Belated Southern California Homebrew Fest Report

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On the first weekend in May, Pacific Graviteers gathered at their Fortress of Solitude (Lake Casitas’ Owl Creek Campground) for the 2010 Southern California Homebrew Festival.

Our beer heroes (beeros, much more powerful than winos) led as always by Josh “Beer Viking” Jensen, brought along 22 examples of superbrewing, which included a Maibock (Carl), an Imperial Stout (Bob K.), an English Mild (Bakofskys); a Tangerine Wit (Bob H.) and many others (see photo).  Ian “Safetyman” Fraser kept us extra-safely sustained with a fabulous menu: Friday night we feasted on pulled pork, sausage explosion or Portobello mushroom sandwiches served with coleslaw and broccoli slaw (prepared by Mimi “The Smiler” Bardet); Saturday morning we indulged in two kinds of fried rice (meat and a veggie/fish version) and eggs; Saturday evening we over-indulged on two types of steak, two types of salmon, fresh grilled bluefin and yellowtail tuna (courtesy of Bob “Zenbrewer” Kaisaki), roasted garlic potatoes, salad with blue cheese or green goddess dressing, and enough desserts to choke a legion of superbeeros; Sunday morning we breakfasted on bagels with smoked salmon plus leftover salmon and tuna from the night before, scrambled eggs and an array of fruit.

A few memorable moments: The Hill-Lindsays—Linda “The Gadfly,” Audrey “The Listener,” and Carmen “The Wanderer”—fortifying us Friday night with Powerful Spirits and Rum Balls ; Mike “The Talker”  Steinberg reciting from memory the opening prologue to TVs “Superman”; Vic “Rasputin” Macias sharing with us each morning the home-roasted coffee that makes him, as his superbeero name suggests, unkillable; PG co-president Peigi “X-Mormon” Robinson leading us like the Donner party into the brewfest; Dean “Summerpartyman” Sussman pretending (for about ten minutes) that he’d rather lounge about camp than go to the fest; Bob “The Electrician” Henderson once again generously tattooing young women; Carl “The Chemist” Townsend fooling us all for a moment by pretending not to know the exact recipe of something he was tasting; Terry “El Leprechaun Grande” exhausted after a day pouring too many pots of gold, Tim “Soccerboy” Bardet and Bob “Silentman” Partridge actually talking—a lot!, and Neil “the Durnk” Saund communicating with invisible spirits through a language only he and they understand.

If you have yet to attend the homebrew fest, despair not!  Be assured that next year the beeroic Graviteers will once again stumble forward in their never-ending battle for Malt, Hops, and the Homebrewers Way!

June 26 Big Brew and Jockey Box Project

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In addition to the Jockey Box Construction Project, being held at my house on June 26, we will be having a Club Big Brew on the same day.

The Jockey Box portion of the event is being organized by Tom Rierson and Carl Townsend. See Carl’s separate article for details.

This event will be a multi brewer Big Brew, as opposed to a single “Club Brew”. People bring their equipment and brew outdoors on my driveway. There is room for 6-8 brewers, and reservations are a must.

Word has it that many PG  members have expressed interest in learning how to brew all grain beer. In response, there will be one member brewing an all grain batch and giving instructions. It’s always possible that there will be other all grain brewers, in addition to partial mash and extract brewers.

The event begins at 10am, and ends when the last brewer and Jockey Box maker is finished. The time should be around 5 or 6pm. As usual, anyone who wants to show up earlier is welcome do do so, since I’ll be up and brewing by 7am.

FOOD: Will be served. Snacks and lunch will be available. Any attendee bringing food and beer will be given a special commendation, and will be able to drink beer at the event 🙂

BEER: As with any PG event the beer will be supplied by whoever shows up. Bring kegs, bottles, or growlers. Maybe we’ll be able to test some of the Jockey Boxes at the event.

Address: 10754 Barman Ave. Culver City. That’s across the street from Vet’s Park, between Overland and Coombs. Look for the RV in the street.

SIGN UP: Please send an E-mail to me at ActivitiesDirector@PacificGravity.com

Hope you can make it.

Michael Steinberg, PG Activities Director

First Friday, June 4-Brewster’s

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It’s 1st Friday again boys and girls!

Join me and the gang at Brewster’s, in the 4 Points by Sheraton LAX, located at 9750 Airport Blvd,

 Los Angeles 90045.

