Coachella Valley Homebrewers

New Website

2010-12-02T08:46:00.000-08:00

AHA Rally at The Bruery

2008-10-22T06:46:00.000-07:00

Our Host for the Day:

The Bruery
SPACE IS LIMITEDRSVP* today to put your name on the list.RSVP NOW ******************Special thanks to The Bruery for hosting us at this fantastic venue! *Don't forget to tip your servers! http://www.thebruery.com/
Savor the FlavorResponsibly® Click here for more information!

EMAIL YOUR FRIENDS!
HELP us grow the AHA. Share this email with your friends and invite them to the RALLY!
Check out the American Homebrewers Association's web site for more information on AHA membership benefits.

American Homebrewers AssociationA Division of the Brewers Associationhttp://www.beertown.org/
Dear Homebrewers and Beer Enthusiasts, The American Homebrewers Association (AHA) wants you to join us for a fantastic fun-filled event with prizes and an opportunity to meet and mingle with other beer enthusiasts at The Bruery- Saturday November 15, 2008.
Bring a friend to the event. The cost is $33 for new and renewing members. Entrance is free for current AHA members.
Entrance to the event includes these opportunities:• $33 One-Year Membership to the AHA (reg. $38)• Meet Patrick Rue- Brewer and Owner, Rachel Rue- Owner and Tyler King- Brewer• VIP Brewery Tour• Appetizers for everyone• Eight house beers on tap• Chance to win great door prizes from the AHA and The Bruery
RSVP TODAY! Click here to let us know you are coming!
What's the AHA you say? The AHA is the national organization for homebrewers and beer enthusiasts! We're about promoting the community of homebrewers and empowering them to make the best beer in the world. We are deeply passionate about all aspects of homebrewing and beer culture: technical, artistic, sensory and social.
With your AHA Membership you also receive a Zymurgy magazine every other month, discounts at pubs across the U.S. and much much more!
EVENT DETAILS
WHEN:
Saturday- November 15, 2008 Time: 1- 5pm
WHERE:
The Bruery 715 Dunn WayPlacentia, CA 92870 (714) 996-MALThttp://www.thebruery.com/
BEERS:
Click here to read more about The Bruery family of beers.
WHY:
Learn more about the AHA and how you can become a part of the homebrewing community! For the cost of entry you receive an AHA membership and a chance to win cool door prizes.
ENTRY:
EVERYONE BECOMES A MEMBER! Join or renew in advance or at the event. A discounted AHA one-year membership rate of $33 will be offered at the door. Once you're a member - entrance is FREE!
Already an AHA Member?– Entrance is FREE, but don't miss this great membership rate of $33. Renew at the event!
Join with a FAMILY MEMBERSHIP rate of $43! You'll receive one Zymurgy magazine per household and all registered family members (limit 4) become card-carrying AHA Members with full benefits!
Designated Drivers: We welcome designated drivers to the event. Entry is free, but does not include an AHA membership.

Final Gravity Strong Beer Competition

2008-09-28T06:39:00.000-07:00

This is a notice for the 1st Final Gravity Strong Beer Competition (SBC) to be held on Saturday, October 25th, 2008 in Atlanta GA. Please share with your club members. The SBC is an AHA / BJCP sanctioned competition in which all entries must be in one of 23 BJCP categories that cross the line of 8% ABV. Thus, the name Strong Beer Competition! See the website below for specific styles.

Awards will be given to the top three beers for each flight and Best of Show, and prizes will be given to the top entry in each. Entries will be accepted between September 29th and October 11th.

Please go to www.FinalGravityBrewing.com/strong for more details and to complete the entry forms. We look forward to receiving your strong beer entries!

Bud Huddleston
2008 SBC Competition Organizer Assistant
huddlbud@yahoo.com

2008-09-22T09:22:00.000-07:00

Fall's coming we gotta get ready!

2008-09-05T15:45:00.001-07:00

Hello All,

Your V.P. here.

First of all, my apologies for not keeping up with this blog. We have had so many things going on, but no camera for posterity.

Spring came and went. Summer came and it is now near the end.
But now with Fall coming soon, I felt an overwhelming urge to write and to brew.

These last two weeks, even in a 110 F weather I brewed two pale ales and an amber ale.
As of today, with my weekend cleared up, I plan to brew a simple IPA.

Come over Saturday afternoon to the Bermuda Dunes Country Club and ask for Albert Fernandez at the gate.

Everyone and anyone is welcome to come and observe or help.
Just let me know through our club e-mail:

cvhomebrewers@yahoo.com

Here is my system and a typical brew day for me.

Enjoy the pictorial. If you have any questions or want more specific details or pictures e-mail me:

gfernandez4875@yahoo.com

Here is my three-tier gravity-fed propane gas system.

