What’s Happening

Hello Soccer Fans!

We’ve got a full slate of league and Champions League games coming up including some great derbies – Everton v. Liverpool and AC Milan v. Inter Milan.  FSC is showing the new Concacaf Champions League.  And the next International break is coming right up with more World Cup Qualifiers.  We have our new satellite dish installed so that the front TV is now fully HD.  Even the non-HD channels look markedly better – check it out next time you stop by.  I will be taping the Champions League matches next week so that we can show them at night too.

I also still have a few tickets left for the MLS Cup Final at the Home Depot Center on Sunday, November 23rd.  If you are interested, just reply to this email.

So here are the games that are coming up:

Saturday, Sept. 27:

On Tape – Everton v. Liverpool, Stoke City v. Chelsea, Arsenal v. Hull, Manchester United v. Bolton, Fulham v. West Ham

11 am – Real Betis v. Real Madrid – Gol TV

11:30 am – Fiorentina v. Genoa – FSC

1 pm – Aston Villa v. Sunderland – Setanta

1:30 pm – Sampdoria v. Juventus – FSC

2:45 pm – Manchester United v. Bolton – Setanta
5 pm – Newcastle United v. Blackburn – FSC

7:30 pm -Chivas USA v. Kansas City Wizards – FSC

Sunday, Sept. 28:

On Tape – Portsmouth v. Tottenham, Wigan v. Manchester City

11:30 am – AC Milan v. Inter Milan – FSC

Noon – Athletico Madrid v. Sevilla – Gol TV

Tuesday, Sept. 30:

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

11:30 am – Arsenal v. Porto – also at 6:15 pm Setanta
2 pm – FC Zenit St. Petersburg v. Real Madrid – ESPN Classic

2:40 pm – Fenerbahce v. Dynamo Kiev – Setanta
4:30 pm – Bayern Munich v. Lyon – Setanta
7 pm – Pumas v. Houston Dynamo – FSC

Wednesday, Oct. 1:

11:30 am – Liverpool v. PSV Eindhoven – ESPN2

11:30 am – CFR Cluj v. Chelsea – also at 6:15 pm – Setanta
2 pm – Shakhtar Donetsk v. Barcelona – ESPN Classic

2:40 pm – Anorthosis v. Panathinaikos – Setanta
4:30 pm – Sporting Lisbon v. Basel – also at 8 pm – Setanta

5 pm – DC United v. Cruz Azul – FSC

7 pm – Olimpia v. Montreal Impact – FSC

Thursday, Oct. 2:

1:45 pm – Guimaraes v. Portsmouth – Setanta
3:45 pm – Standard Liege v. Everton – Setanta
5:30 pm – Wisla Krakow v. Tottenham – Setanta

6 pm – San Jose Earthquakes v. FC Dallas – ESPN2
7 pm – Atlante v. Joe Public – FSC

7:15 pm – Galatasaray v. Bellinzona – Setanta

Saturday, Oct. 4:

On Tape – Blackburn v. Manchester United, Sunderland v. Arsenal, West Brom v. Fulham, Wigan v. Middlesbrough

11:30 am – Bologna v. Inter Milan – FSC

1 pm – Sunderland v. Arsenal – Setanta
1:30 pm – Lazio v. Lecce – FSC

2:45 pm - Wigan v. Middlesbrough – Setanta
4:30 pm – DC United v. Chivas USA – FSC

Sunday, Oct. 5 (Pub will open at 10 am for the Charger game):

On Tape – Chelsea v. Aston Villa, Manchester City v. Liverpool, Juventus v. Palermo

11:30 am – Cagliari v. AC Milan – FSC

12:15 pm – West Ham v. Bolton – Setanta
1:30 pm – Everton v. Newcastle United – FSC

2 pm – Portsmouth v. Stoke City – Setanta
3:45 pm – Chelsea v. Aston Villa – Setanta

Saturday, Oct. 11:

4 pm – USA v. Cuba – ESPN Classic

Wednesday, Oct. 15:

5 pm – Trinidad and Tobago v. USA – ESPN2

The Champions League will resume on October 21st and 22nd.  I will have a full listing of the international games up on the website by the 10th of October.  We’ll see you soon for a great beer and some football action.  Cheers, Tom

Hello Good Beer Fans!
 
