November Club Meeting Recap

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What an awesome meeting.  Let me start off this post in the way that I should have started off my announcements on Saturday by thanking Ian for being such an awesome host time and time again.  Its bad enough when you forget to thank your host so let me just reiterate how appreciative we are to the club members who host our events at their homes.

CLUB ANNIVERSARY BREW

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For those of you unable to attend this past weekend’s monthly meeting, we were busy – very busy!  The day started off around 10am with Dan White mashing in to kick off the day with our 20th anniversary beer.  Dan showed his great support for the club by bringing his entire brew system to Ian’s backyard (with the help of Terry Malloy) so that we could brew up 15 gallons of Belgian Dubbel to be served at this coming February’s Club Meeting / 20th anniversary shindig.  Thank you Dan, Emily and Terry for keeping this brew organized with during the party!

This beer was a very simple recipe but did feature a LOT of dark candy sugar in the boil that a number of club members helped add to the boil:

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And lastly, here is what a beer looks like that is 100% Belgian Pils/Pale before and after you add 5lbs of Dark Candy Syrup to a 15 gallon batch:

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CHILI COOK-OFF

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Saturday was also our annual Chili cook-off.  We had 8 chilis show up – all of which were fantastic.  Everyone submitted their votes and at the end of the day the club member celebrating the most was Neil who took home the prize for the best chili.  Congrats on taking the title this year Neil – you beat out some other awesome chili’s.  The second prize of the day for chili was the most unique chili which was awarded to Kingsley Toby.  Thank you to everyone who brought their chili to the party to make it another successful chili cook-off.

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BOARD ELECTION

November also marks the month where we vote for next year’s board.  I am happy to say that I will be returning for another year on the board to serve as your President along with Ramesh who will again serve as our Treasurer.  Kingsley is stepping down from the board and Tad Johnston has stepped up to fill his shoes as our club VP for 2015.  We have a lot of exciting plans for next year and we will be working hard at the beginning of the year to get a schedule together for all of you regarding the upcoming events so you can all mark your calendars in advance.

CLUB MEMBER OF THE YEAR

I screwed up in October and forgot to ask for nominations for club member of the year so we asked for nominations at the November meeting.  Many of you who were in attendance voted for your choice for club member of the year, but if you forgot to vote or were unable to attend you can submit your vote to MOY@pacificgravity.com by Friday @ 9am to cast your vote.  The nominees for Club Member of the Year (as appointed at the meeting) are:

  • Kip Barnes
  • Brian Holter
  • Ramesh Khalili
  • Kingsley Toby
  • Ian Fraser
  • Dean Sussman
  • Terry Molloy

Please cast your vote ASAP!!  We need to get all the votes in by Friday  11/28 @ 9am so we can make the award for the following weekend’s winter party which brings me to…

UPCOMING EVENTS

  • Winter Party – As mentioned at the meeting and on this website, our Winter Party is on Saturday December 6th at Neil’s house.  Ramesh and Carl both brought along sign up sheets for helping to setup Friday Night/Saturday Morning, Cleanup on Sunday, beers for the party, food, etc.  If you can volunteer (please do – the more volunteers the better the party) please email us at board [at] pacificgravity dot com to sign up.
  • Monster Brew @ Smog City – Our first event for 2015 is already planned which will be a Monster Brew at Smog City on January 24th.  Mark it down on your calendars and check back here for more details and updates as we get closer to the event.
  • 20th Anniversary – Our 20th Anniversary is coming up in February.  This will be a club meeting that you cannot miss.  We are still working on the details of when and where this meeting will be, so check back later for more info.
  • LABBC – Our Belgian Beer Challenge is scheduled for March 14th.  We are looking for volunteers for this competition planning – email me or send me a message if you are interested in participating in the planning.  Also, its time to start brewing for this competition!  You have 4 months until the competition, which means if you are going to brew a high gravity belgian beer or maybe finish off a belgian with some brettanomyces its time to get your beer in the tanks.  I suggest you start planning out your brew days!
  • SCHBF – The So Cal homebrew fest is on May 2nd and is returning to Vail Lake
  • NHC 2015 – The National Homebrewers Conference is coming to San Diego in 2015.  Pacific Gravity will definitely have a presence in San Diego for this festival.

