What’s Happening

As of opening today, Sunday the 31st, all 14 Russian River beers were still on tap – Supplication, Consecration, Temptation, Redemption, Benediction, Rejection, Damnation, Perdition, Porter, IPA, Blind Pig, Aud Blonde, Dead Leaf Green and Pliny the Elder!  We also still have many of the vintage bottles still available including Beatification and Batch 23 Damnation.  So stop by and enjoy a great Russian River beer without the crowds.  Cheers, Tom

Hello Good Beer Fans!

It has been a very fun month celebrating 16 years of great beer at O’Brien’s.  And there is still plenty more great beer to come.  Right now we have some great hoppy beers on tap including Coronado Idiot IPA, Green Flash Imperial IPA, the new Port Brewing Mongo double IPA, Alpine Duet IPA and the just released 2010 Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Barleywine.  Wednesday night the 27th we will add the Stone and Brew Dog collaboration Bashah (Black As S**t, Hoppy As Hell – kind of like the Wgasa Tram line at the Wild Animal Park).  I haven’t tried it yet, but I hear that it is quite dark and rather hoppy. 

And speaking of Stone collaborations, we have bottles of the Nogne/Jolly Pumpkin/Stone Holiday ale with chestnuts, juniper berries and sage.  The beer uses the same recipe each year, but is brewed at a different one of the three breweries each year.  This year is Nogne O in Norway, so it counts as import bottle for to-go purposes.  We also have the De La Senne Stouterik Belgian Stout, Brasserie Lefebvre Saison 1900 and Alpine Exponential Hoppiness all in bottles.  On the honey wine front, we have 4 Redstone meads available – Traditional Honey Wine, Black Raspberry Nectar, Boysenberry Nectar and Vanilla Bean and Cinnamon Stick which is the annual winter seasonal.

Thursday the 28th we tap a cask of Green Flash West Coast IPA at 5 pm.  This has become one of the most popular IPAs in town and for very good reason.  As always, all of our local beers will be on special Thursday night.

Russian River World Tour

The big news is this weekend’s Russian River World Tour featuring 14 draft beers, 3 more in the bottle and some vintage and large format bottles too on Saturday and Sunday, January 30th and 31st!  Since the line-up is nearly half non-TION beers, Vinnie and I decided to call it a World Tour instead of TION night.  On tap you can look for – Redemption, Rejection, Perdition, Benediction, Damnation, Temptation, Consecration, Aud Blonde, Dead Leaf Green, Porter, IPA, Blind Pig IPA and Pliny the Elder.  No Pliny the Younger as it will not be released until the first week of February. 

In the bottle we will have two different batches of Beatification along with Salvation, Batch 23 Damnation, Damnation, Consecration, and vintage versions of Supplication and Temptation.  We will have a very limited number of 3 liter bottles.  I will have a sheet with all of the styles, abvs and TION definitions for the event.  A few of the beers are already and I expect to get the IPA on before Thursday night.  All of the beers will be available in 5 oz tasters with larger pours or 8.5 oz, 10 oz, 14 oz and 16 oz depending on the beer and its style.  For the sake of the bartenders, please do not order more than 4 five tasters at a time – they will all appreciate it.

Next Week

Our first cask of Febrewary will be Alpine Duet IPA on Thursday the 4th.  Friday the 5th we will be featuring beers from Deschutes brewery in Bend, Oregon.  We’ll have Hop Henge, Abyss and Mirror Mirror on tap for sure and I will likely add some more styles next week.  Over the weekend we have the not-so Super Bowl.  At least we get to root for Drew Brees.  Lindsey will have something cajun themed for a food special and I will find something to tap to make the game more enjoyable.  We will stay open until about 30 minutes after the end of the game.

Looking Ahead

Other fun beers and events you can look forward: Ballast Point Sea Monster cask on Thursday the 11th; North Coast Night on Friday the 12th featuring kegs of Old Rasputin XII and a draft vertical tasting of Old Stock Ale; Ballast Point Abandon Ship Smoked Lager on tap with a Victory at Sea 5 gallon cask and Aecht Schlenkerla Oak Smoked Marzen on tap and New Belgium Brewing Night on Friday the 19th.  We will be open normal hours on Sunday the 14th and Monday the 15th (President’s Day).  Wednesday the 24th we will host a viewing party for the USA v. El Salvador soccer friendly starting at 4 pm.  To help encourage the crowd we will tap two different five gallon casks of the new Alpine Token Imperial Porter – one with vanilla bean and one with bourbon-soaked oak chips.  Both casks will be tapped at halftime of the game – around 5 pm.