As usual, there is much to tell you about this week.  Starting with tonight, Monday the 22nd, we will have the Chargers vs. Jets on Monday Night Football in HD on both the front and back tvs.  The new satellite dish has been installed and we now get a full complement of HD channels.  We’ll have the sound on and our great pitcher special going – $9 pitchers of crafts and locals, $13 pitchers of strong/rare ales.  We have a lot of great hoppy beers on tap right now including Alpine Duet IPA and O’Brien’s IPA, Green Flash West Coast IPA and Lagunitas IPA and Hop Stoopid.  I expect the Chargers to take out a bit of frustration on the Jets and make Brett Favre wish he had stayed retired.  And please, for the love of god, if you are Jets fan, go watch the game somewhere else.
 
Elysian Night
 
Tomorrow night, Tuesday the 23rd, is our big Elysian Brewing Company party with brewer Dave Buehler.  This was supposed to be a launch party, but the beer will not be available in San Diego for at least another month or two.  So for now, this is an exclusive chance to try these great beers before anyone else in town.  We will have six total beers on tap, most of them are multiple GABF and WBC award winners: Wise ESB, Immortal IPA, Dragonstooth Stout, Bete de Blanche Tripel, Night Owl Pumpkin and Avatar Jasmine IPA.  Elysian is one of my favorite northwest brewers and the pub in Seattle is a great place that I have enjoyed every time I visit.  Dave is a great guy who will be eager to talk about his beer (while drinking one of course).  If you can’t make it by on Tuesday, all six beers are in full kegs and should be on tap for Wednesday night as well (most likely they will make it several days, but one or two might be gone earlier).  For more info check out www.elysianbrewing.com.
 
High Tide Casks and Mac N Cheese
 
Thursday the 25th we have not one, but two casks of the brand new High Tide Fresh Hop IPA from Port Brewing in San Marcos.  This is the debut for this annual wet hopped ale.  The draft kegs will not be available until next Monday, so we are the first lucky ones to taste it.  The first cask will tap at 5 pm and I will tap the second one as soon as the first one is gone.  I expect the two casks to last all night, but I can never exactly predict just how much beer you all are capable of drinking.  I still do not have a firm date for the Wet Hop Weekend, but I am leaning towards the 23rd, 24th and 25th of October, right before Halloween.  On the food front, Lindsey will be making more of her incredible Duvel Mac n Cheese with pancetta.  You can also look for her beer chili during the week as well.
 
NBB Night and Brew Dog
 
Friday the 26th will be a mini New Belgium Night with two new beers on tap – Abbey Grand Cru and Giddy Up, an espresso beer.  I have never had either beer on tap before and I have never tried the Giddy Up at all.  The beers will be on tap by 5 pm on Friday.  And if there is any cask beer left from Thursday, we will roll it out on Friday night.  Saturday the 27th we will have some new bottles from Scotland and Brew Dog Brewing Company.  The beers are very American influenced.  We will have IPA, Stout, Amber and Imperial IPA.  The following weekend, Saturday, October 4th we will have the brewers, Martin and James, from Brew Dog at the pub from Scotland.  They will be there from 5-8 pm to answer questions about their great beers and probably share a few as well.
 
More Chargers
 
The Chargers travel to Oakland this weekend to play the Raiders at 1:05 pm.  Again we will have the game on in HD.  The following sunday, October 5th, is the Bolts first 10 am and we will be opening early for the game and serving breakfast from 10 am to 12 pm.  The Chargers play at Miami which may prove to be a more interesting game than I would have thought before the fins trashed the Pats (whom the Chargers play in the SUnday night game on the 12th – we will stay open late for that game).
 
