REMINDER: SoCal Brewfest camping fees collection

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Greetings, all.  This Thursday the 17th is our next club meeting, and if you’re planning on going to the Brewfest with us but haven’t paid your camping fees yet, the meeting would be a great time to do so.  The festival is just around the corner (less than 7 weeks away!) and your confirmed attendance will help us set our budget and move forward with the “meat” of the planning and organization.  Remember also that your spot isn’t reserved until you’ve paid your fees.

This year we’re offering two camping fee tiers – $50 / person for camping plus 2 breakfasts and 2 dinners, or $25 / person for “camping only”.  With the latter, you’ll need to provide for your own nutritional requirements.  Checks are best (make them payable to Pacific Gravity and write “Ojai Camping” on the memo line), but cash is fine too.

Lake Casitas will be charging $60 per car to park for the weekend, so if you’d like to carpool, please try to coordinate that at the meeting – the signup sheet already shows some folks doing it and others who would like to.  Talk it up!

Finally – if you haven’t yet brewed for the festival, you can still sneak in a lower-gravity beer in time if you do it soon (perhaps an entry for the BRO competition – Session Ales).

For more info, follow this link to my January article and please disregard the “volunteer” information, as that is now closed.

Thanks again for your support.  See youse Thursday – and please feel free to ask myself or any of the other past attendees about the fest.

— Victor Macias

SCHF Organizer, 2011

 

HAPPY ST. PATRICK’s DAY-MARCH 17th

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HAPPY ST. PATRICK’S DAY-MARCH 17

In honor of St. Patrick’s Day the Pacific Gravity Homebrew Club will be celebrating the event by holding its monthly club meeting on the 3rd Thursday of the month.

“Oh”, you say. “Isn’t the meeting always on the third Thursday of the month?” Well, yes it is, boys and girls. But since it’s March, and Stouts along with BJCP Category  5-Bocks are our styles of the month, we’ll be celebrating Patrick’s life and good works at the meeting.

Those of the Roman persuasion can also celebrate the day of another great man’s death, Julius Caesar “Beware the Ides of March [15]”. No orgies, please, and leave your daggers at home. Church keys are permitted, however.

As usual, this humble leprechaun will be cooking our annual corned beef and cabbage meal, to be served on site, beginning at 6:30pm. There is no charge for the meal, but donations to defray the cost are more than welcome.  The official meeting will begin at 7:30.

We will need beverages for the meeting, so anyone who has a stout waiting to be drunk by an appreciative PG membership is urged to bring it. The more we have, the better the meeting. As we do every month, the beer judged the best, or at least, most popular, will bring the winner a $25 CCHBS gift certificate. Commercial tasting will follow announcements. Commercial tasting will follow the announcements.

If anyone has brewed a Bock, please bring it for onsite judging. The winner of the judging will have the beer entered in the AHA Club Only Competition. PG will pay for the entry and shipping.

We will also be accepting payment of annual club dues ($30), and collecting money for the March 26 O.C. Road Trip to TAPS, and The Bruery on March 26. Seats are going fast, so sign up and pay up soon.

See you all on the 17th.

ERIN GO BRAGH!

UPDATE: PG Monthly Meeting – Thursday, February 17th

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Looking forward to seeing you all at our February PG meeting – rain or moonlight!

 UPDATE: El Rincon Criollo, our club’s local Cuban & Spanish restaurant, will be selling food at our meeting! Food service will begin at 7pm. They will be offering plates of rice, beans, plantains & a choice of 1 meat (chicken or pork) for a discounted price of $7.50. Sandwiches will also be available at a discounted price of $7.00.

 You will want to make sure you have a good meal before our PG Anniversary meeting with many strong Belgian & French Ales being served. 

The meeting officially begins at 7:30pm. See you Thursday.

Cheers,

Mimi & Audrey

PG Activities Directors

PG Meeting, February 17

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The February PG Monthly Meeting will feature Belgian and French Ales, so eat a good dinner before arrving, in order to soak up this month’s Magic Elixer. PG Treasurer, Craig Corley, will be hosting the commercial tasting, and he’ll have some fine examples of the styles.

As usual, anyone who brings a keg of Belgian or French Style Brew will be in the running for a $25 CCHBS gift certificate if his/her beer is chosen the Best of the Night.

