Pacific Brewers Cup Entries Due Friday Sept 14th

Entries for the 2018 Pacific Brewers Cup are now being accepted and are due no later than Friday, September 14th.  On-line registration is available at http://strandbrewersclub.org/pbc/bcoem/.  Strand Brewers Club will be running the show this year.   This is a large competition is hosted on a rotating basis between Pacific Gravity, Strand Brewers and Long Beach Homebrewers.  All styles based on the 2015 BJCP Style Guides are accepted.  Each entry requires three (3) 12-oz bottles, with a fee of $9.00.  Alas, with the closing of the Culver City homebrew shop, your entries need to go to one of the other local shops, listed below.

Judging for PBC will be held Saturday morning, September 29th at The Verandas Beach House 401 Rosecrans Avenue, Manhattan Beach, CA 90277.  Plan to be there around 8:00 AM, PDT.  Strand Brewers Club has helped us out quite a bit with our past PBC efforts, so I’d like to see a good turn-out of Pacific Gravity members  to help with judging or stewarding.

After PBC, the last competition for the Pacific Gravity Brewer of the Year Award will be the California Sate Homebrew Competition. Registration is open at https://castate.brewcompetition.com/ .  Entries need to make it up to San Francisco.  If anyone is interested in doing a road trip to drop off the entries, please drop me a line at Competitions AT pacificgravity.com sometime before the next club meeting (Sept 20th). The club will reimburse yo for some of your gas money.  Timing of the trip is flexible, preferably in the last week of September or first week of October.  Entries would need to arrive at Ferment Drink Repeat 2636 San Bruno Avenue San Francisco, CA 94134  Must arrive by October 11th.  If no one steps forward to drive, each entrant will be on the hook to ship entries.

PBC Drop-off sites:

Please pay attention to the notes provided for each drop-off location. There could be earlier deadlines for some drop-off locations listed, particular hours when entries are accepted, certain individuals to leave your entries with, etc. All entrants are responsible for reading the information provided by the organizers for each drop-off location.

South Bay Brewing Supply
1311 Post Ave Torrance, CA 90501
310-486-9412
*entries will be picked up starting at opening time on 9/15

Stein Fillers
4160 Norse Way Long Beach, CA 90808
562-425-0588
*entries will be picked up starting at opening time on 9/15

Ballast Point – Home Brew Mart
5401 Linda Vista Rd #406, San Diego, CA 92110
(619) 295-2337
*entries will be picked up starting at opening time on 9/15

Eagle Rock Home Brewing Supply
4981 Eagle Rock Blvd Los Angeles, CA 90066
323-258-2107
*entries will be picked up starting at opening time on 9/15

The Home Beer, Wine, And Cheesemaking Shop
22836 Ventura Blvd Woodland Hills, CA 91354
818-884-8586
*entries will be picked up starting at opening time on 9/15

More Beer Riverside
1506 Columbia Ave Suite 12 Riverside, CA 92507
951-779-9971
*entries will be picked up starting at opening time on 9/15

Monrovia Homebrew Shop
1945 South Myrtle Ave, Monrovia, California 91016
626-531-0825
*entries will be picked up starting at opening time on 9/15

Competition Corner – August 2018

While most of us were having a blow-out summer party, (thanks Dean!) other diligent beer judges were hard at work judging the Los Angeles County Fair.  Congratulations to Kingsley Toby, who picked up the overall second place Best of Show with his beer, Second Sleep, a whiskey-aged stout.  It also picked up First Place in Category 26 Wood-Aged Beers.  This is not the first ribbon he has won with this proven recipe.  This beer truly has legs, from both a competition and visual evaluation standpoint!  Kingsley also picked up a first place for his First Light Belgian Pale Ale, and a 3rd place for his Luminous Wit, which we were gleefully sipping in the hot mid-day sun at the summer party.   Congratulations Kingsley!

A good showing was also made by Parker Waechter with his “Unreasonable Need For External Validation”, which took First Place in the American Pale Ale category.  If you ask me, it’s been validated!  Congrats also to Craig Corley, with a pair of seconds for Blonde #17 and Saison Mb5.  Full results of the County Fair can be found at http://competitions.maltosefalcons.com/.

With these victories, Kingsley has taken a commanding lead in the Brewer of the Year award, with 22 points.  Parker is second with 8 points, and Craig is right behind with 7 points.  But fear not, there are still two big competitions to go this year.  First up is Pacific Brewers Cup.  Strand Brewers Club will be running the show this year.  Entries are due on September 14th, with the main judging session on September 29th.  Check back here for entry details.  Finally, we have the California Sate Homebrew Competition, with entries due in October.

 

County Fair Homebrew Entries Due Friday 7/13

Entries for the 2018 Los Angeles County Fair are due this Friday,  July 13th.  Registration is up and running at http://competitions.maltosefalcons.com/.  With the closure of the Culver City shop, make sure you leave time to drop off your entries.  They can be left at the Eagle Rock homebrew shop, Woodland Hills Shop or Steinfillers in Long Beach.  This competition uses the Maltose Falcons styleguide .

