Southern California Homebrewers Festival

Who's going? There are something like 45 different homebrew clubs pouring beer!! If evey club brings 20 different beers...that is close to 900 different beers That has to make it one of the largest beer festivals, at least by number of different styles. Can't wait!!
http://calhomebrewers.org/index.php

I'm going with my club. We are bringing our club booth with >20 taps. I'm planning to bring 3 kegs myself.

Sweet! What are you bringing? I am bringing 3 kegs myself..one each of Cinco De Drinko Chile Blonde, DeadHead Red, and Der Kaiser Kolsch. They will be at the VIBE (Ventura Independent Beer Enthusiasts) booth. What club are you with?

I also will have a kolsch, along with a milk stout and a mild. And maybe one or two more; not sure yet.

I am with Strand Brewers.

Shoot, I wish I could go. But 1: I'm not in a club. And if I am it's a club of one. Alex Haley's dark brewing society (C)(so far both of me "real" brews have been dark. I had a red and now I'm making a stout). 2: I don't know where it is :/
Let me know how it turns out! Take pictures! I've never been to one of heard of them, Considering I just started not long ago

ahaley said:

Shoot, I wish I could go. But 1: I'm not in a club. And if I am it's a club of one. Alex Haley's dark brewing society (C)(so far both of me "real" brews have been dark. I had a red and now I'm making a stout). 2: I don't know where it is :/
Let me know how it turns out! Take pictures! I've never been to one of heard of them, Considering I just started not long ago

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FYI...you don't have to be in a club to attend...it's open to everyone. They also have a Northern California Homebrewers Festival but I am not sure of the details.

ahaley said:

Shoot, I wish I could go. But 1: I'm not in a club. And if I am it's a club of one. Alex Haley's dark brewing society (C)(so far both of me "real" brews have been dark. I had a red and now I'm making a stout). 2: I don't know where it is :/
Let me know how it turns out! Take pictures! I've never been to one of heard of them, Considering I just started not long ago

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north of ventura. It's $50.

I am going as well. I am bringing a Saison. I am with Strand brewers also. Stop by our bar and say hello, we have 2, 11 line plate chillers so we can max out at 22 beers on tap at one time.

Cheers,
Graham

This will be my first time. Going with a bunch of friends that brew. No club affiliation. I will be bringing a porter, american wheat, and a india red ale.

Hebby said:

I am going as well. I am bringing a Saison. I am with Strand brewers also. Stop by our bar and say hello, we have 2, 11 line plate chillers so we can max out at 22 beers on tap at one time.

Cheers,
Graham

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Wow! That's awesome! We only have 8 taps but at least one is Nitro.

I will be there with LabRat Homebrew Society. Come say Hi! Free homebrew for anyone mentioning this post

What day is it on? And I need to look up the city it's in, is there an age requirement or is it ok to bring kids?

ahaley said:

What day is it on? And I need to look up the city it's in, is there an age requirement or is it ok to bring kids?

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Yes on age (21) and you must join southern cal homebrew society, no tickets at the door. It is a huge club meeting, with a band (or two) lots of food, etc All the beer is given away. I have to pay the membership (about $40?) to give all my brew away. No sales allowed. Why do I do it? It is best greatest three days of the year. It's in Ojai at lake Casitas. The fest itself is on Cinco de Mayo.

LabRatBrewer said:

I will be there with LabRat Homebrew Society. Come say Hi! Free homebrew for anyone mentioning this post

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Laguna Niguel, eh? I lived there up until ~17 months ago, and I'm in Laguna Hills now.

I'm 90% sure I'll be making it to SCHF this year with Brewcommune, and should I show up, will be bringing my milk stout, gose, and a red rye IPA.

ahaley said:

What day is it on? And I need to look up the city it's in, is there an age requirement or is it ok to bring kids?

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Friday night is Craft Brewer night...a couple of breweries will be pouring their "rare" beers including Firestone Walker. Saturday is the main event. Most people camp but the nearest city is Ventura....about a 10-15 minute drive. TODAY is the last day to buy tickets!! NO tickets are sold at the door!
They do this because of ABC rules. Technically the event is free for members of the California Homebrewers Association and is not open to non-members. Of course anyone can be a member...you just pay your 50 dollar membership fee. The whole festival is 21+.

bwarbiany said:

Laguna Niguel, eh? I lived there up until ~17 months ago, and I'm in Laguna Hills now.

I'm 90% sure I'll be making it to SCHF this year with Brewcommune, and should I show up, will be bringing my milk stout, gose, and a red rye IPA.

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I hope you make it, I'd love to try a Red Rye IPA! I'm bringing a Barley Wine, Kolch, ESB and Apfelwine. Maybe a mead.

