Hoppy Holidays!

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It is time for the Pacific Gravity and Culver City Homebrew Supply Shop annual holiday event.  Mark your calendars!  This year the party is happening on Saturday, December 12, 2015 at Neil Saund’s party duplex. Neil’s address is:  12966 Rubens Ave. Los Angeles, CA. t is the house on the corner of Alla Rd. and Rubens Ave.

The party will kick off about 5:00 P.M.  If you have not attended one of the past holiday events, let us tell you this is one party not to be missed!

You can help!

FOOD:

Although the club will be providing much of the main dishes, this is still a potluck party and YOUR favorite party dish will sure be appreciated!  The menu should mostly reflect past holiday parties featuring Carbonnades ala Flamande, prime rib ala BBQ, deep fried turkeys, spiced ham and much more! Suggestions would include any kind of main dish but especially all side dishes, veggie dishes, salads, desserts and appetizers. So, 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, please contact Club Chef Ian at: masterchef@pacificgravity.com or Mimi at mbardet@verizon.net.

The dinner portion of the event is scheduled for 7:30 PM.  There will little or no oven space available for reheating food, so please bring it ready to serve, not ready to cook!  Also, don’t forget to label your containers or anything you want back.

EQUIPMENT:

We set up the decorations and tree this last Sunday and installed 2 firepits so we NEED FIREWOOD!  If you can bring wood please do so!  It is forecasted to be cold on Saturday evening!

We could use a few more tables.

We also need jockey boxes and CO2 cylinders to help make sure all the beverages flow cold with perfect carbonation. We have more kegs than taps on the Wave, and the jockey boxes help out big time. Rumor has it we may need a few Sanke taps, so if you have one bring it along.

If at all possible, please bring your kegs and heavy stuff around noon on Saturday and help us set up. This makes the last minute activities at party time go much more smoothly. The early kegs get the best slots on the Wave. Make sure all your kegs, coolers, tanks and taps are well labeled so they all return to their rightful owners Sunday morning.

FOOD & CLOTHING CHARITY DRIVE:
It’s time to clean out your closets…Pacific Gravity is having a FOOD and CLOTHING DRIVE at our Holiday Party!  We will have boxes for any donations you can bring to the party.
For food, please bring any canned or non-perishable foods which will be donated to the Westside Food Bank. For clothes & other items, please see the detailed list below which will be donated to OPCC. They are mostly in need of men’s clothing in large sizes. Clothing can be “gently used” and should be clean.

Below is a list of items that we can always use:
Clothing
Sweat socks – for men, women and children
Sweat shirts and pants for adults – all sizes especially larger sizes
Sneakers – men’s & women’s most needed
Shower shoes/thongs
Rain ponchos for adults & children
New underwear – men’s, women and children
Flannel and long sleeve shirts for adults

Personal & Household items
Hygiene Items
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.

Gift Certificates
Supermarkets (Ralphs, Vons,Albertson’s)
Fast food restaurants
Book & music stores
Movie passes
Clothing stores, department stores (Marshalls, Target or Ross)

Art Supplies
Markers, finger paints, facepaints, crayons, watercolors, glue, glitter, collage materials, coloring books, activity books, stickers

BEER:
Last but certainly not least is 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 the Wave of Beer 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. Note from Carl: “Some of you had listed “TBD”, so if you know what it is, please send me an update.”  Everyone who signs up in advance will have a colorful tap tag.
Highlighting the evening will be the crowning of the Pacific Gravity Club Member of the Year, and awarding of the trophy for Brewer of the Year.
Santa is sure to make an appearance to give away lots of great door prizes (prize donations welcome).
All club members and their guests are welcome, so plan on joining us…Celebrate the season, good beer, good food and friends the Pacific Gravity way!

Beer Needed for Holiday Party

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The tree has been trimmed, the lights have been strung and the chestnuts are roasting by the open fire. But we still need beer! The Holiday Party is this Saturday December 12th at Neil’s Duplex. If you plan to bring beer, soda or other seasonally festive beverage, please drop me a line at Competitions@PacificGravity.com to let me know what you have. Some of you had listed “TBD”, so if you know what it is, please send me an update. Everyone who signs up in advance will have a colorful tap tag.

We also need jockey boxes and CO2 cylinders to help make sure all the beverages flow cold with perfect carbonation. Read more →

CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS THIS SUNDAY, DECEMBER 6th Noon to 3pm!!

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Please come help on Sunday, Dec 6th at noon for the 1st round of set up for our PG Holiday party.
We’ll be meeting at Neil’s duplex to do an initial setup of our equipment and decorating the house and our Christmas tree. We have lots & lots & lots of beer themed ornaments to be hung!

