How Do I Modify My Monster Brew?

Updated for the 2024 Monster Brew on March 9, 2024

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

Answer:
I hope you are all planning to join us at Smog City Brewing Company’s eighth Annual Monster Brew, Saturday, March 9th, 2024, from 7:00 AM to noon hosted by our very own Jon Porter. We’ll be brewing up a batch of wort based on the ever-popular Little Bo Pils. 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 club meetings, Southern California Homebrew Fest, and the summer party.

SIGN-UP

You can sign up one of two ways:

1) Pay now with Paypal.

If you do this your reservation is good to go.

2) Drop a line to [email protected]  saying how many batches you want.   Payment will be due on brew day.  We will accept payment at the Monster Brew; cash, check and credit card will be accepted.

Read more

Monsterbrew @ Smog City Brewing, March 5th

Smog City Brewing Company

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On March 5th, 2016 @ Smog City Brewing Company  and its  Brewmaster, PG’s Jon Porter, will be hosting their third Pacific Gravity Monster Brew!

About the date, Yes I know its backed up to PG’s First Friday at Irish Times, but March 5th was really the best available date for PG and Smog City. So Club Member Up and make it one amazing PG event filled weekend, but make sure to plan ahead doing any Yeast starters.

Jon Porter and Dan White will be developing the base wort for this event with the theme “English”. A marris otter base, with just a small amount of carafoam and acidulated malt to keep ph in spec.  This will be a great starting point for just about any lighter beer.
Keeping with past monster brews, the recipe can be the base for whatever creative endeavor you might want to do.  For the hop heads, boost up the bitterness with your favorite English or American hop tea to make an awesome IPA, or darken it up with roasted malts to make a porter or stout. Use your imagination to make the most awesome beer ever.  Each person will need to pitch a yeast of their choice, add adjuncts to the wort, dry hop in secondary, or do nothing special to it at all.

You can always contact Carl at C[email protected] for any suggestions and once we have the actual recipe values Carl can work on a “How to Modify my Monsterbrew” post.

COST

The cost will be $30 for each 5 gallons of wort.  Everybody will be guaranteed 1 batch, and if mash volume permits, a second or third batch.  Please sign up as soon as you can, by dropping an email at [email protected] or singing up at the next club meeting on Feb. 18th.

Yeast and any additional ingredients you wish to add are not included. You can bring your yeast to the brewery, or pitch it at home. If possible, please pay in advance. You can Pay at our next Club Meeting Feb. 18th or you can drop off a check at Culver City Homebrew Supply.
Be sure to include title on an evalope “Monsterbrew Smog City” your name, telephone number, and E-mail address. All checks made out to Pacific Gravity Homebrew Club. Lastly you must pay in full at the day of the monsterbew. We take Cash, Check, and Credit Card payments.
If you paid in advance, but find you cannot attend, a 24 hour notice must be given in order to obtain a refund. On event day, all monies collected will be given to Smog City Brewing. Such notice may be sent to Pacific Gravity Treasurer, Tim Bardet at [email protected]  or to the current board members at [email protected].

Some of us may want to purchase more than 10 gallons. Initially, only 5 – 10 gallons may be purchased. However, if there is wort left over at the end we will hold a lottery to determine who may get an additional 5 gallon allotment. Bring an extra fermenter if you are interested.
Don’t forget to bring a sanitized fermenter for each 5 gallons you buy!

FERMENTERS

Fermenters MUST be either plastic or stainless steelAbsolutely NO Glass fermenters will be allowed in the brewery due to the danger of breakage on the tile floor. You may bring small glass vessels with yeast or other additions, however. Please make sure you fermenter has a wide opening so we can use the fire hose when it is time to pour in the wort.  Plastic buckets are ideal, but you can use a Cornelius keg if you want.  Please do not bring any skinny-neck containers.  Our aim isn’t that good!

