What’s Happening

Hoppy Halloween Beer Fans!
 
This Friday, October 30th is our big Halloween Costume Party at the pub.  Most of our decorations are up already and all of the bartenders will be in costume.  Everyone showing up in costume will get $1 off your first pint.  We’ll have some great beers on tap including AleSmith Evil Dead Red, Dogfish Head Punkin, and Shipyard Smashed Pumpkin in addition to our regular line up of great hoppy ales.  It is always a super fun night to be at the pub and we hope to see you there.
 
Before the party on Friday we will tap a cask of AleSmith Evil Dead Red at 5 pm on Thursday.  We will likely still have a few of the wet hop beers around as well as there were a few we had more than one keg of including Sierra Nevada Harvest and ESP and Port High Tide.  Allagash Interlude is on tap now too.  From the kitchen look for Beer Chili on Thursday, Cambazola cheese specials, Potato Skins and some Guinness Beer Cheese for Halloween.
 
Beer for Breakfast
 
Thursday morning we will be opening up early from 8-10 am to show the USA under-17 soccer match against Malawi in the U-17 World Cup.  Humberto will be cooking up breakfast and we will have OJ, Champagne and Mimosas along with our traditional beer for breakfast.  So if you want to come cheer on the USA, or just grab some great breakfast, please stop by.  The USA men’s team has scheduled friendly matches on Saturday, November 14th and Wednesday, November 18th in Europe against Slovakia and Denmark respectively.  We are hoping to have our San Diego chapter of the American Outlaws supporters group official by the 14th.  If you are interested in signing up, go to: www.theamericanoutlaws.com.  You can also get on our soccer specific by replying to this email and letting me know you want to be on it.
 
Over the weekend, we will be open normal hours on Halloween from Noon to Midnight.  On Sunday, the Chargers face the newly humiliated Raiders at 1:15 pm.  I assume that the final tickets will be sold and that the game will be on TV.  All weekend long, we will have our 10% off all bottles special.
 
Beer Week

Next weekend starts the first San Diego Beer Week.  We have an amazing list of events for the 10 days.  We will tap more good beer than we can possibly drink – I promise!  You can find the complete list of events all over town at www.sdbw.org.  There are beer dinners, classes, tastings, festivals, meet the brewer events and pint nights all over the county featuring local breweries and great breweries from out of town.  This will truly make San Diego beer mecca for 10 days.  We will start a night early on Thursday the 5th with a cask of Port Brewing’s High Tide Fresh Hop IPA at 5 pm.
 
We are going to start Beer Week off with Alpine Beer Company weekend November 6th, 7th and 8th.  On the 6th we will have a 4 batch vertical tasting of Exponential Hoppiness along wtih at least 6 other Alpine beers on tap.  We will continue to tap around 10 Alpine beers including Duet IPA, Nelson IPA, Pure Hoppiness and O’Brien’s IPA all weekend long.  If all goes well, we will have more Alpine beer on tap than Alpine will.  The 6th and 7th are also the nights for the San Diego Brewers Guild Festival so whichever night you don’t go to that fest, stop by the pub for some great Alpine beer.
 
Sunday the 8th we are doing an all local Beer and Cheese tasting with Taste Artisan Cheese Shop at the pub at 6:30 pm.  We have culled together some of the best local beer pairings from previous tastings along with pairings that Taste has done with other breweries and thrown in some great new ones to make a really great class.  We even have some more of the Stone 12th Anniversary Chocolate Oatmeal stout for the class and beers from Alpine, Ballast Point, AleSmith, Green Flash, Lost Abbey and Pizza Port.  The cost is $40 and you can sign up at the bar (cash only please) or you can contact Taste at 619-683-2306 to use a credit card.
 
Monday the 9th is Green Flash night with a cask of Palate Wreck for Monday Night Football (Steelers at Broncos) along with some amazing kegs of specialty beer from head brewer Chuck Silva – Superfreak, Little Freak, Grand Mantis (barrel aged Grand Cru), Coffee Double Stout, Belgian Brown, Belgian Stout and Hopless.  Chuck will stopping by as well to share some beers with and answer questions.  I will also be on the 91X Beer for Breakfast Monday morning as the station will be doing its Beer for Breakfast bit every day of the week.

