This year’s fest is shaping up to be like none other in the past, injecting some Club Spirit activities to add to the fun:

• Friday night will bring a Trick-or-Treat element to encourage attendees to visit other clubs’ campsites. Clubs that set up a welcoming environment to share beer, snacks, etc. with everyone will earn spirit points towards a Spirit Award to be announced towards the end of the Fest on Saturday, with a bonus of boosting lottery positions for the 2027 Brewfest.
• For Saturday Fest Day, clubs will earn Spirit Points on their interpretation of the fest’s Tropical theme. Think tiki party, palm trees, grass skirts. Once again, ideas are welcome.

And those of you who are looking forward to Chef Ian’s culinary delights, you will are in for a treat. Ian is already working on his menu. Cost details will be provided under separate cover to all attendees.

DON’T FORGET TO SIGN UP! Entry into the Homebrewers Fest is separate from the Camping!

California alcohol control regulations require you to be a member of the California Homebrewers Association to attend the Homebrewers Fest. It’s easy to join:

• Go to calhomebrewers.org
• Purchase your $10 CHA membership and your Homebrewers Festival entry fee on one screen
• Each attendee must register under a separate email address.

More info to follow to attendees as we get closer to Fest Weekend.

Happy March!  It is leprechaun season with a lot of fun to be had!

This Thursday 3/19 will be our monthly club meeting at the usual time and place. Being it is only a 2 days after St Pat’s, there will also be some St Patrick’s Day type goodies provided by Club Chef Ian and Club Monkey Parker.

March Monthly Meeting; Thursday 3/19/2025 at 7:30 PM
Tortugo Brewing Co.
916 W. Hyde Park Blvd.
Inglewood,  CA  90302
(424) 227-9963

Two weeks ago, our first Saturday was a lot of fun – thanks to all who made it down to enjoy the Smog and Cellador anniversary collaboration beers.  Porter and Alex were great hosts as always!

We have spoken to Porter and have now scheduled Monster Brew 2026 for Saturday May 23 – details will be filled in shortly, but save the date and start making plans for your epic modifications!

And don’t forget 5/1-5/2 is the Southern California Homebrewers Festival at Vail Lake near Temecula. I believe there may still be some slots available for tent campers – If you would  like to attend, please let Terry know ASAP to reserve your spot.  I have attended the last 3 years and I gotta say, it really lives up to the hype – a huge amount of fun camping with the club (and meeting other clubs) and attending the massive festival with more home-brew taps than I have ever conceived of!  If you have beers you want to have served at the fest let Carl know.

It is also time for annual club dues which can be paid at the meeting or via the webiverse – details below.

I hope to see you all at the meeting Thursday!
Slainte’!
Parker Waechter
President – Pacific Gravity Homebrewers

It’s Time to Do the Dues!

It’s March and that means its time for our annual Pacific Gravity membership dues collection.  All club members need to pay their dues to keep their membership active until March 2027.  Annual dues are $48 for individuals or $72 for couples and are prorated at $4 per month 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: https://py.pl/121AAr
Couples Membership – Full 1-year Renewal: https://py.pl/5LD8s

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 $24 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 Treasurer@PacificGravity.com.

Competition Corner

We have three different competitions with early April deadlines, so get those entries ready to go:

• California State Fair entry registration is open at https://castatefairhomebrew.brewcomp.site/ .  Entry drop-off April 6 – 15.  I’ll drive them to Angel City for drop-off again.  Passengers welcome if you want to come along for a beer.
• America’s Finest City entry registration is open at https://www.quaff.org/AFC-2026/.    Entry drop-off April 7 – 15^th, Nearest location is Windsor Homebrew Supply in Anaheim:  https://www.windsorhomebrewsupply.com/  We could maybe do both drop-offs on the same run.
• Finally is Mayfaire.  Registration is open https://competitions.maltosefalcons.com/2026Mayfaire/.  Entries are due April 10^th at local brew shops.

Carl Townsend
Competition Coordinator

Upcoming Events

• Mar 19 :  Club Meeting at Tortugo Brewing Company 7:30 (Irish beers)
• Apr    3 :  First Friday TBD
• Apr 6-13  Drop-off deadlines for three competitions
• 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

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: https://py.pl/121AAr

Couples Membership – Full 1-year Renewal: https://py.pl/5LD8s

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 $24 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 Treasurer@PacificGravity.com.

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

Our style of the month is “British beers”.

Info of note:

– March 7 we will be doing a “First Saturday” at Smog City Brewing Co.  We will have Smog’s Brett Saison we helped brew for our 30th anniversary available for an insanely cheap $8 club-donation per 6-pack.  At $32/case I think that is a pretty easy decision…
In addition to the great Smog beers, the food truck scheduled is VCHOS Pupuseria, so it should pair nicely with beer.

– CA Homebrewfest Temecula campsite details are is still not available, but we are assuming all is well with a group of powered campsites – it should be another great year!

