Summer party is July 20th! And June meeting next week

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Hey everyone a quick announcement to let you know that the summer party is scheduled for July 20th. We’ll be returning to our classic location at Dean’s house on Amalfi Drive and the theme is South of the Border. More details coming but mark your calendars. Also be prepared to help before, during, and after to make this the best summer party ever!

You can learn lots more at the June meeting coming up this Thursday the 20th. The beer theme is wheat and spelt beers so if you made something neat at the monster brew consider bringing it. Noelle will be hosting the commercial tasting and we will be awarding a gift certificate for best beer of the meeting. Finally, this will likely be the last meeting at the usual location, so come with some ideas about how you would like club meetings to be conducted in the future.

May Meeting – India Pale Ale

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I hope everyone is excited about our club meeting this Thursday, May 16th which features probably the most popular beer style – India Pale Ales.  The turnout for this meeting is usually the largest of the year and that includes the number of samples of members’ homebrew as well.  I know I will be bringing two beers to the meeting myself. If you do bring an IPA to the meeting, be sure to enter in the beer of the meeting competition for a chance to win a $25 gift certificate for Culver City Home Brewing Supply.  Besides sampling your fellow members homebrew, we will have a special guest: Bill Jablon, the owner of Lucky Hand Brewing out of Novato, CA.  His bottles are available at beverage Warehouse and area Whole Foods. Learn more about his craft at luckyhandbeer.com

Our commercial calibration features a wide variety of IPAs curated by Anthony Samaniego, from a standard American and English IPA to the newer black IPA and Imperials.  See how your homebrew stacks up to samples from the pros.  And finally, come to learn about the great upcoming events for the club, such as our Second Saturday at Tomm Carrol’s or the Summer Party on July 20th.  Looking forward to seeing everyone at Culver City Home Brewing Supply on Thursday at 7:30 PM!

April Meeting – Tomorrow!

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Hi everyone, it’s already the third Thursday tomorrow which means out April meeting is upon us.  We are entering the sweet spot of our club calendar, and if you want to attend some of the best events of the year I encourage you to attend.  This is your last chance to signup and pay for our road trip to several San Diego breweries this Sunday.  You can roll the dice and show up and pay at the bus, but this is a pretty epic bus trip so I would suggest securing your spot.  This is also your last opportunity to signup for camping and/or food for the Southern California Homebrewing Festival at Lake Casitas.  This event was written about in Radical Brewing as one of the “can’t miss” home brewing events in the world, and with Chefs Ian and Travis running the kitchen I personally guarantee the best food in the entire fest.

Not enough to sway you away away from Glee?  Well this is one of my favorite meetings for beer tastings – extract beers.  Are you a new brewer who wants feedback on your early work?  Bring them to this meeting and enter them in our club only competition – all styles are eligible as long as the majority of the malt used is from liquid or dried malt extract.  Plus anyone who brings extract based beer will be eligible for our beer of the meeting award, which is a $25 gift certificate to Culver City Home Brewing Supply.  Personally I’ll be bringing a keg of English Best Bitter made from the malt extract I won at the raffle at the last meeting. And even if you are an all grain brewer, bring your recent work to the meeting.  Nothing improves your skills like comparing notes with and receiving feedback form our experienced membership.  Our commercial tasting will be English and Scottish ales, so expect more than a few old favorites to be pouring after our announcements.

Finally, we’ll have a selection of t-shirts and other club swag available for purchase at the meeting, so if you want to represent on the road trip, Ojai, or just on Fridays at the Daily Pint make sure you bring your checkbook.  See you tomorrow night!

Club Meeting March 21st – Stouts

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Our club meeting is coming up next Thursday. The style is Stouts, for St Patrick’s Day of course!  But don’t let that stop you from bringing your other styles of homebrew to the meeting (I’ll be bringing a Belgian pale ale myself).  Noelle will be hosting the commercial tasting, and we will have our meeting competition for home brew that is to style (BJCP Style 13) with a $25 prize.  This is the meeting where we start collecting our club dues for the year, so be sure to bring cash or your checkbook.  The cost is $30.  And finally we will be announcing our volunteer award program to honor those club members who do the most to make this the best homebrewing club.
Upcoming:
4/5 – First Friday at the Overland
4/20 – San Diego Road Trip
5/4 – Southern California Homebrew Festival

Tustin Monster Brew Final Details

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Monster brew is just around the corner!

We’ll be starting on Saturday bright and early at 6 am.
The wort will pour around noontime and most people will leave around 1 or 1:30

Here are a few things to remember:

-No glass fermenters of any kind please.
-Bring equipment already sanitized and remember a funnel if you have a Better Bottle
-If you haven’t yet paid, bring cash or a check to give to Tim at the event
-Please be good guests and allow only our hosts to pour beer from the taps for us
-Plan on buying lunch, they will open the kitchen at 11am
-Carpool if possible, there is also a back parking lot behind the shopping center which we can use. You can always pull your car around and load fermenters when you are leaving.
Info:

Tustin Brewing Co
www.tustinbrewery.com

13011 Newport Ave
Tustin, CA. 92780
From LA:

Take 405 South
Take 22 East
Take 5 South
Exit at Newport ave and go north (left turn off the exit ramp)
Tustin Brew co will be on your left just after irvine blvd

 

See you there,
Noelle

February Club Meeting Tomorrow – Barleywine

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Hi everyone, tomorrow’s club meeting will be featuring the highly regarded Barleywine style of Ale.  Because this is such a high gravity beer, Mimi Bardet has kindly arranged to have a more substantial food offering on hand at this meeting – Pizza by the slice will be available for $2.  So please bring a bit more cash than usual and make sure you eat something before or during the meeting.  We start promptly at 7:30, and end at 10:30 sharp.  Some meeting highlights:

– The Club Only Competition style is Barleywine, bring 3 12 oz bottles of your brew if you want to enter – Details here

– This is your only opportunity to signup and pay for the Monster Brew on March 9th ($30) at a club meeting.  Payment must be in advance and the deadline is February 28th!