We need at least 5-10 people to help with setup and decorating on Sunday. Feel free to bring some beer to share while helping with the setup.

We’re still looking for some assorted equipment.  Please let us know if you can volunteer any of the following:

  • Folding tables
  • Patio heaters
  • Firepits
  • Jockey boxes/beer dispensing equipment
  • Firewood

If you can bring any of the above on Sunday that would be fantastic. Otherwise, please bring it on next Saturday early afternoon before the party (Dec12) but please contact us: PG Board at Board@PacificGravity.com or Mimi Bardet at mbardet@verizon.net with how you can help.

Neil Saund’s duplex is located at:  12966 Rubens Ave. Los Angeles, CA   It is the house on the SE corner of Alla Rd. and Rubens Ave.

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P.S. Don’t forget to let us know what beer and food you will be bringing to the party. Also, we are expanding our charity donation drive. At the party, we will be collecting “gently used” men’s clothing as well as canned & non-perishable foods. More details coming soon!

Are you ready for our PG Holiday Party on Dec 12th?

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Our annual Holiday Party is rapidly approaching and it takes a lot of effort to put together.  As with all our parties, we count on club members to volunteer to help out.  There are a number of ways you can volunteer to help.  We need help with set up and clean up, we need members to bring potluck dishes for our feast, we need members to donate beer and we need assorted equipment.

Set Up and Clean Up

Stay tuned for setup info. It’s likely that we’ll be doing two rounds of set up for the party and we’ll need help for both. The 1st round will probably be this weekend (Dec5 or 6),we’ll be meeting at Neil’s duplex to do an initial setup. Date & time details to be announced soon.  We’re planning on setting up most of our equipment and decorating the house and our Christmas tree.  We have lots of beer themed ornaments to be hung

On Saturday, Dec 12th in the afternoon we’ll be meeting at Neil’s duplex to do final set up.

On Sunday, Dec 13th – approximately late morning, we’ll meet at Neil’s duplex to clean up alter the party. (Time will be confirmed in a future communication)  We always need lots of people to help with clean up and the more we get the faster it goes.

If you’d like to volunteer for set up or clean up contact: Mimi Bardet at mbardet@verizon.net and the PG Board at board@pacificgravity.com.

Potluck and Food

The menu should reflect past Holiday Parties featuring great food but most likely will include carbonnades, roast & deep fried turkeys, spiced ham and much more!  As is customary with our holiday parties, this is a potluck event, the club supplies the main dishes and we count on members to provide the side dishes, salads and deserts.  So if you have a favorite family holiday recipe and want to share it with the rest of us, this is your time to shine!

Please remember to label any dishes, utensils, etc. that you bring so that we can get them back to you.

If you’d like to volunteer food for the party contact: Ian Fraser at MasterChef@PacificGravity.com or Mimi Bardet at mbardet@verizon.net

Since it’s the giving season, we decided to have a non-perishable food drive for a local food bank at our Holiday party this year. More details to come but plan to bring canned foods and other non-perishable foods for this food drive.

Beer

We also need beer for this event, lots of beer!  Or mead!  Or cider!  We’re counting on you to provide it. So pull out your kegs and dig deep in your closet for those old tasty bottled treasures and bring them along!   Please let us know what and how much homebrew you’re planning on bringing.  Loaner kegs are available for those who are not so equipped.

Any of you who have already volunteered kegs should drop them off at the shop by 6pm on Friday, Dec 11th or bring them to Neil’s Saturday afternoon before the party.

We’ll be dispensing a lot of beer and will need more taps, jockey boxes and dispensing equipment than we currently have.  If you can volunteer dispensing equipment or can bring your new club jockey box, please let Carl know.

Please remember to label any kegs or dispensing equipment that you bring so that we can get them back to you.

If you’d like to volunteer beer for the party, contact Carl Townsend at CompetitionCoordinator@PacificGravity.com.

Equipment

We’re still looking for some assorted equipment.  Please let us know if you can volunteer any of the following:

  • Folding tables
  • Patio heaters
  • Jockey boxes/beer dispensing equipment

Any of you who will be volunteering equipment should please try to bring it to Neil’s on the initial setup date (probably this weekend, Dec5 or 6 – exact details to be announced soon). Otherwise, please bring equipment on Saturday, Dec 12th in the afternoon before the party.

Again, please remember to label any equipment that you bring so that we can get them back to you.

If you’d like to volunteer equipment contact: Board@PacificGravity.com or Mimi at mbardet@verizon.net

And finally, if you’re volunteering equipment, kegs or food, plan on picking up your items at the Sunday clean up. We really don’t have any capacity to store items that are not picked up.

