Piglet, Chargers and Cheese!
Hello Beer Fans!
The weather is hot, but there is plenty of good, cold beer to tell you about at the pub. We’ve got some great events coming up including a ton of new and rare bottles and our fall beer and cheese pairings. Thursday the 27th we will tap a cask of Alpine’s Nelson Rye-IPA at 5 pm and if it tastes as good as it smelled when I vented the cask, we are in for a treat. We also have a fresh keg of Nelson on tap and we will be getting even more Alpine Duet IPA on Friday.
New on Tap
Other new beers on tap include Weihenstephan Hefe Weiss, Rodenbach Grand Cru and Avery Piglet Purgatory. The Piglet is a half version of the brewery’s massive Hog Heaven, which is an 8.5% alcohol hop bomb brewed with Columbus hops. Owner Adam Avery loves the beer, but sometimes doesn’t need the big buzz, so he created Piglet. It is a 4.5% version of the same recipe and drinks like a beer more at 6-6.5% in terms of flavor and mouthfeel. We debuted the beer in San Diego several years ago and it has not been brewed since. But now Piglet is back and it is tasting great. Make sure to try this session IPA if you like hoppy beers.
Friday the 28th we are going to tap some kegs from the Schneider brewery, which is in Germany. We will have the Edel Weisse, Aventinus Witzenbock and the Brooklyn/Schneider collaboration Hopfen Wiesse, which is an 8% abv hefeweizen that is dry hopped. And since these beers are notoriously hard to pour, I am going to set up the jockey box again. So I will also throw the Russian River Temptation on tap along with the Dupont Avec les bon Voeux.
Over the weekend we will have what might be the last live telecast of the Chargers during pre-season. They play at the Atlanta Falcons at 5 pm on the 29th. The last pre-season game is at home at 7 pm on Friday, September 4th and unless it sells out, it will only be shown on delay. The home opener is Monday, September 14th at Oakland at 7:15 pm. So at least we know that one will be on tv. Speaking of TV, we are getting new HD receiver boxes for our two new flat panel tvs hooked up this week so the pictures will be even better. And the new flat screen outside should be mounted on the wall by Labor Day. Our AV guy, Clark Dahlman, is doing the installation. If you need any help with anything AV, I can highly recommend Clark. His number is 858-735-0912.
Bottle Bonanza
Next week will have two Thursday casks – Alpine Bad Boy and Pizza Port San Clemente Killer Dana. Both are double IPAs and both will be in half-size five gallon casks, or pins, as they are called. Friday the 4th we kick off a weekend-long bottle promotion. I have a ton of rare bottles that were left from the San Diego County Fair International Beer Fest. I will have a list of what will be available next week – I think about 40-50 new bottles. There are a lot of bottles from the Shelton Brothers importers including beers from Belgium, France, Germany, Brazil, Japan, England, Scotland and Holland. We should have about one case of most beers, so I expect all of them to be around Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We will have our usual 10% off all bottles over the weekend and we will have an extra 10% off any of these special import bottles purchased to-go (limit one per customer). If you can’t make it by the pub, the Toronado will be serving many of the same bottles that weekend as well. If you haven’t been by the Toronado, or if you have not been there recently, you should stop by. The food is great, the patio is a great place to hang out, and the beer is great.
US Soccer Bar
Saturday the 5th we host our first event as San Diego’s only Official US Soccer bar! The national team plays El Salvador at 5 pm in World Cup Qualifying. We will have US Soccer pint glasses for sale and a keg of Ballast Point Sculpin IPA on tap for the game – we’ll tap it at 4:30 so you can grab a beer and a seat before kickoff. The next US game will be Wednesday the 9th against Trinidad and Tobago at 4 pm. So come enjoy a beer, wear the colors and cheer on the USA. If you would like to be on our soccer mailing list to get a list of all upcoming games, just reply to this email and let me know.
As we do every year and for most holidays, O’Brien’s will be CLOSED on Monday, September 7th for Labor Day. Use the opportunity to load up on some great beer at home from Holiday Wine Cellar and BBQ. Or use it as an excuse to enjoy one of the many fine beer bars around town. Check out the Brewers Guild website for lots of local events at www.sandiegobrewersguild.org.
Beer and Cheese
It is hard to believe that I am already writing about our fall beer and cheese pairing with Taste Artisan Cheese and Gourmet Shop in Hillcrest. The dates are Wednesday, October 7th at Taste and Sunday, October 11th at O’Brien’s. Both classes will be at 6:30 pm and will be $40. I will have the sign up sheet at the pub as of Thursday night (the 27th). There will be a bonus for those who sign up early. Every class we have to go through the grueling work of pairing the beers with the cheeses. This usually involves about two dozen beers and cheeses and hours of eating and drinking. Sounds horrible, eh? If you sign up before Labor Day, you will be entered into a drawing to join us while we make the pairings! Two lucky winners will join myself along with George and Mary Palmer from Taste as we pick the best pairings for our Octoberfest classes.
That is your good beer news for now. Look for a Pizza Port Carlsbad night on September 11th. And the San Diego Festival of Beer will be downtown the following Friday on the 18th with more than 50 breweries. We’ll see you soon for a great beer. Cheers, Tom