All Pacific Gravity news.

Competition Corner – April 2014

April is already here and that means it’s time to get your homebrew competition entries going.  Registration is now open for Mayfaire hosted by the Maltose Falcons.  Entries are due April 10th at the Culver City Shop.  On-line registration is up and running at http://www.maltosefalcons.com/comps/2014Mayfaire.  Please sign up to judge and steward too; they will need our help.   Judging will take place on Saturday April 26, 2013 9:00 AM at St Martins in the Fields Church 7136 Winnetka Ave Winnetka CA, 91306 (click for map).

Also due in late April is the California State Fair.  Entry information and registration is available at http://www.northerncalbrewers.com/homebrew-competition.   We are looking for a road trip volunteer to deliver these entries, with closer sites in Riverside (Morebeer) and San Diego (Ballast Point) , so if you are interested, please contact me at [email protected].

Looking ahead, now it the time to brew for the 2014 Pacific Brewers Cup.  The entry deadline is August 22nd, with judging on September 6th at Smog City Brewing.  We are looking for everyone to put their best foot forward and get those fermenters going before the weather gets too hot.

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/.

2014 Pacific Gravity Brewer of the Year Competition Schedule

April 10th              Mayfaire entries due at the Culver City shop

April Date TBD   California State Fair (on-line entry closes May 2)

July                        Los Angeles County Fair

August 22            Entry Deadline for Pacific Brewers Cup

September 6      Judging Pacific Brewers Cup
October               California State Homebrew Competition

FIRST FRIDAY | Friday, April 4th @ GULP! (Westwood) ***Reminder***

Hey folks!

Just a quick reminder about this weeks FIRST FRIDAY @ GULP! Click the link below:

http://pacificgravity.org/2014/03/first-friday-april-4-2014-gulp-westwood/

See you tommorrow!

Cheers!

Kingsley

GOING PRO! | Brewer’s Association interview with PG club member KIP BARNES!

Check out the Brewers Association interview with fellow club member Kip Barnes!  Keep those LA ALEWORKS beers coming and thanks for the Pacififc Gravity shout out!

http://www.brewersassociation.org/pages/community/a-toast-to/show?title=kip-barnes

Cheers,

Kingsley

 

March Meeting Recap!

Ian setup for his commercial tasting

Ian setup for his commercial tasting

For those of you who were unable to attend this past week’s club meeting at Culver City Homebrew Supply, here are the recap notes from the meeting along with a few pictures I grabbed.  First though, a huge thank you to the guys at CCHBS for hosting the meeting in the shop – it was great to get everyone in there for the night and good to be back for the month.  Also another special thank you to Ian Fraser for doing an awesome job with the commercial style of the month with his epic Stout offerings.  I think the bar has just been set for how to gather up beer for the monthly beer style!  Here are the important notes from this weeks meeting:

  • Next month’s First Friday will be held on Friday April 4th at Gulp! in West LA.  Details can be found here.  Kingsley and I went there for lunch a few weeks back to check it out and the beer selection is fantastic.  It should make for an awesome First Friday.
  • Next month’s club meeting is going to be on April 17th @ Smog City in Torrance.  Details can be found here.  Porter has offered to host us for another club meeting and also host the style of the month – IPA’s.  There is still plenty of time to brew up a good IPA for this meeting – so get to work!
  • Speaking of style of the month, May is still available, along with the rest of the month’s for the year (as far as I know at least).  The list of monthly beer styles can be found here.  If you are interested (and hey, why wouldn’t you be – you get to buy a bunch of beer and the club pays for it!) in hosting the monthly style please send an email to Dean Sussman @ [email protected] to volunteer.

 

  • Membership dues are due now.  If you haven’t yet paid for this year’s membership you can do so by visiting CCHBS and paying there or you can send a check to our PO box which is:
    • P.O. Box 2451, Culver City, Ca 90231.  Checks can be made payable to Pacific Gravity.
    • This year the club has started to gather additional discounts for club membership.  In addition to the 5% off you receive as a club member at CCHBS you will now receive 10% off at City Tavern in Culver City if you show your 2014 ID Card (which will be issued at the next meeting).
  • The annual Mayfaire competition hosted by the Maltose Falcons is coming up and entries are due at CCHBS by April 10th.
  • Unfortunately the SCHF was officially canceled this past month.  All clubs were asked to cancel their reservations, which we have done.  Our replacement plan for that weekend is a possible bus trip with the Long Beach and Strand clubs – details to follow.  In addition, we are trying to get the three clubs together to do a collaborative bottle share on the 17th of May – details on both events will hopefully be posted by the end of this upcoming week.
  • I also want to throw out a special thank you to the guys at Strand Brewers club for including us in their bus trip down to Stone, Lost Abbey and White Labs.  It was a great trip with a lot of great beer to taste on the bus and at the breweries.  I took pictures at the event and attached them to this post for those of you who want to browse through.
  • And finally with the club hosting Pacific Brewers Cup this year we are finally going to file the appropriate paperwork in an effort to make the club a 501c3 Non Profit corporation.  Along with this filing we will be requesting Tax Exempt status from the IRS.  This will allow us greater opportunities for fundraising and sponsorship gathering for this year’s competition, among other advantages.  In the next few weeks we will be finalizing a draft of our club bylaws and issuing it to everyone via email.  At next month’s club meeting we will be voting as a club to enact/ratify (whatever the legal term is) the bylaws so that Dean can proceed with the rest of the filing paperwork.  This is an important first step and time is not on our side.  We need to get this initial paperwork filed as soon as possible so that we can begin to acquire more and more sponsors for the competition.

