What’s Happening

Greetings Beer Fans!
 
It was a great weekend of Harvest beers at the pub.  The Wet Hop Festival featured a ton of great beers with not one, but many standouts.  About 10 of the beers are still on tap, mostly beers that were in full kegs or that had been served on the jockey box over the weekend.  I have updated the tap list on the website as of Wednesday morning.  Most of our regular beers are back including Racer 5 and Pure Hoppiness.  The Ommegang Chocolate Indulgence is also back on tap and we just got our first keg of Celebration in this week and I hope to tap it soon.
 
I have to give a big thanks to two folks, without whom our Wet Hop weekend could have been a total disaster – Josh Miner from Drakes Brewing and our own resident handy man Fix It Paul.  Josh helped organize the Northern California beers and ship them down here.  The shipping company though didn’t do its job and the beer never left.  So Josh piled the beer in a van and drove down from San Leandro on Friday with about 17 kegs in the van to save the day.  Otherwise, we would have missed out on all of the Northern California beers.
 
Continuing with the theme of things going wrong, our CO2 system and our glycol chilling system for the taps both had problems – one on Friday the other on Saturday and Paul was able to come in and fix both problems and keep the draft beer flowing and cold.  So a big THANKS to Paul and Josh for basically saving the Wet Hop Festival from certain doom.  Needless to say, there were many free beers for both Paul and Josh.
 
THIS WEEK – 10/27

And now on to this week’s beer happenings.  On Thursday, October 30th we tap our one and only cask of AleSmith Evil Dead Red at 5 pm.  This is always a very popular cask and I expect it to be gone by 7 pm – you have been warned.  If you can’t make it by, however, there are several other pubs around town tapping EDR casks in the next week or so – Hamilton’s and The Linkery on Friday and PB Tap Room and Ritual Tavern next Wednesday and Thursday respectively.
 
Friday the 31st is our big Halloween Costume Party and I have a bunch of great beers lined up.  We will have the new Ichabod from Alpine, which is a pumpkin Dunkle Weizen.  We will have a very special 5 gallon cask of Ichabod and the beer will be on tap on nitrogen.  Also on tap will be AleSmith Evil Dead Red, Craftsman’s Edgar’s Ale, an oak aged strong ale named for Edgar Allan Poe and Moonlight Boney Fingers, a 6% alcohol black lager beer.  I am also hoping to have the Hopocalypse double IPA on tap from Drake’s.  The tap line up will be great and all of the employees will be in costume.  Halloween at the pub is always fun, so please join us in costume for some great beer.
 
Over the weekend, we will have our regular 10% off all bottles special.  Sunday we will be open normal hours, Noon to 6 pm, since there is no Charger game (hey, at least they can’t lose this week).  For those who signed up for our Lost Abbey tasting, it will be at 6:30 pm on the 2nd.  Monday, November 3rd, we get the Steelers at the Redskins for Monday Night Football and we’ll have our great $9 pitcher special going all night long.  The paper may tell you the economy is in the toilet, but with gas under $2.85 and pitchers of Russian River IPA for $9, it can’t be all that bad.  For soccer fans, the Champions League will be on Tuesday and Wednesday, November 4th and 5th at 11:30 am both days.
 
NEXT WEEK – 11/3

Next Tuesday is election night.  And you have to allow me to get on my soapbox for a minute.  Voting is important.  It doesn’t matter who you vote for, it matters that you participate.  The only way we can hope to get this city, state and country of ours in the direction we want it to go, is to vote on election day for the issues we believe in.  I don’t care who you vote for, but I will offer to bribe you to vote.  Just bring in your I Voted sticker and you will get your first craft or local beer for just $2.  You might as well wake up with a hangover on Wednesday, because no matter what happens, your head will probably hurt as soon as you read the paper or watch the news in the morning.  At least we won’t get any more of those damned election mailers.
 
Now, back to the beer.  On Wednesday, November 5th we have a very special celebration – 25 years of Chimay in the United States.  We will have Chimay on tap and all three Chimay beers in the bottle – White Cap, Red Cap and the Grand Reserve along with magnums and 3 liters of the Grand Reserve.  There will also be specially engraved 25th Anniversary Chimay glasses for sale.  The kitchen will have Chimay cheeseburgers and Chimay cheese plates featuring three different Chimay cheeses.  The celebration starts at 6 pm and goes until closing.  Our Chimay representative for California, Jay Baum, will be on hand to answer questions, share beer and talk soccer.  Chimay is one of the most recognizable Belgian beers and this is a great milestone.  Chimay was a forerunner of the good beer movement in this country.  O’Brien’s is proud to host the 25th Anniversary party for Chimay in San Diego.
 
