What’s Happening

O’Brien’s will be hosting the San Diego release party for New Belgium’s La Folie.  It is a fantastic barrel aged sour brown ale.  We have had it on tap before, but now it will be regularly available in San Diego county.  We’ll also have NBB’s 2 Below on tap and on special, along with the popular New Belgium goblets and some pints for sale and a few bottled surprises for sampling.

Our Strong Ale Festival Pre-Party will be on Thursday the 29th with casks of Pizza Port Carlsbad Hop Suey and Alpine Nelson IPA.  On tap we’ll have Drake’s Denogginizer, Ballast Point Sculpin IPA, Bear Republic Black Rye, Stone 11th Anniversary Ale, Koningshoeven Quadrupel and Alpine’s Black Forest Stout (Barrel Aged Captain Stout with Raspberries) and a few more great strong ales as well.

 The VIP session for the Strong Ale Festival this weekend at Pizza Port Carlsbad is sold out, but you can still beat the crowds by showing up at 4 pm, or by coming on Saturday before 2 pm or after 5 pm.  There will be more than 70 beers on tap – all over 8% alcohol!

More news a little later in the week in our regular E-Mail newsletter.  Until then, cheers, Tom

Hello Soccer Fans!

Euro 2008 Qualifying is over and England and Steve McClaren are out.  Perhaps England get revenge on Croatia in its World Cup Qualifying group.  The UEFA Champions League is in full swing this week on Tuesday and Wednesday.  There are only 2 games next week and then most of the match day 6 games will be on December 11th and 12th, which is the end of the group stage.  Benfica and Rangers are both being shown on delay, so there is hope to see Damarcus Beasley and/or Freddy Adu in action.

There is also quite a bit of televised UEFA Cup action in the coming weeks.  I have schedules for this weekends EPL matches, but none yet for the following weekend.  Gol TV as usual has yet to announce its weekend schedule of Bundesliga and La Liga games.  The FA Cup is just starting its second round.  The first round produced at least one highly entertaining game in Staines Town v. Stockport County.  When more listings become available, I will post them on the website.  And as always, we can set up any game to tape on our DVR to reshow later, just let me know a few days in advance.

Fox Soccer will be showing the FIFA Club World Cup from December 7th to 16th from Japan, so most of the games will be on very early in the morning (or very late at night depending on your point of view).  As it is every matchday, the ESPN2 Champions League highlights show is one of the best hours on television.

So here are the upcoming games (on Setanta unless noted):

Tuesday, Nov. 27:

11:30 am – Manchester United v. Sporting – ESPN2

11:30 am – Sevilla v. Arsenal – also at 5:30 pm

2 pm – Lyon v. Barcelona

3:45 pm – Inter Milan v. Fenerbache

7:15 pm – Celtic v. Aberdeen

Wednesday, Nov. 28:

11:30 am – Rosenborg v. Chelsea – ESPN2

11:30 am – Liverpool FC v. FC Porto – also at 5:30 pm

2 pm – Lazio v. Olympiacos

2 pm – Werder Bremen v. Real Madrid – ESPN Classic

3:45 – Werder Bremen v. Real Madrid

Thursday, Nov. 29:

11:30 am – Tottenham v. Aalborg BK – FSC – also at 5 pm
11:30 am – Brann v. NK Dynamo Zagreb

3:45 pm – Benfica v. AC Milan

5:30 pm – Celtic v. Shakhtar Donetsk

Friday, Nov. 30:

On Tape – Stuttgart v. Rangers

11 am – Champions League Highlights Show – ESPN2

Saturday, Dec. 1:

On Tape – Wigan v. Manchester City, Aston Villa v. Arsenal

11:30 am – AC Milan v. Juventus – FSC

11:30 am – Portsmouth v. Everton

1:15 pm – Sunderland v. Derby County

1:30 pm – Reading v. Middlesbrough – FSC

3 pm – Chelsea v. West Ham

5 pm – Blackburn v. Newcastle

Sunday, Dec. 2:

On Tape -Liverpool v. Bolton, Fiorentina v. Inter Milan, Tottenham v. Birmingham

1:30 pm – Roma v. Udinese

4 pm – Liverpool v. Bolton

Monday, Dec. 3:

