What’s Happening

Hello Happy Beer Lovers!

I hope that everyone had a great Memorial Day weekend.  Our Trappist Night on Friday was a huge success and we still have all of the Koningshoeven products available including the Quadrupel on tap (now on our third keg) and the Dubbel and Tripel in bottles – the Chimay Tripel is still on tap as well (second keg).  I want to extend a special thank you to our guests Thijs and Gijs from Koningshoeven in Holland.  It was great to hear them talk about the beer and how much they liked the beer in California.  We are sold out of the glassware now, but hopefully we will be able to get it back in soon.

And while I am on the subject of Trappists, we have some bottles of Westvletern 6, 8 and 12 left over and I will put them back out for sale on Thursday, May 31st and keep them on the special release bottle list until we are sold out.  This also means that you will be able to buy them To-Go and you can get the 10% discount we offer on all bottles over the weekend.  And our current bottle special is Malheur Brut Reserve for just $20 a bottle – which is a 20% discount off the regular price.  That special will run from today through June 10th (no additional discounts will apply).  Also, Fantome Saison is back on the bottle list along with Saison Dupont.

In the kitchen a new batch of beer chili has been cooked up.  We also have the Chimay Cheese Burger back using the Chimay Grand Cru cheese which is semi-soft and delicious.  And for those who like dessert, our great Lindeman’s fresh fruit reduction suace served over cheesecake is back on the specials board.

New issues of the Southwest Brewing News are in the pub now and I expect the new copies of the Celebrator any day now.

There are two big festivals coming up.  The first is this weekend – The San Diego Real Ale Festival at Pizza Port Carlsbad, Friday and Saturday, June 1st and 2nd.  The fest will feature more than 50 breweries pouring caski conditioned and for the first time, bottle conditioned real ales.  Nearly 20 local breweries will be there including Alpine, AleSmith, Lost Abbey, Stone and many others.  Admission is $25 and includes 8 taster tickets and a festival glass.  Additional tastes are just $1 each.  There will be a special VIP session on Friday from 1 to 4 pm with limited ticket sales.  VIP tickets can be purchased at www.pizzaport.com and must be bought in advance.  Pizza Port is located at 571 Carlsbad Village Drive just a few blocks from I-5 and the Coaster Station.  There are plenty of hotels and campgrounds in the area.  Don’t drive home drunk.

We will also be deubting a new beer guide book for So. Cal – The Beer Guppy’s Guide to Southern California.  Author Ja Sheveck will be on hand to sign and sell copies of the book – this will be the first place it is for sale to the public.  The book covers all of Southern California and Las Vegas and has details on more than 300 breweries, pubs, retailers and homebrew shops.

The other festival is next weekend, Saturday, June 9th at the San Diego County Fair.  It will be from 12-5 pm in the Paddock Area near the race track.  More than 40 breweries are expected to be pouring beer including 15 locals.  The winners of the first San Diego County Fair Craft Beer Competition will be anounced around 2:30 pm with awards in nearly 25 categories.  The list of breweries is impressive and includes the likes of Chimay, Allagash, Deschutes, Ommegang, New Beglium, Shipyard and lots more.  For a complete list of breweries and more information, visit the Fair’s website at: http://www.sdfair.com/fair/index.php?fuseaction=events.wine_beer.

And of course through all of us, there will be some great events at the pub starting with a pre-party for the Real Ale Festival tomorrow night, Thursday the 31st.  It is a double header draft/cask event with 4 Alpine Beer Company cask ales and 4 draft Avery beers inlcuding the launch of the new Piglet Purgatory.  Here is the breakdown:

The Alpine Cask Ale night will feature Exponential Hoppiness, Nelson Rye IPA and Barrel Aged Captain Stout all in 5 gallon casks.  All three of those will tap at 5 pm and as soon as one of them blows, I will tap the Pure Hoppiness cask.  So we will have only 3 casks running at any one time, but the upside is that we will have fresh cask ale all night long.

The Avery Piglet Purgatory release will see 4 draft Avery beers on tap no later than 5 pm – most will be on tap by tonight in fact.  The line up will be Avery IPA, Hog Heaven, Maharaja Imperial IPA and the Piglet Purgatory.  The Piglet was designed as a half version of the Hog Heaven.  It is a super hoppy 4.5% pale ale that I think is one of the best beers I have ever had under 5% alcohol.  Brewer/owner Adam Avery will be on hand to help us drink the first keg (or two) and talk to you about his beers.  Adam is thinking about rolling out Piglet as a national brand year round and he is launching the product in San Diego at O’Brien’s.  Hopefully you will be able to find Piglet at many of the other great beers around town like Hamilton’s, Churchill’s, Downtown Johnny Brown’s and Liar’s Club over the next few weeks.  Adam also sent out the keg of Maharaja just for us for the launch party (I think he wanted to drink some as well).  Adam’s birthday is today, May 30th, so look for him to be getting a birthday boot when he shows up on Thursday.

