So Cal Homebrew Fest: Registration Closes in 1 Week

If you are planning to attend this year’s festival, get your self over to www.calhomebrewers.org and sign up.  Registration ends on April 17.

As a reminder, you must be a member of the California Homebrewers Association ($10 fee) in order to register for, and attend, the festival.  Festival registration is $35.

PG has reseved a group of campsites less than 1/2 mile from the festival site.  2 nights of camping is $25, payable to the club; pay at next weeks meeting, or drop off a payment at Culver City Homebrew Supply and send an email to {treasurer at pacific gravity dot com} and we will reserve your slot.  We are not coordinating club meals this year, but I am sure a meal group or two will be forming.

More info to follow at next week’s club meeting.

Mayfaire Entries Due April 9th

April is already here and that means it’s time to get your homebrew competition entries going. Registration is now open for Mayfaire hosted by the Maltose Falcons. Entries are due April 9th at the Culver City Shop. On-line registration is up and running at http://www.maltosefalcons.com/events/sat-04252015-0900-2015-mayfaire-homebrew-competition. Note that they use their own style guide, so check category numbers before entering. Please sign up to judge and steward too; they will need our help. Judging will take place on Saturday April 25 at 9:00 AM at St Martins in the Fields Church 7136 Winnetka Ave Winnetka CA, 91306 (click for map). We may also do a prelim judging on the Westside. Check back for details in a week or so.

Also due in early May is the California State Fair. Entries are due May 3rd. Entry information and registration is available Read more

Weekly Updates: First Friday @ The Doughroom

No major updates this week.  I just hope all of you are brewing some awesome beer for all of the upcoming events!  Ive seen a few of you post pictures of your brew day’s for Bite at the Beach on various social media accounts which is really awesome to see.

First Friday @ The Doughroom

Im really excited about this month’s First Friday.  Kaveh and crew at the Doughroom are hosting April’s First Friday which we are putting together as a bottleshare:

 

doughroom_insta

Bring along some rare beers that you have been holding onto along with your appetite for some of the best pizzas around.

LABBC T-Shirts

We are still waiting on some logos from our sponsors before I can submit the artwork to our T-Shirt screenprinters.  As soon as we get the last few in I will place the order and have the shirts at the following meeting.

Cheers!

 

Weekly Update: Club Meeting Recap

For those of you that were unable to attend last week’s club meeting – for shame.  You missed out on some fun stuff:

Bite At the Beach

  • Spots are still available.  You still have a few weeks to brew a beer for this and participate in the event.  Shoot us an email at board [at] pacificgravity.com to signup.  If your name isnt on the list at the bottom of this post we did not receive your email (or i screwed up and forgot to notate it on my list).  Just send me a reminder and shame me for poor organization.

Firestone Walker Brew 

  • The brew day has officially been set – we are going to head up to Paso Robles and brew up a batch of beer on 10/31/2015.  The brew will be at 8:00am at the Paso Brewery and will be followed by the 19th Anniversary party that evening.
  • If you signed up at the club meeting for events – thank you.  I am using that list as a tentative head count to provide FW with an idea of how many people will be attending.  If you were not in attendance that does NOT mean that you are missing out.  It just means that my head count is missing you.  Shoot me an email  at president [at] pacificgravity.com to let me know if you will be able to attend the brew and the 19th anniversary party and if you will need a hotel room for Friday and Saturday night.
  • We are NOT chartering a bus for this trip.  Many of you have expressed interest in making the trip a full weekender and I know some of you cannot make it for more than the brew itself.  You will be responsible for getting yourself to Paso for the brew.
  • The club WILL be locking down a block of rooms in Paso at one or two hotels.
  • Most importantly – the beer.  The team at Firestone Walker has asked our club to brainstorm what our ultimate brew would be and present the ideas to their team.  After announcements this past week a few of you approached me with some ideas for the beer which are included here:
    • Come up with a list of historically important beers brewed by Pacific Gravity club members.  The idea was to build off of a recipe from one of our homebrewers that we all look forward to drinking at club meetings.  Like Carl’s harvest ale, Rives’ sour quad, Craig Corley’s Belgian (fill in the blank), etc.
    • A Belgian styled beer because FW doesnt have a huge history of brewing belgian beers and it would tie in with our Belgian Brew Challenge.
    • Anything barrel aged.  FW makes some of the best barrel aged beers – it would be cool to be a part of one.
    • Hold an in house homebrew competition (using one style) and having judges choose the best beer.