Tuesday the 10th is AleSmith Night with the very rare Kopi Luwak Speedway Stout at 6 pm.  We will have a very limited amount of this beer, so we will only be serving it in 5 oz samples.  Owner-brewer Peter Zien will be there to tell us about this beer and the very rare coffee it uses and the rather unique production method that makes the coffee so rare.  All I will say is that it involves civets (an Asian weasel-like creature) and their by products.  We will also have some other great AleSmith beers on tap and in the bottle.  We will have regular Speedway Stout on tap for a side by side comparison.

Wednesday the 11th is Rodenbach night and we will have Rodenbach Grand Cru and regular Rodenbach on tap.  We will surely have some great beers from our earlier events on tap along with several other new beers.  When I have all of the details for Wednesday night settled, I will post it in the email.
 
Thursday the 12th is a double cask night with Alpine O’Brien’s IPA and Ballast Point Sculpin.  It will also be Ballast Point night with at least 5 specialty beers on tap.  The brewery is waiting until after its anniversary party this weekend to determine the line up for this event.  So when I know – you will know.  We will also have Chimay on tap and specials on Chimay cheeses.
 
Friday the 13th will be a Best of Beer Week night.  We will be tapping more good beer than we can possibly consume in the first 7 days of Beer Week, so on Friday we will be highlighting great beers from throughout the week in one gigantic night of San Diego specialty beer.
 
Saturday the 14th will be Bear Republic night with several specialty beers including a special O’Brien’s Blend from the brewery.  It has not even been made yet, so when the brewers tell me what it is, I will pass that along.  We’ll have brewer/owner Rich Norgrove down to share a few beers with us and tell us stories about his race cars.
 
Sunday the 15th is our annual Lost Abbey Rare Bottle tasting with head brewer Tomme Arthur and snacks by Pizza Port owner Vince Marsaglia.  Tomme has lots of oddball beers stashed away that he only uses for special events.  We get to sample some of these super rare beers as he tells us about them.  We should have 10-12 beers total along with the light snacks.  Cost is $40 (cash only please) and you can sign up at the bar – hurry, there are only about 6 spots left.

European Pub Crawl
 
And as if all of this was not enough for you, our good friend Bill Snider of Ciao! Travel has released the amazing itinerary for the 2010 Great Belgian Beer Trip.  There are four incredible options that include Amsterdam, Ghent, Bamberg and Munich.  This is the 6th year that we have partnered with Ciao Travel for a European Pub crawl and every year the trip has been a ton of fun.  I am really looking forward to going in 2010.  There are flyers at the pub with discount offers valid through November 15th, 2009.  You can also check it out online at www.ciaotravel.com.  And you can almost always find Bill around the pub willing to talk about trip and its many wonderful destinations.

The San Diego Strong Ale Festival will be at Pizza Port Carlsbad on December 4th and 5th.  VIP tickets should be on sale next week for the 1-4 pm session on Friday.  Some of you may have seen some heavily bearded guys who looked like they were in a rock band last Thursday.  Well, they were in a band – Valient Thorr.  A great hard rock/metal band that reminds me of early Iron Maiden musically with more politically minded lyrics.  They played the Casbah last week and stopped by the pub for a good beer before the gig.  You can find out more about them at www.valientthorr.com.

That is your good beer news for now.  We’ll see you for Halloween weekend!  Cheers, Tom

Hello Soccer Fans!
 
The USA Under-17 is in the middle of group play at the U-17 World Cup in Nigeria.  The first game was a tough loss to Spain 2-1 on Monday.  The next game is against Malawi at 8 am this Thursday, 10/29 and we will be open to show the game and cooking up some breakfast burritos and other specialties and serving OJ, mimosas and champagne in addition to the more traditional beer for breakfast.  Local standout Earl Edwards is the starting goal keeper and his family will also be there to cheer on the team.  We had a great crowd for the game on Monday, so join us for breakfast and soccer on Thursday.
 
The USA men’s team has announced a second friendly in November against Slovakia on the 14th.  We now have more than 25 confirmed San Diego members for our chapter of the American Outlaws.  We are just waiting for the chapter application and we should have that in and completed next week.  So if all goes well, the game on the 14th will be our first chapter meeting.  Times and TV schedules for the games have yet to be determined, although I know the game on the 18th against Denmark will be an 11:30 am kickoff locally. 
 
