First Saturday October 3 at Rasselbock

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Guten Abend Pacific Gravity!

Our October “First Friday” event will be be held this Saturday 10/3 12-3pm at Rasselbock in Mar Vista.  It is Oktoberfest, so please join us for festivities and of course some most excellent German beer & food! Oktoberfest officially ends the next day (though Rasselbock and many others will keep it going a bit longer), so grab your lederhosen and join us for some fun!

We also have a bonus Friday event!  Porter just informed us that this Friday 10/2 they will be tapping their GABF pro am entry, and Joe St John, the winner of last year’s Pacific Brewer’s Cup should be there as well.  Joe will be arrive around 3pm.  Head on down to Smog City Brewing to hang with Porter and support the Pro Am!

Chili Cook-off Saturday 10/17
As is our tradition, our October club meeting will will take the form of our much-loved and feared Pacific Gravity Annual Chili Cook-Off which will be held at Casa Molloy on Saturday 10/17.  All attendees vote for the “Best” and “Most Unique” chili,  so amaze and baffle our palates as only PG can! Winners will receive the much-coveted “bragging rights and a beer”.  Our style of the month is “Meads and Sours” or any other alternative fermentable or alternative fermenting organism, so it should compliment the heat/and weird well.
Additionally, this will be your opportunity to nominate candidates for next year’s Board (President, Vice President and Treasurer) and for Member of the Year. The election will held at our November meeting, so this is the time to get the nominations in!

Holiday Party Saturday 12/5
We have a date for the holiday party! It will be on Saturday December 5 at Neil’s Swinging Party Pad™.  More details will come as we get closer, but we want to make sure everyone has the date in their calendar as soon as we can.

St Bernardus Day 12/12
This is a new event for us this year suggested by Scott Burnell- The Back Abby in Upland is hosting a St Bernardus day event – it should be a blast.  We are planning on taking the train there.  More details will come as we get closer.

Parker Waechter – President, Pacific Gravity Homebrewers

October First Saturday  – Saturday 10/3/2026 at 12-3 PM
Rasselbock
3817 Grand View Blvd
Los Angeles,  CA  90066
(310) 439-2938

Competition Corner
It looks like judging has been completed for the 2026 Pacific Brewers Cup, so results should be out shortly at  https://www.longbeachhomebrewers.com/comp/pbc/bcoem/.  In the meantime, the last remaining competition in the 2026 Brewer of the Year Award cycle, is the California State Competition.  Registration is now open at  https://brewingcompetitions.com/chc/ .  This is a bay-area competition, so you will need to ship your entries.  Bottles need to be received between October 10th and October 22nd at Morebeer in Concord CA.

Carl Townsend
Competition Coordinator

Upcoming Events

  • Oct   2:  Smog City GABF Pro Am available
  • Oct   3:  First Saturday – Rasselbock 12-3pm
  • Oct 17:  Chili Cook-off – Casa Molloy
  • Oct 22:  Entry Deadline for Cal State Competition
  • Nov 19: Club Meeting at Tortugo Brewing Company 7:30 pm
  • Nov 29:  Holiday Party Setup
  • Dec   5:  PG Holiday Party
  • Dec 12: St Bernardus Day event Back Abby, Upland

September Monthly Meeting – Thursday 9/17/2026 at 7:30 PM

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Guten Tag Pacific Gravity!

Our September monthly meeting is this Thursday at our home-base Tortugo Brewing.

Zicke Zacke Zicke Zacke Hoi Hoi Hoi! – yes, this will be always epic Oktoberfest meeting (yes, SLIGHTLY early, but…Oktoberfest!), and appropriately, our styles of the month are Festbiers and Amber Lagers, so please bring your marvelous Märzens, Fabulous Fests or whatever excellent homebrew you have to share!

There will be some traditional Oktoberfest food (suggested donation $10). There will be ONE, if not TWO, members in Lederhosen!  Oans, zwoa, drei, Gsuffa!!!

I hope to see you all at the meeting Thursday!

Bis dahin!

