What’s Happening

Greetings Good Beer Fans!

The last week of our 15th Anniversary celebrations is here.  We have tapped over 70 different beers so far month for your drinking pleasure – and we still have many more to go.  We still have lots of great Pizza Port beer on tap from our 15 beer promo on Friday.  The Alpine O’Brien’s IPA is back on tap and we have kegs of Sierra Nevada Harvest and Bigfoot on tap right now.  And with Bigfoot and Sierra Pale on tap, that means we can pour the Big P – 1/2 Bigfoot and 1/2 Pale Ale.  It is a delicious combo that makes the Bigfoot more quaffable and the Pale more flavorful.  We also have AleSmith Speedway Stout back in the bottle and a very limited amount of Dansk Viking Blod mead will be available starting tonight.  Look for De Dolle Still Nacht to be on the bottle list for the weekend.

This Week

Tonight, Wednesday the 28th, we tap a cask of Alpine O’Brien’s IPA at 5:30 pm.  If it tastes as good as it smelled when I vented it, we are all in for a treat.  Lindsey will have her new Guinness and Cheddar Beer Cheese for sale as a cheese plate and on burgers (it goes great with bacon!).  Next Wednesday we will start selling containers of the Beer Cheese to-go!  Tomorrow, Thursday the 29th we tap two full size Russian River casks at 5 pm – Pliny the Elder and Russian River Porter.  I expect the Elder to be very popular on cask and to not last very long.  The Porter should be around most of the evening though.  Foodwise, we will have some new goodies on the specials list – Chipotle Pastrami, Chili Verde and Humberto’s new delicious Torta.  And there is something going on Friday night, I am sure….

The Big Russian River TION Night!  We will have 19 different Russian River beers on tap for Friday the 30th and brewer Vinnie Cilurzo will be there to share a few of his beers with us.  It is going to be a crazy night – think St. Patrick’s Day-like crowds.  I would suggest not even trying to pull into the parking lot after 3 pm.  Look for street parking on Convoy, Opportunity, Dagget or Ruffner on the block right around the pub.  There will also be no darts on Friday due to the large crowd.  We will have everyone working so just please be patient and remember that we are all there for the good beer.

So here is the plan for tapping the beers.  We have 11 TION beers and 8 pub beers.  I am tapping the 8 pub beers first at 4 pm and this includes Aud Blonde, Dead Leaf Green, Happy Hops, Porter, IPA, Blind Pig, Pliny the Elder and yes, Pliny the Younger.  We will be serving 5, 10 and 16 ounces glasses of all of those beers, except the Younger, which will serve in 5 or 10 ounce only due to the limited amount.  If you are worried about not getting any Younger, don’t fret.  I already have more lined up for 5 pm on Saturday, February 7th.  That will be a full size keg and we won’t have the TION crowd there that night.  So if it is just Younger you crave, you may be better off just waiting a week until the 7th.  We will also have 750 ml bottles of Consecration on Saturday the 7th.

At 5 pm we will have all 11 TION beers on tap – some will likely be on tap before 5 pm, but all will be on tap no later than 5 pm.  In our TION line-up we will have Redemption, Perdition, Salvation, Damnation, Batch 23 Damnation, Rejection, Temptation, Supplication, Sanctification, Beatification and Consecration.  I have typed up a sheet with descriptions of all of the TION beers so that you will know what they are.  All of them will be available in 5 ounce samples and most will be available in Chimay goblets as well.  The sour barrel aged beers will be avaible in 5 ounce or 8 ounce glasses only.  We will also have some bottles of Beatification (different batch than our draft), vintage Temptation and Supplication and 3 liter bottles of Damnation and Beatification – but those will be very limited.  Look for several types of Russian River beer cheese for Friday night along with some other beer themed specials (Lindsey never tells me everything).

Over the weekend, I expect to have several Russian River beers still on tap, in addition to lots of new beers where Russian River beers have blown.  Sunday the 1st, we will stay open late for the Superbowl.  Next week’s cask on the 5th will be Stone’s poorly named, but very tasty Sublimely Self-Righteous Ale, which is a remake of the 11th Anniversary Black IPA.  Friday the 6th we will host a Mission Brewery night with several beers on tap.  The following week we get a cask of AleSmith’s My Bloody Valentine on the 12th and then an AleSmith draft night on Friday the 13th with a full keg of My Bloody Valentine.  We will be open President’s Day normal hours.  We won’t close down again until Easter Sunday.