Next Week
 
Next week’s Thursday cask will be AleSmith X on October 2nd.  Friday the 3rd we will host a Stone night with the new collaboration beer between Stone, AleSmith and Mikkeller Brewing from Denmark that was brewed during the craft brewers conference.  We will also have the Ruination IPA and the Cali Belgique IPA on tap.  Tuesday and Wednesday, the 30th and 1st, we will have UEFA Champions Leauge games on at 11:30 am – see the soccer page of the website for match ups.  And as I already mentioned, we will have the Brew Dog brewers at the pub on Saturday the 4th and breakfast for the Chargers/Dolphins game at 10 am.
 
Beer and Cheese
 
Next month we will have our Fall Beer and Cheese Tasting classes with Taste Artisan Cheese and Gourmet Shop.  The dates are Wednesday, October 15th at 7 pm at Taste in Hillcrest and Sunday, October 19th at 6:30 pm at O’Brien’s.  Cost is $40 and I will have a sign up sheet at the pub tonight (cash only please).  You can also contact Taste to use a credit card – there is a link to them on the friends page of the website.  We do not have all of the pairings set yet, but we will be using a blend of local, domestic (not that kind of domestic beer) and international beers for this tasting.  We should have about 7 beers and cheeses in all.  I will post more details as we make them up.
 
The Wi-fi is back to broadcasting and currently does not need a password.  We may use one in the future, but for now, everything is back to the way it was. 

We now have a presence on My Space.  You can find it at www.myspace.com/obrienspubsd.  There are some pretty funny pictures posted there from previous events and our Stone bus trips.  We will be adding more photos soon.  I will post up more about as we build content.

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

Hello All,

Just a quick weekend web update.  One of our beertenders, Micaela, has built an O’Brien’s My Space page that can be found at www.myspace.com/obrienspubsd.  There are some pretty funny pictures up at the site.  Be sure to check it out.

The Chargers play the Jets for Monday night football.  We will have the game in HD on the two big tvs with the sound on.  We’ll also have our regular pitcher special – $9 locals and crafts and $13 strong ale pitchers.  We just tapped second kegs of the Lagunitas IPA and Hop Stoopid.

Tuesday the 23rd is our Elysian Brewing Night with brewer Dave Buehler coming down from Seattle.  We are the only folks in town to have the Elysian beers right now, but hopefully they will be distributed here by the end of the year.  We kick off the night with 6 beers – Wise ESB, Immortal IPA, Dragonstooth Stout, Bete de Blanche Tripel, Night Owl Pumpkin and Avatar Jasmine IPA.  Don’t miss this great chance to meet the brewer and try these incredible beers.  Our next meet the brewer night will be with Brew Dog from Scotland on Saturday, October 4th.

Thursday’s cask is Port Brewing’s High Tide Fresh Hop IPA – and we will have two casks to make sure it lasts all night.  Friday we will have two new beers from New Belgium – Abbey Grand Cru and Giddy Up – an espresso beer.

That is your good beer news for now.  Cheers, Tom

Hello Beer Lovers!

It is time to get you caught up on all of the good beer news from O’Brien’s.  I’ll start with tonight, Thursday the 11th, which is now Patriot Day.  No matter the name, we will never forget (or forgive for that matter).  We will tap a cask of Stone Pale Ale at 5 pm and all of our local beers will be on special.  I also just tapped a new keg of Harviestoun’s Ola Dubh which is a dark strong ale aged in 30 year old Highland Park Reserve Whiskey barrels.  And you won’t find it for less money anywhere in town.  The new Stone Cali-Belgique IPA is on tap along with a new keg of the fantastic Ommegang Rouge Grand Cru.  We’ll also have the new Ne Goeien Saison from Lost Abbey – it is a collaboration with Bas and Hildegard from the Urthel Brewery.  Three of the Boulevard Brewing beers are left from our Friday night promo last week – Long Strange Tripel, Double Wide IPA and Saison.  If you are hungry, try the new Chipotle Chicken sandwich (let me recommend adding bacon to it) or the great Jerk Chicken sandwich or salad.

