SoCal HomeBrewers Festival – News & Deadlines

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The registration site for the May 2, 2015 Homebrewers Festival at Vail Lake in Temecula is now up and running at www.calhomebrewers.org until April 17, 2015.  No registration will be allowed after that in order to comply with California ABC regulations.  There are some significant changes to the SCHF from years past:

(1) Only CHA members are allowed to register for the SCHF.  There is a $10 registration fee – go to the calhomebrewers.org site, click on the “Membership” tab, then select “Become a Member”.)

(2) Each CHA member is permitted to purchase only one (1) registration for the SCHF. (Once you are registered as a member on the calhomebrewers.org site per #1 above, a “Members Only” menu option becomes available. In the “Members Only” menu, choose “2015 SCHF Registration” and follow the instructions.

Homebrew Festival registration is $35, but you can save $10 if you register by January 31 (final cost: $25), and save $5 if you register between Feb 1-Feb 28 (final cost: $30). The entrance fee may be waived if you get on the volunteer list, but those opportunities fill up fast and you could get left out.

(3) SCHF attendance will be limited to 1600.

(4) SCHF registration will end on Apr. 17.  There will be no registration available during the 2 weeks prior to the Festival.  No exceptions.

Camping:

Pacific Gravity has secured a group of campsites for the weekend (5/1 – 5/3).  We have capacity for about 50 campers; cost for a weekend of camping is $25.  Your camping spot is not reserved until you pay the camping fee to the Pacific Gravity Treasurer.

So, for the low cost of $60 (if you register by 1/31), you get: (a) 2 nights of camping; (b) entrance to the Friday Night Pro Brewers tasting session; and (3) admission to the Saturday Homebrewers Festival that will feature over 30 homebrewers clubs offering samples of over 300 examples of homebrew across all styles.

I will be posting more information about cost and planning a bit later.  In the meantime, don’t forget to save the dates in your calendar.

Competition Corner – January, 2015

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Well, a new year is upon us as well as a fresh brewing competition season.   Each year, Pacific Gravity honors the brewer (or team) with the most homebrew competition wins. This year we are adding a new competition:   the First Annual Los Angeles Belgian Beer Challenge, with entries due at the end of February. Also, keep your sites on the Finest City homebrew competition, hosted by QUAFF with entries due in late January, and the American Homebrewers Association National Homebrew Competition with open registration from February 2-8.

Before our Brewer of the Year season opens, there are two local competitions you might want to enter: the Doug King Memorial competition hosted by the Maltose Falcons, and the 3rd Annual Romancing the Beer Competition, held by the Thousand Oaked Homebrewers. Both of these offer Pro-Am opportunities with various local breweries.

Doug King entries are due January 10th and can be dropped off at the Culver City or Eagle Rock brewshops. Details can be found at http://www.maltosefalcons.com/comps/2015DKM. They also need judges on Saturday, January 24, 2015 at 9:00 AM at the Disabled American Veterans Hall 6543 Corbin Ave, Woodland Hills, CA 91367.

Read more →

Upcoming Events!

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First off I hope everyone has had an awesome holiday season!  2015 is right around the corner and I wanted to remind all of you that we have a couple of events this week.

Brew Years Day

On New Years Day Kingsley and I will be hosting our “Brew Year’s Day” brew day for anyone who wants to join us.  This year we are brewing a batch of Belgian Golden Strong which we will split off 5 gallons into an old used barrel of ours to sour.  We will keep 5 gallons of the clean beer in a keg for next December’s holiday party and we will keg the 5 gallons of sour for the party as well (as long as it tastes like it is ready to go).  The recipe details and other information can be found on the event page for this brew day – or by clicking here.  Hope to see you there!

First Friday @ Public School 310

Our first First Friday of the year will be this Friday 1/2/2015 @ Public School 310.  Click here for details.

Thanks!

Holiday Party Reminder! This Saturday!

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Hi All!

With the Holiday party just 2 days away we still need contributions for the party to make it a great success. The items we need are:
Tables
Jockey Boxes
CO2
Beer (of course)
And food (Turkey, Ham, Carbonade, Salad, Sides, appetizers,desserts, etc)

We will be setting up at Neil’s duplex tomorrow night at 5. Feel free to bring by item donations then or Saturday after 12.

12966 Rubens Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90066

See you all Saturday!

6dec - 7dec 66:00 pmdec 7Holiday Party6:00 pm - 12:00 am (7) Neil Saund's Duplex

Orange County Road Trip – Recap Post & Photos

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Around a month has passed since we took our bus trip down to Orange County to visit Taps, Bottle Logic and Valiant brewery.  I imported some of the photos I took from the trip to share with everyone in the club here.