Charlie Davies Update – in talking to friends and family, Charlie Davies is up and walking around.  His sister came by and picked up the T-shirt we signed and some photos from the Honduras game of the pub and sent them off.  If you would like to email Charlie a message of support, you can do so at: charliedavies9@yahoo.com. 
 
The UEFA Champions League picks back up next week with a full slate of games on the 3rd and 4th.  There are still a lot of spots to be decided on the final days of World Cup qualifying with some great play off matches – Ireland v. France, Portugal v. Bosnia-Herzegovina, Greece v. Ukraine, Russia v. Slovenia, Costa Rica v. Uruguay and Bahrain v. New Zealand.  No idea what will be on TV at the moment, but I suspect most of the above games will be televised.  The MLS is also in playoff mode.  And the FA Cup has a full slate of games on the weekend of the 7th and 8th.
 
So here are the up coming matches:
 
Tuesday, 10/27:
4:30 pm – Barnsley v. Manchester United – Carling Cup – Setanta
 
Wednesday, 10/28:
12:30 pm – Napoli v. AC Milan – FSC – also at 5 pm
3 pm – Juventus v. Sampdoria – FSC – also at 8 pm
3:45 pm – Celtic v. Hearts – Setanta
 
Thursday, 10/29: Open at 8 am for USA U-17 Match!!!
8 am – USA v. Malawi – ESPNU – U-17 WC – also on tape
11 am – United Arab Emirates v. Spain – ESPNU – U-17 WC
12:30 pm – Inter Milan v. Palermo – FSC – also at 5 pm
7 pm – Houston Dynamo v. Seattle Sounders FC – ESPN2
 
Friday, 10/30:
11 am – Japan v. Mexico – Under 17 World Cup – ESPNU
2:30 pm – Celtic v. Hearts – CIS Cup – Setanta
 
Saturday, 10/31:
On Tape – Arsenal v. Tottenham, Bolton v. Chelsea, Manchester United v. Blackburn, Fulham v. Liverpool
Noon – Osasuna v. Barcelona – Gol TV
1 pm – New England Revolution v. Chicago Fire – FSC
2 pm – Athletic Bilbao v. Atletico Madrid – Gol TV
3 pm – Everton v. Aston Villa – Setanta
3:30 pm – AC Milan v. Parma – FSC
5:30 pm – Sunderland v. West Ham – FSC
7:30 pm – Stoke v. Wolverhampton – Setanta
 
Sunday, 11/1:
On Tape – USA U-17 v. United Arab Emirates, Livorno v. Inter Milan, Birmingham v. Manchester City
11:30 am – Palermo v. Genoa – FSC
2 pm – LA Galaxy v. CD Chivas – ESPN2
 
Tuesday, 11/3:
11:30 am – Atletico Madrid v. Chelsea – FSC
11:30 am – AC Milan v. Real Madrid – FSW
11:40 am – Manchester United v. CSKA Moscow – Setanta – also at 5:30 pm
2 pm – Manchester United v. CSKA Moscow – FSC
2 pm – Atletico Madrid v. Chelsea – Setanta – also at 7:15 pm
3:45 pm – Bayern Munich v. Bordeaux – Setanta
4 pm – AC Milan v. Real Madrid – FSC
 
Wednesday, 11/4:
On Tape – Rubin Kazan v. Barcelona
11:30 am – Lyon v. Liverpool – FSC
11:40 am – Arsenal v. AZ Alkmaar – Setanta – also at 5:30 pm
2 pm – Lyon v. Liverpool – Setanta – also at 7:15 pm
2 pm – Arsenal v. AZ Alkmaar – FSC
4 pm – Rubin Kazan v. Barcelona – FSC
10 pm – Dynamo Kyiv v. Inter Milan – FSC
 
Thursday, 11/5:
On Tape – Sevilla v. Stuttgart
Noon – Villareal v. Lazio – Gol TV
5 pm – Everton v. Benfica – Gol TV
5 pm – Real Salt Lake v. Columbus Crew – ESPN2
 