The Coachella Valley Brewing Company

In the desert, we don't have to heat our mash water.
The temperature right out of the tap measured 140 F.

I did heat the sparge water a little.

Here you see a copper sparge arm showering the mash as I drain the sweet wort from the mash tun into the boil kettle.

The boil kettle has a homemade bazooka screen to filter the wort after the boil.

During the last 15 minutes of the boil, I placed my homemade immersion wort chiller into the boil kettle to sanitize it and then to cool down the wort.

Construction of the chiller is described in my previous blog.

Finally, I drain the wort into "Corney" kegs and place them into my temperature controlled fridge.

I don't use carboys, because I have broken so many. Metal from now on.

Oh, and I stopped aerating the wort as well. A tiny drop of olive oil does the trick.

Look it up, it works!

February's Meeting I yr. Anniversary at Babe's

2008-02-15T23:20:00.001-08:00

Greetings from your V.P. Albert,

Well kudos to all who attended our first anniversary as a Homebrew Club. We've only just begun. Here's the sorry lot of us minus myself since I'm snapping the shots. We met at Babe's at the The River in Rancho Mirage. See we're not that scary.

The Culprit: Drunkin' Monk, a Belgian Trippel

.......a little over 7%ABV......typical session beer. Not!

Micah had a trippel. Well, someone has to set the example.

We all followed suit.
Damn that peer pressure!

Damn that beer pressure!

Tom asked me to take a picture of his good side.

Damn those juicy ribs!

See it wasn't just a sausage fest. Just kidding. Our newest member Chris Anderson's family were also here to celebrate our 1 year anniversary. She's the one who ate the entire rack of Bar-B-Que ribs. It was like watching piranha.

My First Southern California Homebrew Festival

2008-02-14T23:01:00.001-08:00

Hello All From
Albert
Since we're all preparing for the 2008 SCHF, I thought I'd share my pictorial documentary of my first experiences at the 2004 and 2006 festivals. I missed 2005's event.

The Inland Empire Brewers have always been a great bunch.

They let me crash with them.

What is this? No Country for Old Men?

Former Secretary
Nick French

Former President
Terry Boyles

...and that other guy...sorry other guy.

No it wasn't just a sausage fest, see there were some babes.

Beer Wenches!

HEY! What's going on over there?

Hey, baby! How 'bout a shot?

SURE!

Well that's what I sorta remember.
I can't wait for this years festival.

For more information about the fest:

http://www.calhomebrewers.org/

Our President, Micah made a slide show of last years festival and the CV Homebrewers' Debut.
Check it out: http://www.flickr.com/photos/8177830@N03/show/

Even the most pissy of old men happened to muster a smile. That tells you it was good.

Immersion Wort Chiller Construction

2008-01-24T22:10:00.001-08:00

A few of you out there were curious about how to make a heavy duty immersion wort chiller. I think you might enjoy this pictorial of my wort chiller construction adventure.

We began with 50' of 1/2" copper tubing. We coiled the tubing around a Cornelius Keg. This keeps a uniformed coil from top to bottom and the Corneluis Keg is the exact diameter to my boil
kettle's opening.

I make this look easy.

Then we soldered 90 degree copper elbows to both ends of the copper tubing.

We also soldered a piece of 1/2" rigid copper pipe to one end of the coil, to an elbow, and up through the inside of the coil. This gives the wort chiller a bit of a back bone, it makes the wort chiller sturdy. Some sections of the coil were soldered to the "copper spine".

We measured the rigid pipe to reach over the rim of my boil kettle.

Cousin Lalo (Pronounced Lah-Loh) was kind enough to solder a couple more pieces of rigid pipe to the other end of the wort chiller's coil. It shoots across the diameter of the coil to another 90 degree elbow and up and over the kettle's rim.
Unkowningly, we also created the chiller's carrying handle. I know you can say it, ingenious!

From there, we added 2 more 90 degree elbows creating the inlet and outlet water supply lines.

Finally, we soldered a few more pieces of rigid pipe to the ends and soldered female threaded fittings.

We also threaded to the ends of the female fittings a couple of quick-disconnects and hoses.

Final product in its natural environment.....
a converted Sanke Keg.

Voila!

Final Note: This is how we measured the rigid pipe. Just an eye measurement to fit over the rim of the boil kettle.

December's Homebrew Club Meeting

2007-12-27T15:01:00.000-08:00

Hello All,

This is your VP Albert once again and now at the end of December, have decided to send out a courtesy message to everyone. Just wanted to remind everyone that there wasn't a home brew meeting this month. I'm sure you can understand. With all the holidays and New Year's coming up and all the tree decorating, present wrapping, and oh.......... It's the end of the month......damn it! Gotta get rid of the dead tree in my living room and throw out all that torn wrapping paper, boxes, etc.