I just wanted to throw a special thank you out to Kurt for organizing this trip.  We left on time, made it to each brewery on time and successfully got everyone back to Culver City!  Cheers to you Kurt and to everyone who helped set up this trip and for everyone who attended.

Brian

 

 

November Club Meeting Recap

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What an awesome meeting.  Let me start off this post in the way that I should have started off my announcements on Saturday by thanking Ian for being such an awesome host time and time again.  Its bad enough when you forget to thank your host so let me just reiterate how appreciative we are to the club members who host our events at their homes.

CLUB ANNIVERSARY BREW

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For those of you unable to attend this past weekend’s monthly meeting, we were busy – very busy!  The day started off around 10am with Dan White mashing in to kick off the day with our 20th anniversary beer.  Dan showed his great support for the club by bringing his entire brew system to Ian’s backyard (with the help of Terry Malloy) so that we could brew up 15 gallons of Belgian Dubbel to be served at this coming February’s Club Meeting / 20th anniversary shindig.  Thank you Dan, Emily and Terry for keeping this brew organized with during the party!

This beer was a very simple recipe but did feature a LOT of dark candy sugar in the boil that a number of club members helped add to the boil:

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And lastly, here is what a beer looks like that is 100% Belgian Pils/Pale before and after you add 5lbs of Dark Candy Syrup to a 15 gallon batch:

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CHILI COOK-OFF

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Saturday was also our annual Chili cook-off.  We had 8 chilis show up – all of which were fantastic.  Everyone submitted their votes and at the end of the day the club member celebrating the most was Neil who took home the prize for the best chili.  Congrats on taking the title this year Neil – you beat out some other awesome chili’s.  The second prize of the day for chili was the most unique chili which was awarded to Kingsley Toby.  Thank you to everyone who brought their chili to the party to make it another successful chili cook-off.

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BOARD ELECTION

November also marks the month where we vote for next year’s board.  I am happy to say that I will be returning for another year on the board to serve as your President along with Ramesh who will again serve as our Treasurer.  Kingsley is stepping down from the board and Tad Johnston has stepped up to fill his shoes as our club VP for 2015.  We have a lot of exciting plans for next year and we will be working hard at the beginning of the year to get a schedule together for all of you regarding the upcoming events so you can all mark your calendars in advance.

CLUB MEMBER OF THE YEAR

I screwed up in October and forgot to ask for nominations for club member of the year so we asked for nominations at the November meeting.  Many of you who were in attendance voted for your choice for club member of the year, but if you forgot to vote or were unable to attend you can submit your vote to MOY@pacificgravity.com by Friday @ 9am to cast your vote.  The nominees for Club Member of the Year (as appointed at the meeting) are:

  • Kip Barnes
  • Brian Holter
  • Ramesh Khalili
  • Kingsley Toby
  • Ian Fraser
  • Dean Sussman
  • Terry Molloy

Please cast your vote ASAP!!  We need to get all the votes in by Friday  11/28 @ 9am so we can make the award for the following weekend’s winter party which brings me to…

UPCOMING EVENTS

  • Winter Party – As mentioned at the meeting and on this website, our Winter Party is on Saturday December 6th at Neil’s house.  Ramesh and Carl both brought along sign up sheets for helping to setup Friday Night/Saturday Morning, Cleanup on Sunday, beers for the party, food, etc.  If you can volunteer (please do – the more volunteers the better the party) please email us at board [at] pacificgravity dot com to sign up.
  • Monster Brew @ Smog City – Our first event for 2015 is already planned which will be a Monster Brew at Smog City on January 24th.  Mark it down on your calendars and check back here for more details and updates as we get closer to the event.
  • 20th Anniversary – Our 20th Anniversary is coming up in February.  This will be a club meeting that you cannot miss.  We are still working on the details of when and where this meeting will be, so check back later for more info.
  • LABBC – Our Belgian Beer Challenge is scheduled for March 14th.  We are looking for volunteers for this competition planning – email me or send me a message if you are interested in participating in the planning.  Also, its time to start brewing for this competition!  You have 4 months until the competition, which means if you are going to brew a high gravity belgian beer or maybe finish off a belgian with some brettanomyces its time to get your beer in the tanks.  I suggest you start planning out your brew days!
  • SCHBF – The So Cal homebrew fest is on May 2nd and is returning to Vail Lake
  • NHC 2015 – The National Homebrewers Conference is coming to San Diego in 2015.  Pacific Gravity will definitely have a presence in San Diego for this festival.

If I forgot anything please let me know and I will update this post!  And thanks again Ian!

Club Member of the Year 2014 Voting

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If you didn’t vote for member of the year at the club meeting, you can do so via email.  Please send your vote via email to MOY@pacificgravity.com  You may cast up to two votes. The deadline  is Friday, November 28th at 9AM.