So, two great events jammed into one night.  It wasn’t planned that way originally, but it just ended up working out that way.  So 4 great casks with 4 great drafts and all of the other great beer that is usually on tap.  Just what we all needed right before a big festival weekend.

And next week don’t expect it to let up.  We have a Ballast Point Sculpin IPA Cask on Thursday, June 7th at 5 pm.  For those that missed our keg of Sculpin IPA on draft, do not fret, there is more on the way and it should be back on tap at the very beginning of next week.  And our Lost Abbey Draft night is coming Friday, June 8th.  I should get the line up from brewer Tomme Arthur this weekend.  I am expecting around 8 or 9 beers including some of his wonderful barrel aged beers.  When I know what beers we will have, I will put it up on the website.  Further off, we have a cask of the great Coronado Idiot IPA coming up and glass nights with Trumer Pils and Brewery Ommegang.

The United States Men’s soccer team has several upcoming games that we will be showing.  The first is this weekend on Saturday at 5 pm against China.  Then the USA starts the Gold Cup competition on Thursday, June 7th against Guatemala at 6 pm.  It continues with a 2 pm game on Saturday against Trinidad and Tobago and the USA wraps up group play against El Salvador on Tuesday, June 12th at 4 pm.  All of the games will be shown with the sound on.  For a complete listing of soccer games at the pub, check out our website at www.obrienspub.net or sign up for our soccer only email list by replying to this email.

That is all for now.  I will be at the pub Thursday night for our pre party and then up at the Real Ale Festival all weekend.  I hope to see many of you up there for some great cask beer.  Take Care.  Cheers, Tom

O’Brien’s Pub will be closed on Monday, May 28th for Memorial Day.  Please enjoy the holiday.  We will resume normal hours on Tuesday the 29th.  We will have our Real Ale Fest pre-party on Thrusday the 31st featuring 4 Alpine Beer Company Casks and the launch of Avery’s Piglet Purgatory on draft.  The Real Ale Fest will be June 1st and 2nd at Pizza Port Carlsbad.  It starts at 4 pm on Friday and at 11 am on Saturday and goes until 11 pm both days.  There are still VIP tickets available for the Friday session at 1 pm.  See the Port website at www.pizzaport.com for more info, pricing and VIP tickets.  Cheers, Tom

Hello Beer Fans!

We have some great events coming up in the next few weeks – including some great beer festivals around town.  I have had an influx of cool beer glasses lately, so we have lots of glassware specials over the next week.  Right now at the pub we have some kegs on tap including Stone Ruination IPA, Lost Coast Scotch Ale and a very special keg of Alpine Barrel Aged Captain Stout.  Brewer Pat McIllhenney likes this beer so much, he didn’t really want to sell kegs of it.  Needless to say, it is delicious.  It is a full size keg, but don’t expect it to stay on tap much past this week.

On the bottle front we have the Saison Dupont back in stock.  I was also surprisingly able to restock the incredible Dupont Avec les Bon Voeux (With Best Wishes), which is the brewery’s new yea’rs beer.  It is slightly stronger than the regular saison (8% vs. 6.5%) and has a little more richness in its malt flavor.  It is always one of my favorite seasonal beers.  Other new bottles include De Ranke Pere Noel, De Dolle 2005 Oerbier Reserva, 2005 AleSmith YuleSmith – Summer and Winter, Unibroue 16, Redstone Sunshine Nectar, and Lost Abbey Judgment Day – which is the base beer used in making the Cuvee de Tomme.  North Coast Pranqster, a Belgian-style golden ale is on special right now for just $3 a bottle while it lasts.

Tomorrow – Thrusday the 17th, we will have the Koningshoeven Trappist Ales available – Dubbel, Trippel and Quadrupel all in 750 ml bottles.  Koningshoeven was formally sold under the brand name La Trappe, but due to a monastic group in the USA using that name, the Dutch Trappist Monastery switched to the name of its abbey near Eindhoven, which is Koninghoeven (which I assume means King’s Haven).  The beers are the same and they are all great.  In 2006 on our European Pub Crawl we were lucky enough to tour the brewery and be able to sample all of the beers along with the abbey’s great cheese and seemingly endless amounts of bitterballen (imagine a fried popper, but filled with veal stew).  More about Trappist beers later…

For those whose chili craving is almost as powerful as your need for hops, rest easy.  Lindsey’s epic Beer Chili will be available this Thursday the 17th.  It might be around after that, but who knows.  And yes, this means that you can order chili nachos (just as long as you don’t tell your doctor).  New shirts are on order, I am sorry that the inventory has run so low.  Look for new O’Brien’s shirts to be in stock in about two weeks.

