All Pacific Gravity news.

May’s Club Meeting: Charity Donations, Club Barrel Project, and more!

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Hello Club Members,

Just a reminder that the May club meeting will be this Thursday, May 19th at the Culver City Homebrew Supply Store!  Located at:
4234 Sepulveda Blvd Culver City, CA 90230 with a start time of 7:30pm. Also bring your “Alternative Fermentable” homebrewed beers. AKA anything with added alternative grains like “rye, oats, buckwheat, spelt, millet, sorghum, rice, etc” and alternative sugars like “honey, brown sugar, invert sugar, molasses, treacle, maple syrup, sorghum, etc.” for your chance to win a $25 gift Certificate to the Culver City Homebrew Supply store. BJCP Style Guide Here, page 66. As well there will be the “Alternative Fermentable” commercial tasting and some off flavor and other educational tastings presented by Michael Patterson.

Also Do Not Forget, we are doing another smaller Charity Drive for our Friends at OPCC.net during the May Meeting this Thursday. In short this week PLEASE stop by your Ralph’s, CVS, Target, Costco, or any of your local stores to buy in bulk donations for the meeting. We are looking mainly for either “Mens Socks” regular or sweat socks and/or “Toiletries” to bring for donations. Also all other clothing donation are accepted as well, like we did for last December’s winter party (Also if you want to donate straight money, Mimi B. will go out and buy needed supplies with your contributions too for OPCC). Charity Donations are listed below and to entice you or bribe you to donate for this great cause we will be giving out EXTRA RAFFLE TICKETS TO THOSE THAT DONATE!!!! the more you donate the more tickets we’ll give you, but a pack of socks or 2-3 toiletries will be worth about 5 extra tickets in the raffle.

Items in this weeks Raffle: Beers, Glasses, Hops and Hop bag, Beer Boxes and Bottles, Fresh Cascade Hop Rhizomes, Wyeast Merchandise Pack, and Firestone Walker Merchandise Pack and glass wear just for some example!!! Regular for purchase Raffles tickets will be for sale too as normal.

PG MAY 2016 – Charity Drive
We are collecting items that will be donated to Ocean Park Community Center (OPCC).
OPCC is an independent, community-supported organization in which staff, volunteers and clients work with mutual respect to address the effects of poverty, abuse, neglect and discrimination.  OPCC empowers people to rebuild their lives. (https://www.opcc.net)
In-kind or non-monetary contributions
These donations are valuable resources that we then distribute to our clients. In keeping with our mission of treating all clients with respect and dignity, we ask that all donations should be clean and, if used, in good condition.
Below is a list of items that we can always use..

Clothing

  • Sweat socks – for men, women and children
  • Sweat shirts and pants for adults – all sizes especially larger sizes
  • Sneakers – men’s & women’s most needed
  • Shower shoes/thongs
  • Rain ponchos for adults & children
  • New underwear – men’s, women and children
  • Flannel and long sleeve shirts for adults

Tolietries / Hygiene Items
Travel or regular sizes of the following:

  • toothpaste
    • toothbrush
    • deodorant
    • shampoo
    • disposable razors
    • bar soap
    • hand & body lotion

Next, on the Sour side of things, do not forget we are starting a “Pacific Gravity/Phantom Carriage Club Barrel Project” during this meeting as well. Here is the info below:

At this month’s meeting, Simon from Phantom Carriage will be bringing a few jars of sterile wort to inoculate with various wild yeast and bacteria from club members.  These inoculated jars will be used to create a Pacific Gravity “club barrel” of blonde/lambic-style beer at the brewery, which will be packaged at a later date.  
Homebrewed/house cultures are preferred, but all samples are welcome, so feel free to bring along commercial varieties of wild fermented beer to share and pitch bottle dregs.  Also feel free to bring yeast/bacterial slurries for pitching in addition to bottle dregs (they don’t have to be carbonated in a bottle).  We will vote on our favorite homebrewed contribution, which will win some Phantom Carriage swag!

So basically, bring your homebrewed bottles of sour beer, or collect in a bottle or jar some of your slurry and sour beer for tasting from a carboy, or bring your favorite live culture commercial sour beers to the meeting for sampling, judging, and sour dreg pitching. Then on a later date and time we will be throwing it into a barrel at the brewery!

See you all at this Thursday’s Meeting!!

Saturday: Big Brew @ Carl’s

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Hey PG!

