O’Brien’s pub will be closed Monday, December 31st and Tuesday, January 1st for New Year’s. We’ll be back open on Wednesday the 2nd normal hours and we won’t close down again for a while. Have a very Happy New Year and we will see you in 2008!
Cheers, Tom, Lindsey and the entire O’Brien’s Crew!
Tonight, Thursday the 27th we tap a cask of beer from Hollister Brewing Company in Santa Barbara. We are tapping our cask before the beer is even on tap at Hollister. As such, the beer is unnamed. It is a 100% Centennial hopped IPA that is about 6.5%. Come by and be among the first to taste it. Cask taps at 5 pm.
Friday the 28th is our end of the year party with Green Flash Brewing Company (and plenty of Roederer Estate Sparkling Wine if you want). We’ll have the West Coast IPA, Le Freak Belgian-style IPA, Imperial IPA and Hop Head Red on tap along with a cask of 5th Anniversary Double IPA at 5 pm.
Over the weekend we will be open normal hours – Noon to 11 pm on Saturday. Sunday we will be open Noon to 6 pm. I will be tapping a keg of Alpine O’Brien’s IPA on Sunday for the Chargers game against Oakland at 1:15 pm. We’ll have Fish and Chips and Fish Tacos both days along with our normal 10% off all bottles special. There are several new meads available – Redstone Vanilla Bean and the Honey Run Fruit meads are back in stock as well.
O’Brien’s will be closed on Monday and Tuesday, December 31st and January 1st for New Year’s. We will be back open on Wednesday the 2nd at 11 am. We won’t be closed down again for a while, so you can breath easy. Our 14th Anniversary week will be coming up the week of January 14th – look for lots of specials all week long.
Have a great New Year’s. See you in 2008 for another year of great beer and good cheer! Tom
WARNING: O’Brien’s Pub will be CLOSED December 24th, 25th and 26th for Christmas and December 31st and January 1st for New Year’s. We will be open regular hours all other days. Thanks – the O’Brien’s Crew.
Hello Beer Fans!
Even as the year winds down, there is lots of good beer news from O’Brien’s. On Tuesday I tapped the new O’Brien’s IPA from Alpine Beer Company. Owner/brewer Pat McIllhenny and I collaborated on the recipe and I went up to help him brew it. It is a 6.2% alcohol, golden colored IPA with tons of hops. We used Columbus, Centennial, Cascade, Amarillo and Simcoe in making this beer. The end product is nice and bitter with a very full flavor of hops. I am sure that quite a bit of the keg is gone by now, but don’t worry, we will be getting a fresh keg on Friday the 21st.
Tonight, Thursday the 20th we tap a cask of Pizza Port San Clemente’s Doheny Double IPA at 5 pm. Young’s Double Chocolate Stout is new on tap as well – on nitrogen so it is extra creamy. Speaking of stouts, we have the Pizza Port Carlsbad Port Truck Stout on tap with a keg of Solana Beach Pizza Port’s Seaside Stout to tap right after. And there are still a few of the more recently tapped holiday ales on draft like Moylan’s White Christmas Wit, Port Brewing Old Viscosity and Pyramid Snow Cap. And we will have the NFL network game on tonight as well.
Friday the 21st is Vintage Stone Brewing Night with Ruination IPA, 2004 Old Gaurdian, 2005 Double Bastard and Stone 9th Anniversary Ale. This is a very rare chance to taste these great vintage beers. All four should be on tap all day Friday if all goes well. The Ruination IPA is on tap right now. I should also have some special release vintage bottles from the Vertical Epic series on sale.
We will be open normal hours on Saturday and Sunday, the 22nd and 23rd. We are open Noon to 11 pm every Saturday and Noon to 6 pm every Sunday. We’ll be doing Fish Tacos and Fish and Chips both days as well. And every weekend we offer 10% off all bottles for both in house and any import bottle purchased to go. The pub will be closed for Christmas on the 24th, 25th and 26th (Monday thru Wednesday), so please plan accordingly. So yes, Sunday the 23rd is the last day to get in your hop fix until Thursday the 27th. We will reopen for normal hours on Thursday the 27th – when we will tap a cask from the new Hollister Brewing Company in Santa Barbara. Our end of the year Green Flash Night will be on Friday the 28th. We’ll also have lots of sparkling wine flowing on the 28th as we move up our annual new year’s eve eve party to the 28th. We will also be closed on December 31st and January 1st for New Years. Looking ahead to January we will celebrate O’Brien’s 14th Anniversary during the week of the 14th. It will also be mine and Lindsey’s 5th anniversary for owning the pub. I have a number of great beers already stashed and many more on the way.
