Competition Corner – February 2017

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Ahh, I love the cool winter months where I actually have to keep by beer WARM to ferment well.  My mash tun does double duty this time of year, keeping the fermenter warm with the help of a small submersible aquarium heater.

We have a bunch of competition dates coming up sooner than I had thought, so take note.

TODAY is the last day to apply for entry slots to the AHA Nationals.  You must be an AHA member, in which case you should have gotten a personal notice (well, actually an automated message) with the application details.   Your entry authorization and payment must be done by February 15th.  Physical entries will need to be shipped off by the last week of February.  Like last year, we will be asking for a volunteer to drive them down to San Diego.  Drop me a line at Competitions AT pacificGravity.com if you can make the trip.  We’ll reimburse you gas money.

Next up, surprisingly enough is the California State Fair.  On-line registration is open now and runs only until February 11th.   Physical entries can be dropped off from February 13th through the 19th  at the Eagle Rock Homebrewing Supply Co or South Bay Brew Supply.  Do NOT leave entries at the Culver City shop.

Judging for America’s Finest City (AFC) Homebrew Competition has been completed.  Check back soon for results at  https://quaff.org/AFC-2017/ .

Next up on the radar is the 3rd annual Belgian Brew Challenge.  Entries will be due on March 17th, with judging on March 26th.   Look for more details from Brian on this competition for volunteering, stewarding and judging opportunities  at http://belgianbrewchallenge.com/.   Best of show this year will be brewed at Los Angeles Ale Works.    Speaking of volunteering, we will be running Pacific Brewers Cup this September and will need everyone’s support.  The balance of the official list of competitions for accumulating Brewer of the Year is listed below.  Check back frequently as exact dues dates become known.

For those of you who can help out with other competitions, the Romancing the Beer Competition needs judges Monday Feb 6th and Saturday Feb 11th.

If you are hard-core competition junkie, there are a bazillion other contests to enter.  The AHA has their master list at http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/competitions/aha-bjcp-sanctioned-competition/.

2017 Pacific Gravity Brewer of the Year Competition Schedule

February 5th:     AHA Nationals Pre-registration

February 11th     California State Fair on-line registration deadline

February 15th:     AHA Nationals registration and payment

February 19th     California State Fair Entry Drop off

Late February:   AHA Nationals entries due

March 17th:       Drop-off deadline for Los Angeles Belgian Brew Challenge

March 26th:         Judging for Los Angeles Belgian Brew Challenge

April                     Mayfaire

July                       Los Angeles County Fair

September          Pacific Brewers Cup

October               California State Homebrew Competition

AFC Entry Deadline January 25th

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Homebrew entries for America’s Finest City (AFC) Homebrew Competition are due at Alesmith Brewery by Wednesday, January 25th.   We do not have a driver this year, so you will need to ship your entries.   Do NOT leave them at the Culver City shop.  Registration can be found at https://quaff.org/AFC-2017/ .

Shipping Address:
9990 AleSmith Court
San Diego, CA 92126

 

3rd Annual Los Angeles Belgian Brew Challenge

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Calling all members and home brewers! Our 3rd Annual Los Angeles Belgian Brew Challenge is coming up fast and I’m excited to announce the details here today!

LA Ale Works has signed on to host judging at their location in Hawthorne and they’ll brew a Pro-Am version of the Best of Show winner. We’re beyond stoked to have them on-board; as you may already know there are three PG alumni in the ranks at LAAW and working with them during their first few months after launch is a HUGE honor.

Think about it this way: That Belgian inspired beer you’ve got bubbling away in the fermenter? Or those bottles you squirreled away? Could go Pro-Am with the LAAW! 😀    How cool is that?!

We’ll begin accepting registrations and online submissions on February 1st and drop off starting March 1st through March 17th so you’ve got some time to get over to Culver City Home Brewing Supply to grab ingredients and brew your entries.

Judging will occur on Sunday March 26th at 9am. We’ll need plenty of volunteer stewards and judges so please make sure you opt-in appropriately if interested, while registering.

For more details navigate to http://belgianbrewchallenge.com  and if you have any questions please email labbc@pacificgravity.com.