Parker Waechter – President, Pacific Gravity Homebrewers

September Monthly Meeting – Thursday 9/17/2025 at 7:30 PM
Tortugo Brewing Co.
916 W. Hyde Park Blvd.
Inglewood,  CA  90302
(424) 227-9963

Competition Corner:

Judging for 2026 Pacific Brewers Cup Competition is this Saturday  (9/19) at La Jara Brewing 13423 Excelsior Dr. Norwalk, Ca. 90650.  I’ll be driving down to judge, so if you can help out either with judging or stewarding,  we can carpool.  Either way, please sign up at https://www.longbeachhomebrewers.com/comp/pbc/bcoem/ so they will have an accurate headcount.

I am delighted to report we have over 20 entries in the competition.  With our boatload of entries, they will need help with judging.   Please keep in mind that we will be running PBC next September and will need help from other clubs, so please chip in this year to help out Long Beach homebrewers. Contact me if you are interested in car-pooling to Norwalk on judging day.

After PBC, we have just one remaining competition in the 2026 Brewer of the Year Award cycle, that being the California State Competition.  Registration is now open at  https://brewingcompetitions.com/chc/ .  This is a bay-area competition, so you will need to ship your entries.  Bottles need to be received between October 10th and October 22nd at Morebeer in Concord CA.

At the moment, we have a multi-way tie for the 2026 point count, so your opportunity for taking the Pacific Gravity Brewer of the Year Award is wide open.

Carl Townsend
Competition Coordinator

 

Upcoming Events

  • Sept 17: Club Meeting at Tortugo Brewing Company – Festbier and Amber Lagers
  • Sept 19: Judging for PBC 8am (La Jara Brewing, Norwalk)
  • Oct 2 or 3: First Friday or Saturday (haven’t finalized a Friday or Saturday as yet) – Rasselbock Los Angeles
  • Oct 22Entry Deadline for California State Homebrew Competition

First Saturday Sept 5 at Absolution Brewing Company

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Aloha Pacific Gravity!

The summer party was its usual level of awesome – quite worthy for our last hurrah at Palazzo Sussman.  Chefs Ian & Rob provided some excellent BBQ, and the many sides brought by everyone else were quite tasty.  The beer of course was legendary as always!  For logistics reasons I will not mention the winners of “best of the party” here, but we will definitely bring it up in a future email and at the next meeting on 9/17.

For our first Fri/Sat event for September, this Saturday we will be visiting Absolution Brewing Company, the brewery where our newest member Andrew helps make the magic happen. This will coincide with their “End of Summer Party” which runs all day and includes a stein holding contest for anyone up to the challenge.

It should be a fun one – hope to see you all there!

Parker Waechter – President, Pacific Gravity Homebrewers

September First Saturday – Saturday 9/5/2026 at 12-2 PM
Absolution Brewing Company
2878 Columbia St
Torrance, CA 90503
(310) 490-4860

Competition Corner

We have 17 entries delivered to Long Beach for the 2026 Pacific Brewers Cup Competition.  If you have an last-second entries, you will need to take them to Stein Fillers no later than Saturday, Sept 5th.  With a boatload of entries, they will need help with judging and stewarding on September 19th at  La Jara Brewing 13423 Excelsior Dr. Norwalk, CA 90650.  If you can help out, please sign up at https://www.longbeachhomebrewers.com/comp/pbc/bcoem/. Please keep in mind that we will be running PBC next September and will need help from other clubs, so please chip in this year to help out Long Beach homebrewers. Contact me if you are interested in car-pooling to Norwalk on judging day.

After PBC, we have just one remaining competition in the 2026 Brewer of the Year Award cycle, that being the California State Competition.  Registration opens September 12th at  https://brewingcompetitions.com/chc/ .  This is a bay-area competition, so you will need to ship your entries.  Bottles need to be received between October 10th and October 22nd at Morebeer in Concord CA.

At the moment, we have a multi-way tie for the 2026 point count, so your opportunity for taking the Pacific Gravity Brewer of the Year Award is wide open.

Carl Townsend
Competition Coordinator

Upcoming Events

First Friday on MONDAY June 29 at Father’s Office 7pm

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What?  A First Friday on Monday?  We couldn’t wait for the calendar to roll over before doing our (probably first ever) Last Monday.

Our St. Amburanas event is at Father’s Office, Culver City, tomorrow night (6/29) 7 pm.