And now on to those great beer events…

Tonight we have a rare lager beer special – Spaten Maibock.  Maibocks are a pale version of the regular German Bock beer that are released in Spring time.  We have had the Sierra Nevada Pale Bock before, which is a Maibock.  The Spaten version is light colored, malty but not thick and is 6.5% alcohol.  We also have some very cool handled mugs to go with this beer that have a great billy goat logo on them.  Bock beers are often associated with goats as one theory on the name of the style has it originating from the German word for goat due to the strong kick associated with the beer.  More likely the name might come from the city of Einbeck where the beers were originally brewed in the 14th century.  The beer will be on special all day no matter where the name came from and the mugs will be $3 each (empty of course).

Tomorrow night, Thursday the 17th, we will be treated to a cask of AleSmith Anvil ESB tapped at 5 pm.  And as always, every local beer will be on special from 4 to 9 pm.  Friday night (5/18) is Lagunitas night with Lagunitas IPA and Sirius on tap.  The Sirius is termed a double cream ale by the brewery.  It is light in color with about 7% alcohol with a little bit of al yeast fruitiness to it.  We’ll also have Lagunitas Pint glasses for sale.  There are also a few Sierra Nevada, Celebration, Rogue, Alaskan Summer and Amber pint glasses for sale in addition to our O’Brien’s Pint Glasses.

I am not going to promise this, but word from our distributor is that Bear Republic Racer IPA is back in stock and will be delivered on Friday the 18th.  If so, I will get it on tap immediately.  In the meantime we still have Racer X on tap and the Jack London ESB from Bear Republic.  Keep your fingers crossed.  Hopefully we won’t run out again for a few months.

Next week we have another great Wednesday night glass special on the 23rd.  We have more of the giant 25 oz Hoegaarden glasses, or Mangaardens as I call them.  We will have Hoegaarden on tap and be selling the glasses – you will be able to buy the glass full of beer as well.  Thursday the 24th we have a cask of Green Flash West Coast IPA at 5 pm.  We should also have the new batch of Green Flash Imperial IPA on tap that night.

Next Friday the 25th is our big Trappist Ale night.  We will have every Trappist Beer I can get my hands on from all 7 Trappist breweries.  This will include – Chimay Red, White and Blue; Westmalle Dubbel and Trippel; Rochefort 6, 8 and 10; Achel Blond, Bruin and Extra; Orval; and the newley released Koningshoeven Dubbel, Trippel and Quadrupel.  In addition, we will have the two Koningshoeven/La Trappe beers that are not imported – White and Blond.  But the big news is brewery number 7 – Westvletern.  We will have bottles of the 6, 8 and 12 available for sale.  I should have about 25 bottles of the 12 for sale – they will be pricey though.  Probably in the $40 range.  We’ll also have Chimay White and Koningshoeven Quadrupel on tap.  If all goes well, I should have some Trappist glassware for sale including Koningshoeven.  I am hopeful that we will have some representatives from the Koningshoeven brewery in Holland at the pub.  I should have confirmation of that next week.  The kitchen will be doing Chimay burgers and have a Chimay/Belgian cheese plate.

Looking ahead, we will be closed on Monday, May 28th for Memorial Day.  However, the pub will be open normal hours Saturday the 26th Noon to 11 pm and Sunday the 27th Noon to 6 pm.  Later that week we have our epic pre-party for the Real Ale Festival.  The pre-party is on Thursday the 31st and is a two-part event.  The first is the Alpine Cask Night with FOUR different Alpine cask beers available.  It is likely that we will only tap 2-3 at once – it largely depends on where we can fit the casks.  The line up will include a full size firkin of Pure Hoppiness and five gallon casks of Nelson Rye IPA, Barrel Aged Captain Stout and Exponential Hoppiness!  I would think that the Nelson and Exponential are the most likely two to go on first, but we’ll see.

