Monster Brew Batches Still Available

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The Monster Brew event at Smog City Brewing is happening Saturday March 5. In recent days a few of the previously reserved batches of wort have become available. If you would like to participate, you still can. Please contact Tim Bardet at treasurer@pacificgravity.com if you would like to reserve a 5 gallon batch. The cost of a batch is $30. There are only about a dozen batches still available, so act fast!

Those of you who will be attending the event, please keep the following in mind:

1. Fermenters – Your fermenters must be plastic or metal only, NO GLASS. Skinny neck containers are not recommended.
2. Sanitizers –Don’t bring sanitizers/cleaning products to the brewery. Please arrive with your fermenters cleaned & sanitized in advance.
3. Footwear – Open-toed shoes and sandals are not permitted in the brewery. Please wear appropriate closed-toe shoes.
4. Park on the west side (back) of the brewery to keep the tap room lot open.
5. Check in with Tim when you arrive. You will receive a ticket for each paid batch of wort. You will need this when fermenters are being filled.
6. The brew starts at 7AM. Wort should be pouring around 1 or 2PM.

This is shaping up to another great event at Smog City. See you all there.

First Friday At Irish Times

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Hey PG!   Our monthly First Friday event is coming right up and this time we’re celebrating St. Patrick’s Day with Irish Times Pub & Restaurant. Meet there starting at 7:30PM on Friday and bring a friend or two!

irish times

As Google notes, Irish Times is an “unpretentious tavern serving Irish fare” and meeting there for First Friday every March is a PG tradition. I’m told that they’ll have some special beers on tap for us and I’m thinking of trying their Shepherd’s Pie and the Corned Beef sandwich because it wouldn’t be St. Patty’s day without a plate full of food and a pint full of beer!  😀    Also, they *should* have a live band playing too.

 

4mar7:00 pmFirst Friday - Irish Times Pub & Restaurant7:00 pm

So order up an Uber or draw straws for who plays designated driver. Tania and I are going the ride-share route because this one is so close to home.

Hope to see you all there!

_Michael

SoCal Homebrewers Festival: Last Day to Save & Other News

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Today is the last day you can register for Homebrew Fest registration for $40 – tomorrow it goes up to $45. Go to www.calhomebrewers.org and purchase a membership in the California Homebrewers Association for $10.   Then click on the MEMBERS ONLY tab on the CHA website, choose the “2016 SCBF REGISTRATION”, and buy the fest registration.

In other news:

Homebrew Fest Camping:

  • There are plenty of slots available at the PG campsite.  If you haven’t reserved a spot yet and want to, email me at schbf {at} pacificgravity {dot} com
  • Please pay the $30 camping fee at the next Pacific Gravity event (like this weekend’s Monster Brew), at the Culver City shop, or send a check to the club’s PO box.
  • If you want to get in on a group meal plan, sign up with Chef Ian at fraser_ian {at} smc {dot} edu

Homebrew Fest Activities:

  • Commercial breweries offering tastings on Friday night from 7p-9p include: Ritual; Surf; and Rock Bottom.  CHA is negotiating with two more.
  • For our musical entertainment, The Bricktop Blaggers, the popular Celtic-Rock group that played last year’s fest, will be playing Friday night during the commercial tasting.

Register today!

 

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AHA NHC Entry Drop-off Volunteer Needed

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We still need a volunteer to take the National Homebrew Competition entries down to San Diego sometime between now and March 9th.  If you can make the trip, please contact me at Competitions@PacificGravity.com

Entries need to be delivered to:
Ballast Point Home Brew Mart
5401 Linda Vista Road, Suite 406
San Diego, CA 92110
(619) 295-2337
Attention: George Cataulin

The club will contribute up to $50 for gas money.  Let me know what day you can make the trip.  I’ll put out the word to get entries collected ahead of time.

For those you you who have entered at other AHA NHC sites, please note that you are on your own to ship the beers.

Thank You
Carl TownsendCompetition Coordinator

How Do I Modify My Monster Brew?

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Updated for the 2024 Monster Brew on March 9, 2024

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

Answer:
I hope you are all planning to join us at Smog City Brewing Company’s eighth Annual Monster Brew, Saturday, March 9th, 2024, from 7:00 AM to noon hosted by our very own Jon Porter. We’ll be brewing up a batch of wort based on the ever-popular 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.

SIGN-UP

You can sign up one of two ways:

1) Pay now with Paypal.

If you do this your reservation is good to go.