Saturday, 11/7:
On Tape – Tottenham v. Sunderland, Manchester City v. Burnely, Wolverhampton v. Arsenal, Aston Villa v. Bolton
11:30 am – Atalanta v. Juventus – FSC
2 pm – FA Cup Match TBD
3:45 pm – Blackburn v. Portsmouth – Setanta
5:30 pm – Manchester City v. Burnely – Setanta
5:30 pm – Chicago Fire v. New England Revolution – FSC
 
Sunday, 11/8:
On Tape – Lazio v. AC Milan, Chelsea v. Manchester United, Wigan v. Fulham, Hull v. Stoke
11:30 am – Inter Milan v. Roma – FSC
2 pm – West Ham v. Everton – FSC
4 pm – FA Cup Match TBD
4:30 pm – CD Chivas v. LA Galaxy – ESPN2
 
Saturday, 11/14:
TBD – Slovakia v. USA – Friendly
 
Wednesday, 11/18:
11:30 am – Denmark v. USA – Friendly – replay at 6 pm
 
We’ll see you soon for some great soccer action!  Cheers, Tom

Hello Hoppy Beer Fans!

This is one of my favorite weekends of the beer year – our Wet Hop Beer Festival.  Wet Hop beers use fresh, right off the vine hops in insane quantities to create truly unique hop flavors in the beer.  While not as bitter or strong as IPAs, wet hop beers have a massive earthy, spicy hop character that reminds you of holding fresh hops in your hands.  We will have around 20 wet hop beers over the weekend starting with a little pre-festival cask action on Thursday the 22nd when we tap Sierra Nevada Harvest at 5 pm.  I have two casks, so if the first one blows, we will just tap another one.  We also have the Sierra Nevada Harvest on draft right now.  Also on draft, check out the Val Dieu Grand Cru, New Belgium Hoptoberfest, Kern River Just Outstanding IPA, Alaskan Smoked Porter and Green Flash Coffee Double Stout.

Wet Hop Fest

Friday the 23rd we kick off the festival with two more cask beers – Ballast Point Schooner and Stone IPA with fresh hops from the Bistro gardens.  We’ll tap both at 5 pm.  We’ll also have all of the 15.5 gallon wet hop beer kegs on tap including Pizza Port Carlsbad Plant to Pint, Sierra Nevada ESP (Extra Special Pale – the bottled Pale Ale recipe with fresh hops), Lagunitas Fresh Hop IPA, Port High Tide IPA, Bear Republic Wet Hop Ale, Deschutes Hop Trip, Moylan’s Nor Cal IPA, Pizza Port San Clemente Riptide, Ballast Point Schooner and Sierra Nevada Harvest Ale and possibly one or two more.  So a little over half of the beers on Friday night.  And we will be doing 5 oz, 10 oz and Pints for all of these beers.  Look for Cambazola cheese specials including the Cambazola Chicken Melt from the kitchen along with special beer cheese creations.

Saturday the 24th, we will add in all of the beers that are in five gallon kegs including Moylan’s Hopsickle, Moonlight Homegrown, Triple Rock Harvest, Pizza Port Solana Beach Low Tide, Oakshire Harvest Ale, Magnolia High Time Harvest and Sierra Nevada Estate Harvest.  Assuming that there is cask beer left from Friday, we will be serving it out on Saturday as well.

Sunday the 25th the hop mayhem continues as we will still be serving up all of the beers along with breakfast from 10 am to Noon for the 10 am Chargers v. Chiefs game.  If we can’t win against the Chiefs, maybe it really is time for Norv to go look for a new job.  At least the food and the beer will be good, even if the game isn’t.  We will stay open until 6 pm on Sunday.

Next Week…

Next week brings us Halloween and our annual costume party on Friday the 30th.  We are doing it a day to help extend the weekend.  We will have kegs of pumpkin beers including Shipyard Smashed Pumpkin and Dogfish Head Punkin along with local favorite AleSmith Evil Dead Red.  We’ll also have a cask of the Evil Dead Red on Thursday the 29th.  We will be open normal hours for Halloween on the 31st – Noon to Midnight and regular hours on Sunday the 1st from Noon to 6 pm with the Chargers playing the Raiders at 1:05 pm.