Thanks again to everyone who came out for the club meeting this week, and another special thank you to everyone who brought beer.  Bringing homebrew to club meetings is an essential component of who we are as a group.  If you have some great homebrew – bring it!  If you have some homebrew that just doesn’t taste right and you aren’t sure why – bring it!  We have plenty of experienced judges and brewers in our club who can offer their insight into your problematic brews to help you refine your process.

I am hoping to get to taste some awesome IPA’s at next month’s meeting at Smog City – and not just Smog’s beers – please bring out some of your brews!

See you all soon.

Brian

 

PACIFIC GRAVITY CLUB MEETING (MARCH 20th) **Reminder**

Here’s a friendly reminder about coming to our March Club Meeting @ CCBS! It’s club dues time. So please bring cash our check to Ramesh to receive your new membership cards and the benefits that come with them! For our commercial STOUT tasting Ian has been digging up and awesome selection…so bring your best homebrewed STOUT to compare!

CLUB MEETING | Thursday March 20th, 2014  | 7pm | Culver CIty Brew Supply
link:  http://pacificgravity.org/event/pacific-gravity-club-meeting-march-20th-2014-culver-city-brew-supply

Cheers!

Kingsley | VP

 

FIRST FRIDAY! | APRIL 4, 2014 | GULP! (WESTWOOD)

Hello Pacific Gravity members!

This year is going by fast! Our next FIRST FRIDAY will be at GULP in Westwood!

The owners of the old Bourbon Street Shrmp have switched gears and have opened a new Gastropub. The food there is pretty damn good and thier draft selection is an impressive mix of local craft and others beyond the state line. Some great belgians in the mix as well.

So join us on Friday, April 4th and check out what GULP has to offer.

GULP
10928 W Pico Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90064
(310) 474-0007
www.bourbonstreetshrimp.com

Pacific Gravity Sour Beer Project

IMG_1477

I am really pleased to officially announce for those of you who didnt attend or could not hear me at the Monster Brew on Saturday @ Smog City that the club is starting up a new project for 2014.  One of the many things the board has discussed this year so far is starting up a few new brewing projects throughout the year.  Our first of these projects was to brew a “clone” of Firestone Walker’s PNC this past New Years Day.  Our intent with that project is to be able to barrel age a beer for the club that will be served at the Christmas Party later this year.

Project #2 is a larger project.  Inspired by the beers from Brussels we decided to take the opportunity presented by the monster brew this past weekend @ Smog City to purchase 60 gallons of wort and innoculate it with different types of yeast, wild yeast and other microorganisms in a 60 gallon wine barrel.  Not many of us have the space, money or brewing capacity to brew enough beer to fill a 60 gallon barrel.  For those of you who have wanted to do this in the past but were unable to brew to that scale you will now have an opportunity to participate in this experiment.

The guys @ Phantom Carriage graciously donated a wine barrel to the club for this project and offered some great insight into the process we should

Details on the barrel donated by Phantom Carriage.

Details on the barrel donated by Phantom Carriage.

follow.  For those of you who don’t know, two of our fellow homebrew club associates – Martin Svab and Simon Ford – are two of the guys behind one of LA’s newest breweries.  They have secured a lease on a facility in Carson – about 10 minutes or so from Smog City and Monkish – which is set to open sometime in the next year and will offer tons of awesome small batch beers.  So a big thank you goes out to the guys at Phantom Carriage for their barrel donation and advice, along with Smog City supplying the wort from their Monster Brew to make this project happen.  I also want to thank Kingsley for offering to house this barrel in his garage for the next year.

We are still working out a lot of the details on how we will divide up this project among the club brewers, but at some point in the next year we will divide up an undecided amount of this barrel to homebrewers who are eager to participate.  Ideally brewers will be able to hold onto their portions for as long as they feel the beer needs to mature, or they can add fruit and other flavorings.  Ideas and recommendations are welcome because we have plenty of time until this thing is finished.  Unfortunately there will not be enough for everyone to get their hands on some of it – but over the next few months we will figure out a way to divide it up between those interested.

