What’s Happening

Hello Holiday Beer Fans!
 
The best beer and food holiday of the year is almost upon us.  Make sure you incorporate beer into your meal this Thanksgiving.  Cooking with beer is easy and adds great flavor – you can baste your bird in beer and make beer gravy (dark beers without too much roast flavor work great or for the more adventurous cook, try something like Rodenbach Grand Cru), boil some brats in beer, use your favorite beer in a marinade, substitute cooking with a Belgian-style Tripel anywhere you might add white wine or use a full flavored Belgian-style dark strong ale in place of red wine in a soup or sauce.  Few beverages pair better with Thanksgiving meals than Belgian-style Dubbels and Grand Crus.  Malty, not too strong, not too sweet and with just the right level of fruitiness to pair with everything on the table.  Maresous 8 Bruin, Chimay Red or Blue, Lost Abbey Lost and Found, AleSmith Grand Cru, Green Flash Grand Cru, Westmalle Dubbel and even Malheur 12.  For a twist, try Malheur Brut or Dark Brut or Bosteels Deus in place of champagne.  You will certainly find many of these beverages around my meals this weekend.
 
But before we get to Thanksgiving, a few pub updates to tell you about.  This week we will tap a five gallon cask of Alpine O’Brien’s IPA on Wednesday, November 25th at 5 pm.  We will have UEFA Champions League games live at 11:30 am on both Tuesday and Wednesday, the 24th and 25th.
 
Closed for Turkey Day
 
The pub will be CLOSED Thursday the 26th and Friday the 27th for Thanksgiving.  We will be open normal hours on Saturday the 28th – Noon to Midnight and Sunday the 29th – Noon to 6 pm.  Although whether or not we can show the Chargers game due to blackout restrictions remains to be seen.  As of yesterday, I read that 6000 tickets still remain, which is a lot of tickets to sell in 48 hours, or even 72 hours if they get an extension.  If you want to see the game, go buy a ticket.  I have a bad feeling that the blackout may well be in place.
 
Next week we host our annual pre-party for the Strong Ale Festival.  On Thursday the 3rd we will tap two casks – AleSmith YuleSmith and Pizza Port Carlsbad Poor Man’s IPA.  We will also have Sierra Nevada’s The Empire Strikes Black on tap along with a host of other great strong ales.  We will be tapping great strong beers all weekend long to celebrate the festival.
 
Strong Ale
 
The 13th San Diego Strong Ale Festival will be Friday and Saturday, December 4th and 5th at Pizza Port Carlsbad.  The festival will run from 4-11 pm on Friday and 11 am to 11 pm on Saturday with more than 65 beers all over 8% on tap.  Admission is $30 and includes a festival glass and 8 taster tickets, additional tastes are just $1 each.  All tickets for the regular festival hours are available at the door.  We will have full size kegs of everything at the fest, so the beer line up will be the same both days.  Tickets for the VIP session from 1 to 4 pm on Friday the 4th are more than half sold out.  You can buy them for $40 at www.pizzaport.com.  We will have at least a dozen special beers for the VIP session.
 
Please Help San Diego!
 
San Diego is bidding to become a host city for the World Cup in 2018 or 2022.  The city needs your help – please sign the online petition to show your support.  Just visit the city’s website at www.sandiego.gov and click on the World Cup link.  There are 27 cities vying for only 18 final spots.  Right now San Diego is in 15th place, but with just 1000 more votes, the city could jump up to 11th place – the petition drive ends November 30th.  If you have friends, relatives, colleagues, fellow alumni, etc… that you could forward the following paragraph, I would greatly appreciate it.  I especially need help circulating the effort around the local colleges – if you have any contacts that can help, please send it to them.  The World Cup could mean a $400-$500 million economic windfall for the county. 

Please help support the bid by forwarding this message:

The San Diego World Cup Bid Committee needs your help to gather signatures for an online petition.  The city is trying to become a host city for either the 2018 or 2022 World Cup soccer tournament – the USA is bidding for both tournaments at the same time.  We need to show our city’s support to be a host city by signing the petition.  San Diego is one of 27 cities vying for only 18 final spots that will be decided by the end of the year – the petition signing ends on November 30th.  Could you please visit the city’s website at: www.sandiego.gov and click on the World Cup link to sign the petition?  All that is needed is an email address and a zip code.  If you have multiple email addresses, please enter all of them.  If you have friends, relatives, fellow alumni and colleagues that you can forward this to, it would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks much for your help in trying to bring the planet’s largest sporting event to San Diego.

