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

Competition Corner – December, 2010

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Raise your beer mug and give a toast to Jeff Koehler, the winner of the 2010 Pacific Gravity Homebrewer of the Year Award.  Jeff was honored at the Holiday Party on December 11th and presented with an engraved trophy mug.  Jeff picked up 27 points over 13 ribbons and handily beat our previous 2-time winner Chris Simenthal.

Coinciding with the periodic Club-Only contests, we have posted the club meeting tasting and keg styles of the month.  You can link to it on the left of this page, or click here:  http://pacificgravity.beerzine.com/monthly-stylesclub-only-comps/.  Every person who brings a keg Read more →

First Friday-December 3, 2010

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FIRST FRIDAY-December 3

Father’s Office-Culver City

December First Friday will be held at one of the finest gastropubs in LA, the famous F.O.

Located at 3229 Helms Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90034  (TEL: (310) 736-2224), between Venice and Washington, F.O.  is known for its Office Burger, a 12 dollar work of burger art, as well as sweet potato fries, both served without ketchup. Have some aioli, instead. There is also a great beet salad and the lamb skewers are to die for (well, almost).

Oh yeah, there are 36 beers on tap, as well as a small wine selection and a few classic cocktails such as the Old Fashioned, Manhattan, Side Car, Negroni, Martini, and Aviation, all made with top shelf ingredients.

Be sure to get there early, especially if the weather is good, since the place fills up fast on Fridays. Consider the event training for the Pacific Gravity Holiday Party.

Hope you can stop Christmas shopping long enough to make it.

Michael Steinberg

PG Activities Director

Holiday Party Set Up

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 Our annual Holiday Party is rapidly approaching and it takes a lot of effort to put together.  As with all our parties, we count on club members to volunteer to help out.  There are a number of ways you can volunteer to help.  We need help with set up and clean up, we need members to bring potluck dishes for our feast, we need members to donate beer and we need assorted equipment.

Set Up and Clean Up

We’ll be doing two rounds of set up for the party and we’ll need help for both on Sunday, Dec 5th at noon we’ll be meeting at Neil’s duplex to do an initial setup.  We’re planning on setting up most of our equipment and decorating the house and our Christmas tree.  Everybody who shows up is encouraged to bring a can or two of beer with them, we plan on emptying the cans and using the empty cans as decorations on our Christmas tree like last year.

On Saturday, Dec 11th in the afternoon we’ll be meeting at Neil’s duplex to do final set up.

On Sunday, Dec 12th at 11 am we’ll meet at Neil’s duplex to clean up alter the party.  We always need lots of people to help with clean up and the more we get the faster it goes.

If you’d like to volunteer for set up or clean up contact:  Michael Steinberg at ActivitiesDirector@PacificGravity.com.

Potluck and Food

The menu should reflect past Holiday Parties featuring Prime Rib, Carbonnades ala Flamande, roast & deep fried turkeys, spiced ham and much more!  As is customary with our holiday parties, this is a potluck event, the club supplies the main dishes and we count on members to provide the side dishes, salads and deserts.  So if you have a favorite family holiday recipe and want to share it with the rest of us, this is your time to shine!

Please remember to label any dishes, utensils, etc. that you bring so that we can get them back to you.

If you’d like to volunteer food for the party contact: Ian Fraser at MasterChef@PacificGravity.com or Michael Steinberg at ActivitiesDirector@PacificGravity.com.

Beer

We also need beer for this event, lots of beer!  Or mead!  Or cider!  We’re counting on you to provide it. So pull out your kegs and dig deep in your closet for those old tasty bottled treasures and bring them along!   Please let us know what and how much homebrew you’re planning on bringing.  Loaner kegs are available for those who are not so equipped.

Any of you who have already volunteered kegs should drop them off at the shop by Thursday, Dec 10th or bring them to Neil’s Saturday afternoon before the party.

We’ll be dispensing a lot of beer and will need more taps, jockey boxes and dispensing equipment than we currently have.  If you can volunteer dispensing equipment or can bring your new club jockey box, please let Carl know.

Please remember to label any kegs or dispensing equipment that you bring so that we can get them back to you.

If you’d like to volunteer beer for the party, contact Carl Townsend at CompetitionCoordinator@PacificGravity.com.

Equipment

We’re still looking for some assorted equipment.  Please let us know if you can volunteer any of the following:

  • PA System
  • Folding tables
  • Patio heaters
  • Jockey boxes/beer dispensing equipment
  • Christmas lights/decorations

Any of you who will be volunteering equipment should try to bring it to Neil’s this Sunday, Dec 5th or Saturday, Dec 11th in the afternoon before the party.

Again, please remember to label any equipment that you bring so that we can get them back to you.

If you’d like to volunteer equipment contact:  Michael Steinberg at ActivitiesDirector@PacificGravity.com.

And finally, if you’re volunteering equipment, kegs or food, plan on picking up your items at the Sunday clean up. We really don’t have any capacity to store items that are not picked up.

Neil Saund’s duplex is located at:  12966 Rubens Ave. Los Angeles, CA

It is the house on the SE corner of Alla Rd. and Rubens Ave.

The Holiday Party Is Coming!

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The Holiday party is fast approaching and we need your help!  The party is set for December 11th this year.  Once again we will be hosted by Neil Saund at his Holiday Party Duplex.  Neil’s address is 12966 Rubens Ave. Los Angeles, CA.  The party will start around 7 PM and continue on until midnight.  

The food is mostly traditional style holiday dishes, I expect we will see things like deep-fried turkey’s, baked ham, Carbonnades a la Flamande and prime rib served with sides like stuffing, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, many kinds of vegetables and salads and breads.  Plus the desserts!  Bread pudding, pies, cakes, cookies and cupcakes!  The desserts last year were amazing and I did not even get to try them all!

I need your help with the pot luck.  What I am hoping to do is have a similar type of sign up as we did for the summer party.  If you can make a dish, any dish, please let me know and I will add you to the master food list.  You can email me at masterchef@pacificgravity.com just give me your name and which dish you plan to bring.  I will coordinate the list and update the group as to things we may need.   I am hoping that the guests will bring items like mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, yams and sweet potatoes, salads and desserts.  If you have a special holiday dish or food tradition I would love to try it, so bring it on!

We are cooking for 250 party goers but don’t let that scare you!  I am not trying to get one person to make all the food, but rather I am hoping we can get many members to make a single batch that when added all together will be our feast!  If you can make a large batch (or even a small batch) of any of the above items I want to hear from you!

Cheers, thank you and see you there!

Ian

Documentary being shot at club meeting tonight

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Hey everyone! Tonight we are going to have a film maker from USC shooting some footage for a documentary on homebrewing. She will mostly be shooting our meeting and possibly doing some short interviews. If you do not wish to be on camera please let myself or Peigi know and we will make sure that you are not included in the footage. Thanks and see you all tonight!