Judge or Steward!  We are looking to have 60 judges and 30 stewards and as of the moment we are only half-way there.  Signing up now will let us know how many preliminary judging sessions we need to run.  Links for sign-up are here:
http://comp.pacificgravity.com/index.php?section=register&go=judge
http://comp.pacificgravity.com/index.php?section=register&go=steward

Sept 18th – Sept 29th
Preliminary Judging Sessions.  Time is TBD with the location being LAAW, so check back for updates.  I’ll have updates on this in a couple of days.

Friday, September 29th, 5:00 PM, Beer moving Day.  Meet at LA Ale Works
We need a handful of guys with strong backs and couple of folks with trucks to help move the beer from Los Angeles Ale Works over to St. Bede’s Episcopal Church.  St. Bede’s is at 3590 Grand View Blvd, Los Angeles 90066.

Saturday, September 30th, 9:00 AM
Judging Day at St. Bede’s Episcopal Church  We need everybody out to help out on this one.   I want to see at least 60 judges and 30 stewards.  We will be doing both a morning and afternoon session, with a lunch break hosted by Master Chef Ian Fraser in-between.  Afterwards, we need help at the end of the day to make sure we pick it all up and leave the Church clean.  Many of the coolers will be empty by then.  If so, please take yours home.

October 1st – October 14th
Post-judging sessions and Best of Show Judging.    Time and locations TBD, so check back for updates.  If we are short of judges and we have a lot of entries, there could be a number of these.

Sunday, October 1st
Cooler pick-up day.  Come pick up your cooler, which will most likely have a present of several bottles of competition quality beer!

Awards Ceremony
Date TBD.

Competition Corner – September 2017

/in /by

OK, folks, we are coming down to short strokes here.  If you haven’t noticed, the bottle delivery window for the Pacific Brewers Cup2017 Pacific Brewers Cup is now open and runs through Friday, September 15th.  As I scan through the database, I see that many of you haven’t entered yet!  Now is the time!  The on-line registration page is up and running at http://comp.pacificgravity.com/.    If you can’t make it to the Culver City shop, the full list of sites you can drop off entries at any of the homebrew shops listed here.  Please check the closing time for the other shops.   Each entry requires 2 bottles, and has an entry fee of $8.00.

Also NOW!  Volunteer to Judge or Steward!  The very same registration page has a sign-up space for both.  We are looking to have 60 judges and 30 stewards and as of the moment we are only half-way there.  Signing up now will let us know if we need to run preliminary judging sessions.

Along the way, we have plenty of other tasks where we can use your assistance:
Saturday, September 16th, Noon(ish)Bottle Pick-up day.  Volunteers Needed!  We need someone to cover the Woodland Hills drop-off site.   Then, bring them over the to organizing session on the 17th.

Sunday September 17th, 11AM at Los Angeles Ale Works
Bottle Organizing day.  Many volunteers needed!  We need to borrow just about every ice chest this club can come up with.   Make sure they are well labeled.   We need about a dozen folks to come by LAAW to help sift through the hundreds of bottles and arrange them by category, and put them into the coolers until judging.

Sept 18th – Sept 29th
Preliminary Judging Sessions.  Time is TBD with the location being LAAW, so check back for updates.  If we are short of judges and we have a lot of entries, there could be a number of these.

Friday, September 29th, 7:00 PM
Beer moving Day.  We need a handful of guys with strong backs and couple of folks with trucks to help move the beer from Los Angeles Ale Works over to St. Bede’s Episcopal Church.

Saturday, September 30th, 9:00 AM at St. Bede’s Episcopal Church
Judging Day!  We need everybody out to help out on this one.   I want to see at least 60 judges and 30 stewards.  We will be doing both a morning and afternoon session, with a lunch break in-between.  Afterwards, we need help at the end of the day to make sure we pick it all up and leave the Church clean.  Many of the coolers will be empty by then.  If so, please take yours home.

October 1st – October 14th
Post-judging sessions and Best of Show Judging.    Time and locations TBD, so check back for updates.  If we are short of judges and we have a lot of entries, there could be a number of these.