Aww man, I'd love to go but I had a babeh, whose 4 weeks old but I may have to find one of those events once I find where im stationed for army.
Sounds like a great time, everyone be safe and take lots of pictures!! Make it feel like I was there though I can't be lol

Phunhog said:

Friday night is Craft Brewer night...a couple of breweries will be pouring their "rare" beers including Firestone Walker. Saturday is the main event. Most people camp but the nearest city is Ventura....about a 10-15 minute drive. TODAY is the last day to buy tickets!! NO tickets are sold at the door!
They do this because of ABC rules. Technically the event is free for members of the California Homebrewers Association and is not open to non-members. Of course anyone can be a member...you just pay your 50 dollar membership fee. The whole festival is 21+.

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Actually, there are a few places in Ojai to stay, which is closer than Ventura. The problem is that you're usually pretty "happy" after drinking and driving out isn't the best idea.

Your best bet is to stay in one of the many campsites there. They do have trailer rentals onsite as well if you want to go that route and don't have an RV of your own. Most likely way too late to try getting in on that action though.

Unfortunately I will not be at the festival this year. I do plan on getting a site for next year's though!

Yeah, campsites sell out months and months before the festival.

camping is the way to go. Every year we hear of someone getting a dui. There's no need to be that person. Come, drink, stay.

bwarbiany said:

Laguna Niguel, eh? I lived there up until ~17 months ago, and I'm in Laguna Hills now.

I'm 90% sure I'll be making it to SCHF this year with Brewcommune, and should I show up, will be bringing my milk stout, gose, and a red rye IPA.

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Whoa Brad, what's with this 90% stuff?

We (Brewcommune) should have 22-24 taps going this year!

I always book camping 6mo in advance. You have to if you want a decent site.
I camp at Casitas about 4-6 times a year though, so I'm pretty familiar with it at this point.
I'll be there in June for the wine festival next... good times!

JonW said:

Whoa Brad, what's with this 90% stuff?

We (Brewcommune) should have 22-24 taps going this year!

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Woo! It's 100% now.

I'll miss Friday night, just driving up 1st thing Saturday morning. But I get to be there

Another year in the books. Hope everyone else had as nice a time as I

bwarbiany said:

Another year in the books. Hope everyone else had as nice a time as I

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Great time. Pretty sweet that we had 20 taps flowing and 30 different beers to serve. It was nice to hear feedback from people that said our club had some of the best beers at the festival.

Had a great time! My personal highlight was hanging out with Mike "Tasty" McDole at our booth (VIBE). It was great to hear him talk about homebrewing and his techniques. He is a great guy!!

Wow, that was an amazing weekend. So many great beers!

LabRatBrewer said:

Wow, that was an amazing weekend. So many great beers!

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Hey LabRat, was that you we met on Thursday night? We were in F21. Jon, Brian & Ron.

JonW said:

Hey LabRat, was that you we met on Thursday night? We were in F21. Jon, Brian & Ron.

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All the Labrats where in F, so it had to be us. I was in the red vanagon. I think I was in F22 (we played musical sites, I was originally in F28). Everyone I met in F were awesome people with good beer.

Phunhog said:

Had a great time! My personal highlight was hanging out with Mike "Tasty" McDole at our booth (VIBE). It was great to hear him talk about homebrewing and his techniques. He is a great guy!!

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Heck yeah!

Did anyone at fest see the booth with the automated glass/cup sanitizer? I was sitting on a corney keg, and I think the solution was running from the keg. I did not get a good look. I liked the idea better than a jug of water to rinse. It looked like a DIY project. If you know what booth had it, maybe I can contact them. Thanks in advance.

LabRatBrewer said:

Did anyone at fest see the booth with the automated glass/cup sanitizer? I was sitting on a corney keg, and I think the solution was running from the keg. I did not get a good look. I liked the idea better than a jug of water to rinse. It looked like a DIY project. If you know what booth had it, maybe I can contact them. Thanks in advance.

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LOL - that was me - I made it. We had it in the Brewcommune booth.

I can take some pictures of it if you want. I used a Fermtech double bottle washer mounted inside a bread pan. The pan had about a 1/2" hole punched and flared in the bottom. This then sat atop an empty corny w/ no lid and held on by mini bungee cords. It was fed from a second corny full of clean water. I think total investment was about $24.

We had constant comments all day long from people thanking us for rinsing their glass. I expect to see a few of them next year as there were a couple of people that took pictures of it. I'll get a picture of it and post it up, but the base unit looks like this:

Awesome, I'll be adding that next year. I really like it. We usually use a 5 gallon gatorade cooler (labeled unicorn tears) for rinsing, but it got left behind. I hated not having rinse water. We only had a spray bottle of Star San. I look forward to the pictures. Thanks again!