On Thursday, November 6th we will have a cask of the aptly named Green Flash Palate Wrecker double IPA at 5 pm.  Friday the 7th we will feature the beers of Airdale Brewing Company, a new San Diego based outfit.  The guys are making their beer at Bayhawk in Orange County, but unlike other contract brewing company’s, they have a head brewer and their own recipes.  David Lusk, formerly the brewer at Backstreet Vista, is the head brewer for Airdale and he goes to Orange County to make the beer.  The company does have plans to open a brewery in San Diego in the future.  We will have a Pale Ale, Hefeweizen and Porter from Airdale.  So be sure to check out these newest beers in San Diego.  Sunday the 9th, the Chargers and new defensive coordinator Ron Rivera face Kansas City at 1:15 pm. 
 
FESTIVAL NEWS

Saturday the 8th is the annual San Diego Brewers Guild Festival.  This is always one of the best beer events of the year.  It features beer from every single San Diego brewery and only San Diego breweries – though there will be San Diego county wines.  Most of the breweries bring out great specialty beers that aren’t regularly available.  There will also be some food pairing with the beer from pub members of the Guild and live music.  The festival is at the World Beat Center in Balboa Park – it is the funky looking round building you pass before getting on the freeway.  It will run from 7-11 pm with a special VIP session from 5-7 that will feature a line up of VIP only beers.  Tickets are cheaper if you buy them in advance, which you can do through the Guild website at www.sandiegobrewersguild.org. 
 
And while I am on festivals, the Green Flash Anniversary Party is coming up on November 15th.  It will be at the brewery in Vista from 12 – 4 pm.  For complete details visit http://greenflashbrew.com/2008celebration.html.  If you are looking for a safe way to get up to Vista, consider Brewer Tours of San Diego.  They are driving folks round trip for $20 and will pick you up at O’Brien’s at 11:30 am.  For more info visit: http://brewerytoursofsandiego.com/ridegreenflash.html.  And VIP tickets for the San Diego Strong Ale Festival are sale now through www.pizzaport.com.  This session always sells out, so don’t delay in buying your tickets.
 
That is your good beer news for now.  We’ll see you soon for a great beer.  Cheers, Tom

Hello Beer Fans!

The Wet Hop Festival was a great success!  We had 24 beers total over the weekend and there were some truly great wet hopped ales.  More of the Northern California beers showed up in full size kegs than I expected so we still have a lot of the wet hop beers on tap including some of the standouts like Lagunitas wet hop IPA, Bear Republic Grandma’s Homegrown, Butte Creek Initial Attack IPA, Black Diamond Rye IPA and Pizza Port Carlsbad Plant to Pint.  We also have a Blind Pig, Pliny the Elder and Yellowtail on tap and the tap list should be back to normal by Wednesday with Racer 5, Russian River IPA and Pure Hoppiness.  So if you missed this weekend, be sure to stop by soon to taste some of these great, once a year harvest ales.  I have updated the tap list as of Monday morning.

I have to give a big thanks to two folks, without whom this weekend could have been a total disaster – Josh Miner from Drakes Brewing and our own resident handy man Fix It Paul.  Josh was helping to organize the Northern California beers and ship them down here.  The shipping company though didn’t do its job and the beer never left.  So Josh piled the beer in a van and drove down from San Leandro on Friday with about 17 kegs in the van to save the day.  Otherwise, we would have misse out on all of the Northern California beers.

Continuing with the theme of things going wrong, our CO2 system and our glycol chilling system for the taps both had problems – one on Friday the other on Saturday and Paul was able to come in and fix both problems and keep the draft beer flowing and cold.  So a big THANKS to Paul and Josh for basically saving the Wet Hop Festival from certain doom.

Later this week you can look forward to a cask of AleSmith Evil Dead Red and then our big Halloween Costume party on Friday.  I have kegs of AleSmith Evil Dead Red, Alping Ichabod (a pumpkin dunkle weizen) and Moonlight Boney Fingers all lined up for Friday.  And the Chargers can’t lose this Sunday!  Well, they don’t play, but at least we won’t have to suffer through another agonizing loss.  The pub will be open normal hours from 12-6 pm on the 2nd.  Hard to believe it is almost November and that Christmas decorations are already out at the stores.

That is your web update for now.  We’ll see you soon for a great beer.  Cheers, Tom

Hello Hop Lovers!

The Wet Hop Festival weekend is finally here!  I am expecting 24 different wet hop beers from San Diego, Northern California and Oregon.  We should have 22 different draft beers, 4 casks and even one bottled beer.  The line up will include beers from Pizza Port Carlsbad and Solana Beach, Ballast Point, Port Brewing, Stone, 21st Amendment, Anderson Valley, Beach Chalet, Bear Republic, Black Diamond, Blue Frog, Butte Creek, Lagunitas, Moonlight, Sierra Nevada, Triple Rock, Deschutes and Full Sail.

The fun starts tonight with two very rare and special festival pre-party casks from Sierra Nevada – Harvest Ale and ESP.  This year’s Harvest is great and I can’t wait to try it on cask.  The ESP is one of my favorite Sierra beers.  It is the bottled version of the Pale Ale, which is a little stronger and more hoppy, with wet hops added in the conditioning tank.  These are the only casks of these beers in southern California, so don’t miss them tonight, Thursday, 10/23 at 5 pm.  We also have a few wet hopped ales on tap right now including Port Brewing High Tide, Sierra Nevada Harvest and Full Sail Lupulin.  More will be added tonight as well.