Thank you for your help and for supporting San Diego’s World Cup bid.

Coming Up

We will be opening early at 9 am on Friday, December 4th for the World Cup Draw.  The USA has qualified, and on the 4th we will find out what group we will be drawn into.  Our newly official San Diego American Outlaws chapter will be there in full force.  The following Friay, we will host an evening of draft beers from Avery Brewing in Boulder, Colorado on December 11th with Adam Avery himself.  Our European pub crawl is already half full.  If you have been thinking about signing up, now is a great time.  You can find all of the details and trip itinerary at www.ciaotravel.com.  Finally, you can listen for me on a special pre-thanksgiving Beer 4 Breakfast on 91X on Wednesday morning at 8:15 am.  We will have some Ballast Point Black Marlin Porter Beer Gravy to eat with Maredsous 8 to drink on the air.

Have very happy and safe Thanksgiving holiday.  Enjoy the time with friends, family and good cheer.  We will see you soon for a great beer.  Cheers, Tom

The USA is hoping to host the World Cup in 2018 or 2022.  San Diego is one of 27 cities being considered to host games.  The USA bid committee has started electronic petitions to help garner support for each city.  Even if you are not a soccer fan, having games here with 60,000+ fans over several weeks will be good for our city.  Please show your support by signing the petition on our homepage at www.obrienspub.net.  All you need to do is type in an email address and a zip code.  If you have multiple emails, you can enter them all.  Please get your friends and family to help support this effort to bring one of the world’s greatest sporting events to our home town.

If you want to really help the effort along, please forward this text to as many people as you can – and ask them to forward it on:

The San Diego World Cup Bid Committee needs your help to gather signatures for an online petition.  The city is trying to become a host city for either the 2018 or 2022 World Cup soccer tournament – the USA is bidding for both tournaments at the same time.  We need to show our city’s support to be a host city by signing the petition.  San Diego is one of 27 cities vying for only 18 final spots that will be decided by the end of the year – the petition signing ends on November 30th.  Could you please visit the city’s website at: www.sandiego.gov and click on the World Cup link to sign the petition?  All that is needed is an email address and a zip code.  If you have multiple email addresses, please enter all of them.  If you have friends, relatives and colleagues that you can forward this to, it would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks much for your help in trying to bring the planet’s largest sporting event to San Diego.

Hello All,

Just a quick webupdate about our Firestone night this Friday.  We will have Firestone Union Jack IPA and Oaktoberfest on tap along with Red Nectar, Hemp Nectar and Black Xantus – a coffee Imperial Stout aged in Whiskey and Bourbon barrels.  And we will have bottles of the new Firestone 13 Anniversary Ale.  This is always one of the best domestic bottle releases of the year and I can not wait to try it.  I will have a few bottles of Firestone 12 on sale as well.

Thursday the 19th we tap casks of Firestone 100% from the wood Double Barrel Ale and Craftsman Edgar’s Ale with fresh hops.  Pliny will be back on tap as well.

Over the weekend, the Chargers play the Broncos on Sunday at 1 pm.  Next week we will be CLOSED on Thursday and Friday for Thanksgiving.   We will be open normal hours on Saturday the 27th – 11:30 am to Midnight and on Sunday the 29th – Noon to 6 pm.

Tickets for the VIP session of the San Diego Strong Ale Festival are more than half gone.  If you want to go to this special Friday session, buy your tickets now at www.pizzaport.com.  Regular session tickets will be available at the door.

San Diego World Cup Bid
 
The USA is hoping to host the World Cup in 2018 or 2022.  San Diego is one of 27 cities being considered to host games.  The USA bid committee has started electronic petitions to help garner support for each city.  Even if you are not a soccer fan, having games here with 60,000+ fans over several weeks will be good for our city.  Please show your support by signing the petition on our homepage at www.obrienspub.net.  All you need to do is type in an email address and a zip code.  If you have multiple emails, you can enter them all.  Please get your friends and family to help support this effort to bring one of the world’s greatest sporting events to our home town.  If you type the Get and Share button, you can paste the graphic code into your own website.
 