In November you can look forward to a cask of the Port Brewing High Tide on Thursday the 5th at 5 pm.

SD Beer Week

I finally have most of our Beer Week schedule nailed down.  We still haven’t finalized a time for our Rodenbach or AleSmith events, but that will be coming soon.  In the meantime, what we do have set up is pretty fantastic.  We are going to start Beer Week off with Alpine Beer Company weekend November 6th, 7th and 8th.  On the 6th we will have a 4 batch vertical tasting of Exponential Hoppiness along wtih at least 6 other Alpine beers on tap.  We will continue to tap around 10 Alpine beers including Duet IPA, Nelson IPA, Pure Hoppiness and O’Brien’s IPA all weekend long.  If all goes well, we will have more Alpine beer on tap than Alpine will.  The 6th and 7th are also the nights for the San Diego Brewers Guild Festival so whichever night you don’t go to that fest, stop by the pub for some great Alpine beer.

Sunday the 8th we are doing an all local Beer and Cheese tasting with Taste Artisan Cheese Shop at the pub at 6:30 pm.  We have culled together some of the best local beer pairings from previous tastings along with pairings that Taste has done with other breweries and thrown in some great new ones to make a really great class.  We even have some more of the Stone 12th Anniversary Chocolate Oatmeal stout for the class.  The cost is $40 and you can sign up at the bar (cash only please) or you can contact Taste at 619-683-2306 to use a credit card.

Monday the 9th is Green Flash night with a cask of Palate Wreck for Monday Night Football (Steelers at Broncos) along with some amazing kegs of specialty beer from head brewer Chuck Silva – Superfreak, Little Freak, Grand Mantis (barrel aged Grand Cru), Coffee Double Stout, Belgian Brown, Belgian Stout and Hopless.  Chuck will stopping by as well to share some beers with and answer questions.

Thursday the 12th is a double cask night with Alpine O’Brien’s IPA and Ballast Point Sculpin.  It will also be Ballast Point night with at least 5 specialty beers on tap.  The brewery is waiting until after its anniversary party this weekend to determine the line up for this event.  So when I know – you will know.

Friday the 13th will be a Best of Beer Week night.  We will be tapping more good beer than we can possibly consume in the first 7 days of Beer Week, so on Friday we will be highlighting great beers from throughout the week in one gigantic night of San Diego specialty beer.

Saturday the 14th will be Bear Republic night with several specialty beers including a special O’Brien’s Blend from the brewery.  It has not even been made yet, so when the brewers tell me what it is, I will pass that along.  We’ll have brewer/owner Rich Norgrove down to share a few beers with us and tell us stories about his race cars.

Sunday the 15th is our annual Lost Abbey Rare Bottle tasting with head brewer Tomme Arthur and snacks by Pizza Port owner Vince Marsaglia.  Tomme has lots of oddball beers stashed away that he only uses for special events.  We get to sample some of these super rare beers as he tells us about them.  We should have 10-12 beers total along with the light snacks.  Cost is $40 (cash only please) and you can sign up at the bar starting tonight, Wednesday the 21st.  This class will sell out quickly, so if you are interested do not wait until the week before the class.

GBBT

And as if all of this was not enough for you, our good friend Bill Snider of Ciao! Travel has released the amazing itinerary for the 2010 Great Belgian Beer Trip.  There are four incredible options that include Amsterdam, Ghent, Bamberg and Munich.  This is the 6th year that we have partnered with Ciao Travel for a European Pub crawl and every year the trip has been a ton of fun.  I am really looking forward to going in 2010.  There are flyers at the pub with discount offers valid through November 15th, 2009.  You can also check it out online at www.ciaotravel.com.  And you can almost always find Bill around the pub willing to talk about trip and its many wonderful destinations.

We will see you soon for a great Wet Hop beer.  Cheers, Tom

Hello USA Soccer Fans!

This Saturday at 7 pm is the USA v. Honduras World Cup Qualifier and we will have the game on two big screens – inside by the front corner and outside on the patio.  The coverage is supposed to start at 6 pm in English with the kick off at 7 pm.  We have been getting dozens of calls about the game and I am expecting to be standing room only no later than 6:30 pm at this point.  We will not be charging any kind of cover and we will not be allowing away fans (the Copacabana on El Cajon Blvd. is howing the game in Spanish).  Since we are not charging a cover, we are suggesting and hoping that folks will spend at least $15 per person to off set the cost of the pay per view.  If you know people in LA who are looking for a place to watch, the Off Campus Pub in Carson is showing the game – it is by the Home Depot Center. 
 