Friday the 24th we start the actual festival with two more local casks and all of the beers that are in full size kegs – so they will last all weekend.  We will have casks of Stone Arrogant Bastard ale with wet Chinook hops that were grown in the Bistro gardens added to the cask.  We’ll also have a cask of Ballast Point’s Schooner ale.  Both will be tapped by 6 pm.  There should also be nearly a dozen wet hop beers on tap including Pizza Port Carlsbad Plant to Pint, Anderson Valley Mendo Mellow, Bear Republic Grandma’s Homegrown, Butte Creek Initial Attack Fresh Hop IPA, Sierra Nevada Southern Hemisphere Harvest and Deschutes Hop Trip.  Check the board when you come in for the full list.

Saturday the 25th we will have all of the wet hop beers on tap – 22 on draft, 1 from the bottle and we will be serving any cask beer that might be left.  Among the new beers for Saturday will be Port Brewing Homegrown Hop 15, Triple Rock Harvest Ale, Moonlight Sublimmminal and Fresh Hop Lager and 21st Amendement Harvest Moon.  We will be serving the beers in 5, 10 or 16 ounce sizes.  So that everyone has an opportunity to taste the beers, we will not be serving pitchers of the beers that only come in 5 gallon kegs.  I will also have a 5 handle jockey box set up to accommodate the extra beers.  That way we can keep a few of the local favorites like Pliny the Elder on tap.

Sunday the 26th we will still have a full line up of wet hop beers and we will be opening early at 10 am for the Chargers v. Saints game from London.  The kitchen will be serving up breakfast and mimosas from 10 am to 12 pm including biscuits and gravy and breakfast burritos with fresh salsa.  This will be our last 10 am game until mid-December, so don’t miss it.  The wet hop beers will be on tap all day and I expect to have at least 20 pouring on Sunday.  I may be wrong, but I really don’t think that you guys can drink it all on Friday and Saturday.

And the beer won’t be the only great special this weekend.  Lindsey and Humberto are working up a great list of specials for the entire weekend including Jerk Chicken, Beer Chili, Chili Cheese Dogs (yes they are as good as they sound), and several new beer cheeses.  Lindsey has made her regular beer cheese with Sierra Nevada Harvest Ale and she also made one with goat cheese and Harvest Ale.  Show up thirsty and hungry and I guarantee that there will be no way to leave disappointed.

Next Week

Next week, you will have a few recovery days before we tap a cask of AleSmith Evil Dead Red on Thursday the 30th at 5 pm.  We only get one cask a year and it never lasts that long, so don’t show up late.  Friday the 31st we will have our annual Halloween Costume party with lots of special beers.  I have saved back a keg of AleSmith Evil Dead Red and we will be debuting the new Alpine Ichabod.  The recipe changes every year and this year it is a Pumpkin Dunkel Weizen.  We should also have a keg from Moonlight Brewing Company coming down as well, along with a double IPA from Drake’s brewing.

On the bottle (and can) front, the Maui Brewing beers – Coconut Porter and Big Swell IPA are back in stock.  We have our first Christmas beers if you can believe it – Delirium Noel and Gouden Carolous Noel.  Although some have already sold out, we still have about 30 new bottles from our San Diego County Fair list including the Mountain Meadows meads.  A lot of the beers on that list though are down to the last two or three bottles, so if there is something you want to try, now is the time to do it.  You can also get 20% off any of the import bottles on our Fair list when purchased to-go.

That is your good beer news for now.  Don’t forget about the San Diego Brewers Guild Festival on November 8th.  And VIP tickets for the San Diego Strong Ale Festival at Pizza Port Carlsbad will be on sale soon.  We’ll see you soon for a great wet hop beer!  Cheers, Tom

This weekend is our annual Wet Hop Beer Festival.  We will have over 20 beers on tap over the three days – Friday thru Sunday, October 24th to 26th.  These beers are only brewed once a year at the time of the hop harvest.  They use fresh, right off the vine hops that have not yet been dried, hence they are still “wet”.  These beers use insane amounts of hops, but have a more subtle flavor than IPAs.  The wet hops impart are much different flavor than the normal dried hops.  It only happens once a year and where better to celebrate it than the Hoppiest Place on Earth?

We’ll start early on Thursday the 23rd with two wet hop casks from Sierra Nevada – Harvest Ale and ESP (extra special pale).  The ESP is the bottled version of the Sierra Pale Ale (stronger and more bitter than the draft) made with wet hops.  Both of those casks will be on at 5 pm and I expect them to go quick.