This month’s announcements will be made by Vice President, Reed Wilson.

Raffle Tickets can be purchased from Terry Molloy, the Raffle Guy, and Fundraiser.

We always need raffle prizes, so if you have any used equipment you want to donate, it is much appreciated. Glasses, “excess” commercial beers in the monthly style,  and gift certificates, are always appreciated.

IMPORTANT NEWS: We still have space for the upcoming Tustin Monster Brew which will be held on February 26 at the Tustin Brewery. See the postings on the PG Website for details, or speak to Reed or  PG Brewmaster, Carl Townsend,  about the details. Signup sheets will be available, but more importantly, you must pay for the wort. This can be done at the meeting by check (preferable), or cash. See Craig Corley if you are going to pay at the meeting. PayPal is also available, and a lot easier than in person for most of us. The price is $27/5 gallon pour, limit 2 pours ($54). The deadline for payment is February 24th, unless there are extenuating circumstances. The organizers DO NOT want to be scrambling to collect money at the event, if all possible.

ROAD TRIP MARCH 26: See Kurt Periolat’s article about the O.C. Road Trip to TAPS, and The Bruery.

If you have questions, talk to Kurt, or send an E-mail to him.

Lastly, don’t forget to BREW, BREW, BREW. We have a lot of events coming up this year, and will need lots of homebrew to serve (Southern California Homebrew Festival, AHA Conference in San Diego, PG Summer Party, and entries for the Pacific Brewer’s Cup, which we are hosting. Stay tuned for details on those events.

Sorry I won’t be at the February meeting, but I hope you all have a great, and sober, time.

Michael Steinberg, President

Monthly Meeting-January 20, 2011

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I’d like to welcome all Pacific Gravity members to our first meeting of 2011. This month’s style is English and Scottish Ales. Our Style Tasting Host this month is Tom Rierson, one of the most knowledgeable members  of our club in the area of British Ales and Lagers.

Activities Directors Audrey Hill-Lindsay and Mimi Bardet will be bringing a Ploughman’s Lunch for us, as well as some other snacks.

Terry Molloy will be selling raffle tickets ($1), and handing out some great prizes. Donations of excess equipment, or glasses is always welcome.

Announcements this month include information about our Anniversary Club Brew, and First Road Trip of the year.

Bring cash or check if you want to be among the first to reserve a spot for these sure to be great events.

The meeting commences at 7:30pm out back of Culver City Home Brew Supply, the PG home away from home.

Bring kegs of beer to share, sample, or have “judged” by your fellow club members. A $25 gift certificate will be given to the brewer whose beer is voted “Best of Meeting.”

April Club Meeting-Thursday April 15 @ 7:30

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The April club meeting will be on Thursday, April 15th from 7:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. at Culver City Home Brewing Supply. Extract Beers will be our style of the month and as always we’ll have some homebrewed beers on tap to complement our monthly commercial style tasting. Nathalie Caldwell will be guiding us on a tour of Smoke-Flavored/Wood-Aged Beers,and Specialty Beers for our style tasting and is certain to provide some interesting examples.

Please remember to bring some of your homebrew to share with us! All styles are welcome and you don’t have to bring a whole keg. You can bring the brews you’ve bottled, too!  Of course, any Extract Beers brought in kegs will be considered for the contest and the winner will receive a $25 gift certificate to the shop.

As always we’ll be giving away lots of club swag and beer/brewing related goodies in our monthly raffle.  Your donations to the raffle are always welcome and needed.

Competition! We are doing a Club-Only competition for Extract Beers, extract makes up at least 50% of the fermentables. If you have an extract beer bring three 12 oz. bottles to the meeting and make sure you let Carl Townsend (competitioncoordinator@pacificgravity.com) know they are here.

Carl Townsend will also have a sign-up for a preliminary judging session for Mayfaire, which will be held at the Culver City Shop on Sunday, April 18th at 5:00 PM.

March (dues) Madness Continues! Didn’t renew your membership in March? April is a great month for renewing, too! Renew your membership online or talk to Craig Corley (treasurer@pacificgravity.com) at the meeting to make sure your dues are paid and your information is up-to-date!

