Competition Corner – September 2017

OK, folks, we are coming down to short strokes here.  If you haven’t noticed, the bottle delivery window for the Pacific Brewers Cup2017 Pacific Brewers Cup is now open and runs through Friday, September 15th.  As I scan through the database, I see that many of you haven’t entered yet!  Now is the time!  The on-line registration page is up and running at http://comp.pacificgravity.com/.    If you can’t make it to the Culver City shop, the full list of sites you can drop off entries at any of the homebrew shops listed here.  Please check the closing time for the other shops.   Each entry requires 2 bottles, and has an entry fee of $8.00.

Also NOW!  Volunteer to Judge or Steward!  The very same registration page has a sign-up space for both.  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 if we need to run preliminary judging sessions.

Along the way, we have plenty of other tasks where we can use your assistance:
Saturday, September 16th, Noon(ish)Bottle Pick-up day.  Volunteers Needed!  We need someone to cover the Woodland Hills drop-off site.   Then, bring them over the to organizing session on the 17th.

Sunday September 17th, 11AM at Los Angeles Ale Works
Bottle Organizing day.
  Many volunteers needed!  We need to borrow just about every ice chest this club can come up with.   Make sure they are well labeled.   We need about a dozen folks to come by LAAW to help sift through the hundreds of bottles and arrange them by category, and put them into the coolers until judging.

Sept 18th – Sept 29th
Preliminary Judging Sessions.
  Time is TBD with the location being LAAW, 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.

Friday, September 29th, 7:00 PM
Beer moving Day.
  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.

Saturday, September 30th, 9:00 AM at St. Bede’s Episcopal Church
Judging Day!
  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 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.

After all this hullabaloo, we can take a moment to look back at some recent accomplishments.  We scored well in the 2017 Los Angeles County Fair; winners listed below.  Congratulations especially to Carl Townsend, who captured Best of Show with his American Stout.  This is Carl’s second Best of Show at LACF; the first being in 1999. Complete results are available at https://www.maltosefalcons.com/content/los-angeles-county-fair-results.

Best of Show Carl Townsend American Stout 17.6: American-Style Stout
1st Carl Townsend London Smog 4.3: Strong Bitter and Extra Special Bitter (ESB)
1st Carl Townsend American Stout 17.6: American-Style Stout
2nd Carl Townsend American Pale Ale 5.1: American-Style Pale Ale
3rd Carl Townsend Imperial Stout 14.3: Imperial (“Russian”) Stout
2nd Craig Corley 253 Kolsch #14 8.1: Kolsch-Style Ale
1st Parker Waechter …Only Soul In The World That’s Real 20.3: Belgian-Style Strong Dark Ale
1st Parker Waechter L’Estivale 26.2: Smoke Beers, Other
3rd Parker Waechter Senex 26.3: Wood-Aged Beer, Whiskey
1st Reuben Shah Mojo RIS 14.3: Imperial (“Russian”) Stout
2nd Reuben Shah Hefe-Why-Zen 18.2: Bavarian-Style Hefeweizen
3rd Reuben Shah Dos Mucho 9.1: Vienna-Style Lager

 

With the ribbons in LACF, Carl Townsend takes the lead in the Brewer of the Year, but parker Waechter is just 1 point behind.  Things could still take a dramatic turn with just 2 more competitions to go.

2017 Pacific Gravity Brewer of the Year Competition Schedule

Pacific Brewers Cup Activities:
•    September 1st –   Entry drop off begins
•    September 15th – Entry Deadline
•    September 16th – Entry pick-up, deliver to LA Ale Works
•    September 17th – Entry organizing  at LAAW 11:00 AM
•    September 18th – 28th Prelim rounds at LAAW (if needed, hopefully not many)
•    September 27th – Prelim Session at Woodland Hill, part of BJCP class
•    September 29th – Move beers from LAAW to St Bede’s
•    September 30th – Judging Day

October               California State Homebrew

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/.

