February First Friday: February 4th at Bar Food in WLA!

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Thanks to all of you who came out for our January First Friday at the 4 Points Sheraton at LAX on 1/7/11. Good times & good beers were had by all! We enjoyed the special night with 50% off both food & beer (both draft & bottles), plus the free parking. We had an excellent turnout – probably one of the largest First Friday gatherings in Pacific Gravity’s history! We also enjoyed sharing the night with some of the SouthBay Strand Home Brewers.

Let’s keep the good times rolling! Mark your calendars for our next First Friday on February 4th at Bar Food in West Los Angeles. Officially, our First Friday begins at 7pm but you are welcome to come as early at 5pm when Bar Food opens. Actually, you are encouraged to go early in order to get a good start on your weekend and enjoy the Happy Hour food specials as well as to help reserve some space for our PG group!

Drink specials are available all night! They have 24 taps! And, you can get a free hot dog with the purchase of 2 beers. Food specials are only available from 5pm to 7pm but prices are reasonable for their tasty Pub Grub after 7pm.

Bar Food is located at:
12217 Wilshire Blvd. (just west of Bundy Dr.)
Los Angeles, CA 90025
http://www.barfoodla.com/

Looking forward to seeing you all on February 4th at Bar Food!
Cheers,
PG Activity Directors, Mimi & Audrey

Road Trip Scheduled for March 26

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We will be having our first road trip of the year on March 26. The trip will be behind the Orange Curtain to visit two great breweries:

TAPS in Orange – TAPS took home some serious hardware at this years GABF – including Gold for their Belgian White and the Small Brewpub of the Year award. Take a look at the medals on their beer list, it’s scary.

The Bruery in Placentia – A favorite of many PGers, The Bruery has been cranking out amazing and creative beers since they opened (3 ounces of Black Tuesday changed my life). PGer Ben Weiss has even agreed to open early for us so we’ll have the run of the place AND he said he’d try to have something special on tap for us as well.

We are going to leave CCHBS at 10:30, have lunch at TAPS and then head over to the Bruery. We should be back at the store by 5:15 or so.

The best part? $20. Seriously, you’d be crazy not to go.

Sign up via Paypal (95 cent transaction fee applies), or bring cash or check to the meeting to reserve your spot!

If you have questions you can email me at roadtripcoordinator@pacificgravity.com.

Monthly Meeting-January 20, 2011

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I’d like to welcome all Pacific Gravity members to our first meeting of 2011. This month’s style is English and Scottish Ales. Our Style Tasting Host this month is Tom Rierson, one of the most knowledgeable members  of our club in the area of British Ales and Lagers.

Activities Directors Audrey Hill-Lindsay and Mimi Bardet will be bringing a Ploughman’s Lunch for us, as well as some other snacks.

Terry Molloy will be selling raffle tickets ($1), and handing out some great prizes. Donations of excess equipment, or glasses is always welcome.

Announcements this month include information about our Anniversary Club Brew, and First Road Trip of the year.

Bring cash or check if you want to be among the first to reserve a spot for these sure to be great events.

The meeting commences at 7:30pm out back of Culver City Home Brew Supply, the PG home away from home.

Bring kegs of beer to share, sample, or have “judged” by your fellow club members. A $25 gift certificate will be given to the brewer whose beer is voted “Best of Meeting.”

Competition Corner – January 2011

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We start out the 2011 homebrew competition schedule at our club meeting on Thursday, January 20th with a Club-Only competition; this time the “Battle of the Bitters”, English Pale Ales, BJCP Category #8.  This includes bitter, best bitter and ESB in addition to English Pale.   If you have any one of these three (or more than one) bring three 12 oz. bottles to the meeting and make sure you let Carl know they are here.  If possible, please also fill out an entry form, which you can download from http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/attachments/0000/0326/entry_recipe.pdf.  The club picks up the entry fee, so it is free to you.  If your entry is selected, we’ll ship off the two remaining bottles to the national judging site.  If you lose, you can take back the two extra bottles.  Or if you prefer, you can pop them open to console your losses.

The entry deadline for America’s Finest City competition has been set for Friday February 4th.  Read more →

It’s Official: The 2011 Southern California Homebrewers Festival

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SCHBF 2009

A view of the festival in 2009

SCHBF: April 29th – May 1st, 2011

Pacific Gravity will once again join hundreds of fellow homebrewers at the Lake Casitas Recreation Area in Ojai, California, for the 21st Southern California Homebrewers Festival.

