April Club Meeting-Thursday April 15 @ 7:30

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The April club meeting will be on Thursday, April 15th from 7:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. at Culver City Home Brewing Supply. Extract Beers will be our style of the month and as always we’ll have some homebrewed beers on tap to complement our monthly commercial style tasting. Nathalie Caldwell will be guiding us on a tour of Smoke-Flavored/Wood-Aged Beers,and Specialty Beers for our style tasting and is certain to provide some interesting examples.

Please remember to bring some of your homebrew to share with us! All styles are welcome and you don’t have to bring a whole keg. You can bring the brews you’ve bottled, too!  Of course, any Extract Beers brought in kegs will be considered for the contest and the winner will receive a $25 gift certificate to the shop.

As always we’ll be giving away lots of club swag and beer/brewing related goodies in our monthly raffle.  Your donations to the raffle are always welcome and needed.

Competition! We are doing a Club-Only competition for Extract Beers, extract makes up at least 50% of the fermentables. If you have an extract beer bring three 12 oz. bottles to the meeting and make sure you let Carl Townsend (competitioncoordinator@pacificgravity.com) know they are here.

Carl Townsend will also have a sign-up for a preliminary judging session for Mayfaire, which will be held at the Culver City Shop on Sunday, April 18th at 5:00 PM.

March (dues) Madness Continues! Didn’t renew your membership in March? April is a great month for renewing, too! Renew your membership online or talk to Craig Corley (treasurer@pacificgravity.com) at the meeting to make sure your dues are paid and your information is up-to-date!

Club Shirts for Sale! Show your PG pride by wearing yours to Thursday’s meeting or, if you don’t have already have one, get one at the meeting. Short-sleeve shirts are $20 and Long-sleeve shirts are $30

*Josh Jensen (schbf@pacificgravity.com) will be taking sign-ups and payment for the Southern California Homebrew Festival camping. Please bring him $50 if you’d like to sign up. Deadline to pay for camping is April 22nd. There will be quick side meeting after the main announcements for those going to the fest. If you are already signed up, watch for an email from Josh on Monday with directions, stuff to bring, etc. Don’t forget to buy your membership to CHA to get your ticket for Saturday.
www.calhomebrewers.org

Competition Corner – April 2010

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Here we are in the rapidly-warming month of April and we are in the thick of the homebrew competition season.  Coming up this Saturday, April 10th is the due date for Maltose Falcon’s Mayfaire competition.  We are collecting entries for this at the Culver City shop.  On-line sign up is here:    http://maltosefalcons.com/comps/2010Mayfaire Note that the Falcons use their own style guidelines, which you can find here:  http://www.maltosefalcons.com/comps/styles/2010-falcons-style-guidelines . The entry fee is $7.00 and you need 3 bottles for each entry.  This is a local competition and they’ll need lots of judges.  We will do a preliminary round on Read more →

First Friday April 2nd

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This month we’re all going to Stout, in West Hollywood.

Well known for their Burgers, and having a good beer lineup to go with the food, here’s a place for you Mid Town people to go.

The following is from the LA Time Article November 20, 2009:

“Taking over the former Karma Coffehouse in Hollywood’s Cahuenga Corridor, he and partner Charles Lew, 34, both of whom are lawyers turned bar/restaurant owners, wanted to open a neighborhood place where they could pair high-end burgers with adventurous beers. Dominated by a copper and oak half-circle bar, Stout has 30 taps that pour beers such as Port Hop 15, Saison Dupont and Delirium Tremens. The menu offers nine standard burgers along with suggested beers for each. With the Six Weeker, a coarsely ground, 6-ounce burger dressed with fig compote, arugula, melted brie and caramelized onions ($10) Stout recommends either a Brother David, a rich, light and moderately malted Belgian ale, or a Scaldes, a high-alcohol, heavily malted Belgian dark ale with fruit flavors. Stout has 10 additional 750ml bottled beers ($20 to $50) and six wines ($6 to $13 a glass).”

Address: 1544 North Cahuenga Blvd (near Selma).

View Larger Map

AHA Competition Entries Due This Friday 3-26

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Entries for the world’s largest homebrew competition are due by this Friday, March 26th:  the American Homebrewers Association’s National Homebrew Competition.  Entries for this event must be registered on-line at http://www.brewingcompetition.com/NHC/nhc.php .  You only need to submit one bottle per entry for this round, but if you beer advances to the finals, you need to have three more, which will be due in early June.  Cost for each entry is $9.00 for AHA members or $14.00 for non-members, and must be paid with the on-line site.  Make sure you are registering for the Southwest region.  Bring your bottles to the Culver City shop by this Friday, March 26th and we’ll transport them down to San Diego for you.

