February Club Meeting Thursday Feb 16th, 2012

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Don’t forget to join us for our monthly club meeting next Thursday!

Commercial Styles of the Month:  Belgian & French Ales, carefully selected by our resident Belgian expert, Craig Corley.  He has an amazing selection for us each year.

Homebrew Kegs of the Month: Belgian & French Ales.  Best keg of the bunch wins a $25 gift certificate to CCHBS, which happens at each meeting, so check out the upcoming style of the month on the website and start brewing!  If interested in bringing a keg of your own to an upcoming meeting, sign up with our VP Dave Mauceli, either at the club meetings or via email at: VicePresident@pacificgravity.com

COC- Stouts (BJCP Category #13): If you are bringing entries for the COC, you’ll need 3 bottles of your beer.  Please see Carl’s Competition Coordinator post for more info or email him at: Competitions@pacificgravity.com

COY Anchor Road Trip: If you are planning to hop on the bus to SF the next morning and have not paid for your seat yet, remember to bring $85 (checks payable to Pacific Gravity).  We’ll also have our Club of the Year long-sleeve shirts for sale ($30), in limited quantity, and for those of you who pre-ordered, you can pick up your shirt that night just in time for the Anchor trip!  See the website post for more information about the trip or email Kurt at: RoadTrips@pacificgravity.com if you have any questions and enjoy the party!

COY Party at Anchor Brewing: The Party at Anchor begins at 1pm on Saturday, February 18th and will wrap up about 5pm.  If you are planning on attending and not riding the bus, please send Audrey an email (president@pacificgravity.com) by Monday the 13th so we can give Anchor a head count for the party.

Club Merchandise: We have a few beer leashes ($5) and glasses ($6) left, as well as both long & short sleeve PG shirts ($15) and some Pacific Brewers Cup shirts ($20) for those of you who are interested.

Raffle: Our ever-enthusiastic Fundraiser, Terry Molloy, will be selling raffle tickets for $1 each.

For those of you who have never been to a meeting, this is a great way to meet current members, share and sample other homebrew or commercial beers & meads, and have some fun at the end of a long week!

Hope to see you all there

-Audrey

February 2012 Board Meeting Minutes

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February 2th 2012

In attendance: Audrey Hill-Lindsay, Dave Mauceli, Craig Corley, Carl Townsend, Victor Macias.

Not in attendance: Kurt Periolat, Terry Molloy, Dave Stickel, Dan Hakes as new By-Laws Committee chair

A. President– Audrey

1. New Board Structure: Any more support or distribution of duties needed?  Treasury- asset management might need more assistance.

2. Transparency: Publishing of board meeting minutes each month is well received thus far.  Recommend making available to only active club members though, and for things like by-laws or budget- need password or member login.

3. By-Laws: Received feedback from current board & a couple other past board members.  Committee requested & in process of being set-up, Dan Hakes appointed new chair.  First meeting scheduled Sun 2/12, 4pm @ Dan’s house.  Other committee members: Craig, Carl, Ian, Tim, Tom R., Luis, Mimi, Victor, Audrey & Dave (as Pres & VP).  Dan drafting letter to general membership to announce committee & call for other volunteers to join process.  Audrey sent Dan all drafts, sample by-laws (Tom R gave us his by-laws & articles of incorporation) & will send any other feedback received.  Email is set-up (bylaws@pacificgravity.com) and currently forwards to Audrey & Dan.  Tom Rierson proposed separating by-laws & more detailed club procedures- need to discuss at first meeting.  Goal- prepare draft for general membership review. Board set timeline for committee to follow: progress report @ March board meeting & draft ready for general membership review at April board meeting.  General membership to review in April with feedback due at end of April, only members with current dues will receive email.  Final draft published to membership by May club meeting for review & vote at June club meeting.
Read more →

Competition Corner – February, 2012

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Entries for America’s Finest City competition are due at the Culver City shop no later than Thursday, February 16th.  Two bottles are needed for each entry and the fee is $6.00.  Complete details and on-line registration can be found at   http://www.quaff.org/AFC2011/afc0.html.  We’ll be taking the entries down to San Diego in the next few days.  This is the first big competition for the 2012 Pacific Gravity Brewer of the Year award.

Also coming up is the next Club-only contest “Stout it Out Loud!” BJCP Category #13, and includes dry stout, sweet stout, oatmeal stout, foreign export stout, and imperial stout.  We will judge these at the club meeting on Thursday, February 16th.  Read more →

REMINDER: Bylaws Committee meeting at Dan’s this Sunday – call for participants.

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Greetings, all.  This is a friendly reminder that the newly-formed Bylaws committee will be havng their first meeting this Sunday the 12th at 4pm at the beautiful home of Dan & Ann Hakes’ – 2379 21st Street, Los Angeles.  For those who’ve never been there, right-hand turns from Arlington Avenue are not possible, so it’s best to go all the way up to Washington Blvd, make a right, and then circle back around to 21st Street via Cimarron Street.

One of our most important goals this year is to finalize an official club bylaws document, which will allow the club to become a legal entity with non-profit status.  Stated simply, bylaws refer to the guidelines under which an organization, its board members, and its general membership operate and conduct business.

We need the input of a wide selection of club members – from the oldest to the newest – to make this bylaws document as relevant as possible relative to where the club is today and where it’s going in the future.  If you’d like to be involved in this process, please plan on attending this meeting, we’d love to have your input!