For now, even though our experiment is technically not a Lambic, the idea of fermenting in the barrel is based off of the processes employed by Lambic producers like Cantillon.  Here is a writeup from the form handed out to visitors of Brewery Cantillon about the first stages of fermentation with their traditional lambic:

Barrel Store

In contrast to winemaking, the type of wood used to make casks is not of critical importance in Lambic production.  For the brewer, the wood is necessary to allow the beer to exchange gases with the surrounding air.  Since there is no need for the tannins present in new wood, we only work with casks which have already been used by winemakers or, more rarely, Cognac producers.  Slowly maturing Lambic in barrels lends it a wine-like flavour, and this lies at the origin of its moniker “cereal wine”.

Invented by the Gaul, wooden barrels were used by brewers for centuries.  Nowadays, however, modern breweries use stainless steel vessels and cooling systems to control the fermentation process.

Fermentation

After a few days, the wild yeasts reacting with the sugars in the wort results in spontaneous fermentation.  At first, the fermentation process is relatively violent and visible.  In fact, for 3 or 4 days the production of CO2 is such that the barrels cannot be sealed because there is a risk that they might otherwise explode.  As part of the process a whitish foam comes out of the bunghole and this can lead to a loss of 5 to 10 litres of wort per barrel.

Maturing

Slow fermentation begins 3 to 4 weeks later.  As there is no longer a risk of explosion the barrel is hermetically sealed.  It is at this point that Lambic is born.  Continued fermentation, which is an extremely complex process, will now go on for another 3 years.

To date, 100 different strains of yeast have been identified in Lambic, with two of them, Brettanomyces Bruxellensis and Lambicus, playing a very important role.  Specifically, they assimilate non-fermentable sugars (dextrins) and reduce the sugar content of 3 year old Lambic to just .02%.

Unlike winemakers, Lambic brewers do not top up barrels to counter the effects of evaporation.  Therefore, after 3 years of maturing in a barrel some 20% of the original liquid will have been lost and the sellable volume contained in a cask will have dropped from 400 to 320 litres.  To protect themselves, certain types of yeasts agglomerate to form a film (flora) which completely separates the beer from the air in the barrel.

Lambic can be drunk after just a few weeks but a brewer will have to wait a year to have a more refined beer which can be used for making more elaborate products (Gueuze, Kriek, etc.)  Like all liquids matured in wooden barrels, Lambic does not foam (cereal wine).  Its acid taste, unique flavours and aftertaste make it a very complex product which is quite distinct from all other beers.

For our project, we scraped together the following assortment of bugs and yeast for the barrel project:

I built up a 3 gallon starter on Monday 3/2/2014 with an OG of 1.035 made with Wheat Malt Extract and pitched the WY3788 and WY1214 smack packs.  On Friday night before the Monster Brew we added the Brett, Pedio, Bug Farm and Bug County.  We pitched the entire 3 gallons of starter into the barrel after adding the first 30 gallons.  Below you can find pictures of the barrel after 24 hours of fermentation.  It definitely foamed out the top!  We placed a #10 stopper with an airlock in the barrel – this stopper is slightly smaller than the standard bunghole which will allow the stopper to be popped out of the barrel easily if it builds up too much pressure.  I am going to add wort from a mostly raw wheat and 2-row mash next weekend to add some starches to the wort composition.  Once active fermentation stops we will replace the small stopper with a more standard stopper for long term aging.

If you have any questions about this project please don’t hesitate to post about it here on our website or you can contact me @ president [at] pacificgravity.com

Brian.

 

How Do I Modify My Smog City Monster Brew?

This Month’s Question:  How do I modify my wort from the Monster Brew at Smog City Brewing?SmogCityLogo

 

Answer:

I hope you are all planning to join us at Smog City Brewing Company’s First Annual Monster Brew, Saturday, March 8th, 2014, from 7:30 AM to 2 PM hosted by our very own Jon Porter.  See the main article about the logistics for the day. We’ll be brewing up a batch of Kölsch-based wort.  Where it goes from there is up to you!  We’re hoping to have as many variations on the theme as possible for upcoming events such as the Southern California Homebrew Fest, club meetings and summer party.  Read more

Join Strand Brewers at Stone’s AHA Rally in March!

Hey Pacific Gravity!

Strand Brewers Club is making final arrangements for a bus trip to the AHA Rally at the Stone Brewery on Saturday, March 15th….and Pacific Gravity members have been invited to join!

Cost will be $35 for transportation to and from Stone Brewery in Escondido and some other stops as noted below.