Competition Corner – July 2017

As we approach the middle part of summer, I hope your Summer Party beer is just about ready for action.  Along the way, don’t forget to hold back a couple of bottles for the Los Angeles County Fair.  Entries are due Friday, July 21st.  Registration is up and running at http://competitions.maltosefalcons.com/.  Two bottles are needed for each entry.  Styles are based on the Maltose Falcons Style Guidelines.  Entry fee is $9.00 and must be paid via PayPal.  Entries can be dropped off at the Culver City Homebrew Supply Co.  They also need judges for the event.  Judging will be on Saturday, August 5, 2017 at 8:30AM at the  94th Areo Squadron, 16320 Raymer St  Van Nuys, CA 91406.  Judges and stewards for the LA County Fair Homebrew Competition receive two free tickets to the fair as well as a free parking pass!

Pacific Brewers CupWhile you are at it, put away a couple more bottles for the 2017 Pacific Brewers Cup. As soon as you know the carbonation is good, keep them chilled.  Our big competition day is September 30th and you’ll want to make sure your beers haven’t been impaired by the hot dog days of summer.  You also have just enough time to start a quick-maturing beer if you brew now.  If you haven’t already done so, check out the website at http://pbc.pacificgravity.com/ (or you can click on the “competitions” tab above.)  The entry rules have been posted, along with the all-important timeline.  You can already sign up to be a judge or steward.  You can register your entries starting August 1st, with the entry deadline of September 15th.  We’re gonna need a ton of help with bottle organizing and transportation, as well as judging and stewarding help in the latter half of September.   The main judging session will be at St. Bede’s Episcopal Church at 3590 Grand View Blvd in Mar Vista.  Depending on the number of entries we get, we may also be doing some prelim sessions at Los Angeles Ale Works.

As we get caught up in the fray of Pacific Brewers Cup,  we will be approaching the deadline for the California State Homebrew Competition.  On-line registration is already working at http://castatebrewcomp.org/.  Entries will be due on October 12th and need to go up to San Francisco.  If you happen to be going that way in early October, we are looking for a driver to drop our entries off.  Drop me a line and the club can reimburse a portion of your gas money.

 

 

Competition Corner – April 2017

Friday April 7th is the last day to enter the 2017 Mayfaire competition. Entries can be dropped off at the Culver City shop. 2 bottles per entry are needed. The Falcons will need help with judges and stewards as well. There will be two main sessions: Friday evening April 21, and Saturday morning, April 22. Both will be at St Martin in the Fields Church 7136 Winnetka Ave, Winnetka CA, 91306. Registration for all of the above can be found at http://competitions.maltosefalcons.com/ . In addition, we will be trying to set up a preliminary round several days earlier at the Culver City shop. Check back here for details.

Congratulations to all the winners of the 3rd annual Belgian Brew Challenge.  Awards will be handed out at the club meeting April 20th at Los Angeles Ale Works.  Top honors within the Club goes to Parker Waechter with his L’Estivale, a Belgian Specialty Ale, which took 4th place in the Best of Show round!  Way to go Parker!     Overall, Pacific Gravity earned the most ribbons.   A complete list of winners can be found at  http://belgianbrewchallenge.com/.   Best of show this year was a Belgian Dubbel, brewed by Joe St. John of Yeastside brewers.  His beer will be brewed at Los Angeles Ale Works.

I would like to thank the dozens of folks who helped make this the smoothest LABBC ever.  Brian did an outstanding job as head organizer, Kip stepped up with the facilities of LAAle Works, Michael collected a bunch of sponsors and arranged the tee shirts.  Dean made sure all the beers were cold, and Tim kept track of all the entries and scores.  Finally, keeping with the Belgian theme, Ian kept us fueled with an awesome batch of Beef Carbonnades.

Speaking of volunteering, we will be running Pacific Brewers Cup this September and will need everyone’s support.  The balance of the official list of competitions for accumulating Brewer of the Year is listed below.  Check back frequently as exact dues dates become known.

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/.

2017 Pacific Gravity Brewer of the Year Competition Schedule

Now:                   Entries due for Mayfaire competition, Culver City shop
April, TBD:          Preliminary judging round at Culver City shop
April 20                Awards Ceremony for Los Angeles Belgian Brew Challenge at LA Ale Works
April 21, 22         Mayfaire Judging, Winnetka up in the Valley
July                       Los Angeles County Fair
September          Pacific Brewers Cup
October               California State Homebrew Competition

Competition update – AHA NHC, Jeff Sanders Memorial

For those of you who have been allocated entry slots for the American Homebrewers Association National Homebrew Competition in the San Diego region, I have successfully negotiated beer transportation to Alesmith Brewery.  You can drop off your entries at the Culver City shop by close of business Tuesday, February 28th.   You can think of this as giving up beer for Lent!

