What’s Happening

O’Brien’s will be shut down on Sunday, December 31st and Monday, January 1st for the New Year’s Holiday.  We will be open regular hours on Tuesday, January 2nd starting at 11 am. 

Our special Belgian Ale for that Tuesday will Cantillon Lou Pepe Kriek.  We have had it before and it is delicious.  The beer is intensely fruity with a strong tart/sour finish.  We will feature a draft beer from Cantillon for the entire month of January.  Look for the apricot flavored Fou Fonne next and then an extremely rare keg of the Grand Cru lambic.

And the Thursday cask will be Ballast Point Tongue Buckler, which is a strong hoppy red ale.

After this weekend’s football games I will post up our playoff scheudle for the next weekend in the upcoming email.  I am not sure if we will open for the early games, especially if stupid Eli Manning and the Giants make it in.

That is all for now.  Have a great and safe New Year’s and we will see you next year.  Cheers, Tom

Happy Hectic Holidays Good Beer Fans!

We are all busy so I am going to keep this as short as I can while still trying to cram in all of the good beer info you need.

Tonight (wednesday the 20th) we tap into a cask of Port Brewing Santa’s Little Helper Imperial Stout.  This is the original Christmas beer that Tomme Arthur made at the Solana Beach Pizza Port and he is now making it at the new San Marcos Port Brewing facility.  I tasted it last night and it is delicious.  We also still have plenty of Belgian Christmas beers on tap from this past weekend.  Stone Ruination IPA is on tap and the Sierra Nevada ESP – the dry hopped pale ale – is back as well.  Look for Sierra Nevada Harvest to be on tap soon.

Tomorrow (thursday the 21st) we have not one, but two casks of Alpine Bad Boy Double IPA.  I have a full size firkin and a five gallon pin for when that is gone.  I will tap the first one at 5 pm.  This was truly one of the best beers at the Strong Ale Fest and our first keg did not last long, so don’t miss it.  We will also have North Coast Old Rasputin on our nitrogen tap.  And if you are up early and watching KUSI you can catch George Palmer of Taste Cheese Shop (the guy we do our beer and cheese pairings with) around 8:30 am.

We will be closing down Sunday, Monday and Tuesday – the 24th, 25th and 26th for Christmas.  I hope everyone has an excellent Christmas and for those that don’t celebrate, just enjoy the days off.  We will also be shutting down the following Sunday and Monday, the 31st and 1st for New Year’s.  We’ll be open normal hours on Saturday the 23rd and Wednesday the 27th – Saturday the 30th and back to open every day on the Tuesday the 2nd.  We’ll miss a few Chargers games at the pub, but we can all look forward to watching them in the playoffs in January!

There are also a ton of new bottles at the pub – Saison Dupont, Dupont Avec les Bon Voeux – the brewery’s new year’s beer (it means With Good Wishes) that is always one of my favorite beers of the year, Scalids Noel, Avery Mephistopheles Stout which is just over 16% and awesome, Anchor Christmas Ale in Magnums, Maredsous 8, Rochefort 10 is finally back, t’Ij Plzen from Amsterdam which is very hoppy and ‘t Smisje Kerst Winter ale which is dark brown and sublime.

After Christmas you can look for a cask of Green Flash Imperial IPA on Thrusday the 28th.  Our Annual New Year’s Eve-Eve party is really a New Year’s Eve-Eve-Eve party on Friday the 29th.  We’ll have lots of Roederer Estate Champagne, Redstone Black Raspberry Mead on tap and two beers from Moonlight brewing in Sonoma – Death and Taxes and Boney Fingers.  It is always a fun night to say goodbye to the past year.  And you can bet that I will be filling up the 3 liter Duvel glass to pass around.

Our new merchandise came into the pub.  We have pullover and zip hooded sweatshirts back in stock, some new men’s workshirts and lots of cool new girl’s wear including hooded shirts, yoga pants (like sweatpants, but not as thick) and cadet jackets (red with stripes down the sleeve and the big lion logo on the back).  We also restocked our beanies and got them in red.  We’ll be ordering more men’s shirts in for January, too.