Technically, you can register your beers up through April 1st at 5:00 PM Pacific time, but you’ll be on your own to ship them down the San Diego.

Do the Dues!

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It’s March and that means its time for our annual Pacific Gravity membership dues collection.  All club members need to pay their dues to keep their membership active until March 2011.  Dues are $30 for the year and are prorated for members who joined the club within the last year.

Club Treasurer, Craig Corley will be collecting dues at our March 18th club meeting.  Can’t make the meeting, there are a number of other ways you can pay your dues. You can go old school and send Pacific Gravity a check to PO Box 2451, Culver City CA 90231.  You can drop off your dues the next time you’re shopping at Culver City Home Brewing Supply. And for the ultimate in convenience, you can renew your dues online via Paypal on the club website ( http://pacificgravity.beerzine.com/renew-your-membership/ ), just click on Renew.

All current club members should have gotten a renewal notice via email detailing their dues renewal amount and member information on file. This is a good opportunity to update our membership records, so please let Craig know of any changes to your member information (address, email, phone, etc) or include changes with your check/renewal form.

Keep in mind that your dues are the primary way we fund such club activities as club parties, monthly meetings, club brews and much more.  Your paid membership also ensures that you’ll continue to receive the many club benefits available like discounts on your purchases at Culver City Home Brewing Supply as well as access to the club brewing system, various brewing activities and information.

Have questions about your dues or how much you owe? Check with Craig at the March club meeting or by email at Treasurer@PacificGravity.com.

Competition Corner – March 2010

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For many beer drinkers, March is associated with the consumption of mass quantities of Guinness Stout, or, all too often, fizzy yellow beer that has been colored to make it green.  For those of us in homebrew clubs, however, March is the warm-up month for homebrew competition season. Read more →

First Friday, March 5th

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If it’s March it MUST be Irish Times. As usual, PG will begin its month long St. Patrick’s Day at First Friday, 3/5. For those of you who have never been there, Irish Times is one of the premier Irish bars on the West Side. It has long been known for corectly pouring a Guiness. It takes a 2 full minutes, and the wait is well worth the time. The food menu is moderately priced,  with the usual burgers and fish & chips.

The bar is conveniently located at 3267 Motor Ave, just North of the corner of National and Motor.

Parking is in the street.

Official start time is 7, but if you want faster bar and food service get there a little earlier.

March First Friday

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If it’s March it MUST be Irish Times. As usual, PG will begin its month long St. Patrick’s Day at First Friday, 3/5. For those of you who have never been there, Irish Times is one of the premier Irish bars on the West Side. It has long been known for corectly pouring a Guiness. It takes a 2 full minutes, and the wait is well worth the time. The food menu is moderately priced, with the usual burgers and fish & chips.
The bar is conveniently located at 3267 Motor Ave, just North of the corner of National and Motor.
Parking is in the street.
Official start time is 7, but if you want faster bar and food service get there a little earlier.

Special Vote for Brewer of the Year Rules

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On Thursday, February 18th at the Club meeting, we will hold a special vote for the Brewer of the Year Rules.  The ballot language is included below.  Please review the issue now, so that you are prepared to vote. Voting at the club meeting will be conducted by written ballots at approximately 8:15 PM and results will be announced by 9:30 PM.  If you cannot attend the meeting, you have the option of voting on-line.   You can vote at any time by sending an e-mail to elections@pacificgravity.com .  Place the word “Vote” in the Subject line and either “Yes” or “No” in the body of the text.  On-line ballots must be submitted by 7:30 PM on Thursday February 18th.  If you vote on-line, you cannot vote at the meeting. Read more →

How Do I Modify My Tustin Monster Brew?

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I hope you are all planning to join us at Tustin Brewing’s Second Annual Monster Brew, on February 27th, hosted by our very own Jon Porter.  We’ll be brewing up a batch of medium-gravity amber 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 other beer venues.

The recipe for the wort is shown below.  This year, we are going with a simple Blond Ale recipe.  Like last year, though, it is deliberately formulated so that you can use your own creativity as broadly as possible.  The wort will have a starting gravity of 1.050, 30 IBUs of bitterness and a color of about 5 SRM.  A lot of different beers can be made out of this.  With a bit of tweaking, you can make just about anything.  Here are some ideas on what to do.