Please send an email to bylaws@pacificgravity.com and let us know if you’ll be able to attend. Thanks for your time.

Tustin Monster Brew on March 3rd

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On March 3, 2012 the Tustin Brewing Company and its Brewmaster, PG’s Jon Porter, will be hosting their 4th 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 rye-based recipe with about 1/3rd rye malt and 1/3rd Vienna malt.  This will be a great starting point for a Roggenbier, American Rye beer, or if you are into lagers, a Vienna lager with a twist.  For you hop heads, boost up the bitterness with your favorite American hop tea to make an awesome Rye IPA.  Each person will pitch his yeast of choice, Read more →

How do I modify my wort from the Monster Brew at Tustin Brewing?

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Answer: 

I hope you are all planning to join us at Tustin Brewing’s Fourth Annual Monster Brew, Saturday, March 3rd, 2012 from 6 am to 2 pm hosted by our very own Jon Porter.  We’ll be brewing up a batch of Rye-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 →

By-Laws Committee Meeting

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The Pacific Gravity By-Laws Committee is launching into the new year!
All past committee members are invited to participate as well as any other interested Pacific Gravity member. We can use your input, especially if you have any prior experience in this type of process.
I will be chairing this committee and plan to have monthly meetings until the By-Laws are completed.
The first meeting will be held on Sunday, February 12th at my house, (address below). Start time will be 4:00 PM. Please RSVP so I have an idea how many people will be attending.

Dan Hakes
2379 W. 21st Street
Los Angeles, CA 90018
323-203-5089
danhakes@mac.com or bylaws@pacificgravity.com

Anchor Trip / COY Party Reminder!

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Photo Credit:  Orin Zebest

 

Here are some reminders and updates for the upcoming trip to Anchor Brewing in San Francisco for the Club of the Year award presentation:

For those of you who will be attending the Anchor Party on Saturday the 18th, the festivities kick off at 1pm and will wrap up about 5.  There will be lots of great beer & food, so if you plan on attending the party and will not be taking the bus up to SF, please send Audrey an email at president@pacificgravity.com so that we can give the guys up at Anchor a head count as they put the party together!

Bus tickets are $85.  You can leave your payment at CCHBS.  Please leave cash or a check in an envelope clearly marked with the names of everyone the payment is covering along with your contact information.  PLEASE pay ASAP to help those of us who are organizing the trip.

Hotel reservations MUST be made by Friday 2/3 to get the group rate.  Last I checked there were still a few (and I mean a few) rooms left in our block so if you want one, get in touch with the Carlton.

The plan is for the bus to leave CCHBS on Friday the 17th at 8:30am with an eye on being in the city by 3:30pm so as to enjoy the San Francisco Beer Week festivities.  There are no official club-sanctioned events aside from the Anchor trip, so make plans with other PG members.  We were going have an outing to Beer Revolution in Oakland, but it appears timing was bad, so that is off (although I believe a large group will be heading there Friday night).

Bus Update

The Carlton is a union hotel, as such they HAVE to remove the baggage from the
bus. Sadly this means you are on the hook for $6 for ever bag. It sucks but
there isn’t anything we can do about it. Please bring cash to pay for it.

Also, plan on bringing lunch, the Bay Bridge will be closing Friday night is it
is imperative we get up there as fast as we can. So we’ll have a quick stop to
stretch our legs, but we won’t be stopping for lunch. Far from ideal, but it
beats sitting in LA and SF traffic in one day.
 

 

February First Friday – Change In Beer Lineup.

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Hello again.  I just spoke to Rob at El Segundo Brewing.  He’s looking forward to meeting us and taking us around the brewery (if we’re there early enough – he needs to cut out for a family obligation).  Unfortunately, due to the very limited availability of Simcoe hops, the Blue House IPA won’t be on tap.  He told me he’s very happy with the recipe in its present form and didn’t want to try and “cheat” it with a different hop, so he’s waiting until he gets his next allocation to continue brewing it.

Instead, he hopes to premiere his Citra IPA with us – it’s actually slated for release the next day.  The W.I.P.A. Wheat IPA will also be on tap for anyone whose hop jones needs fixing, as will the Pale Ale and Double Stout.

Thanks again – hope to see you all there.

— Victor

February First Friday at El Segundo Brewing

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Please join us this Friday the 3rd for our monthly First Friday beer outing.  We’ll be showing our support for new local breweries (and homebrewers-gone-big!) by paying our first club visit to El Segundo Brewing Co. – brewers of “Blue House Ales”.

Rob Croxall was a longtime homebrewer before he took the necessary steps toward “living the dream” and opened the brewery in his home town of El Segundo.  On tap will be his 4 production beers: Blue House Pale Ale, Blue House IPA, White Dog W.I.P.A (a wheat IPA), and Hyperion’s Double Stout.  There may also be a “taproom only” experimental beer on.

Here are the details:

  • Date:  Friday, February 3rd.
  • Time:  Taproom hours that day are from 4:30pm to 8:30pm.  You’re welcome to arrive early, but it’s likely that many of us will get there around the official start-time of 6pm.  If we make a good showing, they may be able to stay open past 8:30 for us.
  • Food:  They’re strictly a brewery, but you’re welcome to bring your own munchies or order-in from local restaurants.
  • Location:  140 Main Street in El Segundo, 90245.  Phone is 310 529 3882.

Thanks, and hope to see you there.

— Victor