Tomm Carroll has worked with both Firestone and FO to get this on tap, and organize an event open to the public where we can talk about the beer, brewing and hopefully drum up some more interest in this twisted hobby of ours  We will have the side room that we used for our First Friday a little bit ago.  Sam, the brewer at Firestone that made the magic happen, will be in attendance.
If somehow you are unfamiliar with St Amburanas, it is one of the five 30th anniversary collaborations we did last year – Tomm had the idea to do a Belgian dark, I suggested Amburana wood, and Carl provided his Belgian Strong Dark recipe – Sam then Willie Wonka’d the ideas and let PG be Ooma-Loompas on brew day to make a  really great and unique beer.
This event may be one of your last opportunities to try this batch!

Though it is the last Monday in June, it will take the place of our First Friday for July, which is otherwise tied up in Independence day celebrations.

I hope to see you all Tomorrow night!

Parker Waechter – President, Pacific Gravity Homebrewers
Father’s Office St Amburanas Event 6/29/2026 at 7 PM
Father’s Office
3229 Helms Ave
LA, CA 90034
(317) 735-2224

Upcoming Events

  • June  29 : Father’s office St Amburanas event (Monday)  7 pm
  • July   16 : Club Meeting at Tortugo Brewing Company 7:30 pm

 

Pacific Gravity Bonus Friday May 15 at Farmer’s Market Bar 326

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We are invited to a Bonus Friday special event!

Our friends at Smog City have created a collaboration with the Farmer’s Market Bar 326 @ the Grove, and they will be having a release party at Bar 326 this Friday, May 15.
Let’s all all go and support Porter and the crew!

May Bonus Friday – Friday 5/15/2026 at 6-9 PM
326 Bar in the Farmers Market at the Grove
6333 W 3rd St
LA, CA 90036
(323) 272-4503

And don’t forget the Smog City Monster Brew is a comin’ on May 23!  Make your plans and order your batches ASAP!!

Here is the PayPal link for the Monster Brew:

https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/UNXX326XGCNK4
Parker Waechter – President, Pacific Gravity Homebrewers

Upcoming Events

  • May  15 : 326 Farmer’s Market Bar 326 w/ Smog City 6:00
  • May  21 : Club Meeting at Tortugo Brewing Company 7:30
  • May  23 : Monster Brew at Smog City

First (Good) Friday April 3 at Fathers Office

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Sorry for the last-minute notice. Think of it as an Easter (or Passover) surprise – but NOT a belated April Fools joke. This is for real.

Our First Friday this month is a good one. Not only is it a Good Friday, but it’s even better because it’s at the renowned craft beer bar and restaurant Father’s Office in Culver City, where Tomm Carroll arranged the reserved side room for us.

The fine folks at Father’s also have cans of a Northern Californian WCIPA seldom seen in LA available only to PG members. Drop by to find out what it is. And bring a guest.

Parker Waechter – President, Pacific Gravity Homebrewers

April First Friday – Friday 4/3/2026 at 7-10 PM
Father’s Office
3229 Helms Ave
LA, CA 90034
(317) 735-2224

Upcoming Events

  • Apr    3 :  First Friday @ Father’s Office Culver City
  • Apr 13:  Entry Deadline for multiple Hombrew Comptitions
  • Apr  16 :  Club Meeting at Tortugo Brewing Company 7:30
  • May  1-2 : Southern California Homebrewers Festival – Veil Lake Temecula
  • May  21 : Club Meeting at Tortugo Brewing Company 7:30
  • May  23 : Monster Brew at Smog City

First Saturday March 7 at Smog City

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Salutations Pacific Gravity!

Our March “First Friday” event will be be held this Saturday 4/7 12-3pm at Smog City Brewing in Torrance. This will be a fun day – Porter should have our Anniversary Collaboration Saison with Brett on tap, and is planning on also chilling down one of the magnums we bottled! This will be an opportunity to enjoy the beer directly at the brewery and of course chat with our great host and benefactor, Porter.  There are always a wide selection of Smog beers that will demand our attention as well!  ALSO, we will be offering 12oz bottles of the beer @ 6 for an $8 club donation – an unreasonably cheap price for this beer!  Note THERE ARE NO 6-PACK CARRIERS so bring your own, or buy by the case for $32 (which is definitely what I am doing, if not doing multiple times) – Porter doesn’t want to hang on to it for us forever, so this would be the time to pick up all you can carry!  The food truck is scheduled to be VCHOS Pupuseria, so a tasty lunch should be available.