Friday night the 24th I will tap all of the beers in 15.5 gallon kegs and two more local casks – Ballast Point Schooner and Stone wet hopped Arrogant Bastard ale.  Both of those casks will be on by 6 pm.  I expect to have at least a dozen draft beers on tap in addition to the casks.  Lindsey is planning an insane line up of food specials for the weekend including a wet hop beer cheese, chili cheese dogs and Dave’s Bacon Stilton burger.

Saturday and Sunday, the 25th and 26th we will tap all of the beers – full kegs and five gallon kegs.  I’ll have a jockey box set up for the five gallon kegs so that we can leave a few regular beers on tap.  More than 20 wet hop beers should be available both days.  We will have beers from Bear Republic, Moonlight, Black Diamond, Full Sail, Deschute, Triple Rock, Blue Frog, Lagunitas, Pizza Port, Ballast Point, Beach Chalet and many more.  Sunday, we will again open early at 10 am and serve breakfast during the Chargers v. Saints game from London.  This will be our last breakfast until December, so don’t miss out on the great food.

There are still a few spaces left for our beer and cheese tasting on Wednesday, October 22nd at Taste in Hillcrest at 7 pm.  If you are interested in going, please call Taste at 619-683-2306 to buy tickets.  And we will also have the UEFA Champions League on the TVs at lunch on Wednesday with Liverpool facing Atletico Madrid.

Next wek I have a cask of AleSmith Evil Dead Red for Thursday the 30th and a draft keg set aside for our Halloween costume party on Friday the 31st!  November 5th is our Chimay Party celebrating 25 years of Chimay being imported into the USA.  We will have all three Chimay beers and the draft along with some food specials using the Chimay cheeses.  November 8th is the San Diego Brewers Guild Festival at the World Beat Center.  Visit www.sandiegobrewersguild.org for info and tickets.

That is the good beer news for now.  Look for a full email before the wet hop fest.  Cheers, Tom

Hello Beer Fans!

I have a ton of great beer news for you this week.  First I have to tell you about AleSmith being named the Small Brewing Company of the Year at the Great American Beer Festival!  The brewery won four medals at the GABF.  Also well represented was Pizza Port Carlsbad and brewer Jeff Bagby who snagged five medals.  Pizza Port Solana Beach, Rock Bottom La Jolla, Port Brewing and San Diego Brewing Company rounded out the San Diego medal contingent.  San Diego took gold (Hopnotic) and bronze (Hop 15) in the double IPA category.  Congrats to all of the winners!  For complete results visit www.beertown.org and click on the link to GABF winners.

Back on the pub front, I am trying to make room for all of the beers coming in next week for the wet hop festival.  And the benefit of this for you is that I have to tap kegs of Alpine Duet IPA and Exponential Hoppiness to make some space.  Both of these beers will be on tap tonight – Wednesday the 15th – for your beer drinking enjoyment.  We’ll also have the USA world cup qualifying match against Trinidad and Tobago on live at 5 pm.  There are also some other great draft beers on right now including Pizza Port Carlsbad Hop Suey, Avery Kaiser Imperial Octoberfest, Port Brewing High Tide and De Glazen Toren Saison d’Erpe Mere.

Thursday the 16th we have another special dual cask night with beers from Pizza Port Carlsbad – Hop Suey and Poor Man’s IPA.  This will be a major double dose of hops.  All local beers will be on special as well.

Friday the 17th I have another special treat.  I was able to secure some of the left over bottles from the San Diego County Fair festival and we will have them out for sale Friday night.  The list includes beers from Jolly Pumpkin, Nogne O in Norway, Danish brewers Mikkeller and Norrebro Brygus, Ridgeway from England, Isle of Skye from Scotland, Jenlain from France, Moylan’s, Mendocino, Affligem and many more!  These bottles will have their own special list and as an added bonus – we will be offering 20% off any import on this list to-go on Friday night!

Saturday the 18th we will tap a keg of Green Flash Palette Wrecker which was brewed for Hamilton’s 2nd Anniversary – which will be happening Saturday night.  We will have the keg on tap all day and I can assure that it lives up to its name.  We will also have some new meads available on Saturday from Mountain Meadows Mead in Northern California.  We will have the fantastic Honeymoon traditional sweet mead along with Spice Nectar and Agave Nectar, both of which are very tasty.  We also still have some of the Dansk Klapojster caraway mead along with our selection of Redstone Meads – Boysenberry Nectar, Juniper Berry and Traditional.

Sunday the 19th we will be opening up early at 10 am for the Chargers v. Bills game.  We will again be serving up breakfast and mimosas from 10 am to 12 pm.  The food is great, the atmosphere is fun and the chargers just might win two in a row.  So wake up and join us for the game and a great brunch.