26mar9:00 am3rd Annual Los Angeles Belgian Brew Challenge9:00 am LA Aleworks

Competition Corner – January 2017

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2016 WinnerWell, a new year is upon us as well as a fresh brewing competition season.  I hope you took advantage of the cool weather over the holiday season to get some batches fermenting.  I did!   We have a couple of competitions coming up right away, but you still have plenty of cool weather to brew for some of the later upcoming competitions.  Each year, Pacific Gravity honors the brewer (or team) with the most homebrew competition wins from the list shown below.

Coming up quickly are the America’s Finest City (AFC) Homebrew Competition, hosted by QUAFF, and the AHA Nationals Competition.  Registration for AFC is already open at https://quaff.org/AFC-2017/ .  Entries are due at Alesmith Brewery by Wednesday, January 25th.  Like last year, we will be asking for a volunteer to drive them down to San Diego.  Drop me a line at Competitions AT PacificGravity.com if you can make the trip.  We’ll reimburse you gas money. For AHA, you must be an AHA member and need to sign up for your entry slots, between the dates of January 30 – February 5, 2017.  Your entry authorization and payment must be done by February 15th.  Physical entries will need to be shipped off by the last week of February.  Again, we’ll need a driver. Read more →

Show off your Homebrew!! Craft (Beer) Night @ Craft & Folk Art Museum and a new LB HB Fest Comp.

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template_logo_01Hi PG members,

Here’s a chance to show off your homebrew to the public!! Thursday Nov. 3rd, the Craft and Folk Art Museum is doing a Craft Beer Night. Sorry its kind of last minute, my fault for not getting this out there sooner.

Pacific Gravity member, Lindsey Vaniman now works for the museum and thought this would be a fun thing to do with some of the members. So the Museum is calling out to all craft homebrewers to join them for the night and share your creations.

If you have any beers ready and would like to sign up, just email the Museum organizer at: andres@cafam.org
Here’s the link to the events page for the month with the Craft Night listed on it: http://cafam.org/programs

Also let me know, Lindsey and I would be interested to hear if any PG members sign up! President@pacificgravity.com

If you have never done something like this in the past, I assure you it will be a blast. I did one for an art event in the past and it was an awesome way to show off some beer, talk beer, and introduce people to new beer styles and watch what they end up liking the most. Plus everyone loves the person pouring their drinks!

 

 

14681891_10157636743760203_5720631095947930937_nAlso, there is another event going on in Long Beach in early December on the 10th (2-5pm) as a Homebrew Comp and pouring festival. I imagine kind of like the Stone Homebrew comp coming up in November.

Here is the link to the sign up sheet and more info on dates of submission and festival. Along with a bunch of other questions.  http://tinyurl.com/h2sguuw
You can email any additional questions to: info@welovelb.org or brewfest@welovelb.org

 

 

California State Competition Entries due Thursday 9/22

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state-comp-smHey Folks, just a quick reminder that entries for the California State Homebrew Competition are due by the close of business (6:00PM) this Thursday, September 22 at the Culver City shop.  Michael and Tania have graciously volunteered to drive them up to the Bay areas.   This is one of the three competition used by Anchor Brewing to select the California Homebrewer Club of the Year, so make sure you hold a few entries aside to take our club to glory!  Register online at http://castate.brewcompetition.com/ .  If you miss the local drop-off deadline, you can ship your entries up to More Beer in Concord, CA by October 1st.

And don’t forget that Saturday, September 24th is judging day for Pacific Brewers Cup.  Judging will be held at Brouwerij West, at 8AM 110 E. 22nd St., Warehouse No. 9, San Pedro, CA 90731.  Because this is a working taproom, we are only having a morning session of judging. We are asking all judges to arrive by 8:00 am, so we can start on time. There will be coffee and food before the judging, and lunch after. All judges and stewards will receive a t-shirt.

 

Competition Corner – September 2016

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PacCupLogo2016September is on our doorstep and it is time to get your entries for the next two big competitions. First up is Pacific Brewers Cup.  This year, the prestigious event is being hosted by Long Beach Homebrewers.  Entries are due by noon this Saturday, Sept 3rd.  Registration is up and running at http://www.longbeachhomebrewers.com/comp/.  Entries can be dropped off at the Culver City or Eagle Rock homebrew shops.  The competition uses the 2015 BJCP style guidelines.  The Best of Show winner will brew a commercial sized batch of a version of their beer at Brouwerij West, in consultation with the brewer. Speaking of which, we also need your help with stewarding or judging.  Judging day is on Saturday, September 24th, 8AM at Brouwerij West, 110 E. 22nd St., Warehouse No. 9, San Pedro, CA 90731.  Because this is a working taproom, we are only having a morning session of judging. We are asking all judges to arrive by 8:00 am, so we can start on time. There will be coffee and food before the judging, and lunch after. All judges and stewards will receive a t-shirt.  Also, because we are only having a morning session, pre-judging will be necessary. If you are able to judge Sept 17 or 18, please let us know.