But WAIT, there’s more!  I also spoke to Alex at Cellador across the parking lot from Smog, and they are having their Members Society day 12-9 on Saturday as well.  He agreed to let PG crash it and enjoy some of their beers and he will likely be serving our Anniversary Collab with RedShift, an excellent wild ale with cherries and black currants.  Tasting 2 anniversary beers at their respective breweries within a 200 yards of each other… A dang near perfect day!  Time to pick up some Redshift!!

Oh, but there is STILL more… I just messaged with Alex and he says that Father’s Office will be getting RedShift!  He thinks that it will be on this weekend in Culver City and next week in Santa Monica.  Now we can drink PG beer in a pub… and Ian’s gloating will know no bounds 😉  We can discuss an organized run (stay tuned), but in the mean time, stop by and enjoy!

And of course, duuuuues….. It’s that time again.  You have likely received and email from our illustrious Treasurer, Craig, and can quickly pay your dues with a tap of a link.  Please help us keep PG solvent for another year!

Looking forward to seeing you all Saturday at noon!

Parker Waechter – President, Pacific Gravity Homebrewers

March First Saturday  – Saturday 4/7/2026 at 12-3 PM
Smog City Brewery
1901 Del Amo Blvd
Torrance,  CA  90501
(310) 320-7664

Upcoming Events

  • Mar   7 :  First Saturday at Smog City Brewery 12:00
  • Mar  19:  Club Meeting at Tortugo Brewing Company 7:30

First Friday February 6 at El Segundo Brewing Company

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Our February “First Friday” event will be be held this Friday 2/6 at El Segundo Brewing Company.   Tomm Carroll has spoken to Owner/Brewmaster Rob and they will have a couple of tables reserved for us.  They should probably also have their TIPA and QIPA that were released last weekend, so there should be no shortage of hoppy libations!

Parker Waechter – President, Pacific Gravity Homebrewers

February First Friday – Friday 2/6/2026 at 7-10 PM
El Segundo Brewing Company
140 Main St
El Segundo,  CA  90245
(310) 529-3882

Competition Corner

2026 starts out with four competitions that all have entry deadlines in the March-April timeframe.  You still have a bit of time to brew, but you’ll need to start soon.

The entry window for the National Homebrewers Competition is now open through February 25th . You will need to select which judging location you wish to use. San Diego is the closest. Entries will be due in March. The final round will be judged at the National Homebrewers Conference in Asheville NC in June.  Details can be found at https://homebrewersassociation.org/news/get-ready-for-the-2026-national-homebrew-competition-nhc .

Registration for America’s Finest City is now open through March 31st. Details can be found at https://www.quaff.org/AFC-2026/ .  The entry drop-off window will be April 6 – 17th.  There may be a local drop-off point for this San Diego based competition.

The entry window for the California State fair should open any day now.  Register at https://castatefair.com/california-homebrew/ Entries will be due in early April.  Most likely Angel City brewery will accept entries.

And finally, the Maltose Falcon’s Mayfaire competition will begin registration soon.  Judging will be in April.  Detail can be found at https://competitions.maltosefalcons.com/ .

Carl Townsend – Competition Coordinator

Upcoming Events

  • February   6: First Friday – El Segundo Brewing Co
  • February 19: Club Meeting at Tortugo Brewing Company 7:30 (style British Beers)

First Sunday Jan 4 at Firestone Propagator

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>Happy New Year Pacific Gravity!

I hope everyone has survived & thrived during the holidays and was able to spend some quality time with family and friends in addition to wonderful libations!

Our Holiday party was a huge amount of fun as always, and a big thanks to Ian for awesome food, Carl and Tom for getting the serving system happening, Terry and Craig for raffle fun, Neil for hosting (and of course providing an amazing quantity of beers and food), and everyone who helped with setup/cleanup and provided beer/potluck items for everyone to enjoy.  It takes a village and, once again, the group came together to make this  legendary party happen!