The main judging session for the contest will be on Saturday, July 28th, which unfortunately is our Summer party day.  We may be assisting with a prelim session, tentatively scheduled for July 23rd.

Results are in from the AHA National Competitions Finals.  Alas, no one from the club had any entries placing.  Full results can be found here.

Looking forward, Strand Brewers Club will be running Pacific Brewers Cup this year.  Look for details in the coming weeks.We will close out the competition year with the California State Homebrew Competition some time in October or November.

If you are interested in more competitions, check out the AHA competition website for a comprehensive listing.

Competition Corner – March 2018

We are moving into the heavy part of the homebrew competition season, so I hope your beers are ready.  There are a number of deadlines to keep track of.

First of all, the entry submission window for the National Homebrew Competition is now open.  You should have gotten an e-mail from NHC with shipping information to your judging center.  Eric Rosen has volunteered to drive down to San Diego, so if that is your entry site, you can drop off entries at the Culver City shop by 2:00 PM Sunday, March 25th.   If your site is NOT San Diego, you are responsible for shipping off your entries.   Shipped entries must be received by March 30th.  Two bottles are needed for the first round.  If your beer advances to the finals, you will need three more bottles.

Rapidly approaching is the Los Angeles Belgian Brew Challenge.  We still need entries, judges and stewards.  Read more

2018 LABBC Registration is LIVE!

Hey PG!

I’m excited to announce that registration is officially OPEN for our 4th year of this very special comp. You can find all the information you need about the event on the competition website:  http://belgianbrewchallenge.com

Entry Fee: $8 per entry

Entry Requirements: (2) 12 oz bottles with entry label rubber banded to bottle

Registration Window: 2/23/18 thru 3/29/18    Entry Drop-off Window: 3/12/18 thru 3/29/18

Entry Drop-off Locations:
LA Ale Works, Culver City Homebrew Supply, South Bay Brewing Supply, The Home Wine, Beer and Cheesemaking Shop, and Eagle Rock Homebrew Supply.

Entry Shipping Location:

Culver City Homebrew Supply
4234 Sepulveda Blvd
Culver City, CA 90230
[email protected]

Judging: April 8th, 2018 @ LA Ale Works

As always, volunteer judges and stewards are needed. Please indicate if you are interested in and available for either job during registration.

Looking forward to an exciting and fun competition, thank you for participating!  Reply back with any questions you have, I’ll do my best to get you answers.

Michael Musgrave – President

Deadline for AFC Homebrew Competition Thursday Noon 2/8 at the Culver City Shop

Thanks to a generous offer by the Musgrave family, we will have personal hand-delivery service for America’s Finest City (AFC) Homebrew Competition.  Drop off your entries at the Culver City shop no later than Noon Thursday, Feb 8th.    If you haven’t already registered for AFC, registration is open at http://quaff.org/AFC-2018/#.   The Musgraves get to sample a couple of beers at Alesmith for their efforts.

A big thank-you to Keith Edie for stepping up to the plate to organize the Los Angeles Belgian Brew Challenge.  Look for fresh details on this competition in the next week or so.

For those of you who requested entry slots for AHA, you should be getting word in the next day or so as to how many entry slots you will have.  Your entry authorization and payment must be done by February 14th.  Physical entries will need to be shipped off to the regional entry point of your choice by the last week of March.  For those of you wishing to send beer to San Diego, we will be looking for a driver.

Coming up earlier than usual this year is the California State Fair.  Registration is already up and runs through February 12th at http://home.castatefair.beer/.  Entries can be dropped off of the Eagle Rock or South Bay Brew shops.

A new competition we are adding to the Brewer of the Year cycle is the Jeff Sanders Memorial Competition.  This is a small event run by Strand with a selection of beer styles enjoyed by Jeff.  Registration begins January 26th and runs through April 7th.  Details can be found at http://www.jeffsandersmemorial.com/bcoem/ .  The competition is limited to 100 entries, so don’t delay.

The balance of the official list of competitions for accumulating Brewer of the Year points is listed below.  Check back frequently as exact dues dates become known.

For those of you who are hard-core about entering competitions, here are some more local events. In addition to our official competition list, there are a couple of other local competitions you might want to enter:

  • Congratulations to Kingsley Toby who got Runner-up Best of Show for “Second Sleep” wood-aged beer in the Doug King Memorial competition.
  • The Romancing the Beer Competition, hosted  by the Thousand Oaked Homebrewers need judges Saturday Feb 10th.

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/.

2018 Pacific Gravity Brewer of the Year Competition Schedule

Now:                    America’s Finest City registration open

February 8th      NOON Drop- off for AFC at the Culver City shop.