And if that wasn’t enough, the second part of the pre-party is the Avery Piglet Purgatory launch with brewer Adam Avery and Avery Maharaja, IPA and Hog Heaven all on tap.  Piglet is a half version of the massively hopped Hog Heaven.  It is 4.6% alcohol and has huge amounts of Columbus hops.  It is a great beer and it has been nearly two years since we last had it on tap.  Adam is considering making Piglet a full time beer and he is launching it first in San Diego.  Adam’s birthday is the May 30th, the day before, so you can expect to see him drinking Piglet from the Boot!

For soccer fans, the UEFA Cup Final between Sevilla and Espanyol is live today (Weds, 5/16) at 11:30 am and will replay at 5 pm and 8 pm.  We will not be showing the FA Cup Final this weekend, but it will replay at 5 pm on Tuesday the 22nd.  And we are expecting a good crowd for next week’s Champions League final between Liverpool and AC Milan at 11:45 am on the Wednesday the 23rd – it will be on in High Def with the sound on.  I suggest being there before 11:30 to get a good seat.  Pre game chatter starts at 11 am on ESPN2.  It will replay at 4 pm and 6 pm.

I trust that that is more than enough to keep you busy for a while.  If not, there are some great events coming up in June.  On June 1st and 2nd is the 10th San Diego Real Ale Festival at Pizza Port Carlsbad.  There will be a VIP Session on Friday from 1 to 4 pm.  Check the Pizza Port website for more info at www.pizzaport.com.  Friday the 8th is our big Lost Abbey draft night.  Satruday the 9th is the Craft Beer Festival at the San Diego County Fair where they will announce the winners  of the first Craft Beer Competition at the Fair.  Some great breweries will be pouring beer including Alpine, Lost Abbey, Stone, Pizza Port, AleSmith, Chimay, Unibroue, Full Sail, Ommegang and Redstone Meadery!

That is all for now.  We’ll see you soon over a great beer.  Cheers, Tom

Hello Good Beer Fans!

It has been a busy time in the world of good beer.  This past weekend saw the Southern California Homebrewers Festival in Temecula and the Boonville Beer Festival up north.  The homebrew festival was great as always – the weather was perfect and the beer was as good as it has ever been.  And as usual the San Diego homebrewers did the county proud.

In addition to the busy beer weekend, I had the pleasure to visit the TJ Brewery and restaurant yesterday and meet the owner.  The brewery is gorgeous and spacious.  The beers are all-malt lagers and they had five on tap – a light lager, but still all malt; Guera, the brweery’s award winning pilsner and Bronca, an unfiltered version of the same beer; Brava which is an amber lager and Morena, a darker, Marzen/Fest-style lager.  All were good with the Bronca likely my favorite.  They also had a double bock, called Bufadora.  The food was quite good as well.  I tried pollo con portabello and carne asada.  The brewery is not a tourist area, but it is a no more than 10 minute cab ride from Revolucion.  Their beers will also be available at the San Diego County Fair Festival on Saturday, June 9th.  For more information check out www.tjbeer.com.

Which brings me to new beers on tap – I bought a keg of the TJ Brewery Morena for Cinco de Mayo but the beer didn’t make it on tap until this Monday.  This is the first time we have had one of the TJ beers on tap and hopefully they will be bringing some of their other great beers across the border.  Also new on tap is the 2007 Stone Russian Imperial Stout.  It is amazing how much this beer has improved from when it first came out.  The last two vintages have been great.  We also have the Coronado Idiot IPA back on tap.  We are on our last keg of Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Barleywine right now, so enjoy it while it lasts.  And if all goes well, Racer 5 should be back in the line up this week.  The distributor has been out for weeks, sorry.  You can also look forward to Alpine’s Duet IPA being back by the end of the month.

Here is what is coming up at the pub in the next few weeks:

Tomorrow night, Wednesday the 9th we have a 5 gallon cask of Green Flash’s Le Freak Belgian IPA at 5 pm.  This is the first time we have had this unique beer on cask.  Thursday the 10th we feature a cask of Stone IPA at 5 pm.  It has been a long time since we have had a cask of this beer.  The casks always seem to outshine the draft version.  Friday the 11th we are having a Bear Republic night with Racer X, ESB and hopefully Racer 5 – which would mean we could pour the Racer 7 and 1/2.  Saturday the 12th we will be open normal hours from Noon to 11 pm and have our 10% off all bottles special.  We’ll also be running our Beer Battered Fish and Chips and Fish Tacos along with the Chipotle Fish Sandwich.

Also on the food front you can look for Lindsey’s great Meatball subs this week along with a batch of spicy beer cheese.  Our cook Joe has a new roasted tomato salsa for our Chips and Salsa – by the way, we have been using trans-fat free peanut oil in the kitchen for some time now.  And to answer the question on everybody’s mind – there will be Lindsey’s famous Beer Chili this weekend – maybe Friday if you are lucky.