Remember, THIS SATURDAY May 14th is our first Big Brew of the year, at Carl’s place (3621 Redwood Ave. Los Angeles, Ca. 90066) from 10am to 6pm. If you’re new to brewing, or just want to get some ideas for improving your skills and setup, you should definitely come by for this free event. The weather forecast is good so far, cloudy in the morning with the sun breaking through in the mid-day.

Here’s a rough agenda for the event.

  • Light breakfast served at 10am sharp, with coffee + tea. All-grain brewing will begin at this time.
  • 1 extract, 1 mead, 1 brew-in-a-bag, and 4 all-grain demonstrations are planned.
  • BBQ’d burgers and dogs will be provided for lunch.
  • The Wave of Beer™ will be setup and CO2 will be available for kegs.
  • Carl *may* dip into his beer archives, if we behave.  😀
  • Last call at 5:30pm, everybody cleaned up and gone by 6pm.

Things you’ll want to bring:

  • The forecast calls for sun, bring a hat and sunblock. Protect your neck!
  • Similarly, for the sake of your back, bring a chair. It’ll be a very long day without one.
  • To help us avoid waste, bring a large container we can use to catch water runoff.
  • A notepad and pen is probably a good idea, especially if you’re talking shop near the Wave. 😛
  • A side dish or a few bucks to throw in for breakfast/lunch. Either or both.
  • Hydration. We’ll have some water on hand but the more the better.
  • Kegs and/or bottled beer to share!🍺

If you have any questions, reach out to me at vicepresident@ or Carl on the competitions@ or LLoyd on the president@ email address.  If all else fails, chat us up on Facebook.

Looking forward to brewing at this event alongside my fellow club members. Can’t wait!

_Michael

14may10:00 am- 6:00 pmBig Brew @ Carls houseBig Brew10:00 am - 6:00 pm Carl's house

 

 

Calling Soda makers!! LA Beer week kick off event

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If any of you are Soda makers and want to participate in the LA Beer Week Kick Off Fest June 18th and serve up your sodas, then email lilimdrd at gmail dot com, but hurry spaces are limited and first come first serve. So email her today! You will also get one free entry into the fest for donating a soda to the booth and they may need volunteers to help serve too.

If you could donate your Jockey Boxes time for the event that day, please let Lili know. As well, Soda Creativity is highly recommended, here are some past soda creation recipeses: https://www.maltosefalcons.com/recipes/beer-styles/soda

Kick Off Party will be on Saturday, June 18, 2016 at Los Angeles Center Studios | website: http://labeerweek.org/ 

LA BeerWk-HoLA Flyer

 

May 6th, First Friday @ El Segundo Brewing Company

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Hey PG!

Who else had a great time at the Malloy’s place for April’s meeting??  Tumby’s Pizza was exceptional, Scott’s Belgian commercial tasting was perfect, Greg’s [sneaky] Pliny exBEERiment was eye opening, and the LABBC award ceremony was really fun. I probably owe Terry an apology for staying a lil’ too late, sorry about that bud! I get to talking when I’ve been tasting beers and time just goes by so quick.  🙂

We’ve got an exciting week coming up in the world of PG!

  • Thursday is the release party at Phantom Carriage to celebrate their collaboration with Pipe Dream (Brian & Kingsley) called The Mad Plumber IPA. For those on Facebook, more info here.
  • The evening after, we are booked for our First Friday event at El Segundo Brewing Company. ESBC was one of our first sponsors for LABBC this year and they really want to get to know us better. Tania and I will be there around 7pm but as usual you’re welcome to stop in whenever you can make it. The whole area is full of walking distance food options and, were I a richer man, I would be living there.

Later on in the month we’ve got a Big Brew going down at Carl’s place, that happens on the 14th as we discussed at the meeting. Also, Lloyd is putting together a recap with photos of our trip this past weekend down to Temecula for the Southern California Homebrew Fest. It was my first time going and I am totally hooked, had an excellent time and I’m already looking forward to next year.

Sidenote on that topic: I brought home a partial keg of (tasty) Red IPA that has no name on it. If you are missing your contributed keg, shoot me an email with a description of it, to prove you own it (the owner will know what I mean) and I’ll get it back to you. For now it’s on gas in my kegerator and subject to weekly taxation. 😀 

Finally, in planning for May’s meeting in a few weeks here: We’re still looking for a volunteer to handle the commercial tasting of Alternative Fermentables Beers.  If you’re up for the challenge, please reach out to me at the vicepresident@  email address.

Looking forward to our next beer together!

_Michael

6may7:00 pmFirst Friday - El Segundo Brewing Company7:00 pm El Segundo Brewing Company

Some New Events!!! read this post!

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This just in: Strand Brewers invited us to join in on the collaboration with Honest Abe Hard Cider.