Something on the order of 40 homebrewing clubs from SoCal and points further will be pouring home-brewed ales, lagers, meads, and other fermented potables on Saturday, the 30th of April, from 11am to 10pm, but as those of you who’ve attended in the past know, we make a weekend of it. We’ve once again secured the Owl Court group campsite, so round up your tent and camping gear and join us.

We typically arrive on the Friday afternoon before and depart for home on the Sunday after the festival. There are also hotels in nearby Ojai for those disinclined to camp.

Renew your CHA membership now!

Membership in the California Homebrewers Association (CHA) is required for entry into the festival, and those memberships are on sale now. There will be no memberships sold at the festival – no exceptions.

Memberships purchased before January 31st will cost $40; $45 if purchased by February 28th, and $50 thereafter, up until the day before the festival, at which point no more memberships will be sold. You can also sign up to volunteer at the festival and this will gain you free entry.

Owl Court

We will be returning to Owl Court group site

Volunteer registration isn’t open just yet, but FYI – you’ll be required to put in a 2-hour shift, and typical volunteer tasks include working the registration table, helping at the ice truck, parking assistance, and cleanup on Sunday.

If you know that you’ll be attending the Festival but not volunteering, you’re encouraged to purchase your CHA membership soon, as these early memberships will aid the CHA in the preliminary stages of the organization and planning of the festival.

And then there’s the beer…

Pacific Gravity always has a great showing, and this year should be no different. We have many talented brewers in our club, and we encourage you to contribute a keg for the cause. The club dispense system (CDS) has been upgraded with a new expansion box, so we now have a total of 22 thirsty taps to provide for. In addition, we’ll need kegs for the group campsite, so fire up your kettles and get on with it.

We’ll begin providing sign-up sheets at the January meeting, and ideally, we should strive to have a lot of diversity in our offerings and some unusual beers as well. There are some other things to consider – most attendees will be required to pay for parking this year – $60 for the weekend, so carpooling will make a lot of sense.

We’re working toward making this year’s festival experience affordable, flexible, and the most enjoyable ever for all attending – please stay tuned for details. For more information and to purchase your membership, visit calhomebrewers.org

Brew & Mead Day

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Hello fellow Gravitiers,

There will be a brewing and mead making day at the wonderful host Neil
Saund’s house on Sunday January 23rd. Though it is not an official
club sponsored event, this will be an opportunity for those of you who
are interested in learning to make mead to gain some insight into the
process & even make a first batch. There will also be a number of
others brewing beer for your edification & experience. If you are
interested in either brewing or mead making, please email the
Activities Directors at: ActivitiesDirector@pacificgravity.com to
reserve a space.

Neil has kindly offered to help provide the honey & yeast for the
mead, but all brewers will need to supply their own equipment and the
Activities Directors can help you in understanding what you need to
bring to the event.

This will take place at Neil’s town house, same as the Christmas
Party, in Marina Del Rey. The address is: 12966 Rubens Ave, Los
Angeles, CA 90066.

There will be BBQ’s to grill on, so please bring proteins or veggies
of your choice and of course any other munchies you see fit to share
throughout the day. And of course beer in any fashion is welcome,
though if you need a jockey box to dispense it through, again please
email the Activities Directors at the address above.

Brewing will begin about 10am and continue throughout the day. If you
can let us know of your interest and attendance we can make sure that
everyone will have a space to brew, mentor to learn to make mead from
and supplies to serve food & beer from.

Happy New Year & Let’s kick off a wonderful year of Pacific Gravity in
2011. Thanks again to our host Neil Saund.
-Audrey & Mimi

First Friday at Four Points LAX

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Hi & Happy New Year to Pacific Gravity members!

Please come join us for a very special First Friday — this Friday, January 7th!

As new co-Activities Directors, Audrey and I are very excited about our first event. Please come out & join us for a fun First Friday. And, thanks to our new President, Mike Steinberg, for getting this special event setup.

Some quick facts:
Date: Friday, January 7th
Time: 6pm to 9pm for special discounts (but you are welcome to go any time Friday evening!)
Location: Best BrewsBar in the Four Points by Sheraton LAX Hotel (aka Brewsters)
Address: 9750 Airport Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90045
Website: http://www.fourpointslax.com/BestBrews

Parking: FREE (you can have your parking ticket validated at the bar)

Special Pricing on BEER & FOOD from 6pm to 9pm! 50% OFF!