As we wind down the year, I would like to thank all of you for making O’Brien’s such a great place to have a beer. Without your thirst for great beer, I would not be able to bring in so many incredible beers. Our selection and rotation is a testament to the beer savvy of our customers. Thank you for an amazing 2007 and I am looking forward to an even better 2008. This will be my last email for the year, so I wish you all a joyous holiday season with best wishes for the coming year. We’ll see you soon for a great beer. Cheers, Tom
Today, Tuesday, December 18th we will have the new O’Brien’s IPA from Alpine Beer Company on tap. Owner/brewer Pat McIllhenny and I collaborated on the recipe and I went up to help him brew it. It is a 6.2% alcohol, golden colored IPA with tons of hops. We used Columbus, Centennial, Cascade, Amarillo and Simcoe in making this beer. I am very excited to try the finished product since I have only tasted it out of the tank.
Thursday the 20th we tap a cask of Pizza Port San Clemente’s Doheny Double IPA at 5 pm. We also still have about 10 Winter ales on tap at the pub. If you haven’t tried them yet, do so soon as the kegs are getting very low. Young’s Double Chocolate Stout is new on tap as well – on nitrogen so it is extra creamy.
Friday the 21st is Vintage Stone Brewing Night with Ruination IPA, 2004 Old Gaurdian, 2005 Double Bastard and Stone 9th Anniversary Ale. This is a very rare chance to taste these great vintage beers. All four should be on tap all day Friday if all goes well.
We will be open normal hours on Saturday and Sunday, the 22nd and 23rd. The pub will be closed for Christmas on the 24th, 25th and 26th (Monday thru Wednesday), so please plan accordingly. We will reopen for normal hours on Thursday the 27th – when we will tap a cask from the new Hollister Brewing Company in Santa Barbara. Our end of the year Green Flash Night will be on Friday the 28th. Look for a new email later in the week. Cheers, Tom
Hello Soccer Fans!
There are some great matches coming up in the next 10 days including Liverpool v. Manchester United and Arsenal v. Chelsea this weekend. We will also have the Milan derby and the La Liga Super Classico next weekend. The finals of the NCAA soccer tournament and the Club World Cup are both on Sunday the 16th. The Champions League draw for the knockout stage will be on Friday, December 21st. The competition resumes in early February, but there are still some UEFA Cup games going on. And Carling Cup Quarterfinals take place next week with Chelsea v. Liverpool.
On tap at the pub, we have 11 Winter Ales on draft with new ones rotating in throughout the weekend.
Here are the listings for the upcoming games:
All games on Setanta unless noted – all Setanta EPL matches are taped for replay anytime.
Friday, Dec. 14:
11 am – UEFA Champions League Highlights – ESPN2
Saturday, Dec. 15:
On Tape – Manchester City v. Bolton and Fulham v. Newcastle
11:30 am – Lazio v. Juventus – FSC
11:30 am – Sunderland v. Aston Villa
1 pm – Valencia v. Barcelona – Gol TV
1:15 pm – Portsmouth v. Tottenham
1:30 pm – Wigan v. Blackburn – FSC
4:45 pm – West Ham v.Everton
Sunday, Dec. 16:
On Tape – Arsenal v. Chelsea, Liverpool v. Manchester United, Torino v. Roma
11:30 am – Cagliari v. Inter Milan – FSC
Noon – Real Madrid v. Osasuna – Gol TV
Noon – NCAA Men’s Soccer Final – Teams TBA – ESPN2
2 pm – Liverpool v. Manchester United
2 pm – Club World Cup 3rd place match – Etoile du Sahel v. Urawa Red Diamonds – FSC
4 pm – Arsenal v. Chelsea (tentatively)
4 pm – Club World Cup Final – AC Milan v. Boca Juniors – FSC
Tuesday, Dec. 18:
11:30 am – Blackburn v. Arsenal – Carling Cup
7:30 pm – Inverness v. Celtic
Wednesday, Dec. 19:
11 am – Chelsea v. Liverpool – Carling Cup – replay at 5:45 pm
2:15 pm – Toulousse v. FC Spartak Moscow – UEFA Cup
4 pm – Galatasaray v. FK Austria Wien – UEFA Cup
Saturday, Dec. 22:
On Tape – Liverpool v. Portsmouth, Fulham v. Wigan
11:30 am – Roma v. Sampdoria – FSC
1:30 pm – Middlesbrough v. West Ham – FSC
2:15 pm - Aston Villa v. Manchester City
4 pm – Arsenal v. Tottenham
5:45 pm – Bolton v. Birmingham
7:30 pm – Reading v. Sunderland
8 pm – Liverpool v. Portsmouth – FSC
Sunday, Dec. 23:
On Tape – Inter Milan v. AC Milan, Manchester United v. Everton, Blackburn v. Chelsea, Newcastle v. Derby County
11:30 am – Juventus v. Sienna – FSC
No time set yet, but hopefully at noon – Real Madrid v. Barcelona – Gol TV
The pub will be closed December 24th, 25th and 26th for Christmas. Have a great Holiday. Cheers, Tom
I have updated the On Tap list and we now have 11 of our holiday ales on tap (as of Wednesday night). We have beer from: Young’s, Anchor, AleSmith, Ballast Point, Port Brewing, Sierra Nevada, Craftsman, Alaskan, Pyramid, Lightning and Deschutes. I still have kegs from Moylans, Lost Abbey, Delirium and Gouden Carolous coming on tap by Friday. It looks like the N’ice Chouffe kegs will not get here until next week. I am expecting to still have at least 10 winter beers on tap for Friday the 14th.