1)  Pick a yeast.  The wort comes unpitched, so at a minimum, you have to get some yeast for brewing day.  If you pitch with the Wyeast 1056 Amierican Ale, or White Labs 001 California Ale yeast, you’ll have a pretty good middle-of-the-road Blonde Ale.  But don’t stop there.  If you have ever though about trying a new yeast, this is a great time to try it.  Just make sure you are set up to use it.  Don’t pick a lager yeast if you don’t have refrigeration for your fermenter.   Also, for best results, make up a starter the day before brew day.

2)  Make it stronger.  Styles such as IPA, Barleywine, Belgian Tripel can be made by adding some malt extract or Belgian candi sugar.  Just boil up a small amount of water and extract and boil for about 10 to 15 minutes, to make sure it is sterile.  Cool, and add to your fermenter.

3)  Make it darker.  Pick a dark grain like roast barley, Special B, chocolate malt or Carafa.  Steep in hot water, then strain out the grains and boil the liquid.  Voila, instant dark beer!   Last year, my Schwarzbier come out terrific.  Another variant is to add some melanoidin malt to make some of the malty German lagers.

4)  Dry hop it.   The recipe this year has no finishing hops, though it does have a healthy dose of American flavoring hops.   You can go American for American Pale or Amber Ale, British hops for ESB, or you can go with Continental Noble hops for something like Saison.

5)  Boost the bitterness or hop flavor.   You’ll have to do this if you want to get to IPA range, and I also recommend it for ESB, Robust Porter, Altbier and several other styles.  Boil up a small amount of water and add hops to make a hop tea.  Boil for at least half an hour with high alpha hops to raise the IBU level.  Boil for 10 to 15 minutes with your favorite hop variety to boost the flavor.  Note that this will boost the IBU level by a smaller amount.

6)  Do combinations of the above.  Suppose you want to make an American Barleywine out of the wort.  Boil up some malt extract, add some hops to boost the bitterness and flavor during the boil.  Cool and add to the fermentor.  Then, dry hop in secondary.

The attached table has a list of some of the interesting combinations you can do.  I came up with 20 variations without even breaking a sweat.  You can probably come up with even more.

You’ll want to pitch your yeast as soon as you get your wort home.  For most of the variations, you should plan of adjusting the wort at the same time, though you could wait a day or so.  Make sure you get it going before primary fermentation is done, since the yeast will need to work on the additional materials.

So, start whipping up your recipe now.   Hope to see you on the 27th.

Got a question for the Brewmaster?  Drop me a line at brewmaster@picobrewery.com.  Also, an archive of prior questions can be found at the Picobrewery website at http://www.picobrewery.com.

Monster Brew 2 Recipe for 16 Barrels (496 gallons):

660 lbs 2-Row Pale  Malt
55   lbs 17oL Crystal Malt
55   lbs 37oL Crystal Malt
55   lbs  3 oL Vienna Malt
32 Oz Chinook 11.4% First Wort/Boil
50 Oz Simcoe 12.2% at 15 minutes
50 Oz Cascade  7.8% at 15 minutes

Vital Statistics:

OG:  1.050
FG:  1.012
Color:  5 SRM
IBU: 30

Guidelines for modifying your wort:

Beer Style Yeast Grain/sugar Hops Fermentation
Amiercan Pale Ale Amer Ale Dry-Amarillo Med
American Amber Amer Ale Crystal Cascade Med
California Common CA Lager Northern Brewer Cool
IPA AM Ale or Eng Liquid malt Extract (LME) Tea/Dry Amarillo Med
Altbier German Ale Melanoidin Hallertauer Cool
Porter English Chocolate Med
Dry Strout Irish Roast Barley Med
Export Stout Irish Roast Barley, LME Med
Imperial Stout Irish LME, Roast barley Tea/Goldings Med
Old Ale English LME Tea/Fuggles Med
Barleywine AM Ale or Eng LME Tea/Centenniel Med
Belgian Pale Ale Antwerp Bel Biscuit Warm
Belgian Dubbel Abbey Dark Candi, Special B Warm
Belgian Strong Dark Trappist Dark Candi, Special B, CaraMunich Warm
Tripel Golden Light Candi Warm
Saison Saison Dry-Saaz Warm
Vienna Lager Vienna Munich or Vienna Cold
Oktoberfest Oktoberfest Melanoidin Cold
Munich Dunkel Munich Lager Melanoidin Cold
Schwarzbier Munich Lager Carafa Cold