Sunday the 19th is also the day of our next Beer and Cheese Tasting with Taste Cheese Shop in Hillcrest.  The first class sold out, but there are some seats left for our tasting on the 19th – which is at the pub at 6:30 pm.  There is also a third class at Taste on Wednesday the 22nd at 7 pm.  Cost is $40 and you can sign up at the pub (cash only please) or call Taste to use a credit card – there is a link to them on our website – www.obrienspub.net.  We have an amazing set of pairings this class and our beer line up is a list of world class examples.  The beers were are using are: Paulaner Hefeweizen, Hacker Pschorr Octoberfest, Duvel, Malheur 10, Oskar Blues Old Chubb, Young’s Double Chocolate Stout and Duchesse de Bourgogne.  Sign up today before the classes sell out!

Our Lost Abbey Tasting on November 2nd is sold out, but we do have a waiting list started in case seats open up.

Next week is our annual Wet Hop Beer Festival.  We will have over 20 beers on tap over the three days – Friday thru Sunday, October 24th to 26th.  These beers are only brewed once a year at the time of the hop harvest.  They use fresh, right off the vine hops that have not yet been dried, hence they are still “wet”.  These beers use insane amounts of hops, but have a more subtle flavor than IPAs.  The wet hops impart are much different flavor than the normal dried hops.  It only happens once a year and where better to celebrate it than the Hoppiest Place on Earth?

We’ll start early on Thursday the 23rd with two wet hop casks from Sierra Nevada – Harvest Ale and ESP (extra special pale).  The ESP is the bottled version of the Sierra Pale Ale (stronger and more bitter than the draft) made with wet hops.  Both of those casks will be on at 5 pm and I expect them to go quick.

Friday night the 24th I will tap all of the beers in 15.5 gallon kegs and two more local casks – Ballast Point Schooner and Stone wet hopped Arrogant Bastard ale.  Both of those casks will be on by 6 pm.  I expect to have at least a dozen draft beers on tap in addition to the casks.

Saturday and Sunday, the 25th and 26th we will tap all of the beers – full kegs and five gallon kegs.  I’ll have a jockey box set up for the five gallon kegs so that we can leave a few regular beers on tap.  More than 20 wet hop beers should be available both days.  I will have more details on the beer line up next week before the fest.  Sunday, we will again open early at 10 am and serve breakfast during the Chargers v. Saints game from London.

The week after, I have a cask of AleSmith Evil Dead Red for Thursday the 30th and a draft keg set aside for our Halloween costume party on Friday the 31st!  November 5th is our Chimay Party celebrating 25 years of Chimay being imported into the USA.  We will have all three Chimay beers and the draft along with some food specials using the Chimay cheeses.  November 8th is the San Diego Brewers Guild Festival at the World Beat Center.  Visit www.sandiegobrewersguild.org for info and tickets.

I have a correction to add from the last email – Ballast Point’s Anniversary Party on the 25th is at Liberty Station, not at the brewery as I wrote.  And for those that live near or have cause to eat out in La Mesa, I have an Italian restaurant recommendation – Antica Tratotoria.  It is tucked away in an unassuming strip mall like O’Brien’s, but it has some of the best Italian food in town.  Check them out on the interweb at www.anticatrattoria.com.

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

Hello All,

I just looked at the results for the Great American Beer Festival in Denver and San Diego has done it again.  AleSmith won four medals and was named Small Brewing Company of the Year – the same award that Port Brewing/Lost Abbey won at the World Beer Cup earlier this year.  Pizza Port Carlsbad brewer Jeff Bagby bagged five medals, while Pizza Port Solana Beach and San Clemente each got one.  Port Brewing took home a bronze for Hop 15 and San Diego Brewing Company won the gold with Hopnotic.  Rock Bottom La Jolla rounded out the San Diego contingent for medals.  For complete results visit www.beertown.org

We have 5 great beers on tap right now for our Octoberfest weekend – Avery Kaiser Imperial Octoberfest, Craftsman Oktoberfest, Schneider Aventinus Eisbock (13% abv), Weihenstephan Vitus Weizenbock and Sierra Nevada Super Seven Imperial Pilsner.  As you can tell, not your ordinary Octoberfest beers.  We also have two new German bottles – EKU 28, an 11% double bock and Schlenkerla Smoked Marzen from Bamberg – this is the world’s classic smoked beer.  If you have never had it, you need to try it.

On Sunday the 12th we will be staying open late for the Chargers v. Patriots game which starts at 5:!5 pm.  The kitchen will be open until halftime for your dining pleasure.  There are some other great new beers on tap to try including Full Sail Lupulin fresh hop ale (first time in San Diego), Sierra Nevada Harvest and Moylan’s Moylander double IPA.

Next week, we will have Alpine Exponential Hoppiness and Duet IPA on tap on Wednesday the 15th.  There will again be two casks on Thursday the 16th, this time from Pizza Port Carlsbad – Hop Suey and Poor Man’s IPA.  The Hop Suey is on tap right now and it is a big bruising hoppy beer.

That is your web update for now.  We’ll see you soon for a great beer.  Cheers, Tom

Hello Football Fans!
 
