Please join us for some fun at our annual Pacific Gravity Summer party on Saturday July 16th. Our theme this year will be Mediterranean/Middle Eastern in honor of our host Dean & his family’s move to Italy in August. Club members should have also received an evite, so check your email for that as well!

LOCATION: Dean Sussman’s house, Pacific Palisades, CA 90272

TIME: 2pm until 10pm…please be responsible and have a designated driver or call a cab.

ADMISSION: Free for all PG members (if your dues are paid up) plus one guest. Kids are free, but there is a fee of $20 for each additional guest.

Please let us know if you can VOLUNTEER…see previous articles, emails or evite for more details. The success of the party depends on YOU.

Please BRING FOOD & BEER & other beverages to share. Please note that there will not be fridge space available, so plan to keep them cold in a cooler or bring dishes that can sustain the shade for a while. If you plan to bring a keg or any other beverage, please email Carl with the details on your beverage at [email protected]

SUPPLIES: We are still in need of a few supplies to make this party a success, so if you are able to lend any of the following items, it would be much appreciated: GRILLING UTENSILS, BBQs, and a PA system. Also, EZ ups, tables & jockey boxes.

If you haven’t already done so, please RSVP. Please indicate how many in your party. Contact: [email protected] (Mimi & Audrey)

And don’t forget…
– To bring chairs and blankets, but please share the ground space with your fellow guests.
– Jackets & sweaters for the evening are recommended.
– Dean has a swimming pool and welcomes his guests to use the pool. Kids MUST be supervised by adults at all times while in & around the pool. Please bring your own bathing suits, towels & sunscreen.
– Raffle money! As always, there will be a Club Raffle and Door Prizes! Raffle tickets will be sold at the front gate prior to the raffle for just $1

Directions & Alternate Routes due to 405 freeway closure:
The 405 freeway will be CLOSED the weekend of July 15-17 between the 101 and the 10 freeways. Please check news sources for further details and please allow extra travel time… at least an extra 20-30 minutes.

Suggested alternate routes:
From the south:
Try Bundy Dr, Barrington Ave and/or 26th St-Allenford Ave to get to Sunset Blvd.

From the north:
Try the canyon roads: Laurel Canyon, Coldwater Canyon and Beverly Glen to get to Sunset Blvd.
PCH is another north-south alternate.

Looking forward to a wonderful Summer Party! See you on Saturday!

It’s nearly 2011, and I thought it would be a good idea to present a short overview of what Pacific Gravity members can expect for the coming year.

First, thanks to our 2010 Co-Presidents, Nathalie Balandran-Caldwell and Peigi Robinson for leading us in 2010. They were PG’s first co-presidents, and the first women to step up to the plate and lead the club. My thanks go out to them for all their hard work.

To start off with, we have some major events coming up early in the year.

January will be a planning month, and we will get the ball rolling on the rest of the year. Your new board includes yours truly, Reed Wilson-Vice President, and Audrey Hill-Lindsay and Mimi Bardet assuming the Activities Directors chores.

To start off with, our Anniversary Club Brew will be another Tustin Brewing Monster Brew event. The date has been set, February 26. The recipe has not yet been formulated but will be made available, along with doctoring suggestions, at least one week prior to the event.

March will include our first road trip of the year. We have not yet locked in the destinations, but at the top of the list is an Orange County trip. It will take place the 3^rd or 4^th Saturday of the month.

April 29-May 1 is the Southern California Homebrew Festival, held again at Lake Casitas. We should also organize another club brew in May, in order to brew some of those beers for the AHA, competitions, and Summer Party.

June 16-19 is the AHA Conference, held in San Diego. PG plans on having a big turnout for this one, and we’ll be serving beers in the Hospitality Suite, as well as taking part in Club Night.

Depending on Dean Sussman’s schedule, we will have our Summer Party in either July or August. The date will probably be decided by mid June.

In September (date TBD) Pacific Gravity will be hosting the Pacific Brewer’s Cup. We will need a great deal of help from the membership in order to make this event successful. Available positions are Competition Coordinator, Sales, Judge Coordinator, Chief Steward, as well as judges, stewards, and worker bees.

December will bring us back to the Holiday Party, and year’s end.

As usual, we will have our monthly meetings at Culver City Home Brew Supply, the third Thursday of every month, First Fridays, Chili cookoff, and at least one other club brew and road trip.

Finally, I’d like you to offer the club any help you can during the year. The Board, along with assistance always offered by some longtime members, cannot accomplish all the work of our club. Help and expertise is always needed. We have many talented artists, techies, and writers in our club, and I’d appreciate it if those members would let the Board know how they can help us during the upcoming year.

Further information on all of the above will be published in the Club Calendar, and in forthcoming articles. If you have event suggestions, wish to volunteer, or just have questions, please contact me or any of the Board members.

Now, let’s hoist one and toast Pacific Gravity!

Cheers!

Michael Steinberg

President, Pacific Gravity Homebrew Club

Thanks to Luis for capturing some great images from the party, view them here!

Party like a 15 year old!

By Ian Fraser

This year’s summer party will celebrate Pacific Gravity’s 15 years in existence!  To that end we are going old school!  The retro theme is a throwback to our earliest summer parties of old but updated to celebrate our anniversary!

But first the business, the summer party will be held August 14, 2010 at Dean Sussman’s party pad located at 1310 Amalfi Dr. Pacific Palisades CA 90272.  The party starts at 2 PM and continues on into the evening.  Admission is free for you and 1 guest if you are a club member and $15 for each additional guest.  Kids are free.  Dean has a swimming pool and welcomes his guests to use it but all children must be supervised by an adult while in the pool.

This is our largest event of the year and we need your help to pull it off!  As always this event is run by you volunteers and those of you who have helped in years past know how critical that is!  Set up this year will take place on Friday Aug. 13 starting at 6 PM, the after party clean up will take place Sunday morning about 10 AM.  Those of you who have done this before know how much fun we have at the set up, and last year everyone on the Sunday clean up crew wound up taking food home.  We will be sending out additional information regarding what to bring, equipment needs and volunteer information.

The food theme will be a throwback to PG’s early days and feature carne asada.  However I gotta be me and blow it up, so we will have carne asada, pollo asado, and smoked turkey in mole sauce, fresh grilled fish, smoked tongue and even carnitas as our proteins featured in the largest taco bar I have ever attempted.  For you volunteer cooks out there any and all side dishes are welcome!  We will need lots of sides, salads, and desserts to round out our menu.  But given the main dish theme what I would really like to do is encourage everybody to make a salsa or guacamole and we will feature all of them on a table and even try to label yours so that everybody will know who brought what!  I am trying to arrange a judging and we will acknowledge the crowds favorite salsa!  So I herby throw down the challenge, bring your salsa or guacamole and try to beat me out as our very first salsa/guac. winner!

Our drink competition this year features lime, any drink alcohol, non-alcoholic, beer or soda that features lime is eligible for our drink competition, so get your creative juices flowing and create something!  As always we will have a best beer competition as well as the drink competition plus the salsa competition, so there are many ways to win this year.

If you plan on bringing a soda or beer please let us know so that we can have a label made for you by contacting Mike at [email protected], if you plan on bring any food items or a salsa guacamole please contact me at [email protected].  Stay tuned for more information as we get the details ironed out we will be forwarding them to you.