All Pacific Gravity news.

It’s Time to Do the Dues!

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It’s March and that means it’s time for our annual Pacific Gravity membership dues collection.  All club members need to pay their dues to keep their membership active until March 2024.  Annual dues are $42 for individuals or $63 for couples and are prorated for members who joined the club within the last year.

Keep in mind that your dues are the primary way we fund such club activities as club parties, monthly meetings, club brews and much more.  Your paid membership also ensures that you’ll continue to receive the many club benefits available, access to various brewing activities, discounts and information.

There are several ways you can renew your annual dues.  Club Treasurer, Craig Corley will be collecting dues at the upcoming March club meeting and other upcoming club events.  You can go old school and send Pacific Gravity a check to PO Box 2451, Culver City CA 90231. And for the ultimate in convenience, you can renew your dues online via the PayPal links below:

Individual Membership – Full 1-year Renewal

Couples Membership – Full 1-year Renewal

Prorated Membership – Partial year Renewal

As an incentive to pay your dues early, we’ve got a past year’s Pacific Brewers Cup or LA Belgian Brew Challenge tee shirt for those who pay their dues before or at the March meeting.  This is limited to the stock we have on hand and you will have to pick up your tee shirt at the March club meeting.

Along with your dues renewal, we need all members to complete a Membership Application/Liability Waiver. And in the case of couples memberships, we need this for both members.  You can fill out and submit your Membership Application/Liability Waiver at the following link: https://forms.gle/f2xCjNBAp5qoJjFK8

All current club members should have gotten a renewal notice via email detailing their dues renewal amount and member information on file. This is a good opportunity to update our membership records, so please let Craig know of any changes to your member information (address, email, phone, etc) or include changes with your check/renewal form.

For any individual members who might be interested, the couples membership provides full membership status/benefits to both partners of a couple including membership cards, emails, etc. Note that the couples membership is optional, couples can continue with one partner being an individual member and the other being their guest.  It’s an additional $21 to upgrade your individual membership to a couples membership and you’ll need to include your partner’s name and email along with your payment.

Have questions about your dues or how much you owe? Check with Craig at the March club meeting or by email at [email protected]

Club Meeting Thursday (8/18) at Tortugo Brewing

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Hope your summer is going well!  We have one more chance to party before fall sets in.  Please join us Thursday August 18th at Tortugo Brewing Co, located at 916 W Hyde Park Blvd, Inglewood, CA 90302.   We will get started about 7:30 PM.  We will have a recap of the Summer Party (thanks Dean!), as well as announcements of upcoming events such as club elections, upcoming First Friday or Second Saturdays, and important news about upcoming homebrew competitions such as Pacific Brewers Cup and the California State Homebrew Competition.

Our President Ian will be be pouring commercial samples of our styles of the month Wheat and Witbier.  And, of course, if you bring your homebrews to share, we will have a full slate of enjoyment.

We have no organized food plan this month, so please plan on dropping a few buck on Torgugo’s grill, or eat before the meeting.

Hope to see you there!

UPCOMING EVENTS
August 18:  Club Meeting at Tortugo Brewing Co, located at 916 W Hyde Park Blvd, Inglewood, CA 90302
September 2:  First Friday at Tortugo
September 15:  Club Meeting at Tortugo Brewing Co.
September 3 – 25:  Entry Drop-off Window for Pacific Brewers Cup
October 8, 15: (Maybe other dates too) Judging at Project Barley Brewery & Pizzeria

STYLES OF THE MONTH

  • August – Wits and Wheats
  • September – IPAs
  • October – Festbiers and Amber lagers
  • November – Dark beers
  • December – Holiday Party, all styles

 

Pacific Gravity Summer Party Saturday, July 23rd

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Greetings Pacific Gravity!

Time for some blether, braw and fizzy juice!

This year’s summer party is set for July 23, 2022 and will be held at Dean Sussman’s Highland’s home located at 1310 Amalfi Drive, Pacific Palisades.  It is sure to be a wee beastie!

The theme for this year’s summer party is the Scottish Highland Games!  So, grab your kilt, your sporran and your brogues and join the fun!  We will feature a haggis and our own poet laureate Reed will offer up our address to the haggis!  There will be other Scottish inspired foods as well, Scottish eggs, clapshot, salmon, and more!

However, this being a ‘bring a plate’ potluck event we want you to bring your favorite dish along to the event as well; any dish is welcome, so the menu is WIDE open for you to bring your best scran and show off your culinary skills!