Club Shirts for Sale! Show your PG pride by wearing yours to Thursday’s meeting or, if you don’t have already have one, get one at the meeting. Short-sleeve shirts are $20 and Long-sleeve shirts are $30

*Josh Jensen (schbf@pacificgravity.com) will be taking sign-ups and payment for the Southern California Homebrew Festival camping. Please bring him $50 if you’d like to sign up. Deadline to pay for camping is April 22nd. There will be quick side meeting after the main announcements for those going to the fest. If you are already signed up, watch for an email from Josh on Monday with directions, stuff to bring, etc. Don’t forget to buy your membership to CHA to get your ticket for Saturday.
www.calhomebrewers.org

Special Vote for Brewer of the Year Rules

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On Thursday, February 18th at the Club meeting, we will hold a special vote for the Brewer of the Year Rules.  The ballot language is included below.  Please review the issue now, so that you are prepared to vote. Voting at the club meeting will be conducted by written ballots at approximately 8:15 PM and results will be announced by 9:30 PM.  If you cannot attend the meeting, you have the option of voting on-line.   You can vote at any time by sending an e-mail to elections@pacificgravity.com .  Place the word “Vote” in the Subject line and either “Yes” or “No” in the body of the text.  On-line ballots must be submitted by 7:30 PM on Thursday February 18th.  If you vote on-line, you cannot vote at the meeting. Read more →

Beer Tasting Schedule for 2010

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The beer tasting schedule for 2010 club meeting has now been released.  The list has three sets of beer to keep in mind.  The most important is the club meeting homebrew keg styles of the month.  Kegs of homebrew are the basic fuel that keeps our club meetings running, so we need several every month.  Take a look at the list now to see what you can brew for the club this year.   Each keg of beer brought to the monthly meeting in this set of styles will be eligible for “Best Beer of the Meeting” award.  We’ll have a voice vote just before the raffle.  The winner gets a gift certificate from the Culver City Home Brewing Supply Company.   Note that we don’t have a keg style of the month for the summer party (which will be in August this year) or the Holiday Party in December.  The reason for this, of source, is that we need kegs from everybody of all styles.

PACIFIC GRAVITY HOMEBREW CLUB

Styles of the Month 2010

Month Homebrew Kegs Styles
of the Month		 Judging of
Club-Only
Competition Entries		 Commercial Styles
of the Month		 Leader of
Commercial
Tasting
January
2010		 English Pale Ales
and Scottish/Irish Ales		 English Brown Ales
(BJCP Cat. #11)		 English Pale Ales
and Scottish/Irish Ales
(BJCP Cats. #8-9)		 Reed & Mike
February
2010		 Belgian and French Ales N/A Belgian and French Ales
(BJCP Cat. #16)		 Jon Porter
March
2010		 American Ales
and Stouts		 American Ales
(BJCP Cat. #10)		 American Ales
and Stouts
(BJCP Cats. #10, 13)		 Ian Fraser
April
2010		 Extract Beers
(all categories)		 Extract Beers
(all categories)		 Smoke-Flavored/
Wood-Aged Beers,
and Specialty Beers
(BJCP Cats. #22, 23)		 Nathalie Caldwell
May
2010		 Lager Beers N/A Pilsners and Bocks
(BJCP Cats. #2, 5)		 Peggy Robinson
June
2010		 Fruit Beers,
Spice/Herb/Vegetable Beers,
Smoke-Flavored/
Wood-Aged Beers,
and Specialty Beers		 N/A Fruit Beers and
Spice/Herb/Vegetable Beers
(BJCP Cats. #20, 21)		 Need a volunteer
July
2010		 German Wheat/Rye Beers and Mead Mead
(BJCP Cats. #24-26)		 German Wheat/Rye Beers and Mead
(BJCP Cats. #15, 24-26)		 Need a volunteer
August
2010*		 N/A Sour Ales
(BJCP Cat. #17)		 N/A N/A
September
2010		 India Pale Ales N/A India Pale Ales
(BJCP Cat. #14)		 Need a volunteer
October
2010		 Strong Ales Strong Ales
(BJCP Cat. #19)		 Strong Ales
(BJCP Cat. #19)		 Need a volunteer
November
2010		 Hybrid Beers N/A Hybrid Beers
(BJCP Cats. #6,7)		 Need a volunteer
December 2010** N/A English Pale Ales
(BJCP Cat. #8)		 N/A N/A

*The club’s summer party will be held in August 2010. No styles of the month will be designated.
**The club’s holiday party will be held in December 2010. No styles of the month will be designated.