February 12        California State Fair

February 14       AHA Nationals confirmation deadline

Late March:        AHA Nationals entries due

March, TBD:       Los Angeles Belgian Brew Challenge

April 7:                  Deadline for the Jeff Sanders Memorial Competition

April                       Mayfaire
July                        Los Angeles County Fair
September         Pacific Brewers Cup
October              California State Homebrew Competition

 

 

 

Competition Corner – January 2018

Well, a new year is upon us as well as a fresh brewing competition season.  Each year, Pacific Gravity honors the brewer (or team) with the most homebrew competition wins.  I’m eagerly awaiting someone to knock me off my Brewer of the Year perch! I hope you took advantage of the cool weather over the holiday season to get some batches fermenting.  I did!   We have a couple of competitions coming up right away, but you still have plenty of cool weather to brew for some of the later upcoming competitions.  Read more

Rob Rubens Guest Brewer Competition

At our recent First Saturday visit to Rob Rubens, Rob brought up a new opportunity: The Rob Rubens Guest Brewer Competition. The winner will get not one, but up to three opportunities to brew on their 15 BBL system in El Segundo, to be put on sale at the Smoky Hollow tasting room.  Participants must submit recipes for each entry, along with two 12-ounce bottles.    This is an excellent opportunity if you are looking to take the step up to commercial brewing.  Commercial brewing experience is a strong plus.   See the Rob Rubens Guest Brewer Competition flyer for more details.   Entry deadline is January 16th 2018.   Submit your entries to the Rob Rubens Brewery/Distillery at 909 E. El Segundo Blvd, El Segundo CA  90245.

While I have your attention,  the entry deadline for the Doug King Memorial Competition is January 12th.  This is a limited-style competition.  Complete details can be found at  https://www.maltosefalcons.com/content/2018-doug-king-memorial-homebrew-competition.

 

 

 

 

Pacific Brewers Cup Winners

The Best of Show judging is complete and the winners have been announced!

Congratulation to Best of Show winner James Hilbing of Strand Brewers’ Club for his winning Wood-Aged entry Oaked Old Ale #2. As an eligible English style beer, James will get an invitation to brew his beer as a Pro-Am entry at Yorkshire Square Brewery.

Congratulations to Runner-up Best of Show winner Mike Neice of Brewluminati for his American Pale Ale, Tri-Centennial. Mike will get an invitation to brew his beer at Los Angeles Ale Works.

Congratulations to 2nd runner-up Best of Show winner Bart Schaefer for his Vienna Lager Cerveza Vienna.

Congratulations to all the winners. Complete results have been posted at http://comp.pacificgravity.com/

The awards ceremony will take place Thursday, October 19th at the Culver City Home brewing Supply Company, starting at 7:30 pm. Thanks to all who pitched in to make this an awesome competition. And thanks to all our sponsors too!

Pacific Brewers Cup Activities 2017

Pacific Brewers Cup is almost here and I could use a hand from you folks to make sure it all runs smoothly.  The entry deadline has passed and we are ready for bottle organizing day.

Sunday September 17th, 11AM Bottle Organizing day at Los Angeles Ale Works
Many volunteers needed!  We need to borrow just about every ice chest this club can come up with.   Make sure they are well labeled.   If you have a cooler to lend, but can’t make it down to LAAW, drop me a line or swing by my place to this afternoon (Saturday Sept 16th).   We need about a dozen folks to come by LAAW to help sift through the 430 entries (860 bottles) and arrange them by category, and put them into the coolers until judging.  LA Ale Works is at 12918 Cerise Ave., Hawthorne, CA 90250.

Also NOW!  Volunteer to Judge or Steward!  We are looking to have 60 judges and 30 stewards and as of the moment we are only half-way there.  Signing up now will let us know how many preliminary judging sessions we need to run.  Links for sign-up are here:
http://comp.pacificgravity.com/index.php?section=register&go=judge
http://comp.pacificgravity.com/index.php?section=register&go=steward

Sept 18th – Sept 29th
Preliminary Judging Sessions.
  Time is TBD with the location being LAAW, so check back for updates.  I’ll have updates on this in a couple of days.

Friday, September 29th, 5:00 PM, Beer moving Day.  Meet at LA Ale Works
We need a handful of guys with strong backs and couple of folks with trucks to help move the beer from Los Angeles Ale Works over to St. Bede’s Episcopal Church.  St. Bede’s is at 3590 Grand View Blvd, Los Angeles 90066.

Saturday, September 30th, 9:00 AM
Judging Day at St. Bede’s Episcopal Church
  We need everybody out to help out on this one.   I want to see at least 60 judges and 30 stewards.  We will be doing both a morning and afternoon session, with a lunch break hosted by Master Chef Ian Fraser in-between.  Afterwards, we need help at the end of the day to make sure we pick it all up and leave the Church clean.  Many of the coolers will be empty by then.  If so, please take yours home.

October 1st – October 14th
Post-judging sessions and Best of Show Judging.
    Time and locations TBD, so check back for updates.  If we are short of judges and we have a lot of entries, there could be a number of these.

Sunday, October 1st
Cooler pick-up day.
  Come pick up your cooler, which will most likely have a present of several bottles of competition quality beer!

Awards Ceremony
Date TBD.