– While at Tortugo, if we have any glass breakage, we need to make sure Joe is informed.  They need to double-check and make sure there is no remaining broken glass anywhere.

Parker Waechter – President, Pacific Gravity Homebrewers

February Monthly Meeting Thursday 2/19/2026 at 7:30 PM
Tortugo Brewing Co.
916 W. Hyde Park Blvd.
Inglewood,  CA  90302
(424) 227-9963

Upcoming Events

• Feb 19 :  Club Meeting at Tortugo Brewing Company 7:30 (British beers)
• Feb 24:  Last day to register for the National Homebrew Competition
• Mar   7 :  First Saturday at Smog City Brewery 12:00

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 25^th . 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 31^st. Details can be found at https://www.quaff.org/AFC-2026/ .  The entry drop-off window will be April 6 – 17^th.  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)

I just wanted to send a quick reminder that we have our meeting tonight at Tortugo at 7:30.

Our style of the month is “winter beers”.

Terry will be discussing the California Home Brewers festival which is in May, but we need to reserve our campsites next week.  For those who have never been, your should really consider it – a weekend of great beer and a camping hang-out with your pacific gravity partners in crime!

Parker Waechter – President, Pacific Gravity Homebrewers

February Monthly Meeting Thursday 1/15/2026 at 7:30 PM
Tortugo Brewing Co.
916 W. Hyde Park Blvd.
Inglewood,  CA  90302
(424) 227-9963

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 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.

The entry window for the National Homebrewers Competition will open soon.  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 will begin February 1^st.  Details can be found at https://www.quaff.org/AFC-2026/ .  The entry drop-off window will be April 7 – 15^th.  There may be a local drop-off point for this San Diego based competition.

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
Jan 15 :  Club Meeting at Tortugo Brewing Company 7:30 (style winter beers)
Feb 1st:  Entry registration starts for multiple competitions

The beer is “Redshift” a blend of wild ales on cherries and black currants.  It can be purchased directly on their website or at the brewery in 500 ml bottles for $16.00.  We only did one barrel, so this will likely disappear quickly – buy yours ASAP !!

Alex has also offered us a temporary discount code PACIFICGRAVITY20  to get 20% off – the code will only last about a week, so it is definitely worth your while to purchase early.

If you purchase online, they can either ship or hold the beer at the brewery for 90 days, so you can do it without rushing down there…

Parker Waechter – President, Pacific Gravity Homebrewers

Cellador Ales
1879 Del Amo Blvd
Torrance, CA  90501
(323) 206-6886

Hours:
Tuesday – Saturday: 12 pm – 6 pm
Sunday & Monday: Closed

Upcoming Events

• Jan 15 :  Club Meeting at Tortugo Brewing Company 7:30 (style winter beers)

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

The time is here! Our 2025 Holiday Party is this Saturday 12/6 at 5pm at Neil’s Duplex.  We will also announce announce the Member of the Year and the Brewer of the Year awards.

The menu will likely be similar to past holiday parties featuring meat on the BBQ, deep fried turkeys, spiced ham and much more!
You can help! Although the club will be providing many of the main dishes, this is still a pot luck party – so bringing your favorite party dish will surely be appreciated!

If you have a favorite family holiday recipe and want to share it with the rest of us, this is your chance!  If you have any questions about what to bring you can ask Chef Ian (masterchef@pacificgravity.com).  Some general suggestions would include any kind of main dish but especially all side dishes, veggie dishes, salads, desserts and appetizers! People have traditionally brought Carbonnades ala Flamande – if anyone wants to go for it and has fear, there is a simple instant pot recipe that can give you a starting point.

This is an outdoor event… it will be cold!  Please plan accordingly!

Bring a chair if you can!

Holiday Party Clean up will be Sunday, December 7th at 10am – Please help out if you can.

Holiday Party: Saturday December 6, at 5:00 PM.
12966 Rubens Ave
Los Angeles, CA. (at Alla Road)

Beer
Got beer?  We need all types of beer, meads, cider and sodas for this event.  Pull out your favorite holiday beverage, dust off the bottle or keg and bring it down!  We’ll have front bar portion of our serving system set up to help dispense your holiday homebrews.  If you plan to bring beer, soda or other seasonally festive beverage, please contact Carl at: Competitions@pacificgravity.com & let him know what you will bring.  Everyone who signs up in advance will have a festive tap tag.

Anniversary Beer News
I believe we will have kegs of both the Project Barley English Barleywine (donated by Rives – THANK YOU!) and the Firestone Belgian Dark Strong on Amburana.  We should also have some pre-release bottles of the Smog City belgian single and the Cellador sour on cherries and black currents for sampling.

Parker Waechter – President, Pacific Gravity Homebrewers

Upcoming Events

• Dec 6   :  Holiday Party at 5:00!
• Dec 7   : Holiday Party cleanup at 10 am
• Jan 4   :  First Friday (Sunday) at Firestone Propagator 12 pm