Anyhow, just wanted to wish everyone a Happy New Year! Enjoy your home brew and don't forget to share.

We all have our President, Micah, in our thoughts and wish him and his family well.

You're in our prayers Micah.

So far we will be meeting the third Friday in January at 7:30pm. Be on the look out for the new post for location.

And on a final note...........well that was it.

See ya next month/year!

T-Shirts are Here!

2007-11-21T09:21:00.000-08:00

November' Meeting for 11-23-2007

2007-11-15T12:33:00.000-08:00

Hello Everyone,

Your VP here, Albert. Just wanted to give quick heads-up on November's meeting. This month's meeting shall be held on NOVEMBER 23, 2007 at my place 79990 Bermuda Dunes Dr. Bermuda Dunes CA 92203.
The front gate entrance is located at the intersection of 42nd Ave. and Adams St. I can be reached at (760) 835-2470. Mikah our President can be reached at (760) 449-0827

Bring your homebrew, don't worry we'll drink it. Bring a dish, too. Let's make it a potluck! I know I'll have plenty of left-overs.

APOLOGIES:
I apologize for having the meeting the day after Thanksgiving, but I figure: It's the day after Thanksgiving! What are you doing Friday night? Still shopping? At the movies? Sitting at home watching tv eating left over turkey? The day's done, the week's done, Come on over.

Let the guard at the front gate know you're here for the Coachella Valley Homebrew Club meeting; and say it with authority. We want everyone to know who we are. Let's spread the word, "WE'RE HERE FOR BEER!"

CLUB BUSINESS:
Our President Mikah has informed me that Club T-shirt's are on the way. They're limited editions, one of a kind, and stylish (could be worn at just about any event), and at a mere $15.00. What a bargain!

2 LARGE 10 X-LARGE, 1 XX-LARGE

BRIBES:
Now, on a more serious note. We've held-off this month's meeting for various reasons. Mostly.... I must confess......well .....we were out of homebrew! But wait now. In the mean time, I've wipped up a batch of a Beer, Beer, And More Beer Pale Ale kit. But with a cultured yeast strain from an ABT 12 bottle purchased at
Vino 100 in Cathedral City. And it's cask conditioning in a 2.5g "Corney" just for you to try at this month's meeting.

All we ask in return is a bottle of your finest homebrew. And if that can't be done, then how about a bottle of your next finest.

THE FUTURE:
A possible change in the future club meetings. Usually, we hold meetings on the second Friday of the month. But Mikah and I propose a move to every third Friday of the month.

December's meeting would be on the 21st at Mikah's house and on January 18th, 2008 we're penciled in for Vino 100. In February my place is open again. If you've got any ideas on times and places that we could also meet, please give us some feed back.

Thanks,
I'll see you at the meeting.

October Meeting / Brew Day

2007-10-01T16:10:00.000-07:00

Our next get together will be Sat Oct 13th at Micah's House at 4pm(map attached). We will be brewing a batch of beer and everyone is encouraged to bring their own gear if they like and we can have several batches going at the same time.. I was thinking about a Belgian strong ale with date sugar and we could bottle half and keg half and set the keg aside for the cal homebrew festival and hold onto the bottles for club meetings and events.
We will also be eating so if you could bring a dish or some snacks that would be great. I will be smoking a pork shoulder so there will be plenty of pork for some BBQ pork sandwiches..
Any questions or suggestions! Call me.. Micah 760-449-0827

Club Logo

2007-09-04T13:45:00.000-07:00

Here is a new sketch of a t-shirt logo...

Brewmaster Tapping at Babes

2007-08-23T03:36:00.000-07:00

T-Shirt Ideas

2007-08-07T11:38:00.000-07:00

Over the course of the next 2 weeks I will posting some ideas for T-Shirt designs. Please feel free to comment on your favorite design or give ideas. Better yet, submit your own. We will use the most popular design for the T-Shirts..

This logo could be a small logo on the front breast area.

Ideas For the Back. We can use any saying for any design.

Skyscraper Brewing Co Open House

2007-08-07T11:33:00.000-07:00

Free Food and Drink!

Backstreet Brewery Pics

2007-08-07T10:26:00.001-07:00

Here is a slideshow of some pictures from the Backstreet Brewery event on July 14.

http://www.pbase.com/stryder/backstreet&view=slideshow

Club Competition

2007-05-07T21:54:00.000-07:00

The Club Competion is getting close so dont forget to get your beer brewed for the 1st ever Coachella Valley Homebrew Club Competition. The beer will be Judged during the July Meeting so you have 1 month to order your kit and brew it up. The rules are simple and the competition is very informal.