We will have a chance to buy cider/juice through the cidery. Turn our homebrewed ciders into a competition between Strand and PG for a chance to brew/collab your cider with Honest Abe Hard Ciders. Also there maybe possible runner up and participant prizes too. If you brew Cider’s or want to give it a try this is your chance now!

Take this survey now to let us know your interest in purchasing the Juice! The more people that sign up the cheaper it will potentially be. Click on the link below.
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/QHPWF2H

Here’s what Bob wrote to Strand about the event so far: Folks, We’re planning an informal ciders-only competition hosted by Honest Abe Hard Cider. Basically we’re going to invite members of our club and Pacific Gravity to participate in a group (unfermented) cider purchase, followed by a competition to declare the best cider maker from each club. These winners will then collaborate with Honest Abe on a yet-to-be-determined project. Details are still being worked out, but we want as many people to participate as possible, so please indicate your interest in the survey provided.
Also check out Strand’s Facebook page, Bob put up the survey earlier and there is a lot of Q and A already in the comments of the survey post!

 

Next: Pacific Gravity and Phantom Carriage Barrel Project.

Simon at Phantom Carriage has offered Pacific Gravity a chance to do a fun barrel project. Some of the details are still being worked out, but if you brew sour homebrewed beer this is your chance to get them into the barrel project!

Please bring your bottled homebrewed soured beer to next months meeting in May (note: the regular scheduled style of the month will stay the same). Don’t have your Sour beer in bottles yet, like me? No problem, but you will need to pull some of the sour beer and mix up a bit or pull a bit of slurry from the bottom of you carboys. We need those good dregs of sour beer bacterias. Make sure to put it in a sanitized bottle or mason jar, possibly cold crash it in the fridge to drop out the bugs to the bottom clearing the sour beer for sampling. We’ll need some good sour beer to taste and judge who’s going into the barrel (sorry no acidic bombs). Prizes and swag may be involved to the best sours of the night.

Not a sour brewer? Feeling left out? no problem as well, just bring your favorite commercial sour beer that contains live cultures and have a chance to have its bottle dregs added as well to the Barrel culture.  Simon will have a large sterile mason jar with some wort ready to go at May’s meeting to get those dregs and cultures ready for the barrel. Details on style and when they are headed to the barrel are still be worked out.

 

Last: Southern California Homebrewers Festival camping and a call for kegs.

This is your last chance to email us and sign-up for camping at the festival with PG, its one of those amazing events that people who go once go every year after. Check out sign up info here.

Also we need more beer!!!! at the fest. Please email us if you want to donate beer to serve at the fest. Terry and Carl’s house are keg drop off points. Beer sign up here.

 

Also Don’t Forget: May 14th Big Brew at Carls House

Be a Brewer at the Big Brew! We had a sign up sheet at last April’s meeting, I saw a few All-grain brewer’s already signed up. I would also love to see people signed up for Extract Brewing, Steeping, and Partial Mashing. I would also love it if some one wanted to demonstrate Mead making and possibly Cider too. This is a great time to make beer for our up and coming Summer Party in July, while demonstrating to anyone looking to learn about the different processes and techniques of homebrewing!

Please Sign up with Carl via email: add what, how many gallons, and what processes. Carls email: competitions{at}pacific gravity{dot}com

 

 

 

 

Lost Coolers Looking For Home

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These coolers used for the LABBC were left at my place after Thursday’s meeting.  Email me at brewfest{at}pacific gravity{dot}com to make arrangements for pickup.

 

20160423_150951TerryM

2016 Homebrew Festival: Call For Beer

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If you can donate a keg (or two) for the Pacific Gravity serving booth at this year’s Homebrewers Festival at Vail Lake on April 29-May1, please email me ( brewfest{at}pacific gravity{dot}com ) and Carl ( competitions{at}pacific gravity{dot}com ) and advise with the keg size and style.

If you will be attending the festival, please bring your keg with you.  If you are not attending, you can bring it to Thursday’s club meeting at my place, or we can make alternate arrangements.

Thanks.

 

Unknown Festival-5121-e1414202666798

Maltose Falcon’s invites PG to Saturdays Bus Trip to Downtown Breweries!

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Just got the email that the Maltose Falcon’s are inviting Pacific Gravity to join them on their bus trip to visit the Downtown LA breweries. They have 15 tickets left for the bus, but it includes Lunch and flights at the breweries for $60. So if you have nothing to do and have always wanted to check out these breweries just buy your ticket through the MF link below!