Looking forward to ringing in the new PG year with all of you on Friday!
Cheers!
Mimi & Audrey

How do I do a high gravity mash?

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Answer: There are several techniques that can be used, depending on the approach you want to use and the equipment you have available.  These include the no-sparge method, the long boil method and the parti-gyle method.  Today I’ll describe another method which goes by the name of double brew method by Randy Mosher, or the reiterated mash method as described by Chris Colby of BYO.  The double brew method has the advantage Read more →

President’s Message

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It’s nearly 2011, and I thought it would be a good idea to present a short overview of what Pacific Gravity members can expect for the coming year.

First, thanks to our 2010 Co-Presidents, Nathalie Balandran-Caldwell and Peigi Robinson for leading us in 2010. They were PG’s first co-presidents, and the first women to step up to the plate and lead the club. My thanks go out to them for all their hard work.

To start off with, we have some major events coming up early in the year.

January will be a planning month, and we will get the ball rolling on the rest of the year. Your new board includes yours truly, Reed Wilson-Vice President, and Audrey Hill-Lindsay and Mimi Bardet assuming the Activities Directors chores.

To start off with, our Anniversary Club Brew will be another Tustin Brewing Monster Brew event. The date has been set, February 26. The recipe has not yet been formulated but will be made available, along with doctoring suggestions, at least one week prior to the event.

March will include our first road trip of the year. We have not yet locked in the destinations, but at the top of the list is an Orange County trip. It will take place the 3rd or 4th Saturday of the month.

April 29-May 1 is the Southern California Homebrew Festival, held again at Lake Casitas. We should also organize another club brew in May, in order to brew some of those beers for the AHA, competitions, and Summer Party.

June 16-19 is the AHA Conference, held in San Diego. PG plans on having a big turnout for this one, and we’ll be serving beers in the Hospitality Suite, as well as taking part in Club Night.

Depending on Dean Sussman’s schedule, we will have our Summer Party in either July or August. The date will probably be decided by mid June.

In September (date TBD) Pacific Gravity will be hosting the Pacific Brewer’s Cup. We will need a great deal of help from the membership in order to make this event successful. Available positions are Competition Coordinator, Sales, Judge Coordinator, Chief Steward, as well as judges, stewards, and worker bees.

December will bring us back to the Holiday Party, and year’s end.

As usual, we will have our monthly meetings at Culver City Home Brew Supply, the third Thursday of every month, First Fridays, Chili cookoff, and at least one other club brew and road trip.

Finally, I’d like you to offer the club any help you can during the year. The Board, along with assistance always offered by some longtime members, cannot accomplish all the work of our club. Help and expertise is always needed. We have many talented artists, techies, and writers in our club, and I’d appreciate it if those members would let the Board know how they can help us during the upcoming year.

Further information on all of the above will be published in the Club Calendar, and in forthcoming articles. If you have event suggestions, wish to volunteer, or just have questions, please contact me or any of the Board members.

Now, let’s hoist one and toast Pacific Gravity!

Cheers!

Michael Steinberg

President, Pacific Gravity Homebrew Club

First Friday-January 7, 2011

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  Welcome to 2011, and First Friday, Graviteers!

 Thanks to Phil Baxter, General Manager of the 4 Points by Sheraton LAX, we are going to have a very special event to start off the New Year.

After a hiatus from the 4 Points, Phil has returned and wants to return to those thrilling days of yesteryear, when Pacific Gravity members made regular pilgrimages to what is the finest hotel beer bars in Los Angeles. The bar was remodeled in the last year or two, and is now a very comfortable venue, especially given the rainy weather potential.

In order to entice us to make Brewster’s a regular watering hole for lovers of great beers, Phil has offered us 50% off ALL beer and food, from 6pm-9pm. In addition he will arrange for free parking for PG members and our guests for the evening.

The 4 Points and Brewster’s is located at 9750 Airport Blvd, Los Angeles 90045.

Brewster’s has 7 taps as well as a great list of American Craft beers, Belgians, and German brews in bottle. 
A light food menu is available, including appetizers, sandwiches, burgers, nachos, etc.

The event begins at 6PM, although no one will complain if you show up early. We want to have a big turnout for this special event. It is rare to be extended such a generous offer of half price beer and food for a First Friday, so I’d like as many of you to show up as possible.

See you there.

 Michael Steinberg

President, Pacific Gravity