The summer party is a volunteer’s event, and we need lots of volunteers!  Volunteers will be needed for set up the day before and clean up of Dean’s house the day after.  We pay all volunteers in beer at the event, all-you-can-drink in fact; the only catch is we need you to brew the beer so we can use it to pay the volunteers!  Lot’s of beer!

We also need your sodas for the non-alcohol drinking crowd, if you have a good soda recipe; this is a great place to show it off.

Along with our best beer of the party judging we will also host this year’s drink competition!  Bring a batch of your favorite non-beer or non-alcohol (sodas count!) summertime drink and we will judge it and announce a winner at the event!

As always with the pandemic, we expect everyone to be fully vaxxed and/or non-symptomatic.  Please be careful and remain safe at all times.

Stay tuned for additional details!

Pacific Gravity’s Summer Party Checklist

Saturday, July 23, 2022 – 2pm to 10pm

Location:  Dean Sussman’s – 1310 Amalfi Drive, Pacific Palisades, 90272

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IMPORTANT: PLEASE EMAIL US WITH WHAT YOU WILL BRING AND HOW YOU CAN HELP!

Checklist for ALL party attendees:

  • Bring BEER, BEER & more BEER!  Also, bring sodas or a non-beer beverage for the Beverage” competition!  Please email what you are bringing to Carl at [email protected]
  • FOOD – sign up to bring any dish to our POTLUCK party. (the club will supply some food but we need YOUR dishes too!) We need ALL kinds of food: appetizers, sides dishes, main dishes (pre-cooked), desserts, etc. All your specialty dishes are welcome!  We need LOTS of food to go with all the beer so please email us at [email protected] what dishes you will add to our feast!
  • VOLUNTEERS – we need YOU to help make this a successful party!  Please email us at [email protected] .  We have lots of volunteer opportunities!
    • Setup on Friday night – starting at 6pm
    • Food prep on Friday – please contact Chef Ian to help
    • Cleanup on Sunday morning – starting around 10am
    • Bartender shifts – 1hr. (please see Carl on Saturday to volunteer)
  • Beer Equipment  (email Carl at: [email protected])
    • Jockey boxes
    • CO2 cylinders
    • Bags of ice for jockey boxes
  • Other Equipment needed for the party.  Please let us know if you have any of the following and would be willing to loan to us for the party. Please email us at: [email protected] . We will email confirmation back if we need you to bring items on Friday night during setup.
    • Tables
    • EZ Ups/Canopies
    • BBQs
    • Power/extension cords
    • Extra coolers/ice chests

Don’t forget to bring and things to know:

  • Bring BEER & other beverages
  • Bring FOOD – Scottish themed or any food that goes with beer!
  • Fee for all adult guests is $10 per guest. Kids are free. (Current members are free.)
  • Payment for past due membership – cash or credit
  • Chairs and Blankets
  • Bathing suits and towels, if you want to use the swimming pool.
  • Sunscreen
  • Jackets & sweaters for the evening
  • Cash for Raffle tickets
  • PG merchandise will be available for sale at the Front Desk.
  • Note for food contributions, we will NOT have use of a kitchen for heating or cooling so please plan accordingly. Please label your food containers so that we can get them back to you.

It is great that we can all get together in person, but as always we encourage and expect everyone will be vigilant about their own health to ensure the groups safety!  Please observe all safety precautions and stay home if you do not feel well.

Pacific Gravity Club Meeting Thursday, June 16th at Tortugo Brewery

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Greetings Pacific Gravity!
Our next club meeting is on June 16, 2022 at Tortugo Brewing Co, located at 916 W Hyde Park Blvd, Inglewood, CA 90302.   (424) 227-9963
We will get started about 7:30 PM.

We will discuss upcoming events, the next First Friday and the Summer Party!

We have restarted the ‘style of the month’ effective with the May meeting, which you can find here.    For June, the official beer is Pale Ale.  Of course, at any meeting, any beer you have brewed will be gladly accepted and drank!

Our monster brew last month at  Smog City Brewing was a rousing success.  Seventy-five batches were sold using a modified recipe of Little Bo Pils.  We hope to see many of these beers  with a diversity of modifications at summer party! Thank you Porter for a great time!

Results have been release for the 2022 Mayfaire homebrew competition.  Congratulations to Carl Townsend for his first place at IPAs with his “Let the Wookie Win” black IPA, and for his second place ribbon for Czech Dark Lager.  Full results can be found at https://competitions.maltosefalcons.com/2022Mayfaire/

We had a great showing for our First Friday on Second Saturday at All Season Brewing in Korea town.   The IPAs were quite solid as was the fruited Berliner weisse.  We wish to thank the team for their recent sponsorship of Pacific Brewers Cup.