Heres the actual email from Tiffany the MF activities director:

Just wanted to extend an invite to Pacific Gravity to our Downtown LA Brewery Tour this Saturday. See link below for all the details 🙂  Should be a super fun time visiting Iron Triangle, Mumford Brewing, Arts District, and Boomtown. The $60 ticket includes bus ride to & from each brewery, 1 pint/flight at each brewery, lunch, and lots of laughs! The bus will depart from our Woodland Hills Homebrew Shop at 10am, pick up additional brewery tourists from Union Station around 10:30/45, and first stop for beer & lunch will be Iron Triangle around 11am. Bus will be heading back to Union Station then the Valley at 5pm. There are only 15 tickets left so if you could forward to your crew today that would be awesome! Hope to see you there!

Cheers,
Tiffany
https://www.maltosefalcons.com/events/sat-04162016-1000-dtla-brewery-tour-april-16th-2016-buy-your-tickets-now

DTLA Brewery Tour – April 16th, 2016 – BUY YOUR TICKETS NOW! | Maltose Falcons

The Results Are In!

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I’m excited to announce that the results are in from our 2nd Annual Los Angeles Belgian Brew Challenge!

Congratulations to Derek Johnstone from Long Beach Homebrewers, this year’s Best Of Show winner. Can’t wait to try your Dubbel as a ProAm release. Have a GREAT time brewing it with Henry at Monkish Brewing Company!

Ribbons will be handed out on Thursday April 21st during our April club meeting at Terry Malloy’s place and we’ll be emailing out scoresheets as soon as possible. Those who can’t attend the ribbon ceremony will be mailed their ribbons the following weekend.

For more info and to see the entire list of ribbon winners, visit belgianbrewchallenge.com

Congratulations to those who earned ribbons and a huge thanks again to our sponsors, volunteers and all the homebrewers who entered beers. We’re already planning and looking forward to next year’s LABBC!

 

Cheers!

_Michael

 

Mayfaire’s now closed, but there’s other news

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Other News Topics below: Souther California Homebrew Festival sign-up, camping, food, and kegs. Big Brew @ Carls House May 14th, and then Strand Brewers Club invites PG to summer events!

Just a reminder that Mayfaire Homebrew Competition entries need to be turned into the local homebrew shops by the end of the ToDAY/Friday April 8th! Culver City shop closes at 6pm according to their regular scheduled hours.

Get your Beers in, this is one of the “Homebrew of the Year” competitions for Pacific Gravity members to earn points, as well as one of the three qualifiers for the prestigious:
Sierra Nevada Homebrewer of the Year Award. Also BOS will win a chance to brew with Ladyface Ale Company and be entered into the GABF Pro/Am.

 

Other News:

Make sure to sing up with Terry for campsites at the “Souther California Homebrew Festival” April 29th – May 1st, spots are going fast. As well you will need to also Sing up with the Souther California Homebrewers Association and pay for the festival fee too. More on this post with info on singing up, paying, getting a camping spot, and food with Ian: http://pacificgravity.com/2016/04/homebrew-festival-3-weeks-away/
We will also start making a call out to the club for kegs of beer for the “Southern California Homebrew Festival” this is a good way to show off your beer to all the Souther Cali home brewers! Email Carl for keg registration, and we will have a sign up sheets at the next meeting too.

I have also posted the Big Brew on the website’s Event Calendar, hosted at Carl’ house May 14th. We will have sign up sheets at the next club meeting for registering if you want to be a brewer and what type of brewing you would like to do that day. All are welcome to come and learn to brew and watch how others brew their way. More info on the event here.

As well I wanted to note that Strand has invited us to some Summer events too. Unfortunately one of them is the same day as our May 14th Big Brew. Here is the Strand invite info:
Stuffed Sandwich day trip— Saturday, May 14
We’ll get on a bus at the Redondo and Marine Park&Ride lot at 11 AM, and return by 4 PM. Cost should be in the $20 range.

Early summer Beach Bar Ride–Saturday, June 4
Every summer we’ve conducted what we call the “BBBB” in mid-August. It stands for “Beach Bar Bike Ride” and is usually one of the Strand Brewers Club’s most popular summer activities.
So this year we are experimenting with trying to institute a second one.
The idea is we gather somewhere along the South Bay bike path in the morning and spend the day peddling to various top-notch beer venues along the Strand. We’ll have a pre-set list of beer stops to let you meet up with the group when you want.
For more information or to sign up for either of these activities just contact the Strand Brewers Club’s Activities Director, Jay Ankeney,
at jayankeney at mac dot com or call him at 310-545-3983