LABBC

  • We wrapped up our first LABBC.  There were a total of 95 entries into the competition and the results were absolutely DOMINATED by Pacific Gravity homebrewers.  Thank you to everyone who submitted beers and helped PG have a good showing in our inaugural comp.
  • Kingsley and I won BOS – thanks to everyone who offered their congrats.
  • Scoresheets have been emailed out to all participants.  If you entered a beer and have not received an email from us email labbc [at] pacificgravity.com and we will send you a link with your entry numbers.
  • Ribbons will go out sometime soon to those of you who were not in attendance.
  • T-Shirts – We will order T-Shirts next week and should have them ready for April’s club meeting.  We had a sign up sheet at the judging day and at the club meeting.  Volunteers (staff, stewards and Judges) receive free shirts.  If you signed up for a shirt at the club meeting the price per shirt will be somewhere between $15-$20.  We will have our pay pal setup at the next club meeting for you to pay for your shirts.

April First Firday

  • Reminder that next month’s first friday is at the Doughroom in Culver City/Palms and is a bottle share.  Bring out some special beers and lets pack that place out.

Membership Renewals

  • Membership dues are due now.  Just a friendly FYI.

 

LABBC Results Posted!

Check out the LABBC website HERE to see the results!  Congrats to all the winners and thanks to everyone who submitted beers, volunteered and helped organize.

Weekly Reminders!

March Club Meeting & LABBC

Reminder that this month’s club meeting is this Thursday at Culver City Homebrew Supply.  We will be announcing the winners from our first Los Angeles Belgian Brew Challenge which took place over the weekend.  Ribbons will be on hand for those of you who took home some prizes!  We will have signup sheets on hand for LABBC shirts if you are interested in picking one up!

SCHF

Start brewing up beers for the So Cal Homebrewers Fest.  The festival is a little over a month away and we want to have a good showing of kegs on hand.

Bite At the Beach

Just a reminder that signups are open for Bite at the Beach 2015!  We still have around half of the spots open, but they are going quickly!  Send an email to board@pacificgravity.com to signup.

CLICK HERE

AHA National Homebrewers Conference

Just around the corner from SCHF & Bite At the Beach is the AHA conference in SD.  Get your beers ready!

-Brian

Get Excited About Monkish and LABBC!

Pacific Gravity is thrilled to be just 1 day out from our inaugural Los Angeles Belgian Beer Challenge, that means in just 1 week, winners will be announced! This is super exciting because, as a ProAm competition, the Best of Show winner will have their beer brewed by our friends over at Monkish Brewing Company. DSC00873Monkish happens to be the best Los Angeles Belgian brewery around and if you haven’t visited the taproom, you need to make a trip!

Located at 20311 S. Western Ave., Torrance, CA 90501, the tasting room offers a wide variety of their Belgian brews on tap, as well as growlers and bottles to take home. As you sit in the brewery on bags of malt – sipping on delicious beers, nibbling on peanuts and pretzels, dreaming of what they have aging in the stacks of barrels, mingling with fellow beer lovers – you feel like you could stay for hours! And you should, because you need to try a little bit of everything – from spiced tripels to brett saisons, Belgian dubbels to hoppy DSC00907Belgian pales, brown farmhouse to strong dark ale, the list goes on!

The newest venture for the Monkish team was put in motion last summer with the arrival of their 5 foudres, which they will use on their journey into wild and sour beers. In addition to creating much anticipation for the results of these 1400 gallon experiments, the foudres have an aesthetic quality that stands out beautifully amongst the typical stainless steel fermenters.