11 am – Manchester United v. Fulham

Tuesday, Dec. 4:

11:30 am – AC Milan v. Celtic – ESPN2

Wednesday, Dec. 5:

11:45 am – Newcastle v. Arsenal – also at 5:15 pm

1:45 pm – FC Copenhagen v. Athletico Madrid

3:30 pm – FK Mlada Boleslav v. AEK Athens

Thursday, Dec. 6:

11:45 am – RSC Anderlecht v. Tottenham

1:45 pm – FK Crvena Zvezda v. Bolton

3:45 pm – probably Shakhtar Donetsk v. Benfica (from 12/4)

That is it for now.  This week at the pub we have a New Belgium La Folie release party on Wednesday the 28th and the Strong Ale Festival Pre-Party on Thursday the 29th with casks of Pizza Port Hop Suey and Alpine Nelson IPA, along with a whole bunch of great strong ales on tap.  We’ll see you soon for some great soccer and beer.  Cheers, Tom

O’Brien’s Pub will be closed on Thursday and Friday, November 22nd and 23rd for the Thanksgiving holiday.  As a family owned business, it is important to us to allow our employees (and ourselves) to have this time with their friends and family.  O’Brien’s will resume normal business hours on Saturday, November 24th when we will be open from Noon to 11 pm.  We will also be open from Noon to 6 pm on Sunday.  Have a wonderful holiday weekend.  Cheers, Tom

Hello Beer Fans!

I have a bunch of great new beers at the pub to tell you about including some fantastic new bottles.  On tap we have the Stone 2007 Double Bastard (which we also have in the bottle).  There is still some of the Hollister beers on tap from Santa Barbara – Hip Hop Double IPA and The Pope IPA.  These beers are from brewer Eric Rose, former head brewer at Santa Barbara Brewing Company.  Boddingtons is finally back after our distributor flushed out a bad batch of kegs.  And we have Moonlight Brewing’s Bombay By Boat IPA.  Coming on tap soon will be Sierra Nevada Celebration and Harvest, Green Flash IPA, Pizza Port Carlsbad While the Cat’s Away IPA, Mission Brewery IPA and Helles Lager, Koningshoeven Quadrupel, Gouden Carolous Noel and San Diego Brewing Company Choco-Latte Porter on nitrogen.

We have added a number of new bottles to our special release list (the yellow one, not our regular blue bottle list).  We have the new Eisenbahn Lust, which is an excellent Champagne-style beer from Brazil (really).  I also restocked the Nogne O Imperial Stout from Norway and we have new bottles from Avery including Kaiser Imperial Octoberfest and The Beast Grand Cru which is 14% alcohol.  The Thiriez Extra is back in stock as well and we still have all 5 beers from De Glazen Toren in bottles – Saison D’Erpe Mere, Ondineke Tripel, Jan de Lichte Dubbel Wit, Canaster Winter Scotch Ale and Cuvee Angelique which is a dubbel-style ale.  The Drie Fontenein Oude Geuze is now available in 375 ml bottles.  And Alaskan Smoked Porter is now available in 22 ounce bottles (and it will be back on tap soon, too).  I am sure that there are many more that I am forgetting right now, so be sure to check out the list next time you are at the pub.

As for what we have on tap for you this week, you can look forward to a cask of Stone Ruination IPA that has wet hops added in the cask (Centennial for the curious).  We’ll tap it at 5 pm on Thursday the 15th.  Friday night we will feature the two Mission Brewery beers I mentioned – IPA and Helles.  The Mission Brewery is the pub inside the new Miami Grill restaurant.  The brewery is being run as a separate business for the moment under the Mission name.  The location has been Hops and On Tap in recent years.  These two beers won medals at the Great American Beer Festival – a gold for the Helles and bronze for the IPA under the names El Amigo Lager and El Camino IPA. Needless to say, due to the existing Pizza Port beers using those names, Mission Brewery is changing the names of the beer, but luckily not the recipes.  Both beers should be on tap all day Friday for your drinking pleasure.  Lindsey will also be cooking up a batch of her famous beer chili for Friday.