Note—you have to be a member of the AHA to get in for free. If you are not a member, you can sign up before the Rally at Stone Brewing for $38 which gives you a year’s membership, subscription to Zymurgy magazine, and discounts at other events.

Or if you don’t want to join the AHA, you can ride along to the Lost Abbey Brewery which we’ll hit before the Rally, enjoy the fine bistro restaurant and tasting room at Stone on your own, and come with us to White Labs afterwards.

We need you to commit by Friday, March 7th. Just respond to this E-mail. Then, based on the honor system, you can bring a check made out to The Strand Brewers when you get on board on March 15th.

Here are the details.

There will be two pick-up spots:

9:00 AM–Redondo and Marine Park&Ride lot on the Green Line (2406 Marine Ave., Redondo Beach, 90278) 

https://maps.google.com/maps?ie=UTF-8&q=redondo+and+marine+park+%26+ride&fb=1&gl=us&hq=redondo+and+marine+park+%26+ride&cid=17426062215133048589&ei=Sib9UvicMtLBoASD1YF4&ved=0CDQQrwswAA

9:30 AM–Willow Station Park&Ride lot on the Blue Line  (2750 American Ave., Long Beach 90806)

https://maps.google.com/maps?ie=UTF-8&q=redondo+and+marine+park+%26+ride&fb=1&gl=us&hq=redondo+and+marine+park+%26+ride&cid=17426062215133048589&ei=Sib9UvicMtLBoASD1YF4&ved=0CDQQrwswAA

Each lot has plenty of free all day parking.

11:30–If we get to Escondido by 11:30, we’ll stop at the Lost Abby Brewery for an hour.

12:30–leave Lost Abbey to go down the street to Stone Brewing.

The Rally goes from 1 PM to 4 PM. Expect to taste some incredibly interesting home brewed and commercial beers.

On the AHA site:

http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/events/stone-brewing-world-bistro-gardens-2014/

On the Stone Brewery site:

http://www.stoneworldbistro.com/aharally/

4 PM—bus ride down to White Labs tasting room. If you haven’t been there, this is one of the most educational experiences for any brewer. They serve you a four glass flite of the same beer brewed with different yeasts, and the results are eye opening.

6PM—head back north, arriving at Willow Street around 7:30 PM and Redondo & Marine by 8 PM.

Please contact me ASAP ( [email protected] )to reserve your seat. Don’t forget you have to be an AHA member to attend the Rally (but not to come on the trip) and you’ll need to bring a check for $35 made out to The Strand Brewers Club when you show up on March 15th.

There will be beer and refreshments on the bus.

 

Cheers,

 

Kingsley

 

February Meeting Recap and Upcoming Events

First off I want to thank Ian Fraser again for hosting us on Saturday.  We had a great turnout and a ton of great beers on hand.  I also want to thank Carl for hosting the commercial beer tasting for us.

For those of you who were

 

  • March 2014 Meeting – The March club meeting will be on 3/20 @ Culver City Homebrew Supply.  Details to be posted within the next week.
  • March 2014 First Friday – March’s First Friday (3/7/2014) is going to be @ Irish Times @ 7pm.  Thank you to Ryan and the City Tavern crew for hooking us up for the night!
  • 2014 National Homebrewer’s Competition – The rules have changed this year so make sure you read up about how to get your beer entered into the comp.  Here is a good link to review for important dates (CLICK).  Carl will get more information out in an upcoming competition post.
  • 2014 Southern California Homebrewer’s Fest – There was a new law posted last October that has put the festival in jeopardy.  The AHA and CHA are working to fix this interpretation so that the fest will be allowed to secure a permit for the fest.  Stay tuned to this site for future updates which will go into greater detail and provide you with a template letter to send to your local representatives to try to fix this problem.
  • Culver City Homebrew Supply – The store is back open and is stocked with the supplies you need to get your next batch fermenting!  You can park in any of the spots in front of the store – “LA Pizza” does not exist.  You can also park on “Little Culver” just next to the Avis.  It is a frontage type road that has ample parking and is free.  Your membership in Pacific Gravity gives you a 5% discount at the store so make sure your membership is paid up and get that discount.
  • Pacific Brewers Cup 2014 – We are hosting this year’s competition and are looking for volunteers to help us organize the event.  If you are willing to volunteer your time email Carl @ [email protected].
  • Club Membership dues are coming up in March.
  • Lastly our first monster brew of the year is now officially scheduled for 3/08/2014 @ Smog City.  We will post more details as we get closer to the event.

All of the events with dates listed above have been added to the websites calendar.  Thanks again to everyone who made the trek down to Smog City on Thursday and I look forward to seeing you all at future events.

Brian