Tomorrow we start the weekend with beers form Victory Brewing in Pennsylvania.  On tap will be Hop Wallop Double IPA, Hop Devil IPA (on tap now) and Golden Moneky Tripel.  In the kitchen, Lindsey made a new beer cheese with Boon Lambic that is awesome – look for it on burgers all day.  Saturday the 13th we have our AleSmith Vintage and Barrel Aged Tasting at 6 pm.  There are still three seats left for the tasting, cost is $30 and you can sign up at the pub.  And even if you aren’t coming to the tasting, Lindsey will be making her famous Pear Tarts and have some for sale at 6:30 pm – first come, first served.  The OSU-USC football game starts at 5 pm on Saturday.  The nearly, almost, so close to 1-0 but really 0-1 Chargers play at Denver at 1:15 pm on Sunday.  We will have our 10% off all bottles special all weekend and Fish and Chips and Fish Tacos on Sunday for the game.

Next week starts off with Monday Night Football at 5:30 pm with the Eagles vs. the Cowboys (with Jessica Simpson’s trash talk to help them).  We’ll have $9 pitchers of all local and craft beers after 4:30 pm and $13 pitchers of strong ales including Pliny and Pure Hoppiness.  Wednesday night the 17th we host a Lagunitas night with Hop Stoopid double IPA and Lagunitas IPA on tap. 

Thursday the 18th we have a very special cask night in spite of, and not because of, English Jonathon’s birthday (just kidding – we love you Jonathon, most of us anyway).  We will have two casks from Alpine Beer Company – O’Brien’s IPA and Exponential Hoppiness both tapped at 5 pm.  The O’Brien’s IPA is a full cask, and the Expo is a five gallon cask.  Look for some great food specials from Lindsey in the kitchen on the 18th including a batch of Duvel Mac n’ Cheese.

Friday the 19th is the 14th San Diego Festival of Beer downtown from 6-11 pm.  More than 50 breweries will be pouring beer at the event.  And this year should not be overcrowded since Street Scene starts the same night over in the Gaslamp.  Luckily, the beer fest is at Columbia and B far from the hordes of Street Scene.  The fest is a fundraiser and all of the proceeds go to local cancer charities.  So drink beer for a good cause.  For more info visit www.sdbeerfest.org.  If you don’t head downtown, we will have plenty of great beer on tap at the pub including some specials on bottles from Boulevard and The Bruery.

On Saturday the 20th we will host our own fundraiser for pub patrons Alex and Stephanie and Dave and Kemoyah who are participating in the 3 Day Breast Cancer Walk.  We will have some special beers on tap to help them raise money for the walk.  They will also be holding a raffle with some great prizes.  So stop by between 1-6 pm on the 20th and help them raise money to help fight breast cancer.  There is no Chargers game over the weekend since they play the Jets on the 22nd for Monday Night Football.

Tuesday the 23rd we are still on for our meet the brewer night with Elysian Brewing from Seattle.  I expect six beers on tap including ESB, IPA, Stout, Jasmine IPA, Tripel and Pumpkin Ale.  Brewer David Buehler will be at the pub to drink beers and drink some more beers, hang out and perhaps answer a few questions.  That week we will also launch this year’s High Tide IPA fresh hop beer from Port Brewing.  We will have not one, but two casks for Thursday the 25th at 5 pm.  So drink all you want, the casks should last all night.

Next month we have our Fall Beer and Cheese Tasting classes with Taste Artisan Cheese and Gourmet Shop.  The dates are Wednesday, October 15th at 7 pm at Taste in Hillcrest and Sunday, October 19th at 6:30 pm at O’Brien’s.  Cost is $40 and I will have a sign up sheet at the pub tonight (cash only please).  You can also contact Taste to use a credit card – there is a link to them on the friends page of the website.  We are holding the same contest as last time for folks who sign up early.  You will be entered into a drawing to help pick the pairings.  We have not yet set the date for that, but I would expect it to around the end of this month.  So if you sign up at either place soon, you will have a chance to taste all of the possible beers and cheeses for the class and help decide on the final pairings.