If I forgot anything please let me know and I will update this post!  And thanks again Ian!

November Club Meeting – 11/22/2014 @ Ian’s House

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Everyone-

Our November Club meeting is this Saturday!  Its shaping up to be a good one – here are the details:

WHEN

  • Brew Day starts @ 10:00am.
  • Chili Cookoff Competition @ 12:00pm
  • Club News after Chili Cookoff
  • Wrap up around 6pm.

WHERE

Ian Fraser’s House
3938 Glencoe Ave, Venice, CA 90291

CHILI COOKOFF

  • Bring your best chili for our annual Chili Cookoff!  We will have power outlets for those of you bringing a crock pot and sides/toppings (sour cream, shredded cheese, onions, and rice).  We will also supply bowls, plastic silverware and napkins.  We will be handing our awards for the best chili and most unique chili.

CLUB ANNIVERSARY BREW

  • Dan White has offered to let us use his system in Ian’s backyard to brew our Belgian Dubbel 20th Anniversary recipe.  The brew will start @ 10am on Saturday, club members are encouraged to show up to participate in the brew around then.  This is a Club Brew where the resulting beer belongs to the homebrew club and will be served at the February Club meeting where we will be celebrating our 20th Anniversary.  *Note, we will only be brewing on one system – this is not a big brew.
  • For those of you that are new to brewing, this will be a great opportunity to learn to brew an all grain batch of beer.  Even if you have been brewing for a long time, its always educational to learn how someone else brews a batch of beer on their system.
  • BEER
  • As always we are looking for everyone to bring their latest homebrew creation or commercial beer to share.
  • The beer style of the month is Brown Ales and Porters and as usual we will be hosting a commercial tasting.

VOTING

Its time to Vote!  We will be voting for board positions this month.  Additionally, we will be voting for Club Member of the Year!  We will be taking nominations throughout the day and will pass out ballots for everyone to vote!

EXTRAS

  • As this is a backyard party that will be going for many hours we highly suggest you bring a folding chair of some type for you to sit on.
  • If you have a jockey box that you can bring to help serve beer that would be apprciated as well.
  • Lastly, if you have firewood you can bring we would like to setup a fire pit.  The club will bring some as well.

Cheers everyone!  See you on Saturday!

Club Meeting – Anniversary Brew Recipe Poll!

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Everyone-

Its been a busy month for me so I apologize for the late poll, but we have selected 3 great Belgian Dubbel Recipe’s for our Club Anniversary brew taking place this Saturday.  Details about the timing of the brew start and meeting will come later this week, but we need to get this poll up for all of you to vote!  Click on the link below to go to the online poll to vote for your choice for our club brew this Saturday!  Voting ends on Tuesday night @ 6pm so that we can purchase the appropriate ingredients ahead of time.  You can vote as many times as you like, cheers!

CLICK HERE TO VOTE FOR THE WINNER!

Here are the three final recipes!

Recipe #1: “I Like Rochefort”

  • OG – 1.070
  • FG – 1.010
  • IBUs – 20
  • SRM – 18.86
  • ABV – 7.9%
  • Recipe Size (6 Gallons)
  • Boil Time – 90 min

Grain/Fermentable Bill

  • 14.0 lbs Belgian Pils
  • 0.5 lbs Melanoidin
  • 0.5 lbs Special B
  • 1.0 lbs 90L Belgian Syrup

*(Mash Schedule – 20 Min rest @ 144F, 40 Min rest @ 156F)

Hops & Kettle Additions

  • 1.7oz (3.50% AA) – Hallertau Hersbrucker – 60 min.