There is plenty of great soccer on tv over the holiday break.  If you would like to find out about all of the games we show at the pub, sign up for our soccer email newsletter by replying to this email address.  We have GolTV, Setanta and Fox Soccer.  We also have a board on the back wall that shows what games are coming up this week.  And I plan on having a soccer news page on the website soon.

Speaking of the website, I plan to post news items there in between emails.  That way when I forget to put something in the email (which happens almost every time) I can post it in the News section of the site where the emails are posted.  Check it out at www.obrienspub.net.

We have been nominated for the AOL San Diego City Guide’s Best Beer Selection.  To vote for us goto: http://cityguide.aol.com/sandiego/best.  There are lots of categories to vote in – 43 total – but please be sure to vote us for Best Beer.

And I recently spoke to Bill from Ciao! Travel about next year’s European Pub Crawl.  He told me that the second part of the trip to Prague is nearly sold out, so if you want to go, get in touch with him soon.  However, there is still plenty of room for the Amsterdam to Brussels part of the trip.  Pick up information at the pub, or visit Ciao’s website at: www.ciaotravel.com.

Next month is the pub’s 13th Anniversary.  There are a lot of good beer bars in town, but O’Brien’s was the first and for many years, the only.  Previous owner Jim O’Brien was the first account for almost every San Deigo brewery and the first in town to serve Blind Pig IPA and Russian River – Lindsey used to drive up to Sonoma just to get one keg of Pliny long before they started delivering beer down here.  I am already setting aside some choice kegs and casks to celebrate.  More details after the new year.

Have a great Christmas weekend and we’ll see you soon for great beer and holiday cheer!  Cheers, Tom

Hello Good Beer Fans,

Time for another email update from O’Brien’s.  There is a lot to cover including lots of new bottles and draft beers, our new website and some great new places to drink beer in San Diego county.  I also want to say thanks for everyone who came up for the Strong Ale Festival at Pizza Port Carlsbad.  It was our tenth anniversary of the festival and it was great to see so many Pub folks up there.  I can hardly believe that I have thrown 24 beer festivals with friends Tomme Arthur and Jeff Bagby in the last 10 years.  Thanks for helping to make them all such a success and so much fun (and I can almost remember them all)

So on to some new beers…

Right now on tap we have the Bear Republic Apex IPA – really.  Last time they dropped off a keg of Jack London ESB instead, but this time they got it right.  The beer is just over 7% and is hoppier than Racer 5 IPA.  We also have the new Alpine Bad Boy double IPA – the brainchild not only of brewer/owner Pat McIllhenney, but also his son Shawn who works at the brewery (and has a birthday this Thursday).  In addition to the Bad Boy, we have a special nitro version of the Alpine Captain Stout.  Also on right now is Lagunitas Cappaccino Stout and IPA, Ballast Point Big Eye IPA and Craftsman Roggen Rauch Bock – a smoked rye bock.  And as for Belgians, we have Saison Dupont and N’ice Chouffe on tap.

And for new bottles we have Anderson Valley Brother David’s Triple, Gouden Carolous Tripel, Unibroue Don de Dieu and Chambly Noire, Pannepot 10, Geant’s Saison Voison and JW Lees Harvest Ale aged in Lagavulin Scotch Whiskey casks.  Back in stock are the Thiriez Xxtra and Blond and the great De Glazen Toren Saison D’Erpe Mere and the brewery’s Tripel and Strong Wit.  I’ll have even more new bottles coming this Friday for our Belgian Christmas Ale night (more on that soon) including the much anticipated return of Rochefort 10 hopefully. 

It has been a long time coming, but the new website is finally nearing completion.  Check it out at www.obrienspub.net.  Right now all of the email newsletters are posted there along with the bottle list and a draft list (which I promise to keep as current as possible).  Check it out and let me know what you think, or what you would like to see – just email me back at this address (if you think it sucks, please just keep that to yourself).

By the end of this week we should have our next batch of NEW merchandise in which will include new pullover hooded sweatshirts and lots of new girls wear inlcuding very cool jackets.  Look for it no later than Friday of this week.

We have again been nominated for the AOL San Diego City Guide’s Best Beer Selection.  To vote for us goto: http://cityguide.aol.com/sandiego/best.  There are lots of categories to vote in – 43 total – but please be sure to vote us for Best Beer.

