Due to some website problems, the deadline for purchasing a $40 California Homebrewers Association membership (which you need to get into the festival) has been extended to March 10. The membership fee increases to $45 on March 11, and to $50 on April 1.
To purchase your membership, go to www.calhomebrewers.org, and click on “Shop”.
Remember to sign up for the Tustin Monster brew by Thursday, February 28th. After that, we will open up any remaining slots to other local homebrew clubs.
Please drop an email to me at competitions@PacificGravity.com and our treasurer Tim Bardet at Treasurer@PacificGravity.com to reserve your slot.
The cost will be $30 for each 5 gallons of wort. Everybody will be guaranteed 1 batch, and if mash volume permits, a second batch.
Payment for the event must be done in advance. Please drop off a check ASAP to Culver City Homebrew Supply. Be sure to include your name, telephone number, and E-mail address. You cannot order wort the day of the event. Yeast and any additional ingredients you wish to add are not included. You can bring your yeast to the brewery, or pitch it at home.
For more details about this event, please check my prior article at http://pacificgravity.org/2013/02/tustin-monster-brew-march-9th/
Pre-celebrate St. Patty’s day with us at our local Irish dive. They’ve got a good selection of European and local ales, and serve food. I heard they once won an award for pouring the perfect pint of Guinness. If you know the neighborhood, you know parking can be problematic as the night gets on. We start at 7 PM or whenever you get done with work.
http://www.yelp.com/biz/the-irish-times-los-angeles
As a result of demand overload that was all too predictable, the registration servers for the AHA NHC are all messed up. Registration has been halted, but I suspect is will go quick once things are back up and running. If I can trust a broken serve, the San Diego region is already sold out. Some of the others still have room. Here are the links once it is back up:
Site 1: Seattle, WA 658 entries, as of about 3:45 today
Site 2: Pleasanton, CA 755 entries, full
Site 3: San Diego, CA 821 full
Site 4: Denver, CO 768, full
Site 5: Tulsa, OK 396
Site 6: Kansas City, MO 406
Site 7: Saint Paul, MN 561
Site 8: Milwaukee, WI 561
Site 9: Atlanta, GA 768 full
Site 10: Zanesville, OH 945 full
Site 11: New York City, NY 938 full
Carl Townsend
The entry window for the AHA Nationals opens at NOON (PST) on Tuesday February 26th this year. I point out the exact time, because last year, the entire competition was filled with entries after about 36 hours. Many worthy entrants got shut out last year by the sudden surge in the registration rate. So make sure you are ready to jump on-line when the window opens.
There are a couple of significant changed to the rules this year. Most notably is that TWO bottles are needed for each entry. Another is that they have raised the entry fee to $12 for AHA members and $17 for non-members. Details of the competition can be found here:
http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/pages/competitions/national-homebrew-competition/competition-information
The on-line link for registration will appear magically once registration is open, so please check back on the homebrewersassociation website. (I’ll try to update this blog entry with the link, but please don’t wait for me!)
You can drop off the physical entries at the Culver City shop assuming they are going to San Diego, by March 18th. If you are entering bottles to any other location (which several people did last year), you must ship them off yourself. You can select any regional site you want, so if San Diego is full, go ahead and enter wherever space is available.
Coming up in April are two more events. First up is the annual Mayfaire competition hosted by the Maltose Falcons. On line registration will be available March 30th 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 . 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.
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. The club picks up the entry fee for this competition, so there is no cost to you. All entries must have the official rubber band label, which you can down load here: http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/attachments/0000/0325/bottleid.pdf If you can’t make it to the April meeting, drop your beers off at the shop and drop me a line at Competitions@PacificGravity.com.
Looking more into the 2013 schedule, we will stick with the same seven main competitions we had in 2012 as well as the six upcoming COCs. Of these, the three used by Anchor Brewing are the California State Fair, Mayfair and the California State Homebrew Competition. If you have a limited amount of beer to enter, try hitting these three. The winter season is a good time to get those beers going with clean-fermenting cool weather.
Like in past years, we have tried to align the monthly club styles with the COC competitions. An updated schedule can be found at: http://pacificgravity.org/monthly-stylesclub-only-comps/. All styles are welcome at any club meeting. However, the best beer in the listed styles is eligible for the best beer of the evening award, which comes with a $25 gift certificate to Culver City Home Brewing Supply Co. We are also looking for folks to lead the monthly style tasting for the club meetings. If you are interested, drop Dean Sussman a line at Styles@PacificGravity.com.