As of today, only three places in California are showing the game in English, so think about the number of USA fans in the state, think about the size of our place and make your own decision on what is the best time to arrive.  I am actively advising our regular customers to avoid the pub between 6 pm and 9 pm on Saturday and asking that they not sit at tables where the TV feed can be viewed.  There will be no reservations and every seat is an open seat for the game.  I will be setting up extra chairs inside and on the patio for the game to help maximize seats as much as possible.  Thank you in advance for your understanding and patience on what is sure to be a busy and chaotic day – but it will be fun to have so many USA soccer fans at the pub for a day.

The Costa Rica game is at home for the USA and will be on ESPN on the 14th.  I am very optimistic about my chances of breaking out our USA yard glass to celebrate making it into the 2010 World Cup.  For those who were at the last game, it was very much enjoyed around the entire bar.  If you would like a USA yard glass of your own, visit our friend and professional glass blower, Dave Savarese, at his webiste – www.artisticglasscreations.com.  Dave donated the USA yard glass to the bar for USA soccer matches and to commemorate O’Brien’s becoming San Diego’s only official US Soccer bar.  Hopefully we will all drink from it soon.
 
With that said, here are the weekend’s games:
 
Saturday, 10/10:
Tape – Russia v. Germany, Bahrain v. New Zealand
Noon – France v. Faroe Islands – FSC
12:40 pm – Portugal v. Hungary – Setanta
2 pm – Denmark v. Sweden – FSC
2:45 pm – Greece v. Latvia – Setanta
4:30 pm – Belgium v. Turkey – Setanta
4:30 pm – New England Revolution v. Columbus Crew – FSC
7 pm – Honduras v. USA – Closed Circuit TV – NO AWAY FANS!
 
Sunday, 10/11:
Tape – Armenia v. Spain
 
Wednesday, 10/14: More games to be announced later
5 pm – USA v. Costa Rica – ESPN

Hello Beer Fans!

It is going to be a big weekend at the pub.  First on Friday the 9th we will have at least 10 different Belgian and Belgian-style beers on tap including Allagash Interlude (with Brettanomyces), Allagash Odyssey (barrel aged dark strong), Maredsous Blond (aka Maredsous 6), Affligem Blonde, Val Dieu Grand Cru, New Belgium La Folie, Craftsman Triple White Sage, Keyte Oostendese  Dobbel-Tripel (a dark, quad-like Belgian that we have never had on tap before) and the new La Trappe Isid’Or which is a Belgian Pale brewed for the Koningshoeven Abbey’s 125th anniversary.  It will be a great line up of beer all night long and much of it will be on tap all weekend.

USA Soccer

Saturday the 10th is the USA v. Honduras world cup qualifying soccer match at 7 pm.  The pub is going to VERY BUSY for the game.  If you are not coming to watch the game I strongly urge you to avoid the pub between 5 pm and 9 pm as we will likely be turning people away at the door during the game as we are likely to reach our capacity by 6 pm or so.  The pub should be fairly normal in the afternoon until 3 or 4 pm and clear out fairly quick after the game is over at 9 pm.  During the game there will be no wi-fi and no darts.  Fans there to watch the game will be given priority for seating in the television areas.  Please understand that this is an extreme circumstance where the USA game is not on normal television and that to my knowledge, we are the only place in San Diego county showing the English language tv feed.  All will return to normal by 10 pm Saturday night just in time to enjoy a relaxing beer on Sunday the 11th.

Beer and Cheese

Sunday there is no Charger game, but we will be hosting our fall Beer and Cheese Tasting at the pub at 6:30 pm.  There are still about 10 seats left for the tasting and the cost is $40.  We have already one through the first class, which was this past Wednesday.  I can tell you that there are some great pairings that include Allagash Curieux, Kulmbacher Eisbock, Erdinger Dark Hefeweizen and Sierra Nevada Estate Harvest.  You can sign up at the pub (cash only please) or contact Taste Cheese Shop at 619-683-2306 to pay with a credit card.