The second international break is already here and there are plenty of great qualifiers on tv.  The USA plays Saturday at 4 pm against Cuba at RFK and Wednesday at Trinidad and Tobago at 5 pm.  Both games will be on with the sound up and the TNT game will be shown in Hi Def – the Cuba game is on ESPN Classic which does not broadcast in Hi Def.
On the European front, there are plenty of great match ups including Germany v. Russia this Saturday.  The leagues will resume on the 18th and all of the big four in the EPL will be on tv.  The Champions League and UEFA Cup will resume on the 21st, 22nd and 23rd of October.
On the beer front, we tap three Alpine cask beers tonight – O’Brien’s IPA, Duet IPA and Pure Hoppiness all at 5 pm and tomorrow we start our week-long Octoberfest party with Weihenstephaner Vitus Weizenbock, Schneider Aventinus Eisbock and Craftsman Octoberfest all on tap.
 
So Here are the upcoming games at the pub:
 
Thursday, Oct. 9:
7 pm – New York Red Bull v. Real Salt Lake – ESPN2
7 pm – Deportivo Saprissa v. DC United – FSC
 
Friday, Oct. 10:
Noon – Atletico Madrid v. Barcelona – FSC – a replay of the 6-1 thrashing – 5 goals in the first 30 minutes!
 
Saturday, Oct. 11:
On Tape – England v. Kazakhstan, Scotland v. Norway, Wales v. Lichtenstein
11 am – Sweden v. Portugal – Setanta
11:30 am – Estonia v. Spain – FSC
11:45 am – Germany v. Russia – GOL TV
1 pm – Romania v. France – Setanta
1:45 pm – Netherlands v. Iceland – GOL TV
2:45 pm – Bulgaria v. Italy – Setanta
4 pm – USA v. Cuba – ESPN Classic
4 pm – Scotland v. Norway – GOL TV
4:30 pm – Slovenia v. Northern Ireland – Setanta
5:30 pm – FC Dallas v. Toronto FC – FSC
6 pm – Germany v. Russia – GOL TV
6:15 pm – Sweden v. Portugal – Setanta
8 pm – Turkey v. Bosnia-Herzegovina – Setanta
8 pm – Netherlands v. Iceland – GOL TV
 
Sunday, Oct. 12:
Noon – replay England v. Kazakhstan – FSC

2 pm – Greece v. Moldova – Setanta

3:45 pm – Poland v. Czech Republic – Setanta

4 pm – Vancouver v. Puerto Rico – FSC – USL 1st Division Championship Final

5:30 pm – Ukriane v. Croatia – Setanta

Tuesday, Oct. 14:

11 am – U21 Euro Qualifying – England v. Wales – also at 6:15 pm – Setanta

Wednesday, Oct. 15:

On Tape – Korea Republic v. United Arab Emirates, Norway v. Netherlands

11:25 am – Greece v. Switzerland – Setanta

11:45 am – Germany v. Wales – GOL TV

Noon – Czech Repulbic v. Slovenia – FSC

1:25 pm - Blegium v. Spain – Setanta
2 pm – Australia v. Qatar – FSC

3:15 pm – Portugal v. Albania – Setanta

5 pm – Norway v. Netherlands – FSC

5 pm – Greece v. Switzerland – Setanta

8 pm – Estonia v. Turkey – Setanta

8 pm – Korea Republic v. United Arab Emirates – FSC

Thursday, Oct. 16:

3 pm – Ireland v. Cyprus – Setanta

4:30 pm – New England Revolution v. DC United – ESPN2
4:45 pm – Slovakia v. Poland – Setanta

6:30 pm – Croatia v. Andorra – Setanta

Friday, Oct. 17:

3 pm – Belarus v. England – Setanta – 1st Air

Saturday, Oct. 18:

On Tape – Arsenal v. Everton, Middlesbrough v. Chelsea, Liverpool v. Wigan, Manchester Unitd v. West Brom

11:30 am – Napoli v. Juventus – FSC

1:30 pm – Fiorentina v. Reggina – FSC

2 pm -Aston Villa v. Portsmouth – Setanta

3:30 pm – Fulham v. Sunderland – FSC

5:30 pm – Liverpool v. Wigan – Setanta

6 pm – Real Salt Lake v. FC Dallas – FSC

7:15 pm – Bolton v. Blackburn – Setanta

Sunday, Oct. 19:

On Tape – Stoke City v. Tottenham

11:30 am – Roma v. Inter Milan – FSC

1:30 pm – River Plate v. Boca Juniors – FSC – Argentina’s Super Classico

Monday, Oct. 20:

11 am – Newcastle United v. Manchester City – Setanta

Tuesday and Wednesday, Oct. 21 and 22:

11:30 am – Live UEFA Champions League games

Those are the games for now. We’ll see you soon for some great World Cup Qualifying action!  Cheers, Tom

If you have seen the updated On Tap List then you already know that we will be tapping 3 cask beers from Alpine this Thursday, October 9th.  O’Brien’s IPA, Duet IPA and Pure Hoppiness will all be on cask at 5 pm pouring through three beer engines.  The O’Brien’s and Duet are just 5 gallon casks so I expect them to blow first.  This will be the first time that we have ever had three beer engines up and running at the pub.