Not only is the beer incredible and the environment inviting, the people are warm and welcoming. So get in there, say hi to brewmaster and owner, Henry and his team who are always more than happy to share their beers and show you around!

Brew Beer!!!!!

I hope this post’s title grabbed your attention.  There are a LOT of events coming up over the next 2-3 months that will be made even cooler if everyone gets after it and starts brewing up some beer.

SoCal Homebrewers Fest

The SCHF is right around the corner at the beginning of May.  This is a great opportunity to show the homebrewing community how amazing our club’s brewers really are.  The club will have our draft system setup but we need you to bring beer to the festival.

Bite at the Beach

Two weeks after SCHF is Bite At the Beach where we have been invited along with Strand Brewers to donate our homebrew and serve it at a beer festival.  Last year we showed up with 10 kegs of beer and our setup with the CDS was the toast of the event (in my opinion).  Terry and Rives were up on stage talking about the great homebrewing hobby and community while the rest of us were sharing our meads, beers and ciders with the masses.  So the way I see it, if you are brewing for SCHF why not make it a 10 gallon batch and allocate one keg to SCHF and one to Bite at the Beach.  I just posted about this tonight – sign ups are open for one of 21 slots available on the draft system – but we can bring jockey boxes if we end up getting more than 21 participants.

National Homebrew Conference

Right around the corner from Bite at the Beach is the National Homebrewers Conference which is taking place in San Diego.  We have placed the club’s name down on a list to have space to pour beer.  Let’s show off what we can do for the homebrewers around the country who are making the trek out to the west coast.  If we do not get enough participation for this event we will probably let this space go.  Carl will have sign up sheets for next week’s Club Meeting at CCHBS for beers @ SCHF and the AHA conference.

I hope to see some of you at our first annual Los Angeles Belgian Brew Challenge this weekend.  We are going to announce the winners @ next week’s club meeting so make sure you show up and cheer for your fellow PG member’s who take home ribbons.

Cheers everyone.

Bite at the Beach – Save the Date & IPA Recipe

Everyone-

Its time for Bite at the Beach 2015!  Last year we had the opportunity to take advantage of a shift in alcohol law that allowed homebrewers to donate their beer to non-profit events/orgs and have our beer on tap at a small craft beer festival.  You can read all about last year’s event HERE.We have been asked to do this again by the MBCC.  Just like last year, donating a keg (5 gallons) of homebrewed beer/cider or 2.5 gallons of mead or cider to the festival grants you access to attend as well (1 person per).  Last year was a lot of fun – a very unique opportunity to share our beers with the public.  Lets do it again!

Here is the flyer for this year’s event:

We’re happy to announce that this year we will be partnering, once again, with Strand Brewing Club to brew beer for a good cause! We’ll be pouring with Strand at Bite at the Beach on May 16th and we need your homebrews!

There are 21 total spots available between the two clubs, a minimum of 6 which come with a special mission. Together we are going to feature a minimum of 6 IPAs all with a specific aroma/flavor hop. Here is a base recipe and the hop options:

5 Gallon Recipe – 6 Way IPA 
Malt:
   10lbs 2row
   1lb Carafoam
   1lb Crystal (20L)
Boil: 60 minutes
   @ 60 minutes – 1oz Magnum approx 15% AA / 45-50 IBU’s
   @ 10 minutes – 1oz designated aroma/flavor hop
   @ 0 minutes – 3oz designated aroma/flavor hop
   Dry hop – 3oz designated aroma/flavor hop
Yeast:
   WLP001 California Ale Yeast (1000ml starter OR 2 vials)
Fermentation:
   Primary @ 68F for 10 days
   Transfer to secondary and dry hop @ 70F for 5 days
OG:
1.062 @ 72% efficiency