We successfully ended the year with 5 anniversary beers brewed at commercial breweries.  A big thanks to Rives for providing a keg of the very tasty Project Barley English Barley wine as a donation to the club!  He has said the beer is now available in bottles for purchase at Project Barley, Lomita, so make a trip and grab some while you can!!  Porter from Smog and Alex from Cellador provided some pre-release bottles of their Anniversary beers and they were much enjoyed – definitely looking forward to full availability!

Our Firestone Anniversary beer, St Amburanas, a Belgian Strong Dark on Amburana wood,  also made an appearance and was well liked.

Which brings us to our first First-Friday for the new year, which will actually be a First-Sunday at the Firestone Walker Propagator.  They have our St Amburanas on tap.  Sam says they also have a West Coast/NZ Pils with nelson and riwaka that they are excited about, so that should be interesting.  Please come on down this Sunday noon-3 and join us in starting off the new year right!!

Parker Waechter – President, Pacific Gravity Homebrewers

Jan First Sunday – Sunday 1/4/2025 at 12-3 PM
Firestone Propagator
3205 Washington Blvd
Marina Del Rey,  CA  90292
(310) 439-8264

 

Upcoming Events

  • Jan 4   :  First Friday (Sunday) at Firestone Propagator 12 pm
  • Jan 15 :  Club Meeting at Tortugo Brewing Company 7:30

Anniversary Brews at Smog City and Firestone

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This is a reminder that this Saturday 11/8 is our Anniversary brew at Smog City at 9:30 am.

We will be using Porter’s new 5 barrel pilot system, so even if you have been to brew events at Smog in the past, this will be something exciting and new!

The recipe will be an adaptation of Craig Corley’s Trappist Single.  Rather than traditional Belgian grains, we’re going to use micro-malted grains from Admiral Maltings up in the Bay Area. We’ll use German Hercules for bittering and a blend of Tettnanger and Saaz for flavor/aroma additions.  We’ll likely use a dry yeast like Mangrove Jacks Belgian Tripel M31.  We’ll use first wort hopping and a large dose at knock out.

Unlike our usual Smog visits, this is not a “Monster Brew”.  We are not selling wort, so no need to bring sterile buckets.  Instead, we will ferment the whole batch at Smog and then bottling in a couple of weeks (and we will need some help then too!).  You are not going to want to miss this event!

Next, just 2 days later, on this Monday November 10 at 9am(ish) (NOTE NEW DATE!) we will be at Firestone Propagator, where Sam will be helping us craft a Carl/Tomm/Parker/Sam Belgian Dark Holiday Beer with Aburana wood.  Brewing this beer at the Propagator should be epic!

So there you have it – some action-packed days o’ brewing with a Smog-Saturday and Firestone-Monday – Two glorious days of brewer-fantasy-camp!  I encourage you to take advantage of this opportunity to attend one if not both.  I, for one, have requested the day off work!  Also note that these 2 events will count as our “First Friday” for November.

We will need some volunteers to help bottle both of these once they are ready – we will send out an email when we know more.

These are the final two brews of our 30th Anniversary Series that have included: Tortugo, Cellador, Project Barley, Smog City, Firestone-Walker Propagator.

Parker Waechter – President, Pacific Gravity Homebrewers

Smog City PG Anniversary Beer Brewing – Saturday 11/8/2025 at 9:30am(ish)
Smog City Brewing Company
1901 Del Amo Blvd
Torrance, CA, 90501
(310) 320-7664

Firestone PG Anniversary Beer Brewing – Mon 11/10/2025 at 9am(ish)
Firestone Walker Brewing Company – the Propagator
3205 Washington Blvd
Marina Del Rey, CA, 90292
(310) 439-8264

Upcoming Events

  • Nov 8    :  Anniversary Brewing at Smog City 9:30am(ish)
  • Nov 10  :  Anniversary Brewing at Firestone 9am(ish) NOTE DATE CHANGE!
  • Nov 20  :  Club Meeting at Tortugo Brewing Company 7pm
  • Dec 6    :   Holiday Party