Pubs, Fests and Pub Crawls

In other news, we have set some dates for upcoming Pizza Port Festivals.  The Belgian Beer Party will be Saturday, March 28th at Pizza Port Carlsbad.  Pre-sale tickets will be available in February.  The fest will again be in two sessions with identical beer lists.  The Real Ale Fest will be June 12th and 13th.  The San Diego County International Beer Festival will be June 26th and 27th at the Fairgrounds.  And for those who just have to plan months in advance, the Strong Ale Festival will be December 4th and 5th.

In other pub news, I got a chance to check out the new Blind Lady pub in Normal Heights.  Lee Chase, former Stone head brewer, is one of the partners and he has lined up a great selection of beers.  The pub will be open this weekend, starting Friday night.  The kitchen was not open while I was there, but the menu looked very tasty.  The restaurant is laid out well and has a nice feel to it.  There is a small bar table area for drinkers as well.  The pub is on Adams Avenue, on the same block as Rosie O’Grady’s.

I also got to visit Beachwood BBQ in Seal Beach.  We stopped by on the way up to the USA soccer game on Saturday and the place was great.  An awesome selection beer was complemented by some of the best BBQ food I have ever eaten.  I really believe that the smoked chicken wings were a life-changing experience.  Even if you find yourself nowhere near Seal Beach (off the 405 north of Costa Mesa) make the effort to stop by.  You will not be disappointed.

There is still room on our European Pub Crawl with Ciao Travel! and our friend Bill Snider.  There are several different iteneraries from which to choose including stops in London, Brussels, Ghent and Paris.  This is the fifth Europe Trip we have done with Ciao Travel! and all of the previous four have been great fun.  There are lots of brewery tours and pubs to visit and even a little bit of history and culture thrown in for good measure.  Find all of the details at www.ciaotravel.com.

That is your good beer news for now.  I will likely take next week off from the email after having sent out 4 this month – check for a website update mid-week.  Thanks for all of your support during our 15th anniversary celebrations – it has been a lot of fun.  Here’s looking forward to 15 more years of great beer.  Cheers, Tom

Good Day Good Beer Fans!

We are half-way through the anniversary month and the good beer just keeps flowing.  There are still a few beers left on tap from the epic Lost Abbey night on Friday.  And we have some great new beers on tap including Alpine O’Brien’s IPA, Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Barleywine and Ballast Point Schooner.  When we have the Bigfoot on tap, we at the pub like to make the Big P – 1/2 Sierra Pale and 1/2 Sierra Bigfoot.  An excellent combination that is strong and hoppy, but very drinkable.  I have a keg of Sierra Nevada Harvest coming up soon as well.

This week we tap even more great beer.  It starts Wednesday night, the 21st, with a cask of Ballast Point Sculpin IPA at 5:30 pm.  The keg we got earlier in the month was great, so the cask should be the same.  The kitchen will be serving up beer cheese plates on Wednesday night as well.  Thursday the 22nd we will tap two casks – Pizza Port Carlsbad’s Poor Man’s IPA and Alpine’s Nelson Rye-IPA, both at 5 pm.  The Poor Man’s is one of the most drinkable double IPAs in town at 8% alcohol.  And all of our local beers will be on special Thursday night.

Friday the 23rd we host our Pizza Port Draft Party.  We will have over a dozen beers from the three Pizza Port brewpubs on tap including El Camino IPA, Poor Man’s IPA, Swami’s IPA, Great American Brown, Quadruple, Twerp, Warrior and more.  There will be a whole range of beers on tap, so everyone will find something to like.

Over the weekend, we’ll still have plenty of great Pizza Port beer on tap.  The US Men’s Soccer team plays on Saturday, at 5:30 pm against Sweden on Fox Soccer.  Sunday, you can catch a ride with Brewery Tours of San Diego up to the Stone Winter Storm.  Check them out and their regular brewery tours around San Diego at www.brewerytoursofsandiego.com.