Pub Trip

Our annual pub crawl to Belgium with Ciao! Travel is nearly full.  There are only a few spaces left for the Grand Tour which includes Amsterdam, Ghent, Bamberg and Munich.  About a half dozen spaces are still open for the Amsterdam-Mechelin-Ghent tour.  A group of us will be attending the Netherlands v. USA soccer match on Wednesday, March 3rd as part of the trip.  The ticket window for ordering closes this Friday, so if you are interested in going to the game, I need to know by Thursday the 28th.  Every year this trip has been great fun (and a great deal) and I am really looking forward to going this year.  Find a flyer at the pub, or visit Ciao! Travel’s website at www.ciaotravel.com for more information.

One final note, O’Brien’s now has an official dentist, Dr. Craig Kubina.  Craig and his wife Rachel have been O’Brien’s patrons for several years.  Lindsey and I started going to his office soon after we met him.  He is an excellent dentist, and though I don’t really enjoy going to his office to see him – it is always nice to see a friendly face there.  We have started to use Craig’s practice for our dental coverage for our senior employees.  So since you have to go to the dentist, you might as well go to one that homebrews and likes good beer.  His office is in La Mesa near Grossmont Center.  You can find all of the contact information at his website: www.drkubina.com.  And no, I am not getting a discount for writing this – Craig won’t even know I did this until he reads the email.

That is your good beer news for now.  We’ll see you soon for a great pint of beer!  Thanks for celebrating 16 years of great beer with us – we truly appreciate it.  Cheers, Tom

Hello Soccer Fans!

It is my first soccer email of the new year and we have plenty of upcoming games.  The USA takes on Honduras this Saturday in a friendly at the Home Depot Center at 6 pm.  Our bus still has one more seat on it if you want to join us.  Though you will need your own ticket for the game.  We’ll have the sound on for the game at the pub and you can look for our San Diego American Outlaws banner on the FSC broadcast.  Our group will be just south of midfield (to the right as you look at the tv).  There will be 42 of us in 4 rows of 10 of 11 starting 7 rows off the field and nearly all of us will be in red – so look for the San Diego crew during the game!  If you are interested in joining our local chapters of the American Outlaws, please visit www.theamericanoutlaws.com.

The US team will also have games on Wednesday, February 24th against El Salvador and Wednesday, March 3rd at the Netherlands.  Through our annual pub trip to Belgium, we actually have a group of us going to the game in Amsterdam.  You can find info on the trip at www.ciaotravel.com.  This is now the sixth year that we have been doing our European pub crawl.  Every year it has been a great trip, but this is the first time we have been able to include the US national team in our plans.

The English Premier League and FA Cup competitions are at full tilt with a very heavy upcoming fixture list.  Clint Dempsey is injured at Fulham, but Landon Donovan is now starting at Everton.  All three American keepers continue to impress in the league as well.

The UEFA Champions League starts back up on the 16th and 17th of February.  And the games will be spread out over 8 match days for the home and away matches.  So every single game in the round of 16 should be televised live.  The Europe league resumes the week after.

Here are the upcoming games:

Wednesday, 1/20:

11:30 am – Arsenal v. Bolton – FSC – also at 5 pm

11:35 am – Aston Villa v. Blackburn – Setanta – also at 3:30 pm – 2nd leg Carling Cup semi-final

1:45 pm – Liverpool v. Tottenham – Setanta – also at 7 pm

Thursday, 1/21:

Noon – Everton v. Manchester City – FSC – replay from the weekend with Landon Donovan starting – also at 5 pm Friday

Saturday, 1/23:

On Tape – Everton v. Birmingham, Preston North End v. Chelsea, Tottenham v. Leeds

11:30 am – Juventus v. Roma – FSC

Noon – Manchester United v. Hull City

5:15 pm – Reading v. Burnley – Setanta

6 pm – USA v. Honduras – FSC

Sunday, 1/24:

11:30 am – Inter Milan v. AC Milan – FSC

1:30 pm – Scuthorpe v. Manchester City – Setanta

Tuesday, 1/26:

11:40 am – Wolverhampton v. Liverpool – Setanta – also at 3:45 pm and 7:15 pm

Noon – Tottenham v. Fulham – FSC

2 pm – Portsmouth v. West Ham – Setanta – also at 5:30 pm

Wednesday, 1/27:

11:30 am – Chelsea v. Birmingham – FSC – also at 6 pm

11:55 am – Manchester United v. Manchester City – 2nd leg semi-final Carling Cup

2 pm – Aston Villa v. Arsenal – Setanta – also at 7:15 pm

2 pm – Blackburn v. Wigan – FSC

3:45 pm – Everton v. Sundrland – Setanta

4 pm – Fiorentina v. AC Milan – FSC – also at 9 pm

Saturday, 1/30:

On Tape – Burnely v. Chelsea, Liverpool v. Bolton, Fulham v. Aston Villa, Birmingham v. Tottenham

11:30 am – Napoli v. Genoa – FSC

2 pm -West Ham v. Blackburn – Setanta

4 pm – Wigan v. Everton – FSC

5:30 pm – Hull City v. Wolverhampton – Setanta

8 pm – Burnley v. Chelsea – FSC

Sunday, 1/31:

On Tape – Arsenal v. Manchester United, Manchester City v. Portsmouth, AC Milan v. Livorno

11:30 am – Juventus v. Lazio – FSC

11:55 am – Lyon v. PSG – Setanta

Here is a partial list of other future games.  FSC now has 6 weeks of TV schedules posted on its website.