Our most commented item was a poor-man's Randall. It was a coffee press full of whole hops. I ran out of replacement hop by 1:00 p.m., but all night people kept asking for it, and they went on and on about how hoppy the beer was. The IPA itself was very nice, but I really doubt the press was adding anything by the time it got dark.

LabRat - I had your Poor Man's Randall IPA - It was pretty good! I've been reluctant to use my Randall (hop rocket) because I'd need to fill it with so much hops, so I'll probably keep my eyes out for a cheap french press and do it that way for small quantities. I really liked that. Hmmm... I'm doing a brew day (night) this Friday night - I'll see if I can source one before then!

Here's the pics of the glass washer (and one of our jockey boxes) . I built the botttom box just before the fest. It worked well. We could have specialty bottled beers in the right side and the cold plate in the left.

Fantastic! The pictures make it so clear. This is a definite addition! Thank you.

Man I really wanted to attend this year. I've just had a lot of things going on, I'll have to wait until next year
This years homebrewers festival will be the largest so far for lake Casitas!! Drink one for me guys!

So I'm a little bummed. I'm local, in Santa Barbara anyway, and I camp at Casitas once a year or so. This year, I bought the membership so I could go to this event even though I knew I wouldn't be staying. Mostly, I wanted to say hello to Tasty after randomly meeting him in Concord last month and getting to taste his CYBI Citra DIPA from Kern River. I actually tasted the beer before the show was recorded, and I think I may have been the first to declare it "cloned" ;-)

Anyway, back on topic. On Saturday afternoon, the only chance I had to get there, I drove to the lake and saw the sign telling me to turn here for HBF. I did and the gate was locked. I could see everyone inside having a great time, but there was chain link and barbed wire and a lock gate between me and them. I drove to the main entrance of the lake/campground, and the guy there informed me that they "have no communication whatsoever with the festival organizers and have no idea why the gate is locked".

He told me I could pay $15 to drive in, but I didn't want to pay that on top of the $50 bucks I already paid when I really only had a couple hours to spend there. He said I could park at the entrance and walk in (about a mile). And honestly, I only had 2 hours, and spending 1 of them walking wasn't really appealing.
I drove back to the locked gate and looked for a spot to walk in, but again, nothing but chain link and barbed wire.

So if any of the organizers see this, I'm now wondering allowed why someone wasn't staffing the entrance on Saturday afternoon?

I'm borderline pissed about it. I really wanted to go, but I'm not in a club, so I joined in hopes of FINDING a club at the event. Now I'm out my $50 and reading about how I missed a great event. All because of a locked gate! To take responsibility of my own actions here, I acknowledge I should've gotten there earlier, or on Fri PM if possible, but I just couldn't make it. I'd love for anyone who reads this that's affiliated to please take the entrance more seriously, and communicate IN ADVANCE, online, if there will be limited entry hours.

Anyway, to end on a good note, I'm stoked for all that got to attend, and I bet the beer was fantastic. I know the weather was!

jbaysurfer - I'm not involved with SCHF in any way (other than an attendee), but in the years I've been going there, I've never seen one of those gates open. All traffic comes in from the main gate. Also, there are shuttle busses that run that could have brought you from the main gate (B campsite area) to the fest area and you wouldn't have needed to walk. Sorry you missed out.

JonW said:

jbaysurfer - I'm not involved with SCHF in any way (other than an attendee), but in the years I've been going there, I've never seen one of those gates open. All traffic comes in from the main gate. Also, there are shuttle busses that run that could have brought you from the main gate (B campsite area) to the fest area and you wouldn't have needed to walk. Sorry you missed out.

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That doesn't really make sense to me, since that entrance was very well marked with arrows and signs in multiple places telling me that was where I should go, but I take your word for it. They should fix that IMHO.

Also, how was it that there were FOUR employees at the main entrance and not one of them knew about a shuttle? Maybe my major beef is with them and not the organizers.

At any rate, I'm not here to ***** about stuff, I'm sorry I missed out, but I'll be there next year and be happy to take part! I'm stoked for all of you who had a great time! Maybe in the meantime I can hit up the santa barbeerians and get involved with a club locally.

Any SBarbeerians on this board? There's no membership or anything on the site, are you guys taking new members?

The area where the festival was held is the "Special Events" area. They hold big events there several times a year. What usually happens is that the big grassy field across the street is turned into a parking lot and people enter through the unlocked gate. Most people never actually come through the main lake entrance. Why they don't do it for the Homebrewers Fest I don't know. Maybe they are just assuming that all the festival attendees are camping?