Next Week

Mercifully, next week is the last week of our anniversary month.  You can only go full tilt so long – we have already tapped nearly 50 different beers this month, and we have at least 30 more to go.  Wednesday the 28th we tap a cask of Alpine O’Brien’s IPA at 5:30 pm.  Thursday the 29th is a special Russian River cask night with Pliny the Elder and Russian River Porter at 5 pm.

Friday is the big night that many of you have been waiting for – Russian River TION night!

It is hard to believe that we will tap 19 different Russian River beers on Friday the 30th.  There will be a dozen different TION beers on tap along with some of the favorites from the Russian River pub.  This is going to be a very popular event and the pub will be crowded.  So to try and break up some of the rush, I am going to tap the Pliny the Younger at 4 pm and then tap the TION beers, inlcuding Consecration, Beatification, Sanctification, Temptation, Batch 23 Damnation and Supplication all at 5 pm.  And yes, I expect the Younger to be gone by 5 pm.  But don’t worry, the beer hasn’t even been released yet and we will get kegs of it in February when it is normally released. 

We will be pouring 5 ounce glasses of all of the Russian River beers if you want to try them all – please only order 4 at a time though to make life easy on your bartender.  And I will have a list of all of the beers on tap and what all of the various TION beers are.  In addition to the 19 draft beers, we will also have 3 liter bottles of Damnation, vintage bottles of Supplication and Temptation and bottles of beatification.  Look for some great Russian River-themed goodies to be coming out of the kitchen.  There will also be plenty of great Russian River beer on tap over the weekend and for the Superbowl (or So-So bowl really) on Sunday the 1st.

Special Events

Our next special brewery tasting will be Stone Rare and Vintage beers including bottles of Vertical Epic, Anniversary Ale, Russian Imerpial Stout, Double Bastard and more.  The tasting is Sunday, February 8th at 6:30 pm and cost is $25 per person.  We will be serving some light food paired with the beer throughout the tasting.  Please sign up at the pub – space is limited.

O’BRIEN’S celebrates The  5th annual Great Belgian Beer Tour hosted by our friend Bill Snider of Ciao! Travel.  To celebrate, O’Brien’s is offering a free hotel upgrade in London.  There are just JUST 4 FREE UPGRADES – GET A FREE LONDON HOTEL UPGRADE  FROM 1ST CLASS TO SUPERIOR 1ST Class on GBBT 2a – London & Belgium or GBBT 3 – London, Belgium & Paris. 

JUST 09 SPACES LEFT! – LONDON, 24 HOURS BELGIUM BEER FESTIVAL & PARIS!

The Dollar has strengthened dramatically against the Pound and Euro, airfare bargains abound and European hotels have lowered their prices, GBBT prices haven’t been this low since 2006. Pick up a copy of the GBBT brochure at O’Brien’s and you’ll save $200 off regular web prices with the O’Brien’s server coupon. Or  go to www.ciaotravel.com and click on O’BRIEN’S in the left hand column.  Don’t miss out having fun with Belgian Ale with your pals from O’Brien’s.  HURRY THERE ARE ONLY 09 SPACES LEFT!!

In February, I already have a few events planned.  On Friday the 6th, we will host a Mission Brewery night.  Friday the 12th we will have a cask of AleSmith’s My Bloody Valentine.  And Friday the 13th is AleSmith Night at O’Brien’s with a keg of My Bloody Valentine and several other draft beers.

That should keep you thirsty for now.  We’ll see you soon for a great Pizza Port beer.  Cheers, Tom

Hello Beer Fans!

Our 15th Anniversary celebrations are in full swing.  We have already tapped more than 40 different beers this month and there are many more to come.  Several of the delicious Green Flash beers from Friday are still on tap and the first of the Lost Abbey beers have already been tapped.  A special thanks to head brewer Chuck Silva and the entire Green Flash crew for a fantastic Friday night last week.  Also new on tap right now are Pizza Port San Clemente’s Warrior Black IPA and the Karl Strauss Imperial Malt Ball Stout.  The stout uses malted milk powder that is used to make malt ball centers in the beer – the equivalent of 5000 malt balls worth.

This Week

The celebrations start anew tonight, Wednesday the 14th, with a cask of Alpine Nelson Rye-IPA.  This unique IPA uses New Zealand hops which have a very different aroma from the normal varieities.  The fruity characteristic is more tropical, like that of a Sauvignon Blanc.  This is always a great and very popular beer on cask.  We will tap it at 5:30 pm.  Look for our new beer cheese appetizer plate coming out of the kitchen tonight as well.