The next column shows the Club-only Competition entries that will be judged each month.   We will run a small judging panel with BJCP judges to select the best beer to send on to the national level.   Quite often, this is the same list as one of the kegs of the month.  If this is the case, you can use your keg to supply samples for the evening judging, but you’ll need to have at least 2 twelve-ounce bottles that can be shipped off.   Bring 3 bottles if you don’t have a keg.   Let the Competition Coordinator Carl Townsend know that you brought an entry.  If you can, please remember to fill out the entry forms before the meeting, which you can download from the AHA website at: http://www.beertown.org/homebrewing/pdf/entry_recipe.pdf.  The club picks up the entry fees and shipping for this one, so it is free to you.

The third column in the schedule shows the commercial style tasting that we’ll do at the club meeting.  We are actively looking for volunteers to lead the monthly tasting sessions.  The session volunteer gets to select which beers to buy and gets to espouse his or her knowledge of the styles during the pouring.  The club has a budget set aside to buy the beers.  Based on past experience, it is a good idea to go buy the beers a couple of weeks in advance.  And of course, the more rare and exotic you commercial selections are, the better.  Dean Sussman is our Style Tasting Coordinator, so drop him a line if you are interested in volunteering.

November 2009 Club Meeting

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The November club meeting will be on Thursday, November 19th from 7:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. at Culver City Home Brewing Supply. We’ll be featuring Brown Ales and Porters as our style of the month and as always; we’ll have some homebrewed examples on tap to complement our monthly commercial style tasting (volunteer kegs are welcome).  Lee and Andrew Bakofsky will be guiding us on a tour of Brown Ales and Porters for our style tasting.  Please remember to bring some of your homebrew to share with us.  While you’re at it, bring some of your friends and maybe some new members.  As always we’ll be giving away lots of club swag and beer/brewing related goodies (donations welcome) in our monthly raffle.

The November meeting will feature our annual election of club officers and the club member of the year. We will be voting for President, Vice President and Treasurer.  In addition, we will be voting for the prestigious honor of Club Member of the Year with the results of this ballot to be announced at our Holiday Party on December 12th.  See Annual Club Elections for more details.

We’re planning on having the new club tee shirts with our new club logo on hand.  If you pre-ordered a shirt we’ll have yours set aside for you to pick up and if not, we’ll have extras available, but you’ll probably want to pick one up before we run out of your favorite size/style.

With this being the last meeting before our annual Holiday Party, we’ll be actively seeking volunteers for food and homebrew.  Plan on showing up and signing up to let us know what food and homebrew you’re planning on sharing with us.  We’ll also be collecting entries for the upcoming Belgian Strong Ales (category 18) AHA club only competition (see Competition Corner for more info).  Of course we’ll also have the latest info on all upcoming club events, plan on joining us…

Annual Club Elections

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Nominations were accepted at the October meeting and we’ll be holding our annual elections for the Club Board and the Club Member of the Year award at the November club meeting on Nov 19th.

The 2010 Club Board will have a slightly different look since Club President, Craig Corley has decided its time to take a break from running the club.  Drew Butler and the team of Peggy Robinson & Nathalie Caldwell were nominated to replace him as club president. Dan Hakes was re-nominated as Vice President and Craig Corley was nominated for Treasurer. The remaining board positions are appointed and will include Carl Townsend returning as Competition Coordinator, Mike Steinberg returning as Activities Director, Ian Fraser rejoining as Club Chef, Thomas Lee Bakofsky & David Stickel returning as Webmasters, Terry Malloy joining as Fund Raiser, Dean Sussman joining as Style Tasting Coordinator, Josh Jensen returning as SCHBF representative, and Tomm Carroll returning as a newsletter columnist. While this is an impressive roster of club members, we’re always looking for new faces to get involved, contact Craig Corley at President@PacificGravity.com if interested.

Six club members were nominated for the 2009 Club Member of the Year award. This award recognizes and honors significant contributions and involvement by club members.  The members nominated at the October meeting include Lee Bakofsky, Craig Corley, Dan Hakes, Jon Porter, Neil Saund, and Dean Sussman.  Selection of the Club Member of the Year will be done by secret ballot and the results will be announced at our annual Holiday Party by last years winner, Larry Caldwell.