2) Drop a line to treasurer@pacificgravity.com  saying how many batches you want.   Payment will be due on brew day.  We will accept payment at the Monster Brew; cash, check and credit card will be accepted.

Read more →

February Club Meeting Recap

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Couldn’t make the meeting last night? Here’s what you missed!

Michael Patterson and Greg Foster were at it again on the educational side of things at the start of the meet. Michael brought with him some great [sic] sun-soaked beer to give us a solid example of skunked, a definite off-flavor unless you work at Heineken. Greg held another of his Brülosophy exBEERiments, this time having to do with the effects of dry hopping.

A lot of the usual suspects were present there at Neil’s place and quite a few members brought out their home brews. Pizza was absolutely upstaged by a shrimp, rice and stir fry dish whipped up expertly by Neil’s girlfriend. I had two bowls so… My apologies if you didn’t get to try some.

Tim Jones wowed us with the selection of beers he broke out to host the commercial tasting with. Off the top of my head (Tim pardon my short memory) there was a bottle of Anderson Valley Amber, Alesmith’s Evil Red, Sam Smith’s Brown, Port Brewing’s Brown, Smog City’s Sabre-toothed Squirrel, an Imp. Red from Lagunitas. I’m sure I missed a few but between the choices and the BJCP printouts Tim hosted like a boss!  Thanks Tim!

Parker entered his Cinnamon Porter, Tad & Ramesh their Pumpkin Porter, and Tim his Simi-Mild but in the end Scott Stout took home the win for the Best Beer of The Night competition with his Caribou Slobber clone. Congrats Scott, enjoy using that $25 CCHBS gift certificate to make more great beer.

Of course, being the 21st anniversary club meeting, we had a little something special on tap. Thanks to Terry and his rockin jockey box we had our Firestone Walker collaboration Weizenbock and the three Chili Cookoff Weizenbock’s that Carl Townsend and Dan White brewed.  All four beers were great, I hovered around that area for basically my entire night.

I missed it, but I’m told the raffle was a riot ending with Barry and Neil both owning tickets that matched the last three numbers Terry called out. You see, somehow we sold tickets from two different rolls and… Yeah, that happened. What are the odds??  😀    Anyway, it came down to who’s ticket matched the last FOUR numbers instead and Barry won. A true gentlemen, he gave Neil half the prize: a nice Firestone Walker tin sign and then took home the other half, a growler full of our FW collaboration ale.

Perfect weather, great beer, food and people. It really was an exceptional club meeting.

A few things to keep in mind…

We’ve been invited by Martin and Simon from Phantom Carriage to make and serve soda at a booth during their one year anniversary party on March 12th. Laws restrict us from bringing homebrew, as much as everyone would like to but it will be a good experience nonetheless and an excellent way to show what we’re made of. If you’re interested in providing a keg of soda and/or serving, drop me an email as soon as possible.

First Friday in March is our St. Patrick’s day celebration and it’ll be held, as always, at Irish Times. I’m told they’re putting on some great beers for the event and I hope to see you there.

That same weekend we’re brewing up a monster with Smog City!  If you’re interested and haven’t signed up yet, email Lloyd right now to get on the list.

So thank you to our educators, beer bringers, our host Neil and everyone who attended. See you next time.

_Michael

SoCal Homebrew Fest Reminders: 13 Days Left to Save $

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If you are going to the Homebrewers Festival on April 29 – May 1:

(1) Save $5 by registering for the home brewers festival by February 29.

– Go to www.calhomebrewers.org and purchase a membership in the California Homebrewers Association.  Cost is $10.  Per California ABC regulations, you must be a CHA member to attend the festival.

– Click on the MEMBERS ONLY tab on the CHA website, choose the “2016 SCBF REGISTRATION”, and buy the fest registration.  Cost is $40 before Mar-1, $45 thereafter.

(2) If you are going to stay at PG-Land, our campsite / banquet complex at Vail Lake Resort (cost: $30 per camper, excludes food):

– Reserve a spot by sending an email to me at schbf@pacificgravity.com with your name and the names/email addresses of any campers that will be joining you;

– Pay $30 to Tim Bardet, Club Treasurer.

We will send out more info as the fest gets closer.