Yeast

  • 2qt Starter of WLP540 Abbey Ale IV

Fermentation Schedule

  • Primary – 7 days @ 66F
  • Secondary – 10 days @ Room Temp

*One full day after Krausen drops start to raise temp 1F per 12 hours till room temp.  Do not transfer unless within .002 of target terminal gravity.  Isinglass in secondary.

Recipe #2: Belgian Dubbel

  • OG – 1.068
  • FG – 1.012
  • IBUs – 31
  • SRM – 21.3
  • ABV – 7.5%
  • Recipe Size (10 gallons)
  • Boil Time – 70 min

Grain/Fermentable Bill

  • 18.0 lbs Belgian Pils
  • 2.0 lbs Belgian Candy Sugar (added to boil @ 30 min mark)
  • 1.0 lbs Light Munich
  • 1.0 lbs CaraMunich Malt
  • 1.0 lbs Cara Vien Malt
  • 1.0 lbs Belgian Biscuit
  • 1.0 lbs Belgian Aromatic
  • 1.0 lbs Special B
  • .25 lbs Chocolate Malt

*(Mash Schedule – 20 Min rest @ 128F, 20 Min rest @ 149F, 40 Min rest @ 153F)

Hops & Kettle Additions

  • 2.60oz (5.3%AA) – Tettnang 60 min.
  • 1.50oz (4.1% AA) – Hallertauer 20 min.

Yeast

  • 2qt Starter of Wyeast 1214 Abbey Ale Yeast

Fermentation Schedule

  • Primary – 7 – 14 days @ 70F
  • Secondary – 14 days @ 70F

Recipe #3: Light Westy

  • OG – 1.069
  • FG – 1.010
  • IBUs – 18
  • SRM – 15.73
  • ABV – 7.7%
  • Recipe Size (6 gallons)
  • Boil Time – 90 min

Grain/Fermentable Bill

  • 7.0 lbs Belgian Pale
  • 7.0 lbs Belgian Pils
  • 1.5 lbs Belgian Dark Candy Sugar (added to boil @ flame out)
  • (Mash Schedule – 60 Min rest @ 145F, 20 Min rest @ 155F)

Hops & Kettle Additions

  • 0.50oz (8.5% AA) – Northern Brewer 90 min.
  • 0.50oz (4.1% AA) – Styrian Goldings 20 min.
  • 0.25oz (2.8% AA) – Hallertauer Mittelfrüh 20 min.

Yeast

  • 2qt Starter of WLP 530 Abbey Ale Yeast

Fermentation Schedule

  • Primary – 7 – 14 days @ 65F (pitching temp, free rise afterwards)
  • Secondary – 14 days @ Room temp

*Cool to 65F and pitch yeast.  Let free rise to 80F and hold there.

Club 20th Anniversary Brew – Recipe Submission forms

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Great meeting last night everyone!

As promised attached to this post is the excel form for you to submit your recipe for the club anniversary brew!  Once you complete the form please email it to:

board [at] pacificgravity.com

Please submit your recipes no later than October 23rd – and remember that the style for our 20th Anniversary Brew is going to be a Belgian Dubbel.  To recap the idea – our club is turning 20 next February and we thought it would be awesome to get together at next month’s Club Meeting & Chili Cookoff to brew up a beer that would be worthy of our 20th anniversary.  The board decided on the style, but we need our club members to help us get creative and come up with an awesome recipe for a Belgian Dubbel.  Lets get creative and brew up an awesome beer together!

The board will go through the recipe’s submitted and post a poll for all of you to vote for the recipe we brew on Nov. 22nd.

Thanks & Cheers everyone!

Brian

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SEPTEMBER CLUB MEETING | THURSDAY, September 18th (7:30pm) | TERRY MALLOY’S HOUSE

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Hello Pacific Gravity Home Brewers!