Euro 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.

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

Hello Happy Beer Week Beer Fans!

San Diego Beer Week is in full swing!  We have already had some great events and we have plenty more coming up.  Tonight, Wednesday the 11th we have a Belgian Ale night and a special cask of Sierra Nevada Celebration at 5:30 pm!  We will have Het Anker Lucifer (from the makers of Gouden Carolous) the brand new De Halve Maan Tripel, Rodenbach and Rodenbach Grand Cru and Dupont Avec les bon Voeux (one of my favorite beers) all on tap in addition to the cask.  All of the beers will be on tap by 5:30 pm.  We will also be offering 10% off all Belgian bottles tonight.  For Veterans Day, we will take $1 off the first beer for any active or retired military.  From the kitchen, Lindsey will have a Flemish Stew made with Rodenbach and Chimay Cheese burgers and specials on Chimay Cheese plates with three different Chimay cheeses.

In addition to the draft beers, I will have some new bottles out for sale: Nectar Black Xantus – a bourbon and whiskey barrel aged Imperial stout, Goose Island Bourbon County Stout, Affligem Noel, Sierra Nevada Estate Harvest, Stone 12th Anniversary Bitter Chocolate Oatmeal Stout – a special vintage release from the brewery just for us, and Lost Abbey 10 Commandments.  Some of the great beers on tap from our Beer Week events: Green Flash Coffee Stout, AleSmith YuleSmith and Speedway Stout, and Alpine Tuatara session ale and Captain Stout.  We have three great stouts on tap right now, so if you are a fan of dark beers, this is a good time to be enjoying these beers at the pub.

We have a limited supply of O’Brien’s Beer Week T-shirts.  We have them in men’s and women’s sizes and they are just $10 each for either style.  Our logo pint glasses are back in stock.  We have three slogans from which to choose – The Hoppiest Place on Earth, I Didn’t Come Here to Save Money or Lose Weight and Fine Beer May Be Judged With a Single Sip But it is Better to be Thoroughly Sure – Czech Proverb.  The glasses are $3 each or 4 for $10.  We will have more merchandise in stock before Thanksgiving.

Hangover Soccer Breakfast

This Saturday, November 14th, we will be open at 7 am for the USA v. Slovakia soccer friendly.  We will have coffee and OJ for the start of the game with breakfast from Humberto just before half time around 7:30 pm – 7:45 pm.  Beer, Champagne and Mimosas will be served starting at 8 am.  So come by for a little Beer Week hangover breakfast and cheer on the USA.  The pub will be staying open for the England v. Brazil game at 9 am along with the European World Cup Play-offs.  Check the soccer page (in the news section) for a complete listing of games.  For those interested in our San Diego Chapter of the American Outlaws, USA soccer supporters club, we will be having an organizational meeting just after the USA v. Slovakia game around 9 am to discuss ideas for the chapter. 

More Beer Week

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 7 beers on tap and Dorado Double IPA on tap.  We have an amazing line up of Ballast Point beers on draft including Sculpin IPA, 2008 Victory at Sea, Schooner Wet Hop Ale, Sour Wench, Reef Rye and Barrel Aged Sea Monster Stout.  We will also have Chimay on tap and specials on Chimay cheese plates and Chimay Cheese burgers.  Be sure to check out Lindsey’s insane Mac n’ Cheese and some tasty Sculpin IPA beer cheese – look for lots of Beer Cheese specials including appetizer plates, double 1/4 pound patty burgers and tubs available to-go.  Listen to 91X which is doing Beer for Breakfast all week long with local brewers at 8:15 am.
 
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.  Expect beers from Green Flash (including Grand Mantis), AleSmith, Pizza Port, Ballast Point, Alpine, Port Brewing, Russian River, Bear Republic and many more great breweries.  There will be no way to be disappointed with Friday night’s beer line up.