2013 Brewer of the Year Competition Schedule
February 26th – AHA Nationals (registration opens at NOON) Physical entries due by March 18th.
April 18th – Mayfaire
April 18th – COC Extract Beers(All BJCP Cats)
May 3rd California State Fair
July Los Angeles County Fair
July COC – Porter BJCP, Cat #12
August COC – Style TBD
September Pacific Brewers Cup
September COC – Amber lagers, BJCP Cat 3
October California State Homebrew Competition
October COC– Style TBD
Hi everyone, tomorrow’s club meeting will be featuring the highly regarded Barleywine style of Ale. Because this is such a high gravity beer, Mimi Bardet has kindly arranged to have a more substantial food offering on hand at this meeting – Pizza by the slice will be available for $2. So please bring a bit more cash than usual and make sure you eat something before or during the meeting. We start promptly at 7:30, and end at 10:30 sharp. Some meeting highlights:
– The Club Only Competition style is Barleywine, bring 3 12 oz bottles of your brew if you want to enter – Details here
– This is your only opportunity to signup and pay for the Monster Brew on March 9th ($30) at a club meeting. Payment must be in advance and the deadline is February 28th!
– Signups and payment ($45) for the April 20th road trip to San Diego. We will open this up to other clubs after this meeting, so secure your spot.
– Commercial tasting conducted by yours truly and Kurt featuring classic examples of the Barleywine style.
– Homebrew of the Meeting competition with a $25 gift certificate as a prize. The style for the meeting has been extended to include Barleywines, Old Ales, and Strong Lagers. Feel free to bring them in bottles, I doubt you have many kegs of this style sitting around!
– I will be bringing a couple of different vertical flights of Barleywine from my personal collection. If you have a bottle or two that you’d like to share, please bring them.
– We will be making some announcements about membership renewals (starting in March) and a new volunteer incentive system.
This Month’s Question: How do I modify my wort from the Monster Brew at Tustin Brewing?
Answer:
I hope you are all planning to join us at Tustin Brewing’s Fifth Annual Monster Brew, Saturday, March 9th, 2013, from 6 am to 2 pm hosted by our very own Jon Porter. We’ll be brewing up a batch of spelt-based wort. 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 the Southern California Homebrew Fest, club meetings and Summer party. Read more →
On March 9, 2013 the Tustin Brewing Company and its Brewmaster, PG’s Jon Porter, will be hosting their 5th professional style Monster Brew.
PG Brewmaster Carl Townsend and Jon have developed a new base wort for this event. This year we are going for a spelt-based recipe with about 1/3rd spelt malt and a bit of oats. This will be a great starting point for a spelt-based wheat beer, a Farmhouse ale, Saison or Wit. For you hop heads, boost up the bitterness with your favorite American hop tea to make an awesome spelt IPA, or darken it up with chocolate malt to make a spelt porter. Or, use your imagination to make the most awesome beer ever. Each person will pitch his yeast of choice, add adjuncts to the wort, dry hop in secondary, or do nothing special to it. For some great suggestions, see Carl’s article, How do I modify my Tustin Brew #5?
COST
The cost will be $30 for each 5 gallons of wort. Everybody will be guaranteed 1 batch, and if mash volume permits, a second batch. Read more →
Who says Democracy doesn’t work? The mob has spoken! Here are the details on the April 20th road trip to San Diego: We will be visiting Pizza Port Solana Beach (home of PGer Devon Randall!), Green Flash (home of the palate wreckers) and write in favorite White Labs (a must see for any home brewer). The plan will be to leave about at 9:30 to hit Pizza Port for lunch then work our way south, returning to the West Side at about 6PM. Cost for the trip is $45 and that will cover a seat on the bus as well as pizza at Pizza Port. If we get enough people we’ll be providing pitchers with lunch.
Please let me know if you have any questions, and feel free to invite as many people as you like but keep in mind the only way to reserve a seat is to pay for it. You can contact me to make arrangements or you can pay at the Feb/Mar/April meetings. We plan on inviting all the local clubs so seats should go fast.
Cheers,
Kurt
roadtrips@pacificgravity.com
We’ve pushed the entry window for America’s Finest City Homebrew competition organized the QUAFF.he first competition of the 2013 brewing year is upon us. You now have until Saturday, February 9th for the to drop off your entries at the Culver City shop. Registration is up and running at https://quaff.org/AFC-2013/ . You need 2 bottles per entry and the entry fee is $7.00. The competition uses the BJCP style guidelines and represents an excellent test bed for any entries you might have for the AHA Nationals.