Our next PG Club meeting is Thursday, September 18th @ Terry Malloy’s House (7:30pm) and you won’t want to miss this one!

PACIFC BREWER’S CUP WRAP UP | RESULTS ANNOUNCED!
We are presenting ribbons for winning Pacific Gravity members at the club meeting! Wear something that looks good with a ribbon! Immediately after we will officially announce full results online on the Pacific Brewers cup website and Facebook page, including the Best of Show beer!

PACIFIC BREWER’S CUP GEAR!
Ribbon winners will receive a Pacific Brewers Cup T-Shirt as part of their prize! For the rest of us, these very stylish shirts will be available for sale. They are a perfect memento of the largest Pacific Brewers Cup to date. Wear it with pride! Wear it with a pint! $15 in men’s and women’s styles.

 PACIFC BREWER’S CUP | COOLERS!
If you were generous enough to let us borrow your cooler for the Pacific Brewers Cup, we’ll have it for you at the meeting. If you need your cooler before Thursday – please contact Kingsley via email at vicepresident( at )pacificgravity.com to reunite you with your cool friend.

OCTOBER BUS TRIP – LAST CHANCE TO SIGN UP!
Saturday, October 18th. TAPS FISHOUSE & BREWING’s patio will be out first stop for brews and grub. BOTTLE LOGIC is on the docket; with a third stop @ VALIANT BREWING COMPNY. Cost is $25.00 for the bus ride. Seats are going quick – so get on the list if you want to join us! It’s going to be a lot of fun @ some of the best breweries in OC. Come to the September 18th PG Club meeting @ Terry Malloy’s house and sign up! Details about pick up location(s) and time(s) to follow.

SEPTEMBER COMMERCIAL TASTING HOST NEEDED | SOURS & CIDERS!!!
Bring your sours and ciders! We’ll be hosting a commercial tasting to compare.

As always, bring a brew that you’re proud of, or a bottle of your favorite to share with you fellow PG Home Brewers! See you @ Terry’s next Thursday, September 18th (7:30pm).

 

CASA MOLLOY

6738 W. 87th Place (NOT STREET)
Westchester, CA 90045

(NOTE: THERE IS ALSO 6738 W. 87TH STREET NEARBY – PLEASE DO NOT DISTURB TERRY’S NEIGHBORS AND DOUBLE CHECK YOUR DIRECTIONS! – REMEMBER “PLACE” is the PLACE !)Cheers!

Kingsley

VP | Pacific Gravity Home Brewer’s Club
        Celebrating 20 Years in 2015!

AUGUST CLUB MEETING | THURSDAY, AUGUST 21st (7:30pm) | CULVER CITY HOME BREW SUPPLY

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Hello Pacific Gravity Home Brewers!

 Our next PG Club meeting is Thursday, August 21st @ Culver City Home Brew Supply (7:30pm)

 We have a lot of news to share at this meeting, so your attendance is appreciated! Some notes about the meeting….

PACIFC BREWER’S CUP | ALL CALL FOR COOLERS!
PBC is fast approaching and we need your coolers to help keep your hard work cold during judging. If you have a cooler you can lend us – please bring them to the August 21st Club meeting @ Culver City Home Brew Supply! BE COOL AND BRING A COOLER!

 …and a reminder that August 22nd is the deadline for entries! Go online and register now and bring your bottles to the Club Meeting!

OCTOBER BUS TRIP – SIGN UP!
Our bus trip coordinator Kurt Periolat has organized a Fall trip down to some favorite OC’s breweries on Saturday, October 18th. TAPS FISHOUSE & BREWING’s patio will be out first stop for brews and grub. BOTTLE LOGIC is on the docket; with a third stop @ VALIANT BREWING COMPANY. Cost is $25.00 for the bus ride with limited seating available. Details about pick up location(s) and time(s) to follow. Come to the August 21st PG Club meeting @ Culver City Home Brew Supply and sign up!