Coming right on the heels of Pacific Brewers Cup is the California State Homebrew Competition.  This is one of the three competition used by Anchor Brewing to select the California Homebrewer Club of the Year, so make sure you hold a few entries aside to take our club to glory!  Registration is already open from now until Sept 23rd at http://castate.brewcompetition.com/ .  Entries need to make it up to More Beer in Concord, CA between the 23rd and October 1st.  Check back later for info on a possible local drop-off.

If you are hard-core competition junkie, there are a bazillion other contests to enter.  The AHA has their master list at http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/competitions/aha-bjcp-sanctioned-competition/.

2016 Pacific Gravity Brewer of the Year Competition Schedule

September 3rd   Pacific Brewers Cup Registration

September 24th Pacific Brewers Cup Judging

September 24th  California State Homebrew Competition Registration

A Quick Recap on the ProAm!

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I wanted to thank everyone that was able to participate in the ProAm Opportunity. Which was being held through our club freind Devon Randall at the Arts District Brewery.

She was given a blind list of all of the Pacific Gravity homebrew comp winning beers form Jan. 1st, 2015 thru the recent present. From that list she picked 6 beers that she thought would be fun to brew for the brewery and be a good fit for a ProAm entry! The Six she choose we sent in full recipes for her to then pick a final one to brew, the six where:

Rives Boreland’s “White IPA”, from the 2015 LA Belgian Beer Competition

Carl Townsend’s “Scottish Ale”, from 2015 LA County Fair

Lloyd Johnson and Ted Silvas’s “Elderflower Belgian Pale”, from 2015 LA Belgian Beer Competition

Craig Corley’s “Alt #15”, from 2015 LA County Fair

Parker Waechter’s “Surfin Sancho Toasted Coconut Stout”, from the 2015 California State Fair

David Codney and Kevin Koenig’s “Incident Reflection White IPA”, from 2016 LA Belgian Beer Competition

From this Six recipes she then chose a winner. I know I will get some flack for it, but in the end she chose mine, aka Lloyd and Ted’s “Elderflower Belgian Pale”. As of lately we have been talking about the recipe and supplies for the brew, as well as the brew date getting bumped up. Which will be tomorrow July 28th, starting at 7am at the Arts District Brewery! Something Ted and I could not pass up and are extremely excited to be able to finally brew one of our beers on a pro system. As well we made the GABF ProAm deadline and the beer will be going this October to compete, and at some point will be on tap at the brewery!

Thank you all and I hope we can give the club more chances in the future for ProAm opportunities like this.
Lloyd

 

Competition Corner July 2016

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2016-lacf-logoEntries are due this Friday July 15th for the Los Angeles County Fair Homebrew Competition.  Full registration details are available at http://competitions.maltosefalcons.com/.  This competition uses the Falcons guidelines which you can download from https://www.maltosefalcons.com/comps/styles/2015-falcons-style-guidelines.  Entries can be left at the Culver City Homebrew Supply Co.  Judging will on Saturday, July 23rd. Read more →

Cal State Competition Entries Due

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CaState1Just a quick reminder that we are rapidly approaching the entry deadline for the California State Fair.   Greg has offered to collect entries that are at Culver City shop provided they show up by the close of business on Tuesday, April 19th, and take them over to the Eagle Rock brewshop, one of the official drop-off sites.  If you miss the Tuesday window, you can still trek them to either Eagle Rock, or the South Bay shop until Sunday, April 24th.  Registration for the event is open at http://www.castatefair.org/homebrew/.

Also, don’t forget to help out with Mayfaire judging, this Saturday.  Sign up here:   http://competitions.maltosefalcons.com/

Eagle Rock Home Brewing Supply
4981 Eagle Rock Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90041

South Bay Brew Supply
1311 Post Avenue
Torrance CA 90501.