Over the weekend, the United States Men’s Soccer team plays South Africa.  The game is live at 6 am and we will NOT be open.  We’ll be replaying the game at noon and again at 5 pm.  It is the USA’s last game of the year.  Sunday the 18th, the Chargers play at 10 am and we’ll be open early for the game and have our breakfast burritos availalbe along with our fish and chips and fish tacos.  And we offer 10% off all bottles on both Saturday and Sunday and that includes any import bottle purchased to-go (limit one per person).  The Green Flash 5th Anniversary Party is also on the 18th from Noon to 4 pm.  Visit the brewery’s website at www.greenflashbrew.com for more information.

Next week is a short week due to the Thanksgiving holiday.  We will closed on Thursday and Friday, November 22nd and 23rd so that the employees and ourselves can spend time with family and friends.  We will be open normal hours Saturday and Sunday, Noon to 11 pm and Noon to 6 pm respectively on the 24th and 25th.  The Chargers game is at 1:15 pm on the 25th.  We’ll be serving fish and chips and fish tacos on both days as well.  On Tuesday the 20th we tap a cask of Green Flash Imperial IPA at 5:30 pm.  We’ll roll the cask over to Wednesday night as well at 5 pm, since there will be no Thursday cask.

The week after Thanksgiving brings us the San Diego Strong Ale Festival.  It is hard to believe that the festival I started with brewer Tomme Arthur is now in its 11th year and has grown into a two day affair featuring more than 75 beers.  We will be doing the VIP session again from 1 to 4 pm on Friday the 30th.  There are less than 40 VIP tickets.  To buy them, you must go to the Pizza Port website at www.pizzaport.com.  The regular fest will run 4 pm to 11 pm on Friday the 30th and 11 am to 11 pm on Saturday the 1st.  Tickets are $25 and include a fest glass and 8 taster tickets.  Additional tickets are just $1 each.  And if you haven’t been yet, check out the Pizza Port bottle shop while you are up there.

So if Strong Ale is on the 30th, that means that the official festival pre-party will be Thursday the 29th at O’Brien’s.  I have a nice stash of beers for the evening including casks of Port Carlsbad Hop Suey and Alpine Nelson IPA and draft kegs of Ballast Point Sculpin IPA, Drake’s Denogginizer, Bear Republic Black Rye (Rye Whiskey Barrel Aged Imperial Stout – sounds awful doesn’t it?), Alpine Barrel Aged Black Forest Captain Stout (barrel aged Captain Stout with raspberries!) and a few other surprises I will let you in on later.  Needless to say, we will have an awesome line-up that night and throughout the entire weekend.

Looking ahead a little bit, I can torture you with thoughts of our upcoming Alpine Ultimate Hoppiness Night. What is Ultimate Hoppiness you ask?  It is having Alpine Ale, Pure Hoppiness, Nelson, Duet, Bad Boy and Exponential Hoppiness all on tap at the same time for the first time ever, anywhere (not even at the brewery has this happened).  Just for good measure, we’ll also have Nelson and Exponential on cask at 5 pm.  Alpine brewer Shawn McIllhenney will be celebrating a birthday shortly after the 7th.  He is letting us tap the keg of Bad Boy that he had set aside for himself for this evening.  So if you see him there, buy him a beer and wish him a happy birthday (he already has a ride home, too).

That wraps it up for now.  And anyway I am out of Sierra Harvest (I love the big bottles!).  I will not be sending out an email next week so I will wish all of you a very happy Thanksgiving.  Over a very hard last 30 days in this town, we have much to be thankful for.  I hope that the holiday finds you and your family in good spirits (literally) and health.  We’ll see you soon over a pint of great beer.  Cheers, Tom

PS  Wild Turkey Rye makes a great baste for that holiday bird (as does any good amber ale!)

I just got word that there are only 42 VIP tickets left for the San Diego Strong Ale Festival on November 30th and December 1st at Pizza Port Carlsbad.  The VIP session is from 1-4 pm on Friday and includes a limited number of tickets sold and some extra beers on tap that will not last through the day.  You must buy the VIP tickets on line at the Pizza Port website – www.pizzaport.com.  More than 80 beers are expected to be on tap at the festival over the two days.  I’ll have more info on the beer list next week.  I can say, there are already some amazing beers lined up.  Cheers, Tom

The Wet Hop Festival beers are finally giving way back to our regular line-up.  We still have about 10 wet hop ales on tap and that number should decline slowly through this coming weekend.  All of the 5 and 8 gallon kegs are gone, all the beers still on tap came in full 15 gallon kegs, so it is quantity that is determining what is left, not quality.  Many great beers are still there to be tried.