Sunday, October 1st
Cooler pick-up day.  Come pick up your cooler, which will most likely have a present of several bottles of competition quality beer!

Awards Ceremony
Date TBD.

After all this hullabaloo, we can take a moment to look back at some recent accomplishments.  We scored well in the 2017 Los Angeles County Fair; winners listed below.  Congratulations especially to Carl Townsend, who captured Best of Show with his American Stout.  This is Carl’s second Best of Show at LACF; the first being in 1999. Complete results are available at https://www.maltosefalcons.com/content/los-angeles-county-fair-results.

Best of Show Carl Townsend American Stout 17.6: American-Style Stout
1st Carl Townsend London Smog 4.3: Strong Bitter and Extra Special Bitter (ESB)
1st Carl Townsend American Stout 17.6: American-Style Stout
2nd Carl Townsend American Pale Ale 5.1: American-Style Pale Ale
3rd Carl Townsend Imperial Stout 14.3: Imperial (“Russian”) Stout
2nd Craig Corley 253 Kolsch #14 8.1: Kolsch-Style Ale
1st Parker Waechter …Only Soul In The World That’s Real 20.3: Belgian-Style Strong Dark Ale
1st Parker Waechter L’Estivale 26.2: Smoke Beers, Other
3rd Parker Waechter Senex 26.3: Wood-Aged Beer, Whiskey
1st Reuben Shah Mojo RIS 14.3: Imperial (“Russian”) Stout
2nd Reuben Shah Hefe-Why-Zen 18.2: Bavarian-Style Hefeweizen
3rd Reuben Shah Dos Mucho 9.1: Vienna-Style Lager

 

With the ribbons in LACF, Carl Townsend takes the lead in the Brewer of the Year, but parker Waechter is just 1 point behind.  Things could still take a dramatic turn with just 2 more competitions to go.

2017 Pacific Gravity Brewer of the Year Competition Schedule

Pacific Brewers Cup Activities:
•    September 1st –   Entry drop off begins
•    September 15th – Entry Deadline
•    September 16th – Entry pick-up, deliver to LA Ale Works
•    September 17th – Entry organizing  at LAAW 11:00 AM
•    September 18th – 28th Prelim rounds at LAAW (if needed, hopefully not many)
•    September 27th – Prelim Session at Woodland Hill, part of BJCP class
•    September 29th – Move beers from LAAW to St Bede’s
•    September 30th – Judging Day

October               California State Homebrew

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/.

First Friday @ Maple Block Meat Company

/in /by

Hey PG!

Quick note to those of you who are looking for info on tonight’s First Friday. It looks like some kind of technical difficulty is going on with the site, and the event mysteriously vanished from our calendar.

We are in fact meeting TONIGHT at Maple Block Meat Company here in Culver City, just up the street from the shop. I’ll be there (with no reservations) around 7pm and the plan is to snag a table and fill out the outside area if possible.

Maple Block is at 3973 Sepulveda Blvd, Culver City, CA 90230 Hopefully I’ll see you there!

Michael

August Club Meeting at CCHBS

/in /by

Hey PG!

I hope you’ve all been enjoying the summer, preferably brewing lots and lots of delicious homebrew. I’m sending this simple message out as a reminder that THIS THURSDAY is our August club meeting at Culver City Homebrewing Supply starting at 7:30pm. Here’s a short list of what to expect…

– Our commercial tasting style this month is “Sour”, hosted by Tim J.
– Best Beer of The Meeting competition style is also Sour beer. (Kegs and bottles are welcome!)
– I’ll be cooking up some tasty cheese burgers on the grill, condiments will be care of Dean, and homemade buns by Tom R. (Suggested donation is $5 per burger, every dollar helps and is appreciated!)
– Announcements, raffle & prizes, and of course: Generally excellent comradery.

Looking forward to seeing you there! Details and directions below.

Thanks!