It is gratifying that we have resumed gathering in person, but as always we encourage and expect everyone will be vigilant about their own health to ensure the groups safety!  Please observe all safety precautions and stay home if you do not feel well.

I hope to see you all at our meeting!

Cheers,

Ian Fraser
President

Annual Dues

It’s time to renew your annual membership dues for the Pacific Gravity Home Brewers Club. Your dues are the primary way we fund such club activities as club parties, monthly meetings, club brews and much more.  Your paid membership also ensures that you’ll continue to receive the many club benefits available, access to various brewing activities, discounts and information. Stay tuned for more information on upcoming members only opportunities!

Individual Membership = $36/yr – Renew now with PayPal: https://py.pl/BiB2I
Couples Membership = $54/yr  – Renew now with PayPal: https://py.pl/2T086cDIgzz

Upcoming Events

Saturday, July 23  SUMMER PARTY at Dean Sussman’s place.

Thursday, August 18:  Club Meeting at Tortugo Brewing.

 

Upcoming Styles

  • June – Pale Ales
  • July – Summer Party (all styles)
  • August – Wits and Wheats
  • September – IPAs
  • October – Festbiers and Amber lagers
  • November – Dark beers
  • December – Holiday Party (all styles)

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Homebrew Fest Details – Sign Up Now

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We are less than two weeks away from the 2022 Southern California Homebrew Festival, which will be back live in person after a two-year hiatus due to COVID.  If you haven’t ever attended, this is a three-day camping and beer-drinking fest, with all the other clubs in the Southern California region. It will be held at Vail Lake KOA Resort, just outside Temecula, California.  If you haven’t already signed up, here is what you need to do no later than April 27th.

  • Join the California Homebrewers Association at https://www.calhomebrewers.org/ .  Cost is $10. You must do this before purchasing fest admission.
  • Purchase the Fest Admission from CHA. Cost is $60.
  • Contact Terry Molloy at [email protected] and let him know you will be attending.  If you want to reserve an RV space, the cost is $130 (We have 1 left).  If you just want a space for a tent, the cost is $30.  Car pooling is recommended; there is an added fee for additional vehicles. Alternately, if you are not into the camping thing, you can book a hotel room in Temecula, in which case you are on your own.  You can get a shuttle pass from CHA, but check the hours carefully.
  • Contact Carl if you have kegs to serve at the fest, so we know how many taps to have on hand. Email him at  [email protected] .

So, what goes on at the festival?  Check out the complete rundown here: https://www.calhomebrewers.org/2022-schf-info/

Here are the main schedule details: Read more →

Competition Corner – March 2022

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We have two competition updates that need your attention:

First up is the American Homebrewers Association National Homebrew Competition.  This is a multi-step process, and you must be an AHA member to register.  Step 1 is to enroll your desire to enter the competition, which you must do by March 29th, 3PM Mountain time.  AHA members will have been emailed a username (email address) and password to enroll in the competition, request the amount of beers they’d like to enter and pay for their entries.  If there are more requested entries that AHA can handle, they will create a wait list.  Actual entry confirmation and bottle submission will not occur until May, so you can still brew something if you intend to enter.   Note that you will need SIX bottles for each entry, so don’t overdo it.

Next up are details for the Maltose Falcons Mayfaire Competition.  Entry registration is now up and running at: The 44th Annual MaltoseFalcons Mayfaire Homebrew Competition!

Two bottles are needed for each entry, and costs just $10 per entry.  This year the Falcons have switched over the the BJCP style guidelines.  Entry deadline is April 22nd.  If you bring your entries to the Club Meeting on April 21 at Tortugo Brewery, I’ll run them up to the Valley Friday morning.

We also will try to set up a preliminary judging session on the Westside the first week of May, so drop me a line if you can do some judging.

Get those brew kettles going!

Carl Townsend
Competition Coordinator

UPCOMING EVENTS:
Saturday, April 2, 2022:
NOON on Saturday
4th Horseman, 121 W. 4th St.
Long Beach, Ca. 9080

April Club Meeting:
Thursday, April 21, 2022
Tortugo Brewing Co.
916 W Hyde Park Blvd
Inglewood, CA 9030

April 29 – May 1, 2022
Southern California Homebrew Festival
Vail Lake, Temecula

 

 

Join the Future of Pacific Gravity!

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You could win one of these vintage beers! Apply today to enter the raffle.

Apply Now!