TIME & LOCATION

The event will be starting EARLY, at 7:00AM. If that is too early, you may show up by 12 noon and still get your pre-purchased wort. Of course, you’ll not get to take part in the actual brewing. Projected ending time will be 1:00 PM.  Smog City Brewing Company is at 1901 Del Amo Blvd., Ste B, Torrance, CA 90501

PARKING

Please park on the WEST side of the building to keep the tap room lot open.
The tap room will be opening to the public at noon.

FOOD

Smog City will have coffee and other breakfast items in the morning. As well Porter will arrange for a food cart later that afternoon.
In addition Porter will be supplying tasting samples of some of his fine brews during the mid morning. Cut off time for free pours will be determined by Porter. Probably close to 11am, after that beer will be available for purchase.
AND REMEMBER TO TIP YOUR BEERTENDER!!! EVEN WITH FREE BEER.

Thank you and we will post more info about this event as is comes, also at some point we will open it up to the other clubs around the area.

Contacts:

Lloyd Johnson    [email protected]

Carl Townsend  C[email protected]

Tim Bardet     [email protected]

The Board       [email protected]

Meeting Recap: You can still vote!!

Thank to all who came to our Annual Chili Cook off and Election meeting this past Saturday. We had 10 chilis to taste and judge. All were amazing, but Neil Saund took home the prize for best chili, with Michael Musgrave’s as runner up missing the tie by one vote. A fabulous Pumpkin Mole by Parker Waechter won most unique chili.

Also going on at the meeting was brew led by our very own Dan White who made Carl Townsend’s Weizenbock that we had the privilege of brewing with Firestone on Halloween. We ended up with 18 gallons of beer that was put in 4 carboys. Carl and Dan plan to ferment each one with a different yeast. 6 gallons will be fermented with Bavarian Hefeweizen yeast, 5 with American Hefeweizen yeast, 5 gallons with both Bavarian and American Hefeweizen yeasts, and 2 gallons with dregs from Firestone Feral One, Russian River Consecration, and Allagash Farm to Face.

The other major event that took place was our election for next years board. Each nominee gave a speech to the attendees about why they should be selected. Here is a summary of what each person had to say:

PRESIDENT

Lloyd Johnson wants to

  • help keep this club heading in a direction that benefits all members and see the growth of our passion, homebrewing. Finish the current ventures, that the current board has started, as well as bring back some of the old traditions we’ve lost, and hopefully start some new ones to come.
  • help promote home brewing by bringing back the monthly style home brew competition, where club members bring their home brew in the style of the month to have the chance to win a gift certificate to the Culver City Home Brew Store.
  • promote education by bringing back Big Brews where club members bring their brewing sets, to do multiple brews in one day, in one location so that they can see multiple processes in home brewing from many different levels of extract to all grain
  • schedule different different education events such as hop evaluations, off flavor testing, Cicerone training, BJCP Judge training and evaluating the test requirements, and much, much more
  • work on accomplishing our goal of becoming a 501(3)(c) non profit.

Ian Fraser wants to

  • bring back some of that inclusiveness that created the growth of the club as well as the comradery that went along with it
  • bring back the big brews to enhance the educational aspects, the bus trips to educate the knowledge of various breweries and the experiences of their brewers
  • train the next generation of leaders so that they have a vision of the club going forward that maintains our history in the process

VICE PRESIDENT

Michael Musgrave says he is

  • thankful for the great structure, reputation and relationships Brian, Tad and Ramesh have contributed and are leaving as their legacy
  • honored to work alongside the existing board members and looking forward to growing the club together
  • stoked and already mapping out our First Friday schedule for ’16!”

TREASURER

Timothy Bardet says

  • hes been member since the second meeting
  • he wants to come back as treasurer and serve as he did in previous years in this position
  • he’ll do a great job because “Everybody likes to get paid out!”