On the technology front, we are still knocking the bugs out of the new wi-fi system.  If you are having any problems logging onto the network, please ask for the directions behind the bar.  I would also be interested in hearing about any ongoing problems anyone is having so that we can fine tune the system.  And we are in the process of getting our satellite dish upgraded so that we can get HD channels on the big tv.  It should happen by next Tuesday.  Then we can get all of the ESPN channels and the Chargers in HD.

For Soccer Fans, the UEFA Champions League starts up this coming  week.  We will have two live games every matchday.  On the 16th we will have Chelsea v. Bordeaux and Marseille v. Liverpool both at 11:30 am.  And on the 17th we will have Manchester United v. Villareal and Dynamo Kyiv v. Arsenal.  There will also be more matches each day starting at 2 pm.  We do have a soccer section on the website that lists upcoming games as well as a soccer-specific email.  If you would like to be on it, just reply back to this email and note that you would like to be on the soccer list.  And for anyone that is interested, I have some extra tickets for the MLS Cup Final on Sunday, November 23rd at the Home Depot Center in Carson.  Email me if you are interested.

I want to say thanks to Jim Crute at Lightning for hosting a great 2nd Anniversary Party this past weekend.  The highlight (other than the version of War Pigs by the band) was Jim’s cask conditioned ales.  The Black Lightning Porter and Fairweather Pale were both fantastic.  We will definitely be getting some Lightning casks soon.  Also, for fans of Pizza Port, Hamilton’s Tavern in Southpark is tapping 22 Port beers this Saturday if you are in the neighborhood.  And finally, I am working on the details of our wet hop fest this week and should have more news and hopefully a date next week.  With the hop shortage, it may not be as big as in year’s past, but I should have at least a dozen beers – hopefully more – on tap.

That should be more than enough for now.  We’ll see you soon over a great beer.  Cheers, Tom

Tonight, Friday the 5th, we feature the Smokestack Series of bottles from Boulevard Brewing in Kansas City, MO.  Theese beers are brand new in town and they represent the top of the line beers from Boulevard.  We will have Quadruple (excellent La Trappe-style Quad), Saison, Long Strange Tripel and Double Wide Double IPA.  We will also have two beers from Ommegang on tap – Rouge Grand Cru which is supposed to be a sour Flemish Ale and Rare Vos.  And if that is not enough, we will have a cask of Ballast Point Big Eye IPA at 5:30 pm.

Over the weekend the Chargers start the NFL season at 1:15 pm on Sunday against the Carolina Panthers.  The USA Men’s Soccer Team also plays against Cuba on Saturday at 5 pm.  We will have our regular bottle special – 10% off all bottles, all weekend – along with Fish and Chips and Fish Tacos for the Charger game on Sunday.

Look for an email next week with more beer updates.  Next Friday we will feature beers from Victory Brewing including the great Hop Wallop.  And there are still a few seats left for our AleSmith Vintage and Barrel Aged Tasting on Saturday the 13th at 6 pm.

We’ll see you soon for a great beer and some Chargers football.  Cheers, Tom

Hello Soccer Fans!

The first International break of the season is upon us and it is time for World Cup Qualifying.  The USA plays its first game in Cuba in 61 years this weekend and then faces Trinidad and Tobago next week.  There are a ton of games from Europe as well.  Next weekend the leagues start back up and there will be a huge clash between Liverpool and Manchester United.  And just after that the UEFA Champions League starts back up – although the TV schedule right now is just tentative.

If anyone is interested, I have some extra tickets for the MLS Cup Final at the Home Depot Center on Sunday, November 23rd at 12:30 pm.  Just reply to the email if you would like more information.