On the draft side, we have the first of our Octoberfest beers on tap from Craftsman in Pasadena.  And the High Tide IPA from Port Brewing is back on – along with the Sierra Nevada Harvest so we are running two wet hopped ales right now.  I expect to have a few more Octoberfest beers on tap Friday and then a few more over the weekend including Vitus Weizenbock, Aventinus Eisbock, Firestone Oaktoberfest, Avery Kaiser Imperial Octoberfest and Ballast Point Rocktoberfest.

On the bottle/can front, the Maui Brewing Cans are now available – Big Swell IPA and Coconut Porter.  The popular Lost Abbey/Urthel collaboration Ne Goeien Saison is restocked (it translates to “a good one”).  Look for the Malheur Dark Brut on the new bottles list – it was formerly the Malheur Dark Chocolate.

We’ll be open late Sunday night for the Chargers-Pats game that starts at 5:15 pm.  We’ll keep the kitchen open until half-time as well.

That is your web update for now.  We’ll see you soon for some great cask beer.  Cheers, Tom

Hello All,

Just a quick Saturday update.  Tonight is our meet the brewer night with Martin and James from Brew Dog in Fraserburgh, Scotland.  Their Paradox, which is a whiskey barrel aged Imperial Stout, is my new favorite beer.  We’ll have four other beers from Brew Dog and Martin and James will be at the pub from 5-8 pm.  We also still have some bottles of the Stone O4-04-04 Veritcal Epic if you missed it on Friday.

Sunday we will be open early for the Charger game at 10 with breakfast including Biscuits and Gravy and Mimosas from 10 am to 12 pm.  Next weekend, we will be staying open late for the Chargers – Patriots game that starts at 5:15 pm.

Due to the overwhelming response to our Beer and Cheese Pairings, we have added a THIRD class on Wednesday, October 22nd at Taste in Hillcrest.  I will have a sign up sheet for it out by 5 pm tonight.  The first Wednesday class at Taste is already sold out and the class on the 19th at the pub has only about 10 seats remaining.

And our Lost Abbey Rare Bottle Tasting is about half sold out with about 15 seats remaining.  That tasting is Sunday, November 2nd at the pub at 6:30 pm.  Cost is $45 (cash only please).

For this coming week, I have gone a little overboard for Thursday night’s cask – there will not one, but THREE Alpine casks – Pure Hoppiness, O’Brien’s IPA and Duet IPA all tapped at 5 pm.  This will be the first time we have ever had three beer engines pumping at the same time at the pub.  Hopefully the 20 plus gallons of cask beer will last most of the night.

That is your update for now, for more news and details – read Thursday’s newsletter just below this post.  Cheers, Tom

Hello Beer Fans!

As you might expect from the month that spawned the world’s largest beer festival, October is full of good beer happenings here in San Diego.  Of course the La Mesa and El Cajon Octoberfest celebrations will be going on this weekend with lots of German beer.  But there will also be plenty of good beer of all types at the pub all month long.  It starts tonight (Thursday) with not one, but two cask conditioned ales – AleSmith X and Port Brewing High Tide IPA.  Both casks will tap at 5 pm and all of our local beers will be on special.

This Week – Meet the Brewers!

Tomorrow, Friday the 3rd, the fun continues with a night of specialty beers from Stone Brewing Company.  We will have the collaboration tripel brewed by Stone, AleSmith and Danish brewer Mikkeller on tap for the first time along with the Cali-Belgique IPA and Stone Ruination.  I will also be releasing some special vintage bottles including a bunch of 04-04-04 Vertical Epic!  Some of the bottles, I only have one or two of, so be sure to check out the list at 5 pm when it is released.

Saturday the 4th the party keeps rolling along as Martin and James from Brew Dog in Scotland stop by the pub from 5-8 pm to say hello and share their excellent beers.  We currently have 5 Brew Dog beers available including the incredible Paradox.  It is an Imperial Stout aged in whiskey barrels.  For any one who likes the Harviestouns Old Dubh, this will be your new favorite beer.  We also have the Physics Amber ESB, Punk IPA, Hardcore Double IPA and Riptide Stout.  All of the beers are very good and very American influenced.  This will be a really rare treat to meet some brewers from Scotland at the pub.  Be sure to stop by and say hi to Martin and James with me from 5 – 8 pm this Saturday.  You’ll also be able to catch some of the twilight air show at Miramar from the patio.

Sunday the 5th the Chargers play the Miami Dolphins at 10 am.  We will open up early and will serve some breakfast items from 10 am to 12 pm and then serve our regular menu after that.  The pub will still be open until 6 pm.  I can’t believe that we have not beat the Fins in Miami since 1982 and the epic playoff game where Kellen Winslow had to be carried off the field.  Seems about time to correct that – as long as Ed Hochuli is not the ref, right?  For Soccer fans, both the Liverpool v. Man City and Chelsea v. Aston Villa games will be on tape.