1. Everyone brews the exact same kit. No putting your own special twist. The only twist allowed is your brewing system. The only beer allowed is the American Ale kit from more beer. You can brew the extract version KIT135 or the all grain version KIT435. Only use white labs cal ale yeast WLP001. This is a generic pale ale kit that should provide some fantastic results. Order your kit now so you don't fall behind and remember orders over $60 ship FREE. It's worth it to spend the money.

2. The competitors are the Judges. Only people who enter the competition will be allowed to Judge the beers. Judging will take place during the July Meeting.

3. Beer has to be brewed before June 15th to allow for brewing, fermentation and proper aging.

4. The number of bottles you have to submit for Judging will depend on the # of people who enter. The more people that enter the more beer you will have to give up for Judging. You can still keg your beer but you will need to bottle a couple of samples for the competion.

5. The winner will receive some cool prizes yet to be determined. More than likely it will be beer related.

6. Questions?? Feel free to ask. Email or respond to this post.

SCHF '07

2007-05-07T21:20:00.000-07:00

The Southern California Homebrew Festival is over and a great time was had by all. In all there were 24 homebrew clubs pouring beers this year with anywhere between 4(us) and 40(maltose falcons) beers on tap at a time at each bar. Lew Bryson and Mitch Steele gave informative presentations about IPA's and Bug Beers. Music was provided by blues guitarist Eric Sardinas and The Maltose Falcons Brews Bands. Next year should be even better as we now know how to better prepare ourselves for this yearly event. Enjoy the pics from the event.

SCHF '07 Picture Slide Show

CVHBC on The Brewing Network

2007-03-23T08:29:00.000-07:00

Big thanks to Justin at The Brewing Network for giving the club a mention on his weekly Homebrewing Radio Show. The show airs every Sunday night at 5PM pacific time. Log onto www.thebrewingnetwork.com to join in on the fun. This show was specifically about starting and running a homebrew club and it is worth listening to. You can find show archives on the TBN page or on itunes. Click the link below for a short clip where he mentions the club. The funny part is that they think Hisperia is close!!!
http://s5.photobucket.com/albums/y181/mykafone/?action=view&current=CoachellaValleyHomebrewClub.flv

April Meeting Finalized

2007-03-17T22:00:00.000-07:00

I have confirmed a meeting place for the April Meeting. We will once again be meeting at Vino 100 in Cathedral City. Jim was nice enough to have us back and this meeting is sure to be the best so far. We will be having a BAD BEER TASTING! and this is something you will surely not want to miss. We will have a flight of beers in front of us each with a common off flavor that you will find in homebrews. Become a better taster and a better homebrewer with this knowledge. This will be the last meeting before the Southern California Homebrew Festival so plans will be finalized here. So come out and enjoy the company of other homebrewers !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
BREW ON!!!!

Guidelines for Doctoring Beers

2007-03-12T21:39:00.000-07:00

For the next meeting we are going to have a bad beer tasting. Here is a list of products to simulate off flavors found in homebrew. Leave a comment if you have any of the ingredients needed to make a batch of bad beer.

I have almost everything we need to make each bad beer. I am on the lookout for Banana Extract, Dry Sherry, Vodka and Iso Hop Extract.. Please leave a comment if you can provide any of these flavorings.

New Calendar

2007-03-12T16:38:00.000-07:00

There is a new Google calendar on the right side of the page. This calendar will be updated with all types of brewing events related to the Coachella Valley. If you would like to add to the calendar please submit your event to cvhomebrewers@yahoo.com.

March Club Meeting

2007-02-21T21:41:00.000-08:00

Fellow Brewers,

As March nears it's time to finalize next month's meeting. This meeting will be held at a fellow brewers(Albert) home in Bermuda Dunes on March 9th at 7:30PM. He lives in the Bermuda Dunes Country in Bermuda Dunes. This is located at Adams and 42nd. 42nd is also known as Hovley in Palm Desert. There is a gate at the country club so just mention "Coachella Valley Homebrew Club" You may have to give a name but they will have you in their system.. If a new member is going to attend please give me their name in advance.. Once you enter the club take your first left on Bermuda Dunes Drive and travel to the end of the street.. It is the last house on the left.. The address is 79990 Bermuda Dunes Drive. Feel free to call me on my cell if you have trouble.. Micah - 760-449-0827

At this months meeting we have several things lined up to do and talk about.
1. Beer
2. Beer
3. and more Beer
4. Albert will be brewing a beer on his 3-tier system
5. We will be talking and tasting beer in the Style of Bock (Mai Dopple Eis Weissen) all types..
6. "Hop Smelling".. So bring some hops to smell, the more the merrier and you will be able to take them back home - they are only for smelling..
7. Finalizing plans for the S. Cal Homebrew Fest at Vail Lake May4-5th..
8. Also I would like to decide as a group future meeting places and beer styles for each month
9. Cool gadgets- If you have a gadget you would like to show off - Bring it - even if its not that great we would love to see it.