Remember when Pacific Gravity hosted massive summer parties, organized exciting bus trips, incubated successful commercial brewers, and even won California Homebrew Club of the Year (twice in a row)?

My how times have changed. We have fewer members and less money in the bank. Our membership is trending older. We lost our sister homebrew supply shop. And social distancing has been a real buzzkill. We’re not alone: Other clubs like Strand have also been struggling.

How much longer can we keep this going? 5 years? 10 years?

Yet hope remains while the company is true. The pandemic is easing, we have a core group of committed members, we enjoy strong partnerships with local breweries, and we’re welcoming a slow trickle of new members.

So we’re trying something new. We’re putting together a team of 3-7 people to do radical out-of-the-box thinking. A team who will be doing a lot of brainstorming and questioning everything. A team that will be diverse in its perspectives and experiences. A team that hopefully reflects the future of Pacific Gravity.

Do you enjoy craft beer? Are you open to new possibilities? Can you devote 5-10 hours per month for the next year? If so, then you might be a great fit.

Apply Now!

The application deadline is Friday, March 4. Imagine what’s possible by our 30th anniversary!

Questions? Comments? You can email us at [email protected].

Pacific Gravity Club Meeting Thursday February 17th

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Greetings Pacific Gravity!
Please join us this Thursday February 17, 2022 as we resume normal activity with a live monthly meeting!  We will get started at 7:30 PM.February Monthly MeetingTortugo Brewing Co.
916 W. Hyde Park Blvd.
Inglewood,  CA  90302
(424) 227-9963

We will have lots to discuss…  Like our 27th anniversary!  We’ll have a beer to toast the occasion! We will try to get back to naming a ‘style of the month’ for future meetings. Joe should have a couple of new beers for us to try so come on out. So dust off those cobwebs, come on down and say “Hi” to all those people you sort of remember! Again!

Special Note: I am sorry to announce that this Saturday’s ‘First Friday’ event at the Stuffed Sandwich has been postponed (again!) to Saturday, March 5, 2022 due to a scheduling conflict.

Please make sure you  are vaccinated and have no symptoms before attending.

See you there!

Cheers,
Ian Fraser
President

Upcoming Events

March 5th, 2022:  Stuffed Sandwich
March 17th Club Meeting: TBD
Our mailing address is:
Pacific Gravity
P.O. Box 2451
Los Angeles, Ca 90066

Holiday Party Setup Saturday, Dec 4th, Member of the Year elections

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As we move into the festive time of year, we are delighted to announce that Neil Saund will be hosting the Annual Holiday Party at his Duplex in Marina Del Rey on December 11th.

But first:  We need to deck the halls!  Please join us Saturday morning December 4th at 9:00AM to decorate the tree, put up the Christmas lights and in general, get things party-ready.

Holiday party Set-up Session:
When:  Saturday, December 4, at 9:00AM. 
Where:  12966 Rubens Ave, Los Angeles, CA. (at Alla Road)

Things to bring:
Folding Tables, Chairs, and any special decorations you may want to put up.  Ian will be getting the tree and Tim will bring Christmas lights.

Member of the Year Nominations:
We are still accepting nominations for Member of the Year.  Nominees include:
Ian Fraser
Rob Kadota
Eric Muhlheim
Carl Townsend

The cut-off for voting is Noon on December 4th.  If you did not get a chance to vote at the Chili cookoff, you can send your selection to [email protected].

Holiday Party Details
As noted above, the Holiday party will be a Neil’s Duplex on December 11th at 5:00PM.  Rumor has it Read more →

Pacific Brewer Cup Winners Announced

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Greetings Fellow Homebrewers:

After a year and a half of covid-related delays, we are please to announce the winners of the 2021 Pacific Brewer Cup.  Congratulation to Steven Severn of the Orange County Mash-ups for his Best of Show entry Janet’s Brown Ale, brewed as a memorial to Mike “Tasty” McDole, a renowned homebrewer who passed away just over a year ago.  Janet’s Brown Ale was itself a memorial brew first brewed by Tasty to honor the memory of his wife Janet who passed away in 2001.  Congratulations Steven, and a salute to your fallen comrades.

Our first Runner-up was a dry sparkling Cider brewed by Kyle Brawley.  Rounding out the top three was a Märzen brewed by Carl Townsend.

The Best Brewer award goes to Jon Silvertooth of Long Beach Homebrewers.  Jon had three first-place beers, and also led the charge for the Top Club award which goes to Long Beach Homebrewers.

Full result can be found at:http://comp.pacificgravity.com/ Read more →