So here are the games that are coming up:

Friday 9/5:

11:30 am – U21 England v. Portugal – FSC

Saturday 9/6:

On Tape – Hungary v. Denmark, Wales v. Azerbaijan, Armenia v. Turkey

11 am – Liechtenstein v. Germany – Gol TV

11 am – Malta v. Portugal – Setanta

1 pm – Saudi Arabia v. Iran – FSC

1 pm – Austria v. France – Setanta
1:45 pm – Spain v. Bosnia – Gol TV

3 pm – Cyprus v. Italy – Setanta
3 pm – Bahrain v. Japan – FSC

5 pm – USA v. Cuba – ESPN Classic

5 pm – Slovakia v. Northern Ireland – Setanta
5:30 pm – Chicago Fire v. New York Red Bull – FSC

9 pm – Ukraine v. Belarus – FSC

Sunday 9/7:

2:30 pm – Poland v. Slovenia – Setanta
4:15 pm – Georgia v. Ireland – Setanta

Monday 9/8:

On Tape – Croatia v. Kazakhstan

11:45 am – Macedonia v. Scotland – Setanta
3 pm – Andorra v. England – Setanta
4:45 pm – Luxembourg v. Greece – Setanta

Wednesday 9/10:

On Tape – DPR Korea v. Korea Republic, Russia v. Wales

11 am – Turkey v. Belgium – Setanta
11:30 am – Macedonia v. The Netherlands – FSC

11:45 am – Italy v. Georgia – Gol TV

12:45 pm – Portugal v. Denmark – Setanta
1:50 pm – Spain v. Armenia – Gol TV

2 pm – Slovenia v. Slovakia – FSC

3:45 pm – Frnace v. Serbia – Setanta
5 pm – USA v. Trinidad and Tobago – ESPN2

5 pm – Uzbekistan v. Australia – FSC

5:30 pm – Finland v. Germany – Setanta
8 pm – DPR Korea v. Korea Republic – FSC

Thursday 9/11:

On Tape – Northern Ireland v. Czech Republic, Montenegro v. Ireland

1:45 pm – Iceland v. Scotland – Setanta
5:45 pm – Latvia v. Greece – Setanta

Friday 9/12:

On Tape – San Marino v. Poland

3 pm – Croatia v. England – Setanta

Saturday 9/13:

On  Tape – Liverpool v. Manchester United, Blackburn v. Arsenal, Newcastle United v. Hull City, Manchester City v. Chelsea

11:30 am – Inter Milan Catania – FSC

1 pm – West Brom v. West Ham – Setanta
1:30 pm – Palermo v. Roma – FSC

2:45 pm - Fulham v. Bolton – Setanta

4:30 pm – DC United v. FC Dallas – FSC

4:30 pm – Liverpool v. Manchester United – Setanta

8 pm – Portsmouth v. Middlesbrough – FSC

Sunday 9/14:

On Tape – Stoke v. Everton, Genoa v. AC Milan

11:30 am – Juiventus v. Udinese – FSC

2 pm – Liverpool v. Manchester United – from Saturday – Setanta

Monday 9/15:

11 am – Tottenham v. Aston Villa – Setanta

Tuesday 9/16:

11:30 am – Marseille v. Liverpool – Setanta
11:30 am – UCL on ESPN2 – Teams TBD

2 pm – UCL on ESPN Classic – Teams TBD

2:35 – Panathinaikos v. Inter Milan – Setanta
4:30 pm – PSV Eindhoven v. Athletic Madrid – Setanta

Wednesday 9/17:

11:30 am – UCL on ESPN2 – Teams TBD

2 pm – UCL on ESPN Classic – Teams TBD

That is the soccer news for now.  Tonight, Friday the 5th we feature beers from Boulevard Brewing and Ommegang along with a cask of Ballast Point Big Eye IPA at 5:30 pm.  Cheers, Tom