Thursday the 15th our cask madness continues with two casks – Port Brewing Hop 15 double IPA and Lost Abbey Serpent Stout.  Both casks will be tapped at 5 pm and given the strong nature of both beers I expect them to be around for most of the evening.  As always, all of our local beers will be on special on Thursday and we should have a good line up of beers on tap in advance of the Friday night draft party with Lost Abbey.

Friday the 16th is the big Lost Abbey draft party with more than 10 beers from head brewer Tomme Arthur on tap and several more in the bottle.  From the Port side we will have Hop 15, Wipeout IPA, High Tide IPA and Midnight Black Lager (made from the second runnings of the Serpent Stout).  From the Lost Abbey side we will have Devotion, Judgment Day, Red Barn Saison, Angel’s Share Barleywine, Gift of the Magi and a very special O’Brien’s-only double cherry blend of Red Poppy Ale all on tap.  There might even be a few more surprises on tap as well.  In the bottle, we will have Lost Abbey Inferno, Isabella Proximus, Cuvee de Tomme and Ne Goien Saison (brewed with Hildegard from Urthel).  All of the beers will be on tap at 5 pm – most will be on well before that.

If you can’t make it by on Friday, we will still have plenty of great beers on tap for Saturday the 17th.  New in bottles over the weekend will be the Boon Marriage Parfait Geuze.  It is a great sour beer, and definitely my favorite of the Boon beers.  The Charger-less playoffs will be on Sunday the 18th with the NFC game between Arizona and Philadelphia on at Noon and the AFC game at 3:30 pm between the Steelers and the Ravens.  I honestly couldn’t care less about who makes it to the superbowl betweeen those four teams.  Hopefully the games will at least be interesting to watch.

Next Week and Beyond

Next week will start off with the Alpine O’Brien’s IPA on tap on Monday the 19th.  Some of you will get the day off, but we will be open normal hours and have our great pitcher specials all night.  Wednesday the 21st we have a very rare cask of Ballast Point Sculpin IPA at 5:30 pm.  Thursday the 22nd we again have two casks – Pizza Port Carlsbad Poor Man’s IPA and Alpine Nelson Rye-IPA.  Friday the 23rd is our Pizza Port draft night and while we have not set the full line-up yet, I am expecting Reeds Scotch Ale, Great American Brown, Wipeout IPA and Poor Man’s IPA to all be on tap.

The following week we will have an O’Brien’s IPA cask on the 28th and Russian River casks on the 29th.  Friday the 30th is the big Russian River TION night with at least 15 Russian River beers on tap including Pliny the Younger.  There will be lots of special bottles as well that night.  We’ll be open for the superbowl on Sunday the 1st.

I am planning a tasting of rare and vintage beers from Stone Brewing for Sunday, February 8th at 6:30 pm at the pub.  Cost will be $25 and will include some light snacks paired with the beer from Lindsey.  I have lots of different bottles from which to choose so I have not set the tasting list yet, but I will have more details in next week’s email.  I will have a sign up sheet at the pub as of tonight, the 14th.

European Pub Crawl

I almost forgot! There’s another O’Brien’s Anniversary to celebrate!  2009 is O’Brien’s  5th annual Great Belgian Beer Tour hosted by our friend Bill Snider of Ciao! Travel.  To celebrate O’Brien’s is offering a free hotel upgrade in London.  If you BOOK THIS WEEK YOU’LL GET A FREE LONDON HOTEL UPGRADE  FROM 1ST CLASS TO SUPERIOR 1ST Class on GBBT 2a – London & Belgium or GBBT 3 – London, Belgium & Paris. 

With the Dollar strengthening against the Pound and Euro, airfare bargains and European hotels lowering their prices, The 2009 GBBT prices haven’t been this low since 2006. Pick up a copy of the GBBT brochure at O’Brien’s and you’ll save $200 off regular web prices with the O’Brien’s server coupon. With the free hotel upgrade that’s $300 off!

If you haven’t read the incredible 2009 Great Belgian Beer Tour itineraries go to www.ciaotravel.com and click on O’BRIEN’S in the left hand column.  Don’t miss out having fun with Belgian Ale with your pals from O’Brien’s. Hurry!  There are only 12 spaces left!