 Saturday the 14th will be Bear Republic night with FIVE, yes five different IPAs including a special O’Brien’s Blend from the brewery and the new Ken and John’s IPA.  We will also have Nor Cal IPA, Rebellion IPA and one of the pub favorites, Racer 5 IPA.  The O’Brien’s Blend, Racer 5 and Ken and John’s IPA will be on tap all day with the other IPAs on tap around 5 pm.  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 which is now sold out.  The pub will be open normal hours Noon to 6 pm and the Chargers will host the Eagles at 1:15 pm.  If you are looking for something Beer Week related to do, I will be at the official Beer Week closing event – Chefs Celebration of Beer, which will be a beer and food event at Irwin Jacobs Hall at Qualcomm in Mira Mesa from 1 to 4 pm.  The event will feature local breweries teamed with chefs to create sublime beer and food pairings.  The event will also feature several short educational talks, one by yours truly.  I missed the Cooks Confab beer dinner, so I am really looking forward to this event.  Tickets can be bought at either the Beer Week or Brewers Guild websites, www.sdbww.org or www.sandiegobrewersguild.org.
 
San Diego World Cup Bid
 
The USA is hoping to host the World Cup in 2018 or 2022.  San Diego is one of 27 cities being considered to host games.  The USA bid committee has started electronic petitions to help garner support for each city.  Even if you are not a soccer fan, having games here with 60,000+ fans over several weeks will be good for our city.  Please show your support by signing the petition on our homepage at www.obrienspub.net.  All you need to do is type in an email address and a zip code.  If you have multiple emails, you can enter them all.  Please get your friends and family to help support this effort to bring one of the world’s greatest sporting events to our home town.  If you type the Get and Share button, you can paste the graphic code into your own website.
 
Euro 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.
 
Other News
 
After Beer Week we will tap a cask of Craftsman Edgar’s Ale with fresh hops on Wednesday the 18th at 6 pm.  We also have a cask of Nectar Hemp Ale on the way for Thursday the 19th.  Friday the 20th will be Firestone and Nectar Ales night at the pub with Nectar IPA, Firestone Union Jack and Nectar Black Xantus on tap and hopefully bottles of the new Firestone Anniversary beer.  We will be CLOSED November 26th and 27th for Thanksgiving.  Tickets for the San Diego Strong Ale Fest VIP session are back on sale now through the Pizza Port website – find the tickets in the merchandise section.  The fest is December 4th and 5th and the VIP session will be from 1-4 pm on Friday the 4th.  We will of course, host the pre-party on Thursday, December 3rd with casks of Pizza Port Carlsbad Poor Man’s IPA and AleSmith YuleSmith along with a host of great strong beers including Sierra Nevada The Empire Strikes Black.  Avery night happens on Friday, December 11th with a very impressive draft list and Adam Avery himself.

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

Hello Beer Week Beer Freaks!

Here is an update on the rest of our upcoming San Diego Beer Week Events.  We have added a cask of Sierra Nevada Celebration for Wednesday the 11th and we now have 5 IPAs from Bear Republic for Saturday night the 14th.  Tickets are still available for the Chefs Celebration of Beer on Sunday the 15th.

We have Green Flash Imperial IPA, Coffee Double Stout, West Coast IPA and Hopless still on tap from Monday.  Alpine Duet IPA, Tuatara, Captain Stout, Pure Hoppiness and Mandarin Nectar are on tap from our Alpine Weekend.  Tonight we already have AleSmith Nut Brown and Speedway Stout on tap for our AleSmith night.  We will be adding the new Winter YuleSmith, Horny Devil, Little Devil and the Kopi Luwak Speedway Stout as well.  We will be limiting the Kopi Luwak Speedway to one sample per person – keg taps at 6 pm.  The cask of Green Flash Palate Wrecker will also be out around 5:30 pm as we still have some left from last night.

Here is the rest of the week…
 
Wednesday the 11th is Belgian Night and we will have Rodenbach Grand Cru and regular Rodenbach on tap along with Het Anker Lucifer (new from the brewers of Gouden Carolous), De Halve Maan Tripel (brand new in San Diego) and Scaldis Noel.  We will also be featuring 10% off any Belgian bottle for Wednesday night.  Lindsey will have a Flemish Stew made with a sour brown (likely Rodenbach) for this night.  Just Added – Cask of Sierra Nevada Celebration at 5:30 pm!!!
 