– Signups and payment ($45) for the April 20th road trip to San Diego.  We will open this up to other clubs after this meeting, so secure your spot.

– Commercial tasting conducted by yours truly and Kurt featuring classic examples of the Barleywine style.

– Homebrew of the Meeting competition with a $25 gift certificate as a prize.  The style for the meeting has been extended to include Barleywines, Old Ales, and Strong Lagers.  Feel free to bring them in bottles, I doubt you have many kegs of this style sitting around!

– I will be bringing a couple of different vertical flights of Barleywine from my personal collection.  If you have a bottle or two that you’d like to share, please bring them.

– We will be making some announcements about membership renewals (starting in March) and a new volunteer incentive system.

 

Club Meeting This Thursday – Belgian Ales

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Hi Pacific Gravity, due to the club only competition schedule our style tasting this month will be Belgian Ales.  If you been to the Belgian meeting in years past, you know that this is one you don’t want to miss.  Craig Corley will be hosting the commercial tasting, so prepared to be impressed with the selection.  But the showcase of every homebrew meeting is the beer that YOU bring.  Any Belgian ale is welcome at the event of course, from the modest Belgian Pale Ale to the monstrous Quadruple.  I’ll be bringing the Spiced Cherry Dubble featured at the Holiday party, so if you didn’t get a chance to try it there you can get another look at it.  If you are not kegging yet, or don’t have any Belgians in kegs, bring a few bottles to the meeting. Its a great way to get to know other brewers in the club.  And even if you don’t have a Belgian beer, bring what you have, from Mild to Impy Stout your fellow club members will appreciate it.

The meeting starts at 7:30 and we will be wrapped up with the put-away and raffle by 10:30.  I’m looking forward to seeing you there!

 

Board Elections at the Meeting this Thursday

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Just a quick reminder that we will be holding elections for three board positions this Thursday.  The current nominees are David Mauceli, President, Noelle Cross, Vice President, and Tim Bardet, Treasurer.  We’ll hold nomination open for a couple more days just in case anyone wants to run.

Also, we are holding a vote for the Club Member of the Year on Thursday.  This award recognizes and  honors significant contributions & involvement by club members.  The current nominations are listed below.  Nominations will be closed on Tuesday night.

Dan Hakes
David Mauceli
Craig Corley
Carl Townsend
Norm Zettlaw

Club Meeting Thursday Oct 18th

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Join us for the monthly third Thursday club meeting at the Culver City Home Brewing Supply Company.  The festivities officially start at 7:30 PM.

Strong ales of any type are the style of the month, and we will be holding a Club-Only taste-off for Old Ale, BJCP style # 19C.  Bring three 12 oz bottle if you want to enter.  Kegs are still needed to keep the evening well lubricated.

Topping the agenda for the evening are nominations for the 2013 elected officers.  As of this writing, nominations include David Mauceli for President and Noelle Cross for Vice President.  We are actively looking for a nominee for Treasurer.   Additional nominees for all three positions are still open.  If you are interested in joining the board as either an elected or appointed officer in 2013, please contact any of the current officers.  We will be holding elections at the November meeting and will be finalizing the appointed offices in January.  Also this month, we will be holding nominations for Club Member of the Year.  This selection recognizes / honors significant contributions and involvement by club members.   The winner will be announced at the Holiday party.   All currently paid members eligible for nomination, except last year’s winner and perennial party host, Neil Saund.

Also available at the meeting will be the sign-up sheet for Big Brew/Jockey Box/Chili-cookoff day at Carl Townsend’s place this Saturday, Oct 20th.  Tubing is still available for jockey box builders, as is space for brewers and room for more chilis. The Wave of Beer will be making an appearance, so bring your kegs.

And don’t forget the usual festivities of the commercial tasting, raffle, and the jovial camaraderie of Pacific Gravity club members.

Hope to see you there
Carl Townsend
Competition Coordinator

 

 

August Club Meeting this Thursday 8/16

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This Thursday, August 16th, is our monthly club meeting.  Our style of the month is Porters, Brown, Robust, and sweet Baltic.  Bring a keg of Porter to the meeting to be entered in our Homebrew of the Month competition and be eligible for a $25 gift certificate to Culver City Homebrew Supply.  Or if you just want to quench the thirst of your fellow brewers and get some valuable feedback on your technique and recipe, bring whatever you have and everyone will appreciate it.

I’m still looking for volunteers to host the Commercial Tasting this meeting so email me at president@pacificgravity.com if you are interested.  Also, make sure you bring some cash for raffle tickets, our new club glasses, Club of the Year shirts, and other paraphernalia.