Pacific Gravity

I hope everyone is excited about our club meeting this Thursday, May 16th which features probably the most popular beer style – India Pale Ales.  The turnout for this meeting is usually the largest of the year and that includes the number of samples of members’ homebrew as well.  I know I will be bringing two beers to the meeting myself. If you do bring an IPA to the meeting, be sure to enter in the beer of the meeting competition for a chance to win a $25 gift certificate for Culver City Home Brewing Supply.  Besides sampling your fellow members homebrew, we will have a special guest: Bill Jablon, the owner of Lucky Hand Brewing out of Novato, CA.  His bottles are available at beverage Warehouse and area Whole Foods. Learn more about his craft at luckyhandbeer.com

Our commercial calibration features a wide variety of IPAs curated by Anthony Samaniego, from a standard American and English IPA to the newer black IPA and Imperials.  See how your homebrew stacks up to samples from the pros.  And finally, come to learn about the great upcoming events for the club, such as our Second Saturday at Tomm Carrol’s or the Summer Party on July 20th.  Looking forward to seeing everyone at Culver City Home Brewing Supply on Thursday at 7:30 PM!

Hi everyone, it’s already the third Thursday tomorrow which means out April meeting is upon us.  We are entering the sweet spot of our club calendar, and if you want to attend some of the best events of the year I encourage you to attend.  This is your last chance to signup and pay for our road trip to several San Diego breweries this Sunday.  You can roll the dice and show up and pay at the bus, but this is a pretty epic bus trip so I would suggest securing your spot.  This is also your last opportunity to signup for camping and/or food for the Southern California Homebrewing Festival at Lake Casitas.  This event was written about in Radical Brewing as one of the “can’t miss” home brewing events in the world, and with Chefs Ian and Travis running the kitchen I personally guarantee the best food in the entire fest.

Not enough to sway you away away from Glee?  Well this is one of my favorite meetings for beer tastings – extract beers.  Are you a new brewer who wants feedback on your early work?  Bring them to this meeting and enter them in our club only competition – all styles are eligible as long as the majority of the malt used is from liquid or dried malt extract.  Plus anyone who brings extract based beer will be eligible for our beer of the meeting award, which is a $25 gift certificate to Culver City Home Brewing Supply.  Personally I’ll be bringing a keg of English Best Bitter made from the malt extract I won at the raffle at the last meeting. And even if you are an all grain brewer, bring your recent work to the meeting.  Nothing improves your skills like comparing notes with and receiving feedback form our experienced membership.  Our commercial tasting will be English and Scottish ales, so expect more than a few old favorites to be pouring after our announcements.

Finally, we’ll have a selection of t-shirts and other club swag available for purchase at the meeting, so if you want to represent on the road trip, Ojai, or just on Fridays at the Daily Pint make sure you bring your checkbook.  See you tomorrow night!

Our club meeting is coming up next Thursday. The style is Stouts, for St Patrick’s Day of course!  But don’t let that stop you from bringing your other styles of homebrew to the meeting (I’ll be bringing a Belgian pale ale myself).  Noelle will be hosting the commercial tasting, and we will have our meeting competition for home brew that is to style (BJCP Style 13) with a $25 prize.  This is the meeting where we start collecting our club dues for the year, so be sure to bring cash or your checkbook.  The cost is $30.  And finally we will be announcing our volunteer award program to honor those club members who do the most to make this the best homebrewing club.
Upcoming:
4/5 – First Friday at the Overland
4/20 – San Diego Road Trip
5/4 – Southern California Homebrew Festival

Hi everyone, tomorrow’s club meeting will be featuring the highly regarded Barleywine style of Ale.  Because this is such a high gravity beer, Mimi Bardet has kindly arranged to have a more substantial food offering on hand at this meeting – Pizza by the slice will be available for $2.  So please bring a bit more cash than usual and make sure you eat something before or during the meeting.  We start promptly at 7:30, and end at 10:30 sharp.  Some meeting highlights:

- The Club Only Competition style is Barleywine, bring 3 12 oz bottles of your brew if you want to enter – Details here

- This is your only opportunity to signup and pay for the Monster Brew on March 9th ($30) at a club meeting.  Payment must be in advance and the deadline is February 28th!

- Signups and payment ($45) for the April 20th road trip to San Diego.  We will open this up to other clubs after this meeting, so secure your spot.

- Commercial tasting conducted by yours truly and Kurt featuring classic examples of the Barleywine style.

- Homebrew of the Meeting competition with a $25 gift certificate as a prize.  The style for the meeting has been extended to include Barleywines, Old Ales, and Strong Lagers.  Feel free to bring them in bottles, I doubt you have many kegs of this style sitting around!

- I will be bringing a couple of different vertical flights of Barleywine from my personal collection.  If you have a bottle or two that you’d like to share, please bring them.

- We will be making some announcements about membership renewals (starting in March) and a new volunteer incentive system.

Hi Pacific Gravity, due to the club only competition schedule our style tasting this month will be Belgian Ales.  If you been to the Belgian meeting in years past, you know that this is one you don’t want to miss.  Craig Corley will be hosting the commercial tasting, so prepared to be impressed with the selection.  But the showcase of every homebrew meeting is the beer that YOU bring.  Any Belgian ale is welcome at the event of course, from the modest Belgian Pale Ale to the monstrous Quadruple.  I’ll be bringing the Spiced Cherry Dubble featured at the Holiday party, so if you didn’t get a chance to try it there you can get another look at it.  If you are not kegging yet, or don’t have any Belgians in kegs, bring a few bottles to the meeting. Its a great way to get to know other brewers in the club.  And even if you don’t have a Belgian beer, bring what you have, from Mild to Impy Stout your fellow club members will appreciate it.