For all other locations, you are on your own to ship entries to the respective sites.  If you miss this deadline, you will need to ship your entries for arrival no later than March 8th.

Also now hitting the radar is the 2nd annual Jeff Sanders Memorial homebrew competition, hosted by Strand Brewers. This small competition celebrates the beers that Jeff loved. Registration and complete details are now available at http://www.jeffsandersmemorial.com/ . This is a limited styles competition, so check the rules carefully. Entries are due by April 1st, and can be left at the Culver City or Southbay brew shops.

 

March 17th:      Drop-off deadline for Los Angeles Belgian Brew Challenge
March 26th:      Judging for Los Angeles Belgian Brew Challenge
April 7th            Mayfaire entries due
April 22nd        Mayfaire Judging
July                     Los Angeles County Fair
September        Pacific Brewers Cup
October              California State Homebrew Competition

 

Competition Corner – February 2017

Ahh, I love the cool winter months where I actually have to keep by beer WARM to ferment well.  My mash tun does double duty this time of year, keeping the fermenter warm with the help of a small submersible aquarium heater.

We have a bunch of competition dates coming up sooner than I had thought, so take note.

TODAY is the last day to apply for entry slots to the AHA Nationals.  You must be an AHA member, in which case you should have gotten a personal notice (well, actually an automated message) with the application details.   Your entry authorization and payment must be done by February 15th.  Physical entries will need to be shipped off by the last week of February.  Like last year, we will be asking for a volunteer to drive them down to San Diego.  Drop me a line at Competitions AT pacificGravity.com if you can make the trip.  We’ll reimburse you gas money.

Next up, surprisingly enough is the California State Fair.  On-line registration is open now and runs only until February 11th.   Physical entries can be dropped off from February 13th through the 19th  at the Eagle Rock Homebrewing Supply Co or South Bay Brew Supply.  Do NOT leave entries at the Culver City shop.

Judging for America’s Finest City (AFC) Homebrew Competition has been completed.  Check back soon for results at  https://quaff.org/AFC-2017/ .

Next up on the radar is the 3rd annual Belgian Brew Challenge.  Entries will be due on March 17th, with judging on March 26th.   Look for more details from Brian on this competition for volunteering, stewarding and judging opportunities  at http://belgianbrewchallenge.com/.   Best of show this year will be brewed at Los Angeles Ale Works.    Speaking of volunteering, we will be running Pacific Brewers Cup this September and will need everyone’s support.  The balance of the official list of competitions for accumulating Brewer of the Year is listed below.  Check back frequently as exact dues dates become known.

For those of you who can help out with other competitions, the Romancing the Beer Competition needs judges Monday Feb 6th and Saturday Feb 11th.

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/.

2017 Pacific Gravity Brewer of the Year Competition Schedule

February 5th:     AHA Nationals Pre-registration

February 11th     California State Fair on-line registration deadline

February 15th:     AHA Nationals registration and payment

February 19th     California State Fair Entry Drop off

Late February:   AHA Nationals entries due

March 17th:       Drop-off deadline for Los Angeles Belgian Brew Challenge

March 26th:         Judging for Los Angeles Belgian Brew Challenge

April                     Mayfaire

July                       Los Angeles County Fair

September          Pacific Brewers Cup

October               California State Homebrew Competition

AFC Entry Deadline January 25th

Homebrew entries for America’s Finest City (AFC) Homebrew Competition are due at Alesmith Brewery by Wednesday, January 25th.   We do not have a driver this year, so you will need to ship your entries.   Do NOT leave them at the Culver City shop.  Registration can be found at https://quaff.org/AFC-2017/ .

Shipping Address:
9990 AleSmith Court
San Diego, CA 92126

 

3rd Annual Los Angeles Belgian Brew Challenge

Calling all members and home brewers! Our 3rd Annual Los Angeles Belgian Brew Challenge is coming up fast and I’m excited to announce the details here today!

LA Ale Works has signed on to host judging at their location in Hawthorne and they’ll brew a Pro-Am version of the Best of Show winner. We’re beyond stoked to have them on-board; as you may already know there are three PG alumni in the ranks at LAAW and working with them during their first few months after launch is a HUGE honor.

