Greeting Good Beer Fans,
Time for another update on everyone’s favorite topic – Beer! We have a ton of new beer on tap at the pub – Ballast Point Victory at Sea Imperial Coffee Porter, Sierra Nevada Rauch Bier (a smoked beer), Cucapa Barleywine from Mexicali – this is our first ever Mexican beer on tap and it is delicious and not too heavy at 8.5% alcohol, Liefman’s Goudenband Oud Bruin, Avery IPA, Lightning Black Lightning Porter, Port Carlsbad’s Poor Man’s IPA and None the Wiser Weizenbock, and the return of Hoegaarden White Ale. For those that missed the Maastreech’s Aajt Dutch Flemish Red, I have another keg that will be on tap next month. Most of these kegs were tapped this week and should make it through the weekend – but don’t hold me to that, you guys drink a lot of beer.
This coming Monday we will be CLOSED for the President’s Day holiday, which is Monday, February 19th. We will be OPEN all weekend, Saturday the 17th from Noon until at least 10 pm and Sunday the 18th from Noon until 5 pm. And we have some more new bottles to try including Chimay Tripel and Chimay Premiere Red Cap and Avery Czar Imperial Stout. We offer 10% off every bottle on our list (more than 100) both Saturday and Sunday. And Sunday and Monday we have Fish and Chips and Fish Tacos.
As for the rest of this week, tonight (2/15) we have our only cask of AleSmith’s My Bloody Valentine. The first keg of this big, delicious red ale went quickly – and I expect the cask to be no different. We’ll tap it at 5 pm. And as we do every Thursday, all local beers will be on special.
Friday the 16th we have to specials in one night. We are finally getting in kegs of the Beer Valley Black Flag Imperial Stout. It should be on tap by 6 pm. I had hoped to get this beer at the end of last month, but snowstorms and shipping delays pushed it back a few weeks.
Our other promo is for Hoegaarden Wit. It has been a while since we have had this beer on tap – the brewery was switching distributors. But it is back and still tastes great despite production being moved out of Belgium by the brewey’s owner InBev. I got in a limited supply of what I refer to as the Mangaarden Glass – you might have seen me use mine as a massive water glass. The glasses are huge and thick and hold a whopping 25 oz of beer. We will be selling the glass with a full beer for $11, refills are then just $8 (if you want 25 more ounces of Hoegaarden). If you want the glass, you have to buy the beer and we will not be selling beer in these glasses without purchase of the glass. For those not interested in 25 ounces of Hoegaarden, we will also be selling it in a normal 14 ounce pour for just $4. Unfortunately, we did not get any of the regular sized Hoegaarden glasses to sell – maybe next time.
We did however, get in more new marchandise. We have restocked the popular workshirts and we got some new men’s shirts in black and other colors and we have navy and white women’s shirts with the lion logg on the back for the first time. And since we have a new niece, we ordered some baby onesies with the O’Brien’s logo. New pint glasses are on order and should be here next week. We’ll also be printing up new green t-shirts for St. Patrick’s Day next month.
Many of you have been asking about the construction out front. The owner of the property is renovating the entire facade of the center. The plan is to stucco the center to match the new construction over in the other corner by the doughnut shop. And as part of that they will be expanding our patio about 5 feet out. The contractor has already filled in part of the staircase in the left corner of the patio – the edge of that slab will be the new patio line all the way down to where we meet up with the Tofu House. I have been told that the patio extension will be done by St. Patrick’s Day, but I am not holding my breath. Our sign will be moved out, but likely after the stucco job is done, so you will have to get used to the banner for a while. Despite many good suggestions, there will be no rooftop patio.
I have posted the latest soccer games on the board at the pub. I will have them on the website (www.obrienspub.net) this weekend. Over the weekend, England has FA Cup matches on Saturday with Chelsea playing at 2 pm and Arsenal facing Blackburn at 5 pm. Next Tuesday and Wednesday, the UEFA Champions League resumes with Arsenal, Manchester United, and Real Madrid all playing on Tuesday the 20th and the much anticipated Barcelona v. Liverpool match on the 21st LIVE at 11:30 am.
As to upcoming events, the 12 Hour Belgian Beer Party will Saturday, March 24th from 11 am to 11 pm at Pizza Port Carlsbad. Jeff, Tomme and I have already begun working on the beer list and it is coming along nicely. We expect to have over 80 beers from Belgium, Canada, Italy, the Netherlands, France and the USA. There are no advanced ticket sales, just by them at the door. Admission is $35 and includes 10 taster tickets and a Belgian drinking glass. Additional taster tickets will be just $1. Most of the beer is strong, so get a hotel or find a DD to get you home safely.
We are also planning our next round of Beer and Cheese Tastings with Taste Artisan Cheese Shop in Hillcrest (there is a link to them on our website). We will begin taking reservations for them on Friday the 16th (tomorrow for most of you). The cost is $35 for either session – both will feature the same line up of beers and cheeses. The first one will be on Wednesday, April 11th at 7 pm at Taste in Hillcrest. The second one will be Sunday, April 29th at 6 pm at O’Brien’s. We have yet to sit down and do the hard work of setting the pairings for this one, when we have them set I will let you know. Both of these events will sell out (but probably not until April 1st).
Upcoming Pub events include our Danish cask, Winter Coat Double Hop, on Thursday, February 22nd at 5 pm, Lagunitas night on Friday the 23rd, Ballast Point Dorado Cask on Thursday, March 1st and further off look for an Allagash Glass night with the White Ale on draft and bottle specials, the Liar’s Club 7th Anniversary Ale Black Lie on tap along with Duchesse de Bourgogne and Chimay on tap in the next few weeks.
I always seem to think that I will be able to keep these shorter than they end up being. It is just more eveidnece of what a great beer city San Diego has grown into. We’ll see you soon over a great beer. Cheers, Tom