There are also some new bottles available – Equinox and Christmas Nightcap. There will be more new bottles availalbe on Friday. The Thursday night casks will be AleSmith YuleSmith and Coronado Winter Brew. Chargers play at 1:15 pm on Sunday against Detroit. That is all for now. Cheers, Tom
Hello Holiday Beer Fans!
The Shopping (aka Christmas or Holiday) Season is upon us. It is a busy time of year, but hopefully not too busy to have a good beer. There are always a number of great winter ales available this time of year, even if we don’t really have the winter weather to go with it. Although the rain did put a damper in the Strong Ale Festival on Friday, folks came in droves on Saturday to try the more than 70 beers on tap. It was a great weekend, if a little wet. Probably the biggest buzz at the fest Friday was over the Firestone Walker Parabola – a bourbon barrel aged Imperial Oatmeal Stout that is 14.1% alcohol. The big beers always cause a frenzy. The beer was all very good and thankfully there was just enough to satisfy the thirsty crowds. Next fest at Pizza Port Carlsbad will be the Belgian Beer Party in March.
At the pub this week we have an awesome Friday night event on the 7th (Pearl Harbor Day) – The Night of Ultimate Alpine Hoppiness. We will have for the first time ever, all of Alpine’s hoppy ales on tap at once – Alpine Ale, Pure Hoppiness, Nelson IPA, Duet IPA, Bad Boy double IPA and Exponential Hoppiness. Nearly everything will be in full kegs, so it should last all night. As an added bonus, we will have both Nelson IPA and Exponential Hoppiness available on cask at 5 pm! We’ll have lots of people working to help keep your wait for a beer short. We will also be offering 5 ounce and 10 ounce pours on all of the beers, except the casks which we will offer only pints or 10 ounce (5 ounce glasses are very hard to fill on the cask beers).
If you are coming by tonight, Thursday the 6th (guitarist Randy Rhoads birthday) we have a rare cask of stout – Ballast Point Sea Monster stout at 5pm. We only do a few stout casks a year, and I expect this one to be great. As always, all of our local beers will be on special from 4:30 to 9 pm. You can also try the new wedge salad with blue cheese and bacon (my kind of salad) and the Chimay Cheese Burger is back. Over the weekend, the Chargers face the Titans in Nashville at 10 am on Sunday the 9th. We will be open early and we will have breakfast cooking along with our fish and chips and fish tacos. With a Broncos loss to KC and win on Sunday, the Chargers would be AFC West Champs for the third time in four years.
Next week is our Winter Warmers and Christmas Ales week from Monday the 10th through Sunday the 16th (Chargers v. Detroit at 1:15 pm). I have saved up a number of great winter beers on draft and we have more in the bottle as well. I am not sure what exactly will be on tap what day, but I will do my best to update the website often. I have the following draft beers lined up: Gouden Carolous Noel, Anchor Christmas Ale, Young’s Winter Warmer, Delirium Noel, Lightning Black Lightning Porter, N’ice Chouffe, Moylan’s White Christmas, Ballast Point Three Sheets, Pyramid Snow Cap (surprisingly very good), Port Brewing Old Viscosity, Sierra Celebration (which I am enjoying right now) and casks of AleSmith YuleSmith and Coronado Winter Warmer. There will be more beers in the bottle and maybe even a few more on draft over the course of the week. My plan is to have as many on tap on Friday as I can, although I know a few are likely to blow early in the week. I will start tapping some of the bigger, stronger kegs after the Alpine event. The casks will both be tapped on Thursday the 13th at 5 pm.
If you are looking for the ultimate gift for someone (or yourself), our annual Great Belgium Beer Tour through Ciao Travel just might be the ticket. We are spending an entire week touring the breweries and beer bars of this beer mecca in late February and early March. The two city tour will take us through Ghent and Brussels and culminate in the Zythos 24 Hour Belgian Beer Festival (over two days). The grand three city tour will also visit Amsterdam, which is an incredible city to walk around and drink beer in. There are about 30-35% of the spots left for either trip. Most of those signed up are folks from the pub. This is a great trip that is hosted, not herded, so that you do not feel like you are always traveling in a big group. Lindsey and I can’t wait to go. The trip is organized by pub patron and travel agent Bill Snider of Ciao Travel. Bill’s company runs jazz tours to Europe during the summer. For complete itinerary information and prices, visit the Ciao website at www.ciaotravel.com. Bill has helped us and our parents with a number of trips, and I would highly recommend hime for any of your travel needs.
Just a reminder, the pub will be shut down the 24th, 25th and 26th for Christmas, which is a Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. So plan on getting your final Pliny and Pure Hoppiness fix in on Sunday the 23rd. We will also be shut down on the 31st and the 1st for New Year’s. We will have our end of the year party on the 28th with a Green Flash night and plenty of Champagne! Have a great weekend and we’ll see you soon over a great beer. Cheers, Tom
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