Tania Musgrave says

  • Our friendly club culture has drawn her to more and more meetings and events, and is proud to be a member.
  • Having spent time with the current treasurer, Ramesh, she feels that she knows and is prepared for the position duties.Would be honored to take over as Treasurer.
  • she is organized and has previous fundraising experience with a non-profit and love new challenges

Also up for voting is Club Member of the Year. The nominees are:

Ramesh Johnston
Tad Johnston
Andrew Whittle
Lloyd Johnson
Carl Townsend

If you were not able to attend the meeting, please send your vote no later than Saturday November 21st to [email protected].

We discussed at the meeting that the holiday party on December 12th will require lots of volunteers for set up, clean up, food and beer. Stay tuned for where to sign up.

Thank you to all who contributed to a successful meeting by bringing chili and beer.

Cheers

Ramesh Johnston

Event times for the club meeting Saturday

9:00am
Brew session begins
12:00pm – 1:00pm
Chili cook-off
1:00pm
Announcements and board nominees make speeches
1:30pm
Voting
2:00pm
Commercial Style Tasting

The day will official begin at 9:00am and you’re more than welcome to come when you please at or after this time. If you would like to get there early and be involved with the brew, Dan White would greatly appreciate the help I’m sure.

Voting for both board members and the chili cook-off to follow immediately after the speeches. You can vote for club member of the year at any time during the day. If you cannot make the event, you can email us your vote for board members and member of the year at [email protected].

You must have your vote in no later than 1 week (November 21st) after the event to have it count.
You also must be a member with current active status and dues paid in full in order to vote.

Chili Cook-Off

As usual, we will have a “Most Unique Chili” and a “Best Chili” so please plan on voting for both when trying each chili.

More info on this month’s club meeting can be found here.

Club Meeting Saturday – Updates!!

Our club meeting is this Saturday and we have a few more updates on nominations. We now have another contested position, Treasurer, which now has Tim Bardet and Tania Musgrave running. Also, since Brian Holter won CMOY last year, he cannot be nominated this year for member of the year. There are however two recently added nominations to the list, Carl Townsend and Lloyd Johnson. There is still time to send us your nominations for both board positions and CMOY. Also, I’ve included a teaser (photo) of the commercial tasting at the bottom of the post.

 

Board Nominations For 2016:

PRESIDENT
Lloyd Johnson
Ian Fraser
VICE PRESIDENT
Michael Musgrave
TREASURER
Tim Bardet
Tania Musgrave

 

Member of the Year Nominations for 2015:

Brian Holter (can’t be nominated after winning the previous year)

Ramesh Johnston
Tad Johnston
Andrew Whittle
Lloyd Johnson
Carl Townsend

 

If you’d like to nominate someone else (or yourself) for either a board position or member of the year, please do so by next Thursday (November 12th) at the latest. Also, if you can’t make the meeting and would love to vote, please email your vote for each to [email protected]

Commercial Tasting

Here is what is going to be opened at the commercial tasting. I hope you all enjoy the tasting of some of my favorites when I’m gone

Brew Day

The brew day will start at 9:00am so come whenever, you’d like with most people probably getting there about 11:00am – 12:00pm for the main event. Dan could definitely use some help so if you feel so inclined to show up early and help it would be greatly appreciated.

14nov9:00 amNovember Meeting - Chili cook-off and election day!!9:00 am Casa Molloy

 

 

Monster Brew at Monkish Brewing June 6th

Strand Brewers Club is hosting a Monster Brew with Monkish on 6/6, and they have invited all of us to participate. Henry will be brewing a versatile wort:
78% domestic 2row
12% flaked oats
5% vienna
4% acid malt

OG 1.051
IBUs 25

The brew day will start at 6am sharp. Long Beach Homebrewers, Maltose Falcons, and Crude Brew Crew have also been invited.