And now, those great beer events that you have been waiting for…

We have a Pizza Port Carlsbad theme to the next two nights.  On Wednesday, December 13th we tap into a 5 gallon cask of Poor Man’s IPA at 5:30 pm.  Then on Thursday the 14th we tap into a full size cask (11 gallons) of Carlsbad’s Wipeout IPA.  Both are from brewer Jeff Bagby and it has been a while since we had a cask of Wipeout from him.  It is a little hoppier than the regualr draft stuff we get.

Friday the 15th and all weekend – Saturday the 16th and Sunday the 17th we celebrate with our annual tapping of Christmas Ales.  This year’s line up will include Delirium Noel, Gouden Carolous Noel, N’ice Chouffe, Anchor Christmas and hopefully De Ranke Pere Noel.  I have a very special pre-release keg of Brigand Belgian Ale which is a very hoppy 9% golden ale.  The brewery test marketed some keg conditioned beers and of course we got it – two to be exact.  It may not be a Christmas beer, but it is worth celebrating.  It is also Micaela’s birthday this week (she is back from her European vacation) and she’ll be working Firday night, so wish her well.  We’ll also have specials on all of our winter bottles and release some new Belgian bottles too.  All of the kegs are at least 8 gallons, so I expect them to be on tap all weekend.

Sunday the 17th we will be open late for the Chargers – Chiefs game at 5:15 pm, and for those who desperately need a beer after a day at the malls.  If the Chargers win and the Colts lose we clinch a bye in the first round of the playoffs.  And remember, this is the team that called the Bolts “soft” after the loss in KC.  Should be a good game.  Maybe LT can score a few more touchdowns for the record books.  With one more, he will break the single season scoring record that is over 40 years old.  And for those wondering about soccer news, look for an email coming later this week.

As for events next week, look for a cask of Pizza Port’s Santa’s Little Helper Imperial Stout on Tuesday the 19th and Alpine’s Bad Boy double IPA on Thursday the 21st.  We will be closed for Christmas on December 24th, 25th and 26th (one of the reasons I am recommending the places below).  And we will be closed on December 31st and January 1st for New Year’s.  We will have our annual Champagne-laden New Year’s Eve – Eve – Eve party on Friday the 29th.  Look for beers from Moonlight Brewing and Drake’s in the coming weeks as well as draft Mead from Redstone and plenty of Belgian ales.

Our friend Bill Snider at Ciao! Travel still has spots available for all three O’Brien’s European Pub Crawls next year.  The first is Amsterdam and Brussels, the second is Brussels and Prague and the third includes all three cities.  I have been the last two years and these trips are a beer lovers dream come true.  There is more good beer than you can ever try.  If you want more info, pick it up at the pub, check out www.ciaotravel.com or email Bill at: jazz@ciaotravel.com.  An avid beer fan, Bill’s day job is running jazz tours to Europe (which also include a little beer).  And I can tell you that Bill was just over in Prague drinking in every pub he could to research the trip for us – what a great guy!

As for new places that I recently visited.  Downtown Johnny Brown’s really impressed me with its draft line up.  15 handles, 10 of them filled with local beers including Alpine, Ballast Point, Stone, Pizza Port and Green Flash among others.  The wings were good, the service was friendly (our bartender was English and even put soccer on for us) and there were pool tables and shuffleboard.  It is downtown at 3rd and B in the Civic Center plaza.

We also checked out Mazara Pizza.  We stopped in for a slice of pizza.  They also have an enormous selection of beer that can be bought to go or drunk there.  On our visit, Lindsey and I split a Petrus Tripel 750 ml bottle and two great slices.

I have previously mentioned Churchill’s Pub in San Marcos, which if you are in the area, is a must stop.  It is very close to the new Port Brewing in San Marcos and the new Stone brewery in Escondido.  Good food, casks, and a great bottle list.

For more information on any of these places, please check out www.beeradvocate.com.  You can also read all of the O’Brien’s reviews on there, or add your own!  And for more information on any local brewery, visit the San Diego Brewers Guild site at: www.sandiegobrewersguild.org. 

Thanks much for making 2006 such a fun year at the pub.  Look for one more email before 2007.  Have a very safe Holiday season and don’t be afraid to call a cab when you need it.  Cheers, Tom