 

The following are the nominees:

Kip Barnes
Brian Holter
Ramesh Khalili
Kingsley Toby
Ian Fraser
Dean Sussman
Terry Molloy

November Club Meeting – 11/22/2014 @ Ian’s House

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Everyone-

Our November Club meeting is this Saturday!  Its shaping up to be a good one – here are the details:

WHEN

  • Brew Day starts @ 10:00am.
  • Chili Cookoff Competition @ 12:00pm
  • Club News after Chili Cookoff
  • Wrap up around 6pm.

WHERE

Ian Fraser’s House
3938 Glencoe Ave, Venice, CA 90291

CHILI COOKOFF

  • Bring your best chili for our annual Chili Cookoff!  We will have power outlets for those of you bringing a crock pot and sides/toppings (sour cream, shredded cheese, onions, and rice).  We will also supply bowls, plastic silverware and napkins.  We will be handing our awards for the best chili and most unique chili.

CLUB ANNIVERSARY BREW

  • Dan White has offered to let us use his system in Ian’s backyard to brew our Belgian Dubbel 20th Anniversary recipe.  The brew will start @ 10am on Saturday, club members are encouraged to show up to participate in the brew around then.  This is a Club Brew where the resulting beer belongs to the homebrew club and will be served at the February Club meeting where we will be celebrating our 20th Anniversary.  *Note, we will only be brewing on one system – this is not a big brew.
  • For those of you that are new to brewing, this will be a great opportunity to learn to brew an all grain batch of beer.  Even if you have been brewing for a long time, its always educational to learn how someone else brews a batch of beer on their system.
  • BEER
  • As always we are looking for everyone to bring their latest homebrew creation or commercial beer to share.
  • The beer style of the month is Brown Ales and Porters and as usual we will be hosting a commercial tasting.

VOTING

Its time to Vote!  We will be voting for board positions this month.  Additionally, we will be voting for Club Member of the Year!  We will be taking nominations throughout the day and will pass out ballots for everyone to vote!

EXTRAS

  • As this is a backyard party that will be going for many hours we highly suggest you bring a folding chair of some type for you to sit on.
  • If you have a jockey box that you can bring to help serve beer that would be apprciated as well.
  • Lastly, if you have firewood you can bring we would like to setup a fire pit.  The club will bring some as well.

Cheers everyone!  See you on Saturday!

And the winner is…

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Light Westy!  This beer received 64% of the votes cast for our Club Anniversary Brew this weekend.  Hope to see you all there on Saturday.  We will update everyone with the brew start time and other information about this Saturday’s meeting / chili cook off soon!

Recipe Below:

Recipe #3: Light Westy

  • OG – 1.069
  • FG – 1.010
  • IBUs – 18
  • SRM – 15.73
  • ABV – 7.7%
  • Recipe Size (6 gallons)
  • Boil Time – 90 min

Grain/Fermentable Bill

  • 7.0 lbs Belgian Pale
  • 7.0 lbs Belgian Pils
  • 1.5 lbs Belgian Dark Candy Sugar (added to boil @ flame out)
  • (Mash Schedule – 60 Min rest @ 145F, 20 Min rest @ 155F)

Hops & Kettle Additions

  • 0.50oz (8.5% AA) – Northern Brewer 90 min.
  • 0.50oz (4.1% AA) – Styrian Goldings 20 min.
  • 0.25oz (2.8% AA) – Hallertauer Mittelfrüh 20 min.

Yeast

  • 2qt Starter of WLP 530 Abbey Ale Yeast

Fermentation Schedule

  • Primary – 7 – 14 days @ 65F (pitching temp, free rise afterwards)
  • Secondary – 14 days @ Room temp

*Cool to 65F and pitch yeast.  Let free rise to 80F and hold there.

Holiday Party Volunteers

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Since we are on a bit more of a tight schedule this year than usual, we will need as many volunteers as soon as possible for the following:

  • THIS SUNDAY (11/23/14) CLEAN-UP AND PREP- Neil Saund’s house
    • pressure wash the sidewalks
    • clean up the inside
    • wash the windows
    • Help move stuff around where Neil needs it
    • start hanging lights on the inside and outside

All the participants will be given FREE BEER from PBC current;y being stored in Neil’s fridges

  • SETUP (Friday, 12/5/14)
    • hang any remaining lights
    • set up easy ups
    • set up tables inside for food service
    • load in the Club Dispensing System
    • Bring in kegs and jockey boxes
    • hook up all the beer
  • EVENT (Saturday, 12/6/14)
    • Assist Chef Ian with any cooking he needs help with
    • finish any remaining set up
    • Check in members and guests at gate
  • CLEAN UP (Sunday 12/7/14)
    • Tear down all the madness from the night before and clean up Neil’s house to return it to normal condition

Sign up sheets or the various tasks will be at this months meeting (Saturday, November 22nd).