Festival-5121-e1414202666798

 

 

 

 

 

 

February 18th, 2016 Club Meeting at Neil’s Complex

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This months club meeting is going to be a special one. Last year we celebrated out 20th anniversary in February, so this year we are turning 21. Our club’s at the legal drinking age!! Neil is graciously hosting this months club meeting at his duplex in Marina Del Rey.  12966 Rubens Avenue, Los Angeles 90066

In Celebration of us turning 21, we have some special beers pouring for the night. First off the “Pacific Gravity and Firestone Walker Collaboration Wiezenbock” will be there, only 1 of the 2 kegs we got, recipe from Carl Townsend, this will be the non-barrel aged version. As well we will have the november chili cook off big brew Wiezenbock’s, brewed by Dan White and fermented out by Carl, Michael Musgrave, and Terry all will be pouring as well. So you can compare the differences from the Firestone brew and then three different fermented Wiezenbock’s from one big brew done with the same receipt, but fermented out by multiple people. So do not miss this meeting!! Also if your up in Paso Robles the “Pacific Gravity Homebrew Club Wiezenbock collaboration” is on draft at the Visitor Center!!

Other offerings at this months February 18th club meeting, we will have more Educational learning stations going on at the start of the meeting 7:30pm. Michael Patterson will be back with more Sensory Off Flavor Testing: Papery and Skunky. As well I hear Greg Foster will be back with more challenges and test for us to try too.

We will also be doing the raffle, the commercial tasting hosted by Tim Jones and “The Best Beer of the Night” for your chance to win a $25 gift certificate from the Culver City Homebrew Shop. This months homebrewed beer’s to enter are Amber, California Common, Reds, Brown, Mild, and Porter. (Note: I added Reds, so bring them if you got them!) and if you have any raffle items you would like to donate to the club please bring them by the meeting or email us at the board.

SIGN-UP’S!!!!!!! We will have sign-up sheets for all our up and coming events and you will be able to pay us at the club meeting too. Cash, Check, or Card.
-First sign-up for the Smog City Monsterbrew going on March 5th. It has been filling up fast!!
-Second sign-up for a camping spot to the “Souther California Homebrew Festival” this year April 29th-30th. Also don’t forget to pay for a SoCal Homebrew association member ship and entry into the festival as well at http://www.calhomebrewers.org. We will have 6 campsites that can hold only 36 campers, we have around half the spots signed up so far.

Also do not forget to check out the latest Competition Corner News for all the upcoming entries that are due in the next week to the start of next month. So get those entries in!!!

See you all at Neil’s this Thursday, February 18th!

 

PG_FW Collab1 PG_FW Collab2

 

 

Competition Corner – February 2016

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OK folks, the thick of the competition season is upon us. I hope your finest is ready to go. First up is America’s Finest City competition. Registration is open at http://quaff.org/AFC-2016/. President Lloyd has graciously offered to haul the entries down to San Diego. So you can drop off your entries at the Culver City shop no later than the close of business on Tuesday, February 23rd. To avoid any entry confusion with other upcoming events, put a tag on your six-pack holders or box saying “AFC”. This is a great warm-up event for the AHA Nationals.

Speaking of which, I hope you got your entry registration reminders from AHA for the National Homebrew Competition. Read more →

Three Weavers Recap

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We had a great big turnout for First Friday at Three Weavers Brewing Company in Inglewood last night and it was fun seeing everybody. It feels good to show up and find so many of us together. In case you missed it, here are a few photos (care of Lloyd) and a recap.

Founder Lynne and the team at TW were ready for us and generously honored a special members-only discount for the whole night. Emily White, our resident PG’er at Three Weavers, gave a tour of their [giant] space and all of the beers I sampled were excellent. As I’ve mentioned before the Blood Junkie Imp Red and Kill The Lights Black Lager have been favorites of mine lately. For this visit I went for a sampler flight and I really had a tough time deciding on my growler fill when the time came.

Lloyd had a sign up sheet for our upcoming Monsterbrew with Smog City going around. Still room on the list if you want to reserve a portion, it’s a very cool event and you go home with a project to work on, I highly recommend it. Get into contact with Lloyd for more information.

We also had three new members sign up, which is exciting. Now that I’m seeing firsthand how membership dues drive the club events and benefits I have a better understanding of why growth is great. Most of us have at least one friend who is always “almost ready” to try brewing some beer. Our events are a great way to put them in front of a bunch of like minded people so bring the good ones along.

Tumby’s Pizza boxes and glasses of beer surrounded our group in the tasting room. I think at one point we had 2/3 of the inside seating completely filled with PG, and even with all of our extra people clogging up the beertender line, Three Weavers kept things moving smoothly and glasses full.  A well earned thank you to Lynne, Emily and everyone at Three Weavers for recognizing our club and for their gracious hospitality.

_Michael