There will be no cask tonight on Thursday the 8th.  We had some casks that were supposed to filled two weeks ago, but due to the fires that week, things got pushed back.  I already have the next several weeks lined up with casks, so don’t fret.  Friday the 9th we have Lagunitas night with IPA, Hop Stoopid double IPA and Capaccino Stout all on tap.  I’ll also have some Lagunitas pint glasses for sale too.

Over the weekend we will be releasing a ton of new bottles.  I have gotten several new orders in and I am still sorting through them all.  I can tell you that the popular De Glazen Toren products will be back in by Friday - Saison d’Erpe Mere, Jan de Lichte double wit, Ondineke Tripel and on Saturday we will have the Canaster Winter Scotch and the new Cuvee Angelique.  I also have two new Danish Meads that are availalbe right now – Dansk Viking Blod which is 19.8% and has Hibiscus and Hops added and the Dansk  Klapojster, which is made with caraway seeds like the Danish liquor Aquavit – this mead is 21.8% and it is really nice.  We’ll also have new bottles from Avery – Kaiser, Maharaja and the Beast Grand Cru, I re-stocked some the Thiriez beers – the Blond and the XXtra.  In the future soon, we are going to have an Italian craft beer night some very rare bottles from Italy.

I’ll send out an email next week detailing all of the good things to come.  Take care, Tom

Hello Football Fans!

We have another full slate of UEFA Champions League matches this week.  The domestic leagues will be in action this coming weekend and then off for the last round of EURO 2008 Qualifying.  Setanta has not yet announced which qualifying matches it will show – when it does, I will post it up at the pub.  I have set up our DVR to tape the mid-day Champions League matches if anyone wants to watch them in the evening. 

We’ll be open late this Sunday because of the Chargers-Colts game, so I listed the late games on the 11th.  And on Saturday the 17th, the USA plays South Africa.  The game is live at 6 am, which is a little early for us, but we will be replaying it at Noon with the sound on the back TV.  It will also re-air at 5 pm.

Here is what is coming up (all on Setanta unless noted):

Tuesday, 11/6:

11:30 am – Besiktas v. Liverpool – ESPN2

11:30 am – Schalke v. Chelsea – and at 5:30 pm

2 pm – Porto v. Marseille – and at 7:15 pm

2 pm – Olympiacos v. Real Madrid – ESPN Classic

3:45 – Lazio v. Werder Bremen

Wednesday, 11/7:

11:30 am – Manchester United v. Dynamo Kyiv – ESPN2

11:30 am – Slavia Praha v. Arsenal – and at 5:30 pm

2 pm – Sporting v. Roma – and at 7:15 pm

2 pm – Barcelona v. Rangers – ESPN Classic

3:45 pm – Inter Milan v. CSKA Moscow

Thrusday, 11/8:

Noon – FC Nurnberg v. Everton

2 pm – Hapoal Tel Aviv v. Tottenham

4 pm – Manchester United v. Dynamo Kyiv (from 11/7)

6 pm – Shaktar Donestk v. AC Milan – Gold TV (from 11/7)

Saturday, 11/10:

On Tape: Liverpool v. Fulham

4 pm – Sunderland v. Newcastle United

5:30 pm – Houston Dynamo v. Kansas City Wizards – FSC – MLS Playoffs

5:45 pm – Derby County v. West Ham

9 pm – Liverpool v. Fulham – FSC

Sunday, 11/11:

On Tape – Manchester United v. Blackburn, Portsmouth v. Manchester City and Bolton v. Middlesbrough

2:15 pm – Birmingham City v. Aston Villa

3 pm – Tottenham v. Wigan – FSC

4 pm – Chelsea v. Everton

5 pm – Inter Milan v. Lazio – FSC

Monday, 11/12:

11 am – Reading v. Arsenal – and at 6 pm

Satruday, 11/17:

On Tape with a replay at Noon – South Africa v. USA – also at 5 pm on FSC

11:30 am – Czech Republic v. Slovakia – FSC

8 pm – Israel v. Russia – FSC

That is it for now.  I should have more of next weekend’s games posted on our website by the 13th.  Cheers, Tom

Greetings Beer Lovers,

We are finally getting around to our Wet Hop Festival this weekend.  I have 27 kegs and casks to tap this year for your lupulin pleasure.  The festival will take over many of our regular taps, but there will still be a few favorites on tap.  The festival will run Friday, Saturday and Sunday – November 2nd, 3rd and 4th.  On Friday night, we’ll tap our two casks – Sierra Nevada Harvest Ale and Pizza Port San Clemente Riptide – both at 5 pm.  I’ll also have a good number of other wet hopped ales on tap Friday night.  The plan is to put most of the 15 gallon kegs on tap Friday so that they will last through the weekend.  Expect beers from Ballast Point, Stone, Pizza Port, Sierra, Butte Creek and Drake’s to be on tap on Friday night.  We will have 5 ounce, 10 ounce and pints available of all of the wet hop beers.

Saturday will be the big day with more than 20 wet hop ales from all over California on tap.  I’ll have a jockey box set up to help with the extra beers.  We have a lot of new breweries participating this year like Beach Chalet, Half Moon Bay, Moylan’s, 21st Amendment and Butte Creek.  And if there is any cask beer left from Friday, we will run that as well on Saturday.  Sunday we’ll tap our few out of town beers from the likes of Rogue and Deschutes.  The Chargers play at 10 am and we’ll open early for the game so you even have a few extra hours to drink.  We’ll have the kitchen open early as well, but the breakfast menu is yet to be determined – we’ll talk to Cesar tonight and see what he feels like treating you all to.  I expect to still have 18-22 wet hop ales on tap for Sunday.  And as an added food bonus, we will be running our beer batttered Fish and Chips and Fish Tacos both Saturday and Sunday and Chili Cheese Dogs on Friday and Saturday.

For those reading this on Thursday the 1st, it may do you some good to know that we will be serving casks of AleSmith Evil Dead Red and Pizza Port Carlsbad Hop Suey tonight at 5 pm.  We also tapped into the delicious Alpine Ichabod last night during our Halloween party.  It is a red wine barrel aged spiced sour brown ale made with pumpkin.  It is one of the best domestic sour brown beers I have ever had with a drinkabililty that is unmatched in domestic versions.  We also tapped kegs of the Moonlight Brewing Company Boney Fingers, a strong dark lager and Wychwood Hobgoblin, an English-style bitter.  You can also look for our great Fruit and Cheese plate on special for Thursday night.  And yes, Ballast Point Sculpin IPA is still on tap! 

Tickets are still on sale for the San Diego Brewers Guild Festival this Friday night at the World Beat Center.  Pre-sale tickets are available until noon on Friday the 2nd.  For more information, please visit the guild website at www.sandiegobrewersguild.org.  The Tijuana beer festival was moved until November 9th, 10th and 11th due to the fires.  For more info on that fest, visit www.tjbeerfest.com.  And the Green Flash Anniversary Party is coming up on Sunday, November 18th.  VIP tickets for the San Diego Strong Ale Festival are now available on line at Pizza Port’s website – www.pizzaport.com.  Regular festival tickets will be availalbe at the door.  The fest is November 30th and December 1st at Pizza Port Carlsbad.

As for next week, I still am not sure what the cask will be.  I do know that we are hosting a Lagunitas night on Friday the 9th with kegs of IPA, Hop Stoopid and Capacino Stout.  I have tasted the Hop Stoopid and it is a very nice double IPA and we have the only keg in San Diego.  Planning ahead, we will be shut down Thursday and Friday, the 22nd and 23rd for Thanksgiving weekend.  We will be open normal hours on Saturday and Sunday.  And we’ll host our annual Strong Ale Fest pre-party on Thursday the 29th.  I already have some great beers and casks lined up.

That about wraps it up for now.  We’ll see you soon for a great fresh hop beer.  Cheers, Tom