Next Week and Beyond

We will be open normal hours for the pseudo-holiday of Columbus day on Monday the 12th.  The Monday night game is the great rivalry between the Jets and the Dolphins.  The Chargers play next Monday night against the Broncos – and I will find something special to tap for the game.  The USA soccer team plays again on Wednesday against Costa Rica at 5 pm.

Thursday the 15th we will tap two casks from Alpine Beer Company – Nelson Rye IPA and Bad Boy double IPA.  Both will be on at 5 pm, though I do not expect either one to make it through the night.  Friday the 16th we will tap some Octoberfest beers including Craftsman Oktoberfest.

The following weekend, Friday the 23rd through Sunday the 25th is our annual Wet Hop Beer Festival.  We will feature beers brewed with wet hops straight off the hop vines and into the brew kettles.  We will have beers from up and down the west coast along with some great local offerings and some Sierra Nevada Harvest casks – yes, Harvest casks, plural.  We’ll most likely tap one on Thursday the 22nd and one on Friday the 23rd.

Looking further ahead, our annual Halloween costume party will be on Friday the 30th – the day before Halloween.  Show up in costume, have fun, drink good beer and chat about who has the best costume.

That is your good beer news for now.  Usually these emails are written with a malt-based companion, however, tonight I needed something a little extra, so I poured a glass of Absinthe.  For those that are interested, check out www.absintheclassics.com - I am particularly fond of the Jade line of products.  We’ll see you soon for a great Belgian or Wet Hop beer.  Cheers, Tom

Hello Beer Fans!

The big news coming out of this past week’s Great American Beer Festival is that Pizza Port Carlsbad was named Large Brewpub of the Year as brewer Jeff Bagby and his team took him an amazing 7 medals including FOUR GOLD MEDALS – Revelations, Beech Street Bitter, Reed’s Wee Heavy and Cow Stout.  The rest of San Diego’s breweries took home another 7 medals including a silver for Ballast Point Scuplin IPA and a gold for Lost Abbey’s Duck Duck Gooze.  Blind Pig IPA took a bronze medal.  Hopworks Urban Brewery in Portland took the gold in the Imperial IPA.  Hollister took the silver medal in that category with Hip Hop – which we will have on tap for the Chargers game Sunday night.  The complete winners list can be found online at: www.greatamericanbeerfestival.com.  Congrats to Jeff and all of San Diego’s amazing brewers!

Back on the pub front, we will be tapping a cask of Alpine’s new session ale, Tuatara, tonight at 5 pm.  It is a 4.2% alcohol, light colored ale with plenty of New Zealand hop punch.  It is named for a rare native lizard-like species that is the last living member of its animal order.  We also have the beer on draft right now and it is delicious.  Also new on tap is the New Belgium La Folie Flanders Brown, Port Brewing High Tide Fresh Hop IPA and the Alpine Bad Boy is back on tap for a very limited time.

This Friday is the 22nd Anniversary Party at Downtown Johnny Brown’s.  Owner Todd Alexander has transformed this civic center pub into the best beer destination in down town.  He has an unbelievable line up of beer that includes Sculpin, Deschutes Black Butte XXI, Temptation, Rodenbach Grand and much much more.  The pub will even be serving Deus Champagne-style beer by the glass.  If you are heading downtown for a show or dinner, make sure to stop by and have a great beer.

Chargers

Over the weekend we be staying open late on Sunday night for the Chargers v. Steelers game at 5:30 pm.  The kitchen will be open until half-time and we’ll stay open for about 30 minutes after the end of the game.  As mentioned, we will have the Hollister Brewing Hip Hop Double IPA on tap for the game.  Earlier in the day, we will show the Chelsea v. Liverpool game when we open at Noon on replay – we will also be able to replay it later in the day as well.  This weekend on Saturday, Holiday Wine Cellar is hosting a home brew competition for its anniversary.  Check out the details at www.holidaywinecellar.com.  If you have never been, Holiday has probably the best selection of beer in the county along with the Pizza Port bottle shop.