That about covers it for now.  We’ll see you soon for a great beer!  Cheers, Tom

Happy New Year Beer Lovers!
 
January, 2009 is O’Brien’s Pub 15th Anniversary!  San Diego’s original beer bar was openend in January, 1994 by Jim O’Brien and served as the first account for many of San Diego’s local breweries.  It was already my favorite place to drink beer by 1997, and in 2003, I liked it so much I bought the place when Jim said he was bowing out.  Now Lindsey and I have owned it for 6 fun filled years and we are looking forward to another great year.  It is not just the beer that makes O’Brien’s special.  It is a community of pub patrons who no matter how different they are all share a common love of good beer and good cheer when at the pub.  It is the people that make the place truly special and that makes working there very rewarding for all of us.  There is no other place quite like O’Brien’s in town – and we promise to keep it that way.
 
So you might expect that I would have some crazy week of events planned of the 15th Anniversary – well you would be wrong.  I did plan a bunch of crazy events, but they were just too big for a single week, so I had to go and make it a whole anniversary month.  We have an event every Wednesday, Thursday and Friday until the end of the month involving some of our favorite breweries – Alpine, Lost Abbey, Green Flash, Pizza Port, Ballast Point and Russian River.  I will start with what is going on for the next few days and then preview the rest of the month.
 
This Week
 
Tonight, Wednesday the 7th, we have a 5 gallon cask of Craftsman Holiday Beer.  If you like the Anchor Christmas or the Alaskan Winter, both of which use spruce, you will like the Craftsman Holiday Beer.  I could smell the fresh spruce when I vented the cask.  We’ll tap it around 5:30 pm and I expect it to last all night.  We also have a selection of new Cantillion and Fantome beers for your drinking pleasure – Fantome Noel and Fantome Hiver, both very different from last year, and Cantillion Kriek and Cantillion Grand Cru.  The Grand Cru is unblended 3 year old lambic served with very low carbonation, which is the traditional way to serve straight lambic in Belgium.  Geuze is the sparkling version of lambic.
 
Thursday the 8th we have double dose of cask goodness for you.  At 5 pm we will tap a cask of Green Flash West Coast IPA and a cask of Alpine Bad Boy double IPA.  And all of our local beers will be on special from 4 to 8 pm.  Look for Lindsey’s incredible Rosemary Tomato soup, which will warm you inside out, along with the great spicy steak sandwich.  Thursday is also the night of the NCAA football national championship game between Florida and Oklahoma (guess who Micaela is rooting for) at 5 pm as well.  If you find yourself no where near the pub on Thursday in norht county, stop by Pizza Port Carlsbad where brewer Jeff Bagby will have at least a dozen beers left from the Strong Ale festival on tap and on special.
 
Friday the 9th we host our first big draft party with Green Flash Brewing Company and brewer Chuck Silva.  We should have 11 beers on tap including – West Coast IPA, Imperial IPA, Bourbon Barrel Double Stout, Brandy Barrel Barleywine, Grand Cru, Le Freak, Trippel, 30th Street Pale, Hop Head Red and 2004 Vintage Barleywine.  Right now, the Grand Cru, Trippel and non-barrel aged Double Stout are on tap.  Green Flash has become one of San Diego’s top breweries under Chuck’s guidance and this will be a great opportunity to taste some of the specialty beers that he has made.  We will have 5 and 10 ounce glasses available in addition to pints.  Check out our Corned Beef Sandwiches from the kitchen.
 
Over the weekend it is time for Charger Fever as the Bolts take on the Steelers at 1:45 pm on Sunday the 11th.  I have a keg of Pizza Port San Clemente’s Warrior Black IPA to put on tap for the game.  In the morning game, hopefully McNabb and the Eagles can do us a favor and knock cry baby Eli Manning.  We’ll have our normal Sunday food specials – Fish and Chips, Fish Tacos and Chipotle Fish Sandwiches for the game.  Saturday’s games feature Titans v. Ravens at 1:45 pm and Carolina v. Arizona at 5:15 pm.
 