In the past Brewster’s was a regular watering hole for the PG crowd, and we always had a great time on Friday.
The management would like us to return to the newly remodeled bar, one of LA’s preeminent hotel based beer bars.

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, etc.

As usual, the event begins at 7PM, although no one will complain if you show up early.

See you there.

How do I build a Jockey Box?

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This Month’s Question:  How do I build a Jockey Box?

 

Answer: The simple answer to this is to join us on Jockey Box Day, Saturday, June 26th at Mike Steinberg’s house.   You bring a cooler, and we’ll bring a bunch of supplies, so at the end of the day you can head home with a new portable beer serving system.  Let us know ahead of time how many taps you want, so we can plan accordingly.  We’ll have a sign-up sheet at the May Club meeting on Thursday, May 20thBuild your own on Jockey Box Day June 26th. Read more →

April 2010 PG Meeting Recap

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The Pacific Gravity’s April meeting was another great night. Beer made with extracts was the style, so it was pretty wide open.  There was an IPA from Michael Lambert and one from Ed Lee, Michael Steinburg brought a mild, Kurt, Dave and Noel teamed up on a Vanilla Porter and Dave Lasdon brought an Oatmeal Stout.  Thanks to all for bringing beer to the meeting.

Michael Steinberg set out a spread of snacks.  We had a selection of cheeses and crackers, with popcorn on the side.  Thanks Michael.

The business part of the meeting involved all the upcoming events and contests on the schedule.  The big event is the Southern California Homebrewers Festival, and it will be a not to be missed event.  If you have never been, you don’t know what you’re missing, it’s an epic weekend of homebrew, friends, homebrew, food, homebrew, music and homebrew!

The Style of the Month Commercial Tasting was presented by Nathalie Baldaran.  The style was Smoke, Wood Aged and Specialty beer and we sampled a nice selection.  We started with the Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier and then moved on to the Alaskan Smoked Porter.  The Aged Pale Ale by Petrus was next, followed by Deschutes Brewery’s Jubel 2010.  Up next was Schneider Weiss Hopfen Weiss and last but not least was Bootleggers Black Phoenix, a chipotle coffee stout.

After the commercial tasting, we sample more beer, lots of club members were breaking out bottles of homebrew.  This led up to the raffle and we gave out plenty of prizes, including a carboy and a wort chiller.

Then there was a vote for the best  in-style kegged beer of the meeting and the winner was Kurt, Dave and Noel with their Vanilla Porter. Put the $25.00 gift certificate to good use.

See you at the next meeting!

Ladies club meeting next thursday!

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Hey ladies interested in meeting other female brewers? Come and check out Pacific gravity’s ladies club Thursday May 13th at 7:30 at the Culver city homebrew supply. We will be brewing and of course tasting beer! Please email Nathalie at ladiesevents@pacificgravity.com for more information and to get put on the mailing list.

First Friday, May 7, 2010

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  May First Friday we’re going to one of our most popular destinations,
The Richmond Bar and Grill in El Segundo.
Jeff and Patty always set us up with a special keg or two, and this time
promises to be at least as good as past events.

Beer is served in pitchers for our group, and we pay up at the end.
The food is very moderately priced, with almost everything less than 10
bucks.
Burgers, salads, chili dog, and sandwiches are generous, and the service
is excellent.

There are no credit purchases, so bring cash.
If you forget your money, there is an ATM on premises.

For those who have never been to the Richmond, it’s a unique
neighborhood bar in downtown El Segundo.
Parking is great, and the trip is convenient from the West Side or the
Beach Towns.

The meeting is in a private room behind the bar, with its own patio.
To say the least, having you own space is a real plus on a First Friday.

Looking forward to seeing you.

Time: 7pm, unless you want to get there early (early birds pay for their
pints individually before the group event starts).
Address: 145 Richmond St. (1.1 blocks south of West Grand, West of Main
St.)
El Segundo, CA 90245
310-322-7397

California State Fair Entries Due by Sunday April 18th

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Entries for the California State Fair Homebrew Competition are due at the Culver City shop by April 18th.  Since we need to ship these entries off, your bottles must arrive packaged for shipping.  This means plenty of bubble wrap and packed into suitable shipping boxes.  Cost for each entry is $10, but the club will pick up shipping costs.  This competition uses the BJCP styleguide.  Three 12 oz bottles are needed for each entry.  Make checks payable to: California Brewers Guild, LLC-HBC.  Entry forms can be found at http://www.calbrewers.com/Documents/Home_Brew_Forms_2010.pdf

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 →