Beer Judging Session Wednesday April 24 – Call for Judges

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We will be doing a small preliminary session for the Mayfaire Homebrew Competition this Wednesday, April 24th at the Culver City shop.  We plan to get started at 7:00 PM.

We need a total of six judges and two stewards.  If you can help out, please drop me a line at Competitions@PacificGravity.com.   Also, sign up on the Mayfaire website at http://maltosefalcons.com/comps/2013mayfaire .  Make sure you check the check-box for “preliminary session”.   And, or course, if you can join us for the main judging session on Sat, April 27th, check the box for that session too.

We are expecting some great beers, so this should be a good opportunity.  Hope you can come on by.

Carl Townsend
Competition Coordinator

 

April Meeting – Tomorrow!

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Hi everyone, it’s already the third Thursday tomorrow which means out April meeting is upon us.  We are entering the sweet spot of our club calendar, and if you want to attend some of the best events of the year I encourage you to attend.  This is your last chance to signup and pay for our road trip to several San Diego breweries this Sunday.  You can roll the dice and show up and pay at the bus, but this is a pretty epic bus trip so I would suggest securing your spot.  This is also your last opportunity to signup for camping and/or food for the Southern California Homebrewing Festival at Lake Casitas.  This event was written about in Radical Brewing as one of the “can’t miss” home brewing events in the world, and with Chefs Ian and Travis running the kitchen I personally guarantee the best food in the entire fest.

Not enough to sway you away away from Glee?  Well this is one of my favorite meetings for beer tastings – extract beers.  Are you a new brewer who wants feedback on your early work?  Bring them to this meeting and enter them in our club only competition – all styles are eligible as long as the majority of the malt used is from liquid or dried malt extract.  Plus anyone who brings extract based beer will be eligible for our beer of the meeting award, which is a $25 gift certificate to Culver City Home Brewing Supply.  Personally I’ll be bringing a keg of English Best Bitter made from the malt extract I won at the raffle at the last meeting. And even if you are an all grain brewer, bring your recent work to the meeting.  Nothing improves your skills like comparing notes with and receiving feedback form our experienced membership.  Our commercial tasting will be English and Scottish ales, so expect more than a few old favorites to be pouring after our announcements.

Finally, we’ll have a selection of t-shirts and other club swag available for purchase at the meeting, so if you want to represent on the road trip, Ojai, or just on Fridays at the Daily Pint make sure you bring your checkbook.  See you tomorrow night!

Road Trip Update

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April 20th San Diego Trip Update:  We will be leaving from CCHBS at 9 on Saturday so that we can be at Pizza Port at 11 when they open.  From Pizza Port we will be going to Green Flash and then White Labs.  We should be finishing up about 4:30 and be back in Culver City about 6:30.  Please do not park in the shop parking lot, there should be plenty of parking in the neighborhood.  We should have enough extra money to cover the pizza for lunch, but you might want to bring a few bucks just in case.  As always let me know if you have any questions.

Cheers,

Kurt

roadtrips@pacificgravity.com

Competition Corner – April 2013

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The time is now to get your entries ready for the 35th Annual Mayfaire Homebrew Competition hosted by the Maltose Falcons. On line registration is up and running now and your entries must be received no later than April 18th.  Also sign up for judging on Sat, April 27th.    Details can be found at http://maltosefalcons.com/comps/2013mayfaire .  The Falcons promise that the registration site will not collapse under a barrage of users.  This competition uses the Maltose Falcons guidelines, so check the style listings before entering.   We might also do a preliminary judging round on the Westside, so check back here for details.  Let’s see if we can earn the right for the Falcons to give us the bird!

Also coming up in April is the next Club-only competition.  The April selection is all extract beers.   Entries must be brewed with at least 50% extract.  All styles are eligible.   Bring your entries to the April 18th meeting.  Please fill out the entry form here: http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/attachments/0000/0326/entry_recipe.pdf.   Read more →

First Friday – The Overland

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Join us tonight for our first Friday event at The Overland in Palms.  Best know for their bottomless champagne brunch on the weekends, by day The Overland Cafe serves up breakfast and lunch to local residents and Culver City’s finest.  By night The Overland turns into a craft beer bar with a tap list originally selected by our own Tomm Carroll.  Our normal start time is 7 PM, but you should know about their ripping happy hour: 1/2 price beer and wine 4pm – 7pm & 9pm – close.