If you are interested in attending, sign-up and details can be found at the strandbrewersclub website and facebook event:

Wort is reserved for 10 dollars on the club website with another 20 due at the event, we expect to sell out.  All website transactions are through paypal:

Thanks
Ryan Penrod

Monster Brew is Full

We’ve had a great response to the monster brew at Smog City Brewing this Saturday.  We’ve allocated all the wort.  We might be able to fill a few more buckets on a provisional basis, but no guarantees.

Just a few reminders for the event:

  • Park on the west side of the brewery to keep the tap room lot open.
  • Bring sterilized plastic or metal fermenters.  No glass, and no skinny neck containers.
  • If you haven’t paid, bring cash, check or credit card to the brewery on Saturday.  $30 per batch.
  • We start at 7:30AM and should be pouring wort around 1 or 2 PM.

Make sure you’ve caught the full articles here:

http://pacificgravity.com/2015/01/monster-brew-january-24th/
http://pacificgravity.com/2015/01/modifying-your-monster-brew/

See you There!

 

Modifying Your Monster Brew

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

Answer:  I hope you are all planning to join us at Smog City Brewing Company’s Second Annual Monster Brew, Saturday, January 24h, 2014, from 7:30 AM to 2 PM hosted by our very own Jon Porter. We’ll be brewing up a batch of Pilsner-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 20th anniversary, Southern California Homebrew Fest, club meetings and summer party.

The recipe for the wort is in the text box. About 2/3rds of the wort is German pilsner malt, based on Smog’s Little Bo Pils. A bit of Cara-Pils, Vienna malt and wheat malt round out the grain bill. Apart from that, the recipe is light-colored and minimally hopped. This gives YOU the opportunity to spice it up, using your own creativity as broadly as possible. The wort will have a starting gravity of 1.052, with 22 IBUs of bitterness and a color of about 4 SRM. A lot of different beers can be made out of this. With a bit of tweaking, you can make just about anything. Here are some ideas on what to do.

1) Pick a yeast. The wort comes unpitched, so at a minimum, you have to get some yeast for brewing day. As formulated, the wort will make an excellent Pilsner if you pitch with German Pilsner yeast such as White Labs WLP800, or Wyeast 2007. Of course, this means you need to have a lager fridge or other cooler to pull this off. But, you can also pick something like a German ale yeast and make a Kölsch or and American ale yeast and make a blonde ale. Whatever style you go for, I suggest making at least a 1 quart starter a few days before the Monster brew.

2) Boost the bitterness or hop flavor. You’ll have to do this if you want to get to IPA range, and I also recommend it for Pale Ale, ESB, Robust Porter, Altbier and several other styles as well. Boil up a small amount of water and add hops to make a hop tea. Boil for at least half an hour with high alpha hops to raise the IBU level, and for best effect, use pellets rather than whole-leaf hops. To calculate the bitterness, use these numbers: Each ½ oz of 12% AAU pellets will boost the bitterness by 15 IBU. Boil for 10 to 15 minutes with your favorite hop variety to boost the flavor. Note that this will boost the IBU level by a smaller amount.

3) Dry hop it. The recipe this year has a low level of Saaz finishing hops, but not enough for the citrusy American styles. You can go American for American Pale or Amber Ale, British hops for ESB, or you can go with Continental Noble hops for something like Saison.

4) Make it stronger. Styles such as Maibock or Belgian Tripel can be made by adding some malt extract or Belgian candi sugar. Just boil up a small amount of water and extract and boil for about 10 to 15 minutes, to make sure it is sterile. Cool, and add to your fermenter.

5) Make it weaker. If you are into session beer styles such as Bitter, the gravity will be too high. You can cut the gravity by adding some water. This is a great way of increasing the yield of your brewing day, and you may need a second fermenter to hold the extra volume. For best results, the water should be sterilized by boiling ahead of time for a few minutes. Note that the dilution will drop the bitterness level too, which will fit some, but not all of the lighter styles.

6) Make it darker. Pick a dark grain like roast barley, Special B, chocolate malt or Carafa. Steep in hot water, then strain out the grains and boil the liquid. Voila, instant dark beer! I made a great porter and Schwarzbier the past couple of years with this approach.