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.  We have an amazing line up of Ballast Point beers on draft including Sculpin IPA, 2008 Victory at Sea, Schooner Wet Hop Ale, Sour Wench, Reef Rye and Barrel Aged Sea Monster Stout.  We will also have Chimay on tap and specials on Chimay cheese plates.  Be sure to check out Lindsey’s insane Mac n’ Cheese.
 
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.  Expect beers from Green Flash, AleSmith, Pizza Port, Ballast Point, Alpine, Port Brewing, Russian River, Bear Republic and many more great breweries.
 
Saturday the 14th will be Bear Republic night with FIVE DIFFERENT IPAS including a special O’Brien’s Blend from the brewery and the new Ken and John’s IPA along with Rebellion IPA, Nor Cal IPA and of course Racer 5 IPA.  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 which is now sold out.  The pub will be open normal hours Noon to 6 pm and the Chargers will host the Eagles at 1:15 pm.  If you are looking for something Beer Week related to do, I will be at the official Beer Week closing event – Chefs Celebration of Beer, which will be a beer and food event at Irwin Jacobs Hall at Qualcomm in Mira Mesa from 1 to 4 pm.  The event will feature local breweries teamed with chefs to create sublime beer and food pairings.  The event will also feature several short educational talks, one by yours truly.  I missed the Cooks Confab beer dinner, so I am really looking forward to this event.  Tickets can be bought at either the Beer Week or Brewers Guild websites, which were previously listed.

San Diego World Cup Bid

The USA is hoping to host the World Cup in 2018 or 2022.  San Diego is one of 27 cities being considered to host games.  The USA bid committee has started electronic petitions to help garner support for each city.  Even if you are not a soccer fan, having games here with 60,000+ fans over several weeks will be good for our city.  Please show your support by visiting: http://www.gousabid.com/city/local/san-diego-ca/.  All you need to do is type in an email address and a zip code.  If you have multiple emails, you can enter them all.  Please get your friends and family to help support this effort to bring one of the world’s greatest sporting events to our home town.

Euro 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.

That is your web update for now.  Look for a full email in the next day or so.  Not on the email list?  Sign up from our homepage!  Cheers, Tom

Hello Soccer Fans!
 
This weekend we will be opening up early at 6:45 am for the 7 am Slovakia v. USA game on Saturday the 14th.  We will have coffee and OJ for the start of the game with breakfast ready around 7:30-7:45 am.  At 8 am we can serve mimosas, champagne and beer as well (that is when our ABC license starts).  Please help us make sure we have a great crowd to cheer on the USA!

Immediately after the USA game, we will have a short meeting for folks interested in the American Outlaws supporters group.  Our chapter application was faxed in last week, and we are hoping to hear something by Saturday.  We will just be doing some basic introductions, getting ideas for what we as a chapter want to do and to find people who can help us with chapter activities and upkeep.  If you are not yet a member, but would like to find out more, please come by.  The next USA game is against Denmark at 11:30 am on Wednesday the 18th.  I will tape both games so that they can be watched later.
 
Also happening Saturday the 14th are the European World Cup Qualifying Playoffs.  And since we are opening up early for the USA game, we are going to stay open for the 8 am Russia v. Slovenia, 10 am Greece v. Ukraine and 12:25 pm Portugal v. Bosnia-Herzegovina games.  England also play Brazil at 9 am and there is an 11 am U-21 Euro Championship qualifier featuring England v. Portugal.  The World Cup Playoff return legs are on Wednesday the 18th.  Unless Gol TV has the Ireland v. France game, we will only be able to show it on delay on Monday the 16th.
 
The USA Bid Committee for the 2018 and 2022 World Cup has started a Support Your City email petition.  San Diego is one of 27 cities being considered for staging matches.  I have added a sign up counter on our home page at www.obrienspub.net.  Right now we are way behind other cities  – a few have over 10,000 people signed up and we are not yet at 2000.  Please sign the petition and get your friends to do the same.  You can also add the counter to your own web page - just click Get and Share at the bottom of the graphic.
 