Just a quick reminder that we will be holding elections for three board positions this Thursday.  The current nominees are David Mauceli, President, Noelle Cross, Vice President, and Tim Bardet, Treasurer.  We’ll hold nomination open for a couple more days just in case anyone wants to run.

Also, we are holding a vote for the Club Member of the Year on Thursday.  This award recognizes and  honors significant contributions & involvement by club members.  The current nominations are listed below.  Nominations will be closed on Tuesday night.

Dan Hakes
David Mauceli
Craig Corley
Carl Townsend
Norm Zettlaw

Join us for the monthly third Thursday club meeting at the Culver City Home Brewing Supply Company.  The festivities officially start at 7:30 PM.

Strong ales of any type are the style of the month, and we will be holding a Club-Only taste-off for Old Ale, BJCP style # 19C.  Bring three 12 oz bottle if you want to enter.  Kegs are still needed to keep the evening well lubricated.

Topping the agenda for the evening are nominations for the 2013 elected officers.  As of this writing, nominations include David Mauceli for President and Noelle Cross for Vice President.  We are actively looking for a nominee for Treasurer.   Additional nominees for all three positions are still open.  If you are interested in joining the board as either an elected or appointed officer in 2013, please contact any of the current officers.  We will be holding elections at the November meeting and will be finalizing the appointed offices in January.  Also this month, we will be holding nominations for Club Member of the Year.  This selection recognizes / honors significant contributions and involvement by club members.   The winner will be announced at the Holiday party.   All currently paid members eligible for nomination, except last year’s winner and perennial party host, Neil Saund.

Also available at the meeting will be the sign-up sheet for Big Brew/Jockey Box/Chili-cookoff day at Carl Townsend’s place this Saturday, Oct 20th.  Tubing is still available for jockey box builders, as is space for brewers and room for more chilis. The Wave of Beer will be making an appearance, so bring your kegs.

And don’t forget the usual festivities of the commercial tasting, raffle, and the jovial camaraderie of Pacific Gravity club members.

Hope to see you there
Carl Townsend
Competition Coordinator

This Thursday, August 16th, is our monthly club meeting.  Our style of the month is Porters, Brown, Robust, and sweet Baltic.  Bring a keg of Porter to the meeting to be entered in our Homebrew of the Month competition and be eligible for a $25 gift certificate to Culver City Homebrew Supply.  Or if you just want to quench the thirst of your fellow brewers and get some valuable feedback on your technique and recipe, bring whatever you have and everyone will appreciate it.

I’m still looking for volunteers to host the Commercial Tasting this meeting so email me at president@pacificgravity.com if you are interested.  Also, make sure you bring some cash for raffle tickets, our new club glasses, Club of the Year shirts, and other paraphernalia.

Come celebrate the Summer Solstice at our June Club Meeting this Thursday, June 21st, at Culver City Home Brewing Supply.  We get things started at 7:30pm out back of the store, so bring your best homebrew or even a commercial beer and get to know some of your fellow club members!

Commercial Styles of the Month: Brown Ales, of which we’ll have a selection of great commercial beers to wet your palate on a warm summer evening.

Homebrew Kegs of the Month: Brown Ales.  Favorite keg each month wins a $25 gift certificate to CCHBS, so check out the upcoming style of the month on the website and start brewing!  If interested in bringing a keg of your own to an upcoming meeting, sign up with our VP Dave, either at the club meetings or via email at: VicePresident@pacificgravity.com

COC: No Club-Only Competition this month, but on the horizon are Porters this summer, due in mid-July just before the Summer Party.  You can always talk to Carl, our Competitions Coordinator, for more info or email him at: Competitions@pacificgravity.com

Summer Party: Our annual Summer Party is coming up next month on July 21st!  We’ll be going over some of the details at the club meeting this week; look for more information to start rolling out on the website over the next few weeks.  Sign-up sheets for volunteers and kegs for the party will be out at the meeting, so please consider what types of volunteer jobs you would be interested in taking on and what beers, meads, ciders, or non-alchoholic beverages you plan to bring to the party.  As always, PG members in good standing (dues paid and current) get free admission, but if you’re not current with your dues, admission is $35 at the door (there’s your dues!).  In addition, this year, all members’ guests (including spouses) will pay $10 for admission. Read the rest of this entry →

Hi everyone, are you excited about the club meeting next week on June 21st?  You should be because the style of the month is Brown Ales!  What’s a brown ale, you ask?  My friend, what ISN’T a brown ale?  Sure, BJCP category 11 (English Mild, English Brown Ale) is a good place to start.  But there is also 10C American Brown Ales, malty and bitter and freshly hopped.  So if you made a black IPA recently, why not call it an American Brown Ale and bring it to the meeting?  Then there is 17C Flanders Brown Ale.  That’s a Brown Ale, isn’t it?  Do you have an Irish or American Red ale that didn’t quite turn out red?  Did you use too much dark malt in your Amber Ale?  Got a bock that you are dying for feedback on?  You may not be eligible for the beer of the meeting competition, but everyone will appreciate you bringing your beer.  If you let me know what you are bringing at the address below, I’d sure appreciate it!

Are you interested in running the commercial tasting this month?  While it might be difficult to find commercial examples of English Mild in bottles, American breweries are turning out some pretty good brown ales these days.  Send me an email at vicepresident@pacificgravity.com and you can go shopping for beer on the club’s dime.