7) Make it malty. Discover the magic of melanoidin malt to make some of the malty German lagers styles such as traditional Bock, or Munich Dunkel. I’d even recommend a bit if you are making a Maibock.

8) Do combinations of the above. Suppose you want to make an American Barleywine out of the wort. Boil up some malt extract, add some hops to boost the bitterness and flavor during the boil. Cool and add to the fermenter. Then, dry hop in secondary.

The attached table has a list of some of the interesting combinations you can do. I came up with 20 variations without even breaking a sweat. You can probably come up with even more.
You’ll want to pitch your yeast as soon as you get your wort home. For most of the variations, you should plan on adjusting the wort at the same time, though you could wait a day or so. Make sure you get it going before primary fermentation is done, since the yeast will need to work on the additional materials.
So, start whipping up your recipe now. Hope to see you on the 24th.

Smog City Monster Brew #2
Recipe for 16 Barrels (496 gallons):
• 660 lbs German Pilsner Malt
• 55 lbs Cara-Pils
• 55 lbs Wheat Malt
• 55 lbs Vienna Malt
• 26 lbs Acidulated Malt
• Summit 32oz (FWH)
• Saaz 48oz (15 min)
• Saaz 48oz (Flame Out)
• Target OG – 1.052
• Target SRM – 4
• Target IBU – 22

StyleYeastGrain / SugarHopsFerment
German LagerLagerCold
Bohemian LagerLagerCara-PilsSaazCold
American LagerLagerCold
Vienna LagerViennaMunich or ViennaCold
OktoberfestOktoberfestMelanoidinCold
MaibockBockMelanoidin, LMECold
Traditional MaibockBockMelanoidin, LMECold
DoppelbockBockMelanoidin, LMECold
Munich DunkelMunich LagerMelanoidin, MunichCold
SchwarzbierMunich LagerCarafaCold
KölschKölschCool
Cream AleCream AleCool
California CommonCA LagerCrystalNorthern BrewerCool
AltbierGerman AleCrystalTea / HallertauerCool
Blonde AleAmerican AleMedium
American Pale AleAmerican AleTea / Dry AmarilloMedium
American AmberAmerican AleCrystalTea / Dry AmarilloMedium
IPAAmerican Ale or EnglishCrystalTea / Dry AmarilloMedium
Brown AleEnglishCrystal, ChocolateMedium
PorterEnglishChocolateMedium
Dry StoutIrishRoast BarleyMedium
Export StoutIrishRoase Barley, LMEMedium
Imperial StoutIrishLME, Roast BarleyTea / GoldingsMedium
Old AleEnglishLMETea / FugglesMedium
BarleywineAmerican Ale or EnglishLMETea / CentennialMedium
Wheat BeerWeihenstephanWheat MaltWarm
WitSpices: Corriander & bitter orange peelWarm
Belgian Pale AleAntwerpBelgian BiscuitWarm
Belgian DubbelAbbeyDark Candi Sugar, Special BWarm
Belgian Dark StrongTrappistDark Candi Sugar, Special B, CaraMunichWarm
TripelGoldenLight CandiWarm
SaisonSaisonDry hop SaazWarm

Monster Brew January 24th

On January 24, 2015 Smog City Brewing Company  and its SmogCityLogo Brewmaster, PG’s Jon Porter, will be hosting
their second Pacific Gravity Monster Brew.

PG Brewmaster Carl Townsend and Porter have developed a new base wort for
this event, based on the highly-popular Little Bo Pils recipe.   This will
be a great starting point for just about any light-bodied beer.  But,
keeping with past monster brews, the recipe can be the base for whatever creative
endeavor you might want to do.  Read more

Club Meeting – Anniversary Brew Recipe Poll!