So here are the upcoming games:
 
Friday, 11/13:
 
8 pm – Houston v. LA Galaxy – Western Conference Final – ESPN
 
Saturday, 11/14: Open at 6:45 am for all morning games!!!
 
7 am – Slovakia v. USA – FSC – also on tap and at 8:30 pm
8 am – Russia v. Slovenia – Setanta – also at 3 pm
9 am – Brazil v. England – FSC
10 am – Greece v. Ukraine – Setanta – also at 4:45 p
11 am – U21 – England v. Portugal – FSC
12:25 pm – Portugal v. Bosnia-Herzegovina – Setanta – also at 6:30 pm
1 pm – New Zealand v. Bahrain – FSC
5 pm – Chicago Fire v. Real Salt Lake – FSC – Eastern Conference Final
8:30 pm – Slovakia v. USA – FSC
 
Monday, 11/16:
5:30 pm – Ireland v. France – Setanta
 
Wednesday, 11/18:
11:30 am – Denmark v. USA – ESPN (Classic or 2 most likely)
11:40 am – Bosnia-Herzegovina v. Portugal – Setanta – also at 3:45 pm
2 pm – Slovenia v. Russia – Setanta – also at 5:30 pm

Saturday, 11/21 – more games TBA
On Tape – Sunderland v. Arsenal, Manchester United v. Everton
11:30 am – Fiorentina v. Parma – FSC
2 pm – Bologna v. Inter Milan – FSC
4 pm - Hull City v. West Ham – FSC
8 pm – Manchester United v Everton – FSC
 
Sunday, 11/22
On Tape – AC Milan v. Cagliari, Stoke City v. Portsmouth
11:30 am – Juventus v. Udinese – FSC
2 pm – Tottenham v. Wigan – FSC
5:30 pm – MLS Cup Final – ESPN – Teams TBD

That is your soccer news for now.  We are knee deep in San Diego Beer Week with tons of great beer on tap – check out one of our events on the news page at www.obrienspub.net.  Cheers, Tom

Hello Happy Beer Week Fans!
 
Tomorrow, Friday the 6th kicks off the biggest 10 day beer bash this town has ever seen.  From the 6th to the 15th, pubs, breweries, restaurants and bottles shops all over the county will be celebrating San Diego’s amazing beer culture.  There are more than 200 scheduled events on the Beer Week website at www.sdbw.org.   It kicks off with the Brewers Guild Festival on the 6th and the 7th.  You can buy tickets at the Beer Week website or the Guild site at www.sandiegobrewersgiuld.org.  The Friday night session is a special VIP session from 7-11 pm ($35).  Saturday there are two sessions ($25 each) - 1-4 pm and 5-9 pm.  This event has sold out every year, so make sure to buy your tickets now.  Tickets at the door will be $5 more for each session.
 
We will be starting the fun tonight, Thursday the 5th, with a cask of the very popular Port Brewing High Tide Fresh Hop IPA at 5 pm.  We are the number one account for this beer and with good reason – it is super tasty!  I am really looking forward to the cask.  We will also have the draft version on tap.  New on tap you can try the Alaskan Baltic Porter, St. Bernardus Christmas (yes it is apparently Christmas beer time already) and the Pizza Port San Clemente Doheny Double IPA.  We also have a bunch of new bottles including Nogne O Pale and Saison from Norway, De Ranke XX Bitter, La Trappe (aka Konigshoeven) Isid’or, Goose Island Bourbon County Stout, Ise Kadoya Genmai (Japanese brown rice ale), Jolly Pumpkin La Roja and Nils Oscar Kalasol Fest Lager.  And the St. Bernardus Abt 12 six liter bottles are back for the holidays.  We cracked one open at the halloween party just to make sure they were as good as last year.  It comes in a nice wooden box.  The bottles are available to go and will be part of our 10% off bottles all weekend.
 
Beer Week
 
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 5 batch vertical tasting of Exponential Hoppiness going back to spring of 2007, along with at least 5 other Alpine beers on tap including a cask of Bad Boy double IPA at 5 pm.  Friday you can check out the Bad Boy Beer Cheese Plates and Burgers – it will also be available to go.  The kitchen will have White Bean Chicken Chili made with Habenero Tequila Chicken Sausage and the new double bacon patty melt with two 1/4 pound burger patties.  Lindsey will be making specialty beer cheese all week long for our different events.
 