SUMMER PARTY LEFTOVERS!
Well…it’s not any of the delicious food served up at the party…pretty sure Dean took care of that! It’s some miscellaneous items like kegs, easy ups, and jockey boxes. These lost and found items will be available for pick up @ CCHBS during the August 21st Club meeting. After that they are going into deep storage and will not be easily available. COME AND GET IT!

AUGUST COMMERCIAL TASTING HOST NEEDED | WHEAT BEERS
We’re looking for a host(s) for our Style of the Month Commercial tasting of Wheat Beers! Here’s how it works…go out and grab a selection of beers reflecting the style on Pacific Gravity’s budget. That’s right – we’ll be your sugar mama! Then share some information about your picks while you pour at the August meeting. Win friends and influence people – with BEER! Contact me @ vicepresident ( at ) pacificgravity (dot) com ASAP to enlist! WHEAT NEED YOU! 

PACIFIC GRAVITY GEAR!
If you didn’t grab one of our new PG T’s, PG Tasting glasses, and/or PG lanyards at the Summer Party – now’s your chance! We’ll have them available for purchase @ the meeting! **If you purchased a PG lanyard at the Summer Party – your custom fit aluminum PG Tasting glass holder ring is available for pick up! Free of charge with new PG lanyard*** So come and get your PG gear! You don’t want to be the odd man/woman out during our PG class picture.

 As always, bring a brew that you’re proud of, or a bottle of your favorite to share with you fellow PG Home Brewers! See you @ CCHBS next Thursday, August 21st.

 Cheers!

 Kingsley
VP | Pacific Gravity Home Brewer’s Club
         Celebrating 25 Years in 2015!

**REMINDER** PACIFIC GRAVITY CLUB MEETING | THURSDAY JUNE 19TH | NEIL SAUNDS HOUSE

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Hello PG Members!

Just a freindly reminder that June’s PG Club Meeting is this Thursday night @ Neil Saunds House! So get your homebrew ready to share and come on over! Original link below with meeting details!

http://pacificgravity.org/2014/06/pacific-gravity-club-meeting-thursday-june-19th-730pm-neil-saunds-house/

Cheers!

Kingsley
VP | Pacific Gravity Homebrew Club

April Meeting Recap

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Thanks to everyone who came out for April’s monthly club meeting.  We had an excellent turnout, especially considering the last minute change of location.  A special thanks to Ian for hosting us again and on such short notice.  Another special thank you to everyone who brought out beer for the night.  I think there were more kegs of beer at last nights meeting than I have seen at a monthly club meeting in quite a long time – so good work brewing and sharing the beer!

Here is a summary of the items covered last night at the meeting for those of you who were unable to attend, couldnt hear us, or drank a few too many and cant remember what was covered:

