11th Monster Brew March 9th at Smog City Brewery

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Smog City Brewing Company 1901 Del Amo Blvd, Torrance, CA 90501

Can you believe it?  Pacific Gravity has been doing Monster Brews with Smog City’s  Brewmaster, Jon Porter for 11 years!  With five trips to Tustin Brewing and five hosted at Smog, we will be making our 11th Monster Brew on Saturday, March 9th, 2019.  Everybody has a blast at these events, so please come out and join us!

Date:  Saturday, March 9, 2018
Time: Mash-In: Approx 7:00 am
Fermenter Filling:  Around Noon
Location:  Smog City Brewery 1901 Del Amo Blvd, Torrance, CA 90501

Jon Porter and Carl Townsend are developing a base wort that is sure to allow for maximum creativity.  Consider this your blank slate.  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.  To see the full recipe and for modification ideas, see “How Do I Modify My Monster Brew?”

COST and RESERVATIONS

We need a headcount BEFORE the brew session, so you must must make a reservation if you want wort.  The cost will be $30 for each 5 gallons of wort.  You can order several batches if you like.    If possible, please pay in advance.

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 →

Pacific Gravity Reminders: First Friday, Monster Brew

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This Friday (March 2) is First Friday!

First Friday will be held at our traditional March F.F. site:

Where: Irish Times, 3267 Motor Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90034
Time: 7:30pm

This Saturday (March 3) is Monster Brew Saturday!

Don’t miss out on a chance to see a 15-barrel batch of beer brewed up close, taste some of Jon Porter’s excellent creations, and take home your own 5-gallon batch to modify as you see fit. See 2018 Monster Brew for more details.

Southern California Homebrew Festival

We still have some camping slots available.  See Southern California Homebrew Festival for details.

DUES are DUE.

March is dues month: $36 per individual, $54 for couples.

 

SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL HOMEBREW SUPPLY SHOP!

 

MONSTER BREW, MARCH 3: RESERVE YOUR WORT NOW!

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There are just a couple of days left for Pacific Gravity members to reserve Monster Brew wort.  We will be reaching out to the other homebrewers clubs in the area on Saturday, February 10, 2018.

To reserve a 5-gallon batch or two, send an email to Tim Bardet: [email protected].

For more details, click here.

Smog City Monster Brew March 11th

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Smog City Brewing Company 1901 Del Amo Blvd, Torrance, CA 90501

On March 11th, 2017,  Smog City Brewing Company  and its Brewmaster, PG’s Jon Porter, will be hosting their Fourth Pacific Gravity Monster Brew!

Update:  We have plenty of wort!  If you want to order more batches, they are available!! 

Jon Porter and Carl Townsend have developed the base wort for this event with an English theme.  But, keeping with past monster brews, the recipe can be the base for whatever creative endeavor you might want to do.  Consider this your blank slate.  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 Competitions AT pacificgravity.com for any suggestions and look for Carl’s article  can work on “How to Modify my Monsterbrew”.

COST

The cost will be $30 for each 5 gallons of wort.  Read more →

Is it April yet??!

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Hey everyone,

These past couple weeks have been such a wild ride and on behalf of the board I thank you all for coming along for the journey.  We had a sold-out Monsterbrew with Smog City Brewing Company, Rives, Barbara, Tania and I ran a home brewed soda booth at Phantom Carriage’s first anniversary party, and we collected a TON of entries for our 2nd annual Los Angeles Belgian Brew Challenge; over 30% more than last year!   Also a quick reminder: Our March meeting is this Thursday (St. Patrick’s Day) at Culver City Home Brew Supply and I hope to see you there.

In case you missed it, you can check out the photos that Lloyd and I took during the Monsterbrew with Smog City. They’re posted on our Facebook page and at the bottom of this post.  Porter and Dan were great hosts as usual, fielding our questions and giving us all an inside look at how their brewery operates and what is coming up for them in the future. This year they even broke out the bbq and a slew of burgers and dogs for us to cook – Thanks again for running the burners Ian and Lloyd.

Phantom Carriage’s first anniversary party was a day to remember too. Martin, Simon and crew pulled out all the stops and between the amazing beer selection on tap, the excellent food, and the fun crowd it was one of those “glad to be here” moments for about 6 hours straight. It was awesome to be a part of it all and I’m already looking forward to our invite for the 2nd anniversary party in ’17.   Well deserved special thanks goes out to Terry Molloy for loaning out his jockey box for the event and to Culver City Home Brew Supply for letting me borrow a CO2 regulator at the last minute. Oh and I also want to give a shout-out to my new friend Cosmo the Goat! 🙂

So as I said earlier, our monthly meeting is coming up this Thursday the 17th. I’m trying to put together some St. Patty’s day food for it so if you feel like cooking a dish or if you have a connection for a bunch of Corned Beef and Cabbage DROP ME A LINE!  Also, we need to borrow some coolers and tables for LABBC so if you have an extra please bring it to the meeting. Don’t forget to label them with your last name so we can get everything back to the rightful owner after the event. If you haven’t signed up to Steward or Judge and you’re interested, Thursday is a great time to volunteer. Just talk to Carl, he’ll get you set right up.

Our style of the month is Irish and Stout beers and Jeff B. will be hosting the commercial tasting. If you’ve got a home brewed beer that fits the style, bring it out for the best of the meeting competition. As always, a $25 gift certificate to CCHBS is up for grabs.

Also, don’t forget that we receive a special discount from the shop on club meeting nights so bring out your shopping lists!

Finally, as Treasurer Tim pointed our last week: March is renewal time so please bring cash or a card to pay your dues.

 

Looking forward to seeing you all Thursday night.

 

Thanks,

_Michael

 

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Posted by Pacific Gravity on Monday, March 14, 2016

How Do I Modify My Monster Brew?

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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

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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 steel. Absolutely 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]