 

Neil Saund’s duplex is located at:  12966 Rubens Ave. Los Angeles, CA
It is the house on the SE corner of Alla Rd. and Rubens Ave.

 

Your newly elected 2016 board members

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After an unprecedented multiple nominees at 2 positions and voting both at the November meeting and online, we finally have the results. Here are your new 2016 elected board members:

PRESIDENT
Lloyd Johnson
VICE PRESIDENT
Michael Musgrave
TREASURER
Tim Bardet

It was a close race between the contested positions with treasurer being within just a few votes difference. Congratulations to those that won and thank you for to those that didn’t for stepping up to the plate to make this club better. If you’d still like to contribute and help the new board out, please get in contact with board@pacificgravity.com and we will make sure the new board gets in touch with you.

We will announce the member of the year at the holiday party next month with more details to follow about the party. We will need volunteers for setup, teardown and cooking of food, so please let us know if you’d like to help out.

 

12dec5:00 pm- 11:00 pm2015 PG Holiday Party5:00 pm - 11:00 pm PST Neil Saund

 

 

Meeting Recap: You can still vote!!

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Thank to all who came to our Annual Chili Cook off and Election meeting this past Saturday. We had 10 chilis to taste and judge. All were amazing, but Neil Saund took home the prize for best chili, with Michael Musgrave’s as runner up missing the tie by one vote. A fabulous Pumpkin Mole by Parker Waechter won most unique chili.

Also going on at the meeting was brew led by our very own Dan White who made Carl Townsend’s Weizenbock that we had the privilege of brewing with Firestone on Halloween. We ended up with 18 gallons of beer that was put in 4 carboys. Carl and Dan plan to ferment each one with a different yeast. 6 gallons will be fermented with Bavarian Hefeweizen yeast, 5 with American Hefeweizen yeast, 5 gallons with both Bavarian and American Hefeweizen yeasts, and 2 gallons with dregs from Firestone Feral One, Russian River Consecration, and Allagash Farm to Face.

The other major event that took place was our election for next years board. Each nominee gave a speech to the attendees about why they should be selected. Here is a summary of what each person had to say:

PRESIDENT

Lloyd Johnson wants to

  • help keep this club heading in a direction that benefits all members and see the growth of our passion, homebrewing. Finish the current ventures, that the current board has started, as well as bring back some of the old traditions we’ve lost, and hopefully start some new ones to come.
  • help promote home brewing by bringing back the monthly style home brew competition, where club members bring their home brew in the style of the month to have the chance to win a gift certificate to the Culver City Home Brew Store.
  • promote education by bringing back Big Brews where club members bring their brewing sets, to do multiple brews in one day, in one location so that they can see multiple processes in home brewing from many different levels of extract to all grain
  • schedule different different education events such as hop evaluations, off flavor testing, Cicerone training, BJCP Judge training and evaluating the test requirements, and much, much more
  • work on accomplishing our goal of becoming a 501(3)(c) non profit.

Ian Fraser wants to

  • bring back some of that inclusiveness that created the growth of the club as well as the comradery that went along with it
  • bring back the big brews to enhance the educational aspects, the bus trips to educate the knowledge of various breweries and the experiences of their brewers
  • train the next generation of leaders so that they have a vision of the club going forward that maintains our history in the process

VICE PRESIDENT

Michael Musgrave says he is

  • thankful for the great structure, reputation and relationships Brian, Tad and Ramesh have contributed and are leaving as their legacy
  • honored to work alongside the existing board members and looking forward to growing the club together
  • stoked and already mapping out our First Friday schedule for ’16!”

TREASURER

Timothy Bardet says

  • hes been member since the second meeting
  • he wants to come back as treasurer and serve as he did in previous years in this position
  • he’ll do a great job because “Everybody likes to get paid out!”

Tania Musgrave says

  • Our friendly club culture has drawn her to more and more meetings and events, and is proud to be a member.
  • Having spent time with the current treasurer, Ramesh, she feels that she knows and is prepared for the position duties.Would be honored to take over as Treasurer.
  • she is organized and has previous fundraising experience with a non-profit and love new challenges

Also up for voting is Club Member of the Year. The nominees are:

Ramesh Johnston
Tad Johnston
Andrew Whittle
Lloyd Johnson
Carl Townsend

If you were not able to attend the meeting, please send your vote no later than Saturday November 21st to board@pacificgravity.com.

We discussed at the meeting that the holiday party on December 12th will require lots of volunteers for set up, clean up, food and beer. Stay tuned for where to sign up.

Thank you to all who contributed to a successful meeting by bringing chili and beer.