Now the bad news – we will be closed Sunday, May 13th for Mother’s Day.  I am sure most of you have someplace you should be anyway, so hopefully this doesn’t cause any long-term pain for any of you.  Everything will be back to normal on Monday, or you can stop by and get your hop fix on Saturday.

Next week you can look forward to a cask of AleSmith IPA on Thursday the 17th and a Lagunitas Pint night on Friday the 18th with IPA and the new Sirius, strong cream ale.  The following week sees the Champions League final between Liverpool and AC Milan on Wednesday the 23rd at 11:30 am.

Friday the 25th we host a very special Trappist Beer Night as we launch the beers of La Trappe, which will be sold in the US now under the actual name of the abbey, which is Koningshoeven.  We will have the Quadrupel on draft and the Dubbel and Tripel in the bottle.  We’ll also be serving beers from the other 6 Belgian Trappist monesteries including draft Chimay and a few bottles of Westvleteren 6, 8 and 12.  And hopefully we will have two guests from Koningshoeven at the pub that night.

Looking ahead even farther, we will be closed for Memorial Day on Monday the 28th.  Thursday the 31st is our four cask Alpine Beer Company night.  Friday and Saturday, June 1st and 2nd is the San Diego Real Ale Festival.  Friday, June 8th we host a Lost Abbey draft night with brewer Tomme Arthur – he has been saving 5 gallon kegs of several different beers just for the event.

Hope that keeps you satisfied for a little while.  Take care and we’ll see you soon over a great beer.  Cheers, Tom

Hello Soccer Fans,

With the domestic soccer leagues in Europe winding down, these emails will likely be sparse over the summer months.  But for now there is still plenty going on for the next 7 weeks.  The Italian Cup final between Roma and Milan is on Wednesday, the Copa del Rey is at the Semi Final stage in Spain – and the Spanish league race is very tight between Barcelona, Real Madrid and Sevilla.  The UEFA  Cup final between Sevilla and Espanyol in Glasgow is Wednesday the 16th and the following week is the showdown between Liverpool and AC Milan for the Champions League title.  There will be two days of EURO 2008 qualifying the first week of June and right after that the Gold Cup starts with games played all over the USA.

So here are the upcoming games – Setanta has not yet posted a schedule for the EPL for Sunday – all games kick off at 7 am local time.   Tentatively they have Tottenham v. MAnchester City and Sheffield United v. Wigan in the morning and then games at 1:30 pm and 3:30 pm in the afternoon.  You can check their website at www.setanta.com for the listing later in the week.  I’ll be taping all of the games that day.  Cheers, Tom

Wednesday, 5/9:

On Tape – Roma v. Inter Milan – Italian Cup – Gol TV – will likely show at 11:30 am for lunch and then at night as well.

Noon and 6:15 pm – Chelsea v. Manchester United – Setanta

Noon and 6 pm – Sevilla v. Deportivo La Coruna – Gol TV – Copa del Rey

4:30 pm – Rangers v. Celtic – Setanta (Rangers v. LA Galaxy in LA on Wednesday, May 23rd)

Thursday, 5/10:

Noon and 6:15 pm – Tottenham v. Blackburn – Setanta

Noon – Getafe v. Barcelona – Gol TV – Copa del Rey

Saturday, 5/12:

11 am – Real Madrid v. Espanyol – Gol TV

1 pm – Sevilla v. Recreativo – Gol TV

4 pm – USA Women v. Canada – FSC

Sunday, 5/13:

On Tape – Inter Milan v. Lazio – Gol TV

11:30 am – Chelsea v. Everton – FSC

1:30 pm – Catania v. AC Milan

3:30 pm – Manchester United v. West Ham

More games will be coming from Setanta – check the pub board for details

Monday, 5/14:

6 pm – Barcelona v. Real Betis – Gol TV

Wednesday, 5/16 – UEFA CUP FINAL in Glasgow:

11:30 am – Espanyol v. Sevilla – FSC

Replays at 5 pm and 8 pm on FSC

Wednesday, 5/23 – UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FINAL in Athens:

11:00 am – Liverpool v. AC Milan – ESPN2 – kick off at 11:45 am

Replays at 4 pm and I will have this game on tape.  Liverpool will be in red, Milan wearing white.  This should prove to be an epic rematch of 2005.

Have fun and we’ll see you soon over a great beer.  Cheers, Tom