Beer and Cheese

Our Fall Beer and Cheese Pairings are coming right up.  The first class is on Wednesday, October 7th at 6:30 pm at Taste Artisan Cheese Shop in Hillcrest.  There are only 9 seats left for that class as of Wednesday the 30th.  The second class is Sunday, October 11th (Chargers bye-week) at O’Brien’s at 6:30 pm and that class is about half full.  The classes include 8 beers and 8 cheeses paired together.  This time around we are using some very unusual beer styles that we have never used before including a bourbon barrel aged beer, a wet hop ale and a dark hefe-weizen.  There will be beers from five different countries as we take an around world tour of flavors.  Cost is $40 and you can sign up at the pub (cash only please) or pay at Taste with a credit card (619-683-2306 or find them on our website’s friends page).

Next week you can look forward to a cask of Alpine Pure Hoppiness on Thursday the 8th at 5 pm.  I will be hosting a Belgian Beer Weekend on the 9th, 10th and 11th.  I plan on having at least 10 Belgian and Belgian-style beers on tap on Friday the 9th along with some great bottles available for the night.  Many of the beers will be on tap all weekend and I will tap new beers as other ones run out.  I will put out a list in next week’s email but you can count on Val Dieu Grand Cru, Maredsous Blond and Craftsman Triple White Sage among others.  It will be a great weekend of Belgian beer flavors.

USA Soccer

On Saturday the 10th we will be showing the USA v. Honduras world cup qualifier on tv at 6 pm (time my change due to conditions in Honduras).  The game is only being shown on closed circuit tv, so there is no way to watch it at home.  The pay per view is hefty, but we will not be charging a cover for USA fans – though it would be much appreciated if you could help us out by enjoying multiple beers during the game and perhaps some food.  We will be showing the game inside and on the patio, but I am not sure if we will be able to show it on more than three tvs at the moment – I will know more next week and put it in the soccer email (which you can sign up for by replying to this email and letting me know you want to be on the list).  The Costa Rica game on the 14th is on regular TV and we will have it on as well.  If we clinch qualification or win the game against Honduras, expect the USA yard glass to be passed around and filled liberally.

Looking further ahead, we will tap two Alpine casks on Thursday the 15th at 5 pm – Nelson Rye IPA and Bad Boy Double IPA.  Monday the 19th the Chargers play the Broncos for Monday Night Football.  We’ll have the game on all of our new tvs.  If you haven’t seen the new big screen out front, it is worth checking out.  Our regular pitcher special will be in effect from 4:30 pm to close – $10 pitchers of craft/local beers and $14 pitchers of strong ales (not Belgian-styles though).  Our annual cask of AleSmith’s Evil Dead Red will be on Thursday, October 29th and our Halloween costume party will be on Friday, October 30th.

Wet Hop and Beer Week

Our annual Wet Hop Beer Festival will be happening the weekend of October 23rd-25th.  I am expecting some great new beers this year from Oregon that we have never had.  When I have more details, I will pass them on.  And because I am still planning that festival, I haven’t set firm dates and times on too many events during the upcoming San Diego Beer Week, November 6th-15th.  I know for sure that we will be doing the following events: Local Beer and Cheese Tasting on 11/8, Green Flash Cask and Barrel Aged beers on Monday the 9th and a rare bottle tasting with Lost Abbey’s Tomme Arthur on Sunday the 15th.  We will also be doing events with Alpine, Rodenbach, AleSmith, Ballast Point and Bear Republic for sure.  The theme for our Beer Week is Cask and Barrel.  So we will be featuring lots of great cask beer and many rare barrel aged beers.  For all of the events around town, visit www.sdbw.org.

Many of you have noticed our ABC license posting claiming a change in ownership.  This is highly misleading as Lindsey and I are simply changing the LLC that owns O’Brien’s over to a corporation.  Neither O’Brien’s nor us are going anywhere, so do not worry.  The ABC considers this kind of transfer as new ownership even though it is still just me and Lindsey as owners.

That is your good beer news for now.  The new issues of Celebrator Beer News and South West Brewing News are in.  Check out the cover story on Alpine’s Pat McIlhenney by yours truly.  There is even a photo of the Alpine Beer Company dog – Lucy - on the cover.  We’ll see you soon for a great beer.  Cheers, Tom