Think about it this way: That Belgian inspired beer you’ve got bubbling away in the fermenter? Or those bottles you squirreled away? Could go Pro-Am with the LAAW! 😀    How cool is that?!

We’ll begin accepting registrations and online submissions on February 1st and drop off starting March 1st through March 17th so you’ve got some time to get over to Culver City Home Brewing Supply to grab ingredients and brew your entries.

Judging will occur on Sunday March 26th at 9am. We’ll need plenty of volunteer stewards and judges so please make sure you opt-in appropriately if interested, while registering.

For more details navigate to http://belgianbrewchallenge.com  and if you have any questions please email [email protected].

26mar9:00 am3rd Annual Los Angeles Belgian Brew Challenge9:00 am LA Aleworks

Competition Corner – January 2017

2016 WinnerWell, a new year is upon us as well as a fresh brewing competition season.  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.  Each year, Pacific Gravity honors the brewer (or team) with the most homebrew competition wins from the list shown below.

Coming up quickly are the America’s Finest City (AFC) Homebrew Competition, hosted by QUAFF, and the AHA Nationals Competition.  Registration for AFC is already open at https://quaff.org/AFC-2017/ .  Entries are due at Alesmith Brewery by Wednesday, January 25th.  Like last year, we will be asking for a volunteer to drive them down to San Diego.  Drop me a line at Competitions AT PacificGravity.com if you can make the trip.  We’ll reimburse you gas money. For AHA, you must be an AHA member and need to sign up for your entry slots, between the dates of January 30 – February 5, 2017.  Your entry authorization and payment must be done by February 15th.  Physical entries will need to be shipped off by the last week of February.  Again, we’ll need a driver. Read more

Show off your Homebrew!! Craft (Beer) Night @ Craft & Folk Art Museum and a new LB HB Fest Comp.

template_logo_01Hi PG members,

Here’s a chance to show off your homebrew to the public!! Thursday Nov. 3rd, the Craft and Folk Art Museum is doing a Craft Beer Night. Sorry its kind of last minute, my fault for not getting this out there sooner.

Pacific Gravity member, Lindsey Vaniman now works for the museum and thought this would be a fun thing to do with some of the members. So the Museum is calling out to all craft homebrewers to join them for the night and share your creations.

If you have any beers ready and would like to sign up, just email the Museum organizer at: [email protected]
Here’s the link to the events page for the month with the Craft Night listed on it: http://cafam.org/programs

Also let me know, Lindsey and I would be interested to hear if any PG members sign up! [email protected]

If you have never done something like this in the past, I assure you it will be a blast. I did one for an art event in the past and it was an awesome way to show off some beer, talk beer, and introduce people to new beer styles and watch what they end up liking the most. Plus everyone loves the person pouring their drinks!

 


 

14681891_10157636743760203_5720631095947930937_nAlso, there is another event going on in Long Beach in early December on the 10th (2-5pm) as a Homebrew Comp and pouring festival. I imagine kind of like the Stone Homebrew comp coming up in November.

Here is the link to the sign up sheet and more info on dates of submission and festival. Along with a bunch of other questions.  http://tinyurl.com/h2sguuw
You can email any additional questions to: [email protected] or [email protected]

 

 

California State Competition Entries due Thursday 9/22

state-comp-smHey Folks, just a quick reminder that entries for the California State Homebrew Competition are due by the close of business (6:00PM) this Thursday, September 22 at the Culver City shop.  Michael and Tania have graciously volunteered to drive them up to the Bay areas.   This is one of the three competition used by Anchor Brewing to select the California Homebrewer Club of the Year, so make sure you hold a few entries aside to take our club to glory!  Register online at http://castate.brewcompetition.com/ .  If you miss the local drop-off deadline, you can ship your entries up to More Beer in Concord, CA by October 1st.

And don’t forget that Saturday, September 24th is judging day for Pacific Brewers Cup.  Judging will be held at Brouwerij West, at 8AM 110 E. 22nd St., Warehouse No. 9, San Pedro, CA 90731.  Because this is a working taproom, we are only having a morning session of judging. We are asking all judges to arrive by 8:00 am, so we can start on time. There will be coffee and food before the judging, and lunch after. All judges and stewards will receive a t-shirt.