  • First, we issued our new Associate’s Cards to everyone in attendance who has paid in full for this calendar year.  The new cards are awesome – they are thermal printed PVC cards like you would get issued from Costco or the AHA for example.  This card entitles you to discounts at local businesses.  Currently we have two discounts in place – 5% off at Culver City Home Brew Supply and 10% off @ City Tavern in Culver City.  As we are able to gather up additional discounts/benefits for memberships we will post about them here on the blog or you can click on the menu item above under About > Benefits to see a current list of club benefits.  If you have not paid your dues yet please do so ASAP so you can get your new card.  The only way to redeem said benefits is by presenting this new PVC ID card, last years cards will not be accepted.  Thanks again to Ramesh and Tad for putting this together for us.
  • We had to do a last minute change of venue this week, which was unfortunate.  There is a newish Q&A issued by the ABC regarding home made wine and beer and where you can serve these items.  Unfortunately one of the items on that list made it illegal for us to share our homebrew at Smog City, so we made the call to cancel that location for last night and move to Ian’s.  Right now it is very important for you as a homebrewer to understand the law so that you dont expose yourself to legal issues.  Here is a link to the new Q&A.  Also note that in this document it lists homebrewing demonstrations as illegal.  Thanks again to Kingsley for rallying the troops to a new location and to Ian for hosting.
  • Last night we held our vote to ratify the bylaws presented to the club last week on this blog.  The vote was nearly unanimous (the only nay being Dean – who wrote the bylaws – because he wanted there to be at least one nay).  This is really great news for our club and is the first official step towards our march towards non-profit status.  The Board and I will file our articles of incorporation as soon as possible and continue through with the remaining paperwork towards our goal of becoming a 501c3 Non-Profit club and filing for Tax Exempt status with the IRS.  A special thank you to Dean for the amount of work he put in to create these bylaws is needed – if you can buy the guy a beer sometime you should.  Another special thank you to the club associates who spent the time reading through the document.  Its not a fun read, but a lot of you spent the time and we all appreciate that.
  • We handed out the LAAW & PG Cask forms last night and many of you filled out your special ingredient forms.  For those of you who did not get a chance to fill out the forms before the end of the night, you can email me @ President@pacificgravity.com and I will send you an electronic copy of the form to be filled out.  For the next iteration of this event we will switch over to using a google doc so that it is 100% online.  If you are interested, please try and get your form in to me no later than Friday May 2nd.
  • The Summer Party will most likely be held on July 26th this year at Dean’s house.  We should know in another month or so if this is date is 100% set in stone.  There will be more information coming at next month’s Club Meeting regarding planning and organizing this event.
  • Lastly, as I mentioned at the March meeting and last night, we have been asked to provide donated homebrew to an event on May 17th in Manhattan Beach called “Bite at the Beach”.  This is a non-profit event which allows us as homebrewers to donate our brews to be poured.  I am really excited about this event.  If you look at the website you can see our logo on it up front.  You officially have one month until this event and I would like to get an idea of how many of you are interested in donating beer so that I can let the organizers know how much homebrew to expect.  Please email me @ president@pacificgravity.com to let me know if you are interested.  I will be bringing 10-15 gallons of beer with me for the event – many of you approached me last night saying you would be donating beer as well – which is awesome.  I will follow up this post tomorrow or Sunday with a single post dedicated to this event.

Cheers everyone!

Brian

TONIGHT’S PACIFIC GRAVITY CLUB MEETING | Thursday APRIL 17th, 2014 | UPDATES!!!

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Couple of updates regarding tonight’s meeting!

NEW AND IMPROVED PACIFIC GRAVITY MEMBERSHIP CARDS ARE HERE!
  – If you have paid your 2014 membership dues, your new membership cards are available @ tonight’s club meeting! These new cards entitle you to our growing list of local beer centric discounts and events!

MEMBERSHIP DUES
  – If you have not done so yet, remember to bring payment for your 2014 membership dues. April is the last month to renew your dues before a late penalty. The sooner you get your new 2014 card, the sooner you can enjoy its benefits!

RAFFLE
  – Bring some cash for tonight’s Club raffle! Getting in on the raffle can land you some cool items, including donations from local breweries, but it also supports the club and all it’s members! As always, Terry has some great stuff in the mix.

HOMEBREWED IPA!
 – Bring it – Share it – Drink it

See you tonight!

Kingsley

Club Bylaws – For all Club Associates to review!

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Everyone-

As discussed at last month’s club meeting at Culver City Home Brew Supply, the board has been working towards creating a draft of our club bylaws for all associates approval.  This is the first step in a potentially lengthy process towards converting the club to a 501c3 Non-Profit with the state of California and ultimately filing for tax exempt status with the IRS.

Please review the attached document and come to next week’s meeting at Smog City Brewery in Torrance prepared to vote to approve or reject the attached bylaws.  So to review, we WILL be voting next Thursday April 17th at the club meeting, please review this document prior to the club meeting.

Cheers and I look forward to seeing you all next week-

Brian

Pacific Gravity Bylaws.v2.04-01-14