Competition Corner – November, 2010

The next Club-Only competition is upon us.  The theme for this is Strong Ales BJCP category 19, Old Ale, English Barleywine and American Barleywine.  Entries for this are due at the November Club meeting on November 18th.   If you have any one of these three bring three 12 oz. bottles and make sure you let Carl know they are there.  If possible, Read more

Competition Corner – October, 2010

Entries are due at the Culver City shop no later than Saturday, October 9th for the last major competition of the season, the California State Homebrew Competition.  This is one of the key competitions that are considered for the California brew club of the year awarded sponsored by Anchor Brewing, so we need a good showing.  Complete rules and entry forms can be found at  http://www.nchfinfo.org/state-comp .  Since this is a remote competition, your entries must be packaged for shipping by UPS.  Read more

Competition Corner – August 2010

Lift up you taster cup and raise a toast to Craig Corley, Best of Show winner for the 2010 Los Angeles County Fair Homebrew competition!.  His Saison took top honors.  Also honoring the club was Carl Townsend, whose English Porter pulled in the second runner-up best of show.  Altogether, ten different Pacific Gravity brewers pulled in 27 awards, Read more

Competition Corner – July 2010

The summer months are here and if you’ve planned ahead, you have your cool weather ales in the cellar and your lagers in the fridge.  Perhaps you even have a wheat beer or a Belgian style in the fermenter. Well, get them ready, because a couple of competitions are upon us. Read more

Competition Corner – April 2010

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

AHA Competition Entries Due This Friday 3-26

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.

Competition Corner – March 2010

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

Special Vote for Brewer of the Year Rules

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

Competition Corner – January 2010

Ahh, the cool days of January are here and it is time to get some beer fermenting. We have a fresh slate of competitions to enter in 2010, and now is the time to prepare.

First up on the docket is the Club-Only competition for English Brown Ales, BJCP Cat #11. We will judge these at the January club meeting on Thursday, January 21st. Bring three 12 oz. bottles to the meeting and Read more

Competition Corner – 2010 Preview

Raise your beer mug and give a toast to Chris Simental, the winner of the 2009 Pacific Gravity Homebrewer of the Year Award.  Chris was honored at the Holiday Party on December 12th and presented with an engraved trophy mug.  He was the run-away winner for the second year in a row, having garnered a record 39 points.  His total completely blew away the rest of the field, let by second-place brewer Craig Corley, who had 21 points.  Way to go Chris, and keep up the good work!

The final Club-Only Competition spot this year went to Jon Porter, for a wonderful Belgian Strong Golden Ale. Jon picked up a score of 40 points in the club judging, and 35.5 at the national level.  Alas, it didn’t place in the top 3.

Looking ahead into 2010, Read more