We will continue to tap around 10 Alpine beers including Duet IPA, Tuatara, Mandarin Nectar, Willy, Pure Hoppiness and Captain Stout 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.  Look for Monica to be at the Guild fest Saturday night serving up Lindsey’s beer cheese.  We will have the Chargers v. Giants game on Sunday at 1:15 pm.
 
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 put together 8 fantastic pairings featuring some of the area’s best beers – Alpine Nelson IPA, Ballast Point Sculpin, Lost Abbey 10 Commandments, Pizza Port Carlsbad Twerp, Green Flash Coffee Stout and more!  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.  I will be with Shawn from Alpine Beer drinking Duet, Nelson and the new Great barleywine at 16% alcohol!
 
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 including Little Devil, Decadence and Summer YuleSmith.  We will have regular Speedway Stout on tap for a side by side comparison.
 
Wednesday the 11th is Belgian Night and we will have Rodenbach Grand Cru and regular Rodenbach on tap along with Het Anker Lucifer (new from the brewers of Gouden Carolous), De Halve Maan Tripel (brand new in San Diego) and Scaldis Noel.  We will also be featuring 10% off any Belgian bottle for Wednesday night.  Lindsey will have a Flemish Stew made with a sour brown (likely Rodenbach) for this night.
 
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.  We have an amazing line up of Ballast Point beers on draft including Sculpin IPA, 2008 Victory at Sea, Schooner Wet Hop Ale, Sour Wench, Reef Rye and Barrel Aged Sea Monster Stout.  We will also have Chimay on tap and specials on Chimay cheese plates.  Be sure to check out Lindsey’s insane Mac n’ Cheese.
 
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.  Expect beers from Green Flash, AleSmith, Pizza Port, Ballast Point, Alpine, Port Brewing, Russian River, Bear Republic and many more great breweries.
 
Saturday the 14th will be Bear Republic night with several specialty beers including a special O’Brien’s Blend from the brewery and the new Ken and John’s IPA and there are even rumors of some cask IPA coming our way.  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 which is now sold out.  The pub will be open normal hours Noon to 6 pm and the Chargers will host the Eagles at 1:15 pm.  If you are looking for something Beer Week related to do, I will be at the official Beer Week closing event – Chefs Celebration of Beer, which will be a beer and food event at Irwin Jacobs Hall at Qualcomm in Mira Mesa from 1 to 4 pm.  The event will feature local breweries teamed with chefs to create sublime beer and food pairings.  The event will also feature several short educational talks, one by yours truly.  I missed the Cooks Confab beer dinner, so I am really looking forward to this event.  Tickets can be bought at either the Beer Week or Brewers Guild websites, which were previously listed.

San Diego World Cup Bid

The USA is hoping to host the World Cup in 2018 or 2022.  San Diego is one of 27 cities being considered to host games.  The USA bid committee has started electronic petitions to help garner support for each city.  Even if you are not a soccer fan, having games here with 60,000+ fans over several weeks will be good for our city.  Please show your support by visiting: http://www.gousabid.com/city/local/san-diego-ca/.  All you need to do is type in an email address and a zip code.  If you have multiple emails, you can enter them all.  Please get your friends and family to help support this effort to bring one of the world’s greatest sporting events to our home town.

Euro 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.

Other News

After Beer Week we will tap a cask of Craftsman Edgar’s Ale with fresh hops.  We might also have a cask of Firestone on the way.  Friday the 20th will be Firestone and Nectar Ales night at the pub.  We will be CLOSED November 26th and 27th for Thanksgiving.  Tickets for the San Diego Strong Ale Fest VIP session are on sale now through the Pizza Port website – find the tickets in the merchandise section.  The fest is December 4th and 5th and the VIP session will be from 1-4 pm on Friday the 4th.  We will of course, host the pre-party on Thursday, December 3rd with casks of Pizza Port Carlsbad Poor Man’s IPA and AleSmith YuleSmith along with a host of great strong beers.  Avery night happens on Friday, December 11th with a very impressive draft list and Adam Avery himself.

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