Here is  the sign up list for Bite At the Beach 2015
Sign Up List for Bite At The Beach 2015
Tap #BrewerBeer
01Rives BorlandIPA Challenge – Nelson Sauvin
02Adam WardIPA Challenge – Amarillo
03Brian HolterIPA Challenge – Pacifica
04Ryan PenrodIPA Challenge – Citra
05Lloyd JohnsonIPA Challenge – Simcoe
06Anthony BrownstoneIPA Challenge – Centennial
07Kingsley TobyIPA Challenge – Sorachi Ace
08
09
10
11
12Katie CollierKeg – German Hef
13Tania GamezKeg – Hard Apple Cider
14Kevin CollierIPA Challenge – Cascade
15Chris RemenspergerKeg (Beer TBD)
16Chris RemenspergerKeg (Beer TBD)
17Ryan PenrodKeg (Beer TBD)
18Terry MalloyLil’ Bo Steam
19Michael MusgraveKeg (Beer TBD)
20Rives BorlandKeg (Beer TBD)
21Jesse TiceKeg (Beer TBD)
Non-TapJesse TiceMeads (Bottles)
Non-TapJay AnkeneyMead/Melomel (Bottles)
(We will mark the hops that have been spoken for on this website as people signup.  You can choose a different hop for your aroma/flavor hop than hops that are listed here if you prefer)
We don’t want to have duplicate hops on display, so as people sign up for their hop of choice we will mark that spot down as reserved.  If you are interested in participating – IPA challenge or not – please reach out to board@pacificgravity.com to sign up for a particular brew (hop specific) or tap position.  Entry is granted per 5 gallons of homebrew/cider or 2.5 gallons of mead.
Of course we want you to bring all your beers/meads/ciders, but who doesn’t love a good IPA at the beach, so give it a shot!

Stone AHA Rally: Strand Brewers Bus Trip

Everyone-

Here is a message from the Strand Brewers regarding their Bus Trip to Stone later this month.  If you are interested RSVO to the rally at the link below and email roadtrips@pacificgravity.com:

 

Hi folks!
It’s that time of year again! Every year around March, Stone hosts a rally with the American Homebrewers Association (AHA), and the Strand Brewers organize a bus trip to join in the festivities!

The rally is Saturday, March 28, 11am to 2pm, at Stone Liberty Station (NOT the main Stone Brewery). Note this is earlier than last year! That means our bus will need to leave Los Angeles around 8am to make sure we get there on time! (Departure time has not yet been finalized).

We typically invite all the Los Angeles Homebrew Clubs to join us, but Strand members get first dibs. Please let me know as soon as possible if you are interested in attending.

Participants must be members of the AHA, but you can join (or renew) for a discounted price at the door! If you go this route, we’ve been asked to fill out the forms in advance to make the process speedier. The link to the form was broken, but the FAQ page below has some more details.

Attendees are asked to RSVP. This is just to give Stone a rough head count. We found out last year that an RSVP is not a guarantee of entry! The link to RSVP is below. Please do this!

The rally includes an informal homebrew competition, and we are the judges! Vote for your favorite beer, and the winner gets to brew with Mitch Steele, head brewer for Stone! (psst…I’m one of the contestants!)

Afterwards we will stop by a few San Diego breweries. By popular demand, we will stop for dinner somewhere before heading back! I am open to suggestions for places to visit, both breweries and restaurants, so let me know!

Cost: The bus itself will be something like $40 per person. That includes snacks and water. And yes, homebrew will most likely be allowed on the bus (still have to confirm this). Price has not yet been finalized. The rally is free, but again AHA members only! Regular membership is $43, but I don’t know what the discounted price is (the link on the FAQ page is broken).

SUMMARY:
– Let me know if you want to come ASAP (I need a headcount to reserve a bus)
– RSVP to the rally
– Send me suggestions on breweries or restaurants.

FAQ page:
This page links to the new member form, but the link seems to be broken.
http://strandbrewersclub.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b1513591bf69a764269311e2e&id=296e27e086&e=7f3fcf858d

Link for RSVP:
http://strandbrewersclub.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b1513591bf69a764269311e2e&id=ab11423163&e=7f3fcf858d