Everyone-

Its been a busy month for me so I apologize for the late poll, but we have selected 3 great Belgian Dubbel Recipe’s for our Club Anniversary brew taking place this Saturday.  Details about the timing of the brew start and meeting will come later this week, but we need to get this poll up for all of you to vote!  Click on the link below to go to the online poll to vote for your choice for our club brew this Saturday!  Voting ends on Tuesday night @ 6pm so that we can purchase the appropriate ingredients ahead of time.  You can vote as many times as you like, cheers!

CLICK HERE TO VOTE FOR THE WINNER!

Here are the three final recipes!


Recipe #1: “I Like Rochefort”

  • OG – 1.070
  • FG – 1.010
  • IBUs – 20
  • SRM – 18.86
  • ABV – 7.9%
  • Recipe Size (6 Gallons)
  • Boil Time – 90 min

Grain/Fermentable Bill

  • 14.0 lbs Belgian Pils
  • 0.5 lbs Melanoidin
  • 0.5 lbs Special B
  • 1.0 lbs 90L Belgian Syrup

*(Mash Schedule – 20 Min rest @ 144F, 40 Min rest @ 156F)

Hops & Kettle Additions

  • 1.7oz (3.50% AA) – Hallertau Hersbrucker – 60 min.

Yeast

  • 2qt Starter of WLP540 Abbey Ale IV

Fermentation Schedule

  • Primary – 7 days @ 66F
  • Secondary – 10 days @ Room Temp

*One full day after Krausen drops start to raise temp 1F per 12 hours till room temp.  Do not transfer unless within .002 of target terminal gravity.  Isinglass in secondary.


Recipe #2: Belgian Dubbel

  • OG – 1.068
  • FG – 1.012
  • IBUs – 31
  • SRM – 21.3
  • ABV – 7.5%
  • Recipe Size (10 gallons)
  • Boil Time – 70 min

Grain/Fermentable Bill

  • 18.0 lbs Belgian Pils
  • 2.0 lbs Belgian Candy Sugar (added to boil @ 30 min mark)
  • 1.0 lbs Light Munich
  • 1.0 lbs CaraMunich Malt
  • 1.0 lbs Cara Vien Malt
  • 1.0 lbs Belgian Biscuit
  • 1.0 lbs Belgian Aromatic
  • 1.0 lbs Special B
  • .25 lbs Chocolate Malt

*(Mash Schedule – 20 Min rest @ 128F, 20 Min rest @ 149F, 40 Min rest @ 153F)

Hops & Kettle Additions

  • 2.60oz (5.3%AA) – Tettnang 60 min.
  • 1.50oz (4.1% AA) – Hallertauer 20 min.

Yeast

  • 2qt Starter of Wyeast 1214 Abbey Ale Yeast

Fermentation Schedule

  • Primary – 7 – 14 days @ 70F
  • Secondary – 14 days @ 70F

Recipe #3: Light Westy

  • OG – 1.069
  • FG – 1.010
  • IBUs – 18
  • SRM – 15.73
  • ABV – 7.7%
  • Recipe Size (6 gallons)
  • Boil Time – 90 min

Grain/Fermentable Bill

  • 7.0 lbs Belgian Pale
  • 7.0 lbs Belgian Pils
  • 1.5 lbs Belgian Dark Candy Sugar (added to boil @ flame out)
  • (Mash Schedule – 60 Min rest @ 145F, 20 Min rest @ 155F)

Hops & Kettle Additions

  • 0.50oz (8.5% AA) – Northern Brewer 90 min.
  • 0.50oz (4.1% AA) – Styrian Goldings 20 min.
  • 0.25oz (2.8% AA) – Hallertauer Mittelfrüh 20 min.

Yeast

  • 2qt Starter of WLP 530 Abbey Ale Yeast

Fermentation Schedule

  • Primary – 7 – 14 days @ 65F (pitching temp, free rise afterwards)
  • Secondary – 14 days @ Room temp

*Cool to 65F and pitch yeast.  Let free rise to 80F and hold there.