Next Week

Next week we will feature our regular pitcher special for Monday Night Football – $9 pitchers of locals and crafts and $13 pitchers of rare and strong ales.  Wednesday the 8th we will release the Big Swell IPA and Coconut Porter from Maui Brewing Company.  We have had the beers once before during the Craft Brewers Conference, but now the beers are in San Diego full time.  I will be keeping the Coconut Porter around full time – I don’t even like Coconut and I think that it is an amazing beer.  You really just have to try it.  Next Thursday’s cask will be another double, this time from Alpine – Pure Hoppiness IPA and O’Brien’s IPA both at 5 pm.  And keep an eye out for the return of the Bacon Stilton burger next week.

Next weekend, Friday the 10th will start the pub’s week-long Octoberfest celebration.  And in keeping with true O’Brien’s style, it won’t just be regular Octoberfest beers and some lighter lagers.  Nope, we will have on tap the Weihenstephaner Vitus (a weizenbock like the Schneider Aventinus) and Schneider Aventinus Eisbock (13% abv) along with some great bottles including EKU 28 and Aecht Schlenkerla Smoked Marzen which is a very intense smoke beer.  We will have some regular offerings – Hacker Pschorr Octoberfest, Ballast Point Rocktoberfest and Paulaner Hefeweizen as well to round things out during the week.

And we will be staying open late for next Sunday’s Charger game vs. the Patriots.  The game is at 5:15 pm and we will be open until it is over and the Patriots have lost.

Beer Tastings

I have two great special events to tell you about.  First, we sat down and made the pairings for our next Beer and Cheese class with Taste Artisan Cheese and Gourmet Shop in Hillcrest.  We have some amazing pairings that really surprised me.  Among the beers we will be using are: Malheur 10 (this delicious strong golden ale is now on our bottle list), Duchess de Bourgogne and Young’s Double Chocolate Stout.  We will also have some incredible cheeses including a black truffle cheese from Italy.  The first class on Wednesday, October 15th at Taste is already sold out.  However, there are still about 20 seats left for the class at O’Brien’s on Sunday, October 19th at 6:30 pm as I write this.  If you want to go though, I would not wait long.  I expect the class to sell out by next weekend.  Cost is $40 and you can sign up at the pub (cash only please) or call Taste to use a credit card – 619-683-2306.

The second event is our Lost Abbey Rare Bottle Tasting with brewer Tomme Arthur and food wizard Vince Marsaglia.  Tomme has pulled together a collection of rare bottles you won’t find on any bottle shop shelves for us to taste.  Vince and Lindsey will be preparing light tapas-style food to pair with several of the beer courses.  For fans of these amazing beers, this will be opportunity to taste beers that even we can’t normally get for the pub.  The tasting will be Sunday, November 2nd at 6:30 pm at the pub.  Cost is $45 (cash only please) and I will have a sign up sheet out by 5 pm tonight (Thursday the 2nd).  I expect this to be a hot ticket and that it will sell out well before the end of the month.  If you want to go, I would sign up in the next week to guarantee a spot.

Hard to believe I am not yet done with this.  I have set the weekend of October 24th, 25th and 26th for our annual wet hop festival.  I already have a good number of beers lined up, including several casks.  I am not sure that it will be quite as big as in years past due to the hop situation, but I am expecting something around 20 beers total.  I will most likely tap all of the full kegs on Friday and then all of the 5 gallon kegs on Saturday.  I have casks of Sierra Nevada Harvest and ESP (extra special pale) and one from Lagunitas.  I will start tapping the casks on Thursday the 23rd.  We should have the Sierra Harvest on tap by next weekend.  The brewery won’t release it until the Anniversary Ale is sold out, so I ordered a keg and will ask for your help in drinking through it so that we can get to the Harvest!

In other beer event news, our friends at Hamilton’s Tavern will be celebrating two years of great beer on Saturday, October 18th.  Ballast Point will be hosting its 12th anniversary party on Saturday the 25th at Liberty Station in Point Loma.  My good friend Colby Chandler says that he has been saving one keg from every specialty batch that has been brewed this past year and I can only assume that means that there will be Dorado and Sculpin on tap!  Check out the Brewers Guild website at www.sandiegobrewersguild.org for more info on both events and even more upcoming SD beer happenings.

Almost Done!

Our wi-fi is back to normal – broadcasting with no password.  If any of you are having any problems, please email me and let me know.  It seems to be working fine with no glitches though.  And while you are surfing the net, you can check our new My Space page at www.myspace.com/obrienspubsd.  There are some great pictures from some of our past events including Halloween and the Stone Bus Trip.

That is it for now – as if that was not too much already.  Casks of Poor Man’s IPA and Hop Suey on the 16th, Evil Dead Red on tap for Friday and a cask on the 30th.  Halloween Costume party on Friday the 31st!  We’ll see you soon for a great beer.  Cheers, Tom