The Overland

3601 Overland Ave  Los Angeles, CA 90034

Membership Dues Collection

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The month of March is dues collection time for Pacific Gravity.  Annual membership dues are $30.  For those of you who have joined the club within the past year, a prorated amount will be due to get you paid up through March 2014.  Dues will be collected at the March 21 club meeting.   Your dues can also be dropped off at Culver City Home Brewing Supply or mailed to club at P.O. Box 2451, Culver City, CA 90230.  Please note, as part of the process of getting the club formally incorporated, we will be asking all members to sign a liability waiver.  Copies of these waivers will be available at the club meeting and at the shop.  All members should have recently received an email with the following:  dues amount owed, a copy of the waiver form and a recap of your contact info (address, etc., should anything need to be updated).  Please contact me with any questions at Treasurer@PacificGravity.com.

7 Weeks to Ojai – Call For Campers and Beer

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We are now less than 7 weeks away from the Southern California Homebrewers Festival, when Pacific Gravity takes over Owl Court at Lake Casitas and celebrates the local homebrewing scene.

This year’s Homebrew Fest weekend is May 3 – 5.

To get in to the festival and related events, you must be a member of the California Homebrewers Association. Go to www.calhomebrewers.org to sign up. Membership cost is $45 through the end of March, then $50 through May 2nd. Memberships will be sold through May 2nd, or until they reach capacity, whichever occurs first. Memberships will NOT be sold at the festival site.

The cost for camping at Owl Court is $20 for the weekend. For an additional $25, you can take part in the P.G. Food Plan, which will include Friday and Saturday dinners, along with Saturday and Sunday breakfasts.

If you are going to attend and stay with us at Owl Court, please send me an email at SCHBF@PacificGravity.com and advise with:

– Your Name (if it is not discernible from your email address);
– number of campers @ $20ea;
– whether you will take part in the Food Plan for an additional $25 per camper (YES Food) or not (No FOOD).

Also, if you plan to contribute a beer for the festival, please advise with:
– beer name, if any;
– beer style;
– ABV.

You can pay at one of the next two club meetings, or drop off your payment (attach a note explaining what it is for) at the Culver City Home Brewing Supply shop.

 

Club Meeting March 21st – Stouts

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Our club meeting is coming up next Thursday. The style is Stouts, for St Patrick’s Day of course!  But don’t let that stop you from bringing your other styles of homebrew to the meeting (I’ll be bringing a Belgian pale ale myself).  Noelle will be hosting the commercial tasting, and we will have our meeting competition for home brew that is to style (BJCP Style 13) with a $25 prize.  This is the meeting where we start collecting our club dues for the year, so be sure to bring cash or your checkbook.  The cost is $30.  And finally we will be announcing our volunteer award program to honor those club members who do the most to make this the best homebrewing club.
Upcoming:
4/5 – First Friday at the Overland
4/20 – San Diego Road Trip
5/4 – Southern California Homebrew Festival

Competition Corner – March 2013

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Well, after talking to some of you after the AHA National Homebrew Competition registration fiasco, I know that at least some of you got registrations confirmed.  Now is the time to get your physical entries ready to go.   You can drop them off assuming they are going to San Diego, by Monday March 18th at the Culver City shop.    If you are entering bottles to any other location (which several people did last year), you must ship them off yourself.   Peter Moran has graciously volunteered to drive to San Diego, but alas, not all the way to Zanesville Ohio.  Remember that this year you need TWO bottles for each entry.   Please check the AHA website for due dates at other regions.

Coming up in April are two more events.  Read more →

Tustin Monster Brew Final Details

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Monster brew is just around the corner!

We’ll be starting on Saturday bright and early at 6 am.
The wort will pour around noontime and most people will leave around 1 or 1:30

Here are a few things to remember:

-No glass fermenters of any kind please.
-Bring equipment already sanitized and remember a funnel if you have a Better Bottle
-If you haven’t yet paid, bring cash or a check to give to Tim at the event
-Please be good guests and allow only our hosts to pour beer from the taps for us
-Plan on buying lunch, they will open the kitchen at 11am
-Carpool if possible, there is also a back parking lot behind the shopping center which we can use. You can always pull your car around and load fermenters when you are leaving.
Info:

Tustin Brewing Co
www.tustinbrewery.com

13011 Newport Ave
Tustin, CA. 92780
From LA:

Take 405 South
Take 22 East
Take 5 South
Exit at Newport ave and go north (left turn off the exit ramp)
Tustin Brew co will be on your left just after irvine blvd

 

See you there,
Noelle