Next Week and Beyond
 
For the month, we are tapping a cask every Wednesday, an Alpine cask every week, and then doing cask-draft nights back to back every Thursday and Friday featuring a great brewery.  We had to change the date on the Lost Abbey night, so here is the line up of events:
Jan 9 – Green Flash Draft Night
Jan 16 – Lost Abbey Draft Night
Jan 23 – Pizza Port Draft Night
Jan 30 – Russian River TION Night
Each Thursday before the big draft night we will have casks from the featured brewery.  The draft nights are just on Friday, and the casks are just on Thursday.  This also means that every Saturday, there will be a ton of great beer still on tap.  Also new this month, starting Wednesday the 14th, every Wednesday we are going to do a rotating Beer Cheese Appetizer along with selling small containers of the Beer Cheese to-go.  Every week the beer cheese will feature a different beer.  So here is what I am expecting for the coming weeks.
 
Next Wednesday, the 14th, we tap a cask of Alpine Nelson IPA at 5:30 pm.  Thursday the 15th we have casks of Port Brewing Hop 15 and Lost Abbey Serpent Stout.  Friday the 16th is our massive Lost Abbey night with at least 10 beers on tap and another half dozen in the bottle.  Tomme is making us a special double cherry blend of Red Poppy just for this night.  We will also have Angel’s Share Barleywine on tap along with Devotion, Red Barn, Judgment Day, Hop 15, Shark Attack, Gift of the Magi and much more.  Lindsey will be making her epic Beer Onion soup (like French Onion but better because it will be made with Lost Abbey beeer).  Football gods willing, we will be watching the Chargers in the AFC Championship game on the 18th at 3:30 pm.
 
The following week we start off with Alpine O’Brien’s IPA on tap.  The Wednesday cask on the 21st will be Ballast Point Sculpin at 5:30 pm.  I tried to drink as much of the draft that had as I could, but I didn’t get that much since it only lasted a day.  On the 22nd we tap casks of Pizza Port Poor Man’s IPA and Alpine Nelson IPA.  On the 23rd we should have at least a dozen Pizza Port beers on tap from Carlsbad, Solana Beach and San Clemente.  Expect lots of hops and lots of great dark beers.  There will be no football that weekend, the 24th and 25th.  However, the US Men’s Soccer team will play at 5:30 pm on Saturday against Sweden.
 
And in the final week, our Wednesday cask will Alpine O’Brien’s IPA on the 28th at 5:30 pm.  Thursday we will have two casks from Russian River – yet to be determined but expect either Blind Pig or Pliny.  And Friday the 30th is southern California’s first TION Night with brewer Vinnie Cilurzo coming down for the event.  I expect to have nearly a dozen Belgian-styled TION beers on tap that night including Damnation, Temptation, Supplication, Salvation and Redemption.  Vinnie and I haven’t set the full tap list yet, so I will have more details in future emails.  I can tease you with the fact that there will also be the debut of the 2009 Pliny the Younger on tap.  We’ll have some special bottles, including vintage TION beers and 3 liter bottles of Damnation.  Look for some new beer cheese spreads for the TION night.  And Sunday the 1st of Febrewary is the Super Bowl, and I know what we all want to be doing on that day!
 
So there is the condensed version of this month’s events.  I will have a full schedule posted up at the pub in the next few days.  And I will likely send out an email each week as I nail down the tap lists for each event.  We’ll see you soon to raise a toast to 15 years of good beer and good cheer!  Cheers, Tom

We have already started off our 15th Anniversary celebrations with a bang.  Right now we have some incredible beers on tap including Alpine Bad Boy, Ballast Point Sculpin, Deschutes Abyss, Pizza Port Swami’s IPA, Green Flash IPA and Firestone Velvet Merkin.

The Chargers play the Colts at 5 pm on SATURDAY, the 3rd.  We will be cranking for the game so stop by and help root on the Bolts!  We’ll be open normal hours on Sunday, Noon to 6 pm.  Thursday’s casks will be Green Flash IPA and Alpine Bad Boy both at 5 pm.

This Friday, January 9th we have our first big bash for the anniversary month with a whole bunch of beers from Chuck Silva and Green Flash Brewing Company.  We have moved the Lost Abbey night to the 16th and Pizza Port Carlsbad to the 23rd.  Russian River TION night will still be on the 30th and I am expecting to have a keg of Pliny the Younger for that night.

Look for a complete email update later in the week.  Cheers, Tom