Cheers

Ramesh Johnston

Event times for the club meeting Saturday

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9:00am
Brew session begins
12:00pm – 1:00pm
Chili cook-off
1:00pm
Announcements and board nominees make speeches
1:30pm
Voting
2:00pm
Commercial Style Tasting

The day will official begin at 9:00am and you’re more than welcome to come when you please at or after this time. If you would like to get there early and be involved with the brew, Dan White would greatly appreciate the help I’m sure.

Voting for both board members and the chili cook-off to follow immediately after the speeches. You can vote for club member of the year at any time during the day. If you cannot make the event, you can email us your vote for board members and member of the year at board@pacificgravity.com.

You must have your vote in no later than 1 week (November 21st) after the event to have it count.
You also must be a member with current active status and dues paid in full in order to vote.

Chili Cook-Off

As usual, we will have a “Most Unique Chili” and a “Best Chili” so please plan on voting for both when trying each chili.

More info on this month’s club meeting can be found here.

Club Meeting Saturday – Updates!!

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Our club meeting is this Saturday and we have a few more updates on nominations. We now have another contested position, Treasurer, which now has Tim Bardet and Tania Musgrave running. Also, since Brian Holter won CMOY last year, he cannot be nominated this year for member of the year. There are however two recently added nominations to the list, Carl Townsend and Lloyd Johnson. There is still time to send us your nominations for both board positions and CMOY. Also, I’ve included a teaser (photo) of the commercial tasting at the bottom of the post.

 

Board Nominations For 2016:

PRESIDENT
Lloyd Johnson
Ian Fraser
VICE PRESIDENT
Michael Musgrave
TREASURER
Tim Bardet
Tania Musgrave

 

Member of the Year Nominations for 2015:

Brian Holter (can’t be nominated after winning the previous year)

Ramesh Johnston
Tad Johnston
Andrew Whittle
Lloyd Johnson
Carl Townsend

 

If you’d like to nominate someone else (or yourself) for either a board position or member of the year, please do so by next Thursday (November 12th) at the latest. Also, if you can’t make the meeting and would love to vote, please email your vote for each to board@pacificgravity.com

Commercial Tasting

Here is what is going to be opened at the commercial tasting. I hope you all enjoy the tasting of some of my favorites when I’m gone

Brew Day

The brew day will start at 9:00am so come whenever, you’d like with most people probably getting there about 11:00am – 12:00pm for the main event. Dan could definitely use some help so if you feel so inclined to show up early and help it would be greatly appreciated.

14nov9:00 amNovember Meeting - Chili cook-off and election day!!9:00 am Casa Molloy

 

 

Club Meeting – Saturday, November 14th

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Our club meeting this month has a lot going on, so please join us in all its glory.  We will be having our annual chili cook-off as well as a brewing session held by our very own Dan White.  We will be brewing Carl Townsend’s Weizenbock recipe that we just brewed at Firestone Walker. It’s going to be pretty cool to compare the two brews.  The biggest events during our meeting will be elections and member of the year.

 

Board Nominations For 2016:

PRESIDENT
Lloyd Johnson

Ian Fraser

VICE PRESIDENT
Michael Musgrave

TREASURER
Tim Bardet

 

Member of the Year Nominations for 2015:

Brian Holter

Ramesh Johnston

Tad Johnston

Andrew Whittle

 

If you’d like to nominate someone else (or yourself) for either a board position or member of the year, please do so by next Thursday (November 12th) at the latest. Also, if you can’t make the meeting and would love to vote, please email your vote for each to board@pacificgravity.com

Commercial Tasting

Ramesh and Tad will be doing the commercial tasting this month which is pumpkin and spiced beers.  Tad won’t be able to make the meeting, but he’s picked out Ramesh’s and his favorite (pumpkin) beers.  You won’t want to miss this!

Brew Day

The brew day will start at 9:00am so come whenever, you’d like with most people probably getting there about 11:00am – 12:00pm for the main event.

 

 

First Friday This Week at Phantom Carriage

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This First Friday we’ll be going down to Phantom Carriage to support our fellow club members.  Simon has hooked us up with the Barrel Guild Room at 7pm.  Our own private room, pretty sweet! Another cool part about this First Friday, Simon will be giving us our very own tour at 8pm so don’t miss out!

Come out and support Phantom and their awesome one of kind brewery and brews!  They have some really good stuff!!!!

 

On another note, please be aware this months club meeting has moved up to Saturday, November 14th. Please make a note of it on your calendars as we have lots going on that day so you want to make sure you come.  We’ll have more info later this week about it.

 

Event Information

6nov7:00 pmFirst Friday - Phantom Carriage7:00 pm Phantom Carriage