Michael

17aug7:30 pmAugust Club Meeting7:30 pm Culver City Home Brew Supply

First Friday August: Firestone Walker’s Propagator

/in /by

Hey PG,

Our Summer party on Saturday was a blast, wasn’t it? A well earned thanks goes out to Mimi for orchestrating, Dean for hosting, and to the team of volunteers who planned, prep’d food, brought beer & raffle prizes, and helped with setup & cleanup. Our special events and charity coordinator Mimi did her usual excellent job of laying out the plan, and everything went off without a hitch.

If you have photos from the event, I’d love to see them. There are about four ways to reach me, choose one or two. 🙂

Next up on our calendar is August’s First Friday this Friday August 4th. We are going out to Firestone Walker’s Propagator near Washington and Lincoln; not too far from the shop actually. Manager Jay is always good to us, and we have a great relationship with FW in general. I’m hoping for a decent turnout, on that note just a reminder too: First Friday’s are always open to friends, family, neighbors, co-workers, etc. Aiming to be there myself at around 7pm, but come by when you can.

Heads-up: Firestone Walker only fills FW branded growlers.

Looking further on into the month, I’m going to be cooking up some burgers at Culver City Home Brew Supply for our Third Thursday club meeting. Tim J. will supply the commercial tasting, style is Sour beer. I have a few bottles I’ll be bringing out for the Best Beer of Meeting competition, and I’m calling on our best sour beer makers to do the same. Yes, that was a challenge. The line is drawn in the sand, cross it if you dare! 😛

Alright, info on First Friday is below. Tim, I hope you’re already shopping for your Sour flight — I’ll gladly help you pick them if you’re having trouble deciding.

See you Friday @ 7pm PG!

Michael

4aug7:00 pmFirst Friday - Firestone Walker's Propagator7:00 pm Firestone Walker Propagator

Summer Party Tomorrow!!!!

/in /by

Hey PG!

We are just ONE more night away from our annual Summer party tomorrow (Saturday)!

We’ve heard from a bunch of you with beer, food, and equipment volunteering and things are coming together nicely.

A few bits we can always use more of:

Power cords
Power strips
Tables & chairs
MORE FOOD AND MORE BEER!

And we’ve got our setup work to do tonight starting at 6pm as well, if you’re free c’mon up!

Also, don’t forget that a big part of what we do each year revolves around charity work. We’ll be collecting donations at this event and would love it if you each dug into a closet or stopped into a box store to grab a few items to donate. All donations will go on to our partners in charity at The People Connection (formerly Ocean Park Community Center.)

IDEAS & SUGGESTIONS

Clothing (all donations should be clean and, if used, in good condition.)

Sweat socks – for men, women and children
New underwear – men’s, women and children
Sweat shirts and tee-shirts for adults – all sizes especially larger sizes
Flannel and long sleeve shirts for adults
Pants and jeans for adults – all sizes especially larger sizes
Sneakers – men’s & women’s most needed
Shower shoes/thongs
Rain ponchos for adults & children
Personal & Household items

Hygiene Items (Travel or regular size)
toothpaste
• toothbrush
• deodorant
• shampoo
• disposable razors
• bar soap
• hand & body lotion
• sanitary napkins & tampons
Blankets (preferably wool)
Backpacks or duffel bags
Sleeping bags for adults
Diapers – all sizes
Bedding: Twin size sheets, comforters and pillows. Please note pillow must be new.
Welcome Home Packages

Kitchen Kits (dish towels, dish soap, utensils, plates and cups, pots and pans etc.)
Bathroom Necessities (shampoo and conditioner, body wash/soap, hand and body towels, shaving cream, razors, etc.)
Bedroom Essentials (comforter, sheets, pillows, pajamas, slippers, etc.)
Cleaning Supplies (dust pan, broom, Windex, counter spray, toilet bowl cleaner and brush, etc.).

Reply back to this message if you have any questions (or reach out on Facebook, that works too) and otherwise I’ll see you tomorrow at 2pm!

Michael

29jul2:00 pm2017 Summer Party2:00 pm Dean's House