Saturday, 2/6:

On Tape – Hull City v. Manchester City, Tottenham v. Aston Villa

Sunday, 2/7:

On Tape – Chelsea v. Arsenal

Tuesday, 2/9:

Noon – Fulham v. Burnley – FSC

Wednesday, 2/10:

Aston Villa v. Manchester United – FSC

Tuesday, 2/16:

11:30 am – Lyon v. Real Madrid – return leg on 3/9

11:30 am – AC Milan v. Manchester United – return leg on 3/9

Wednesday, 2/17:

11:30 am – FC Porto v. Arsenal – return leg on 3/10

11:30 am – Bayern Munich v. Fiorentina – return leg on 3/10

Tuesday, 2/23:

11:30 am – Stuttgart v. Barcelona – return leg on 3/17

11:30 am – Olympiacos v. Bordeaux – return leg on 3/17

Wednesday, 2/24:

11:30 am – CSKA Moscow v. Sevilla – return leg on 3/16

11:30 am – Inter Milan v. Chelsea – return leg on 3/16

4 pm – USA v. El Salvador – ESPN Classic

Wednesday, March 3:

11:30 am – Netherlands v. USA – ESPN2

That is your soccer news for now.  Ballast Point Big Eye IPA and Sculpin IPA this Thursday at 5 pm.  Sierra Nevada night on Friday the 22nd at the pub.  Cheers, Tom

Hello Good Beer Drinkers!

This promises to be a great weekend in San Diego and at the pub.  It starts Thursday the 14th with a cask of Coronado Idiot IPA at 5 pm.  Then on Friday we have our massive 15 beer Alpine night.  Saturday the divisional playoffs happen and we all get to be Ravens fans for a day against the Colts - we will feature meads from Redstone all day.  Sunday is the big game with the Chargers facing the Jets at 1:40 pm – we’ll have Ballast Point’s Victory at Sea Coffee Vanilla Imperial Porter on cask just before kick off.  If anyone would like to go to the game, one of our resident Patriots fans is looking to sell his tickets – View 45, row 9 – for what he paid for them, $165 each.  Call Erik at 858-254-8438.

15 Alpine Beers

That is quite a lot in the first paragraph I have to admit.  The Alpine night on Friday the 15th is going to feature a tremendous line up of beer.  We’ll have lots of hoppy beers – Alpine Ale, O’Brien’s IPA, Duet IPA, Nelson Rye-IPA, Pure Hoppiness and Exponential Hoppiness.  The new Imperial Porter will be on tap, which brewer Shawn McIllhenney says has a great chocolate flavor to it.  There will be casks of Good, the non-barrel aged barleywine and Duet IPA.  The Great, which is the Bourbon barrel aged barleywine will be on tap.  We will also have Captain Stout, Mandarin Nectar, Willy (Wheat Ale), Willy Vanilly (Willy with vanilla bean), McIllhenney’s Irish Red and Captain and Vanil (Captain Stout with vanilla bean). It is 15 different beers and 16 total Alpine handles (Duet draft and cask counting as the same beer, but two handles).  The Alpine crew will be there to share some beers with us and help celebrate O’Brien’s 16th Anniversary.

Playoff Weekend

Saturday the 16th we will feature mead from Redstone Meadery in Boulder, Colorado.  We will have four different honey wines in bottles – Traditional, Black Raspberry Nectar, Boysenberry Nectar and the Winter seasonal with Vanilla Bean and Cinnamon.  In addition to Redstone, we also will have Mountain Meadows Spice Nectar mead, Dogfish Head World Wide Stout, Hair of the Dog Blue Dot Double IPA, Saison 1900 and the Nogne O/Stone/Jolly Pumpkin collaboration Holiday ale made with juniper berries, sage and chestnuts all for sale.  Nogne O Porter and Nogne O Pale Ale are on the bottle list right now.  And we have six Lost Abbey beers in the bottle and some Jolly Pumpkin beers as well.
 
The first playoff game will be Arizona v. New Orleans at 1:30 pm and who knows, it might be another 90 point game like last week.  The second game features the new Baltimore vs. the old Baltimore as the Colts host the Ravens.  I know it may seem painful to cheer for the Ravens, but hey, hosting the AFC Championship game sure would nice.  No matter where it is played the AFC Championship game will be at Noon on the 24th followed by the NFC Championship game at 3:30 pm.
 
Sunday the 17th is the Chargers v. Jets game at 1:40 pm.  We will tap the cask of Victory at Sea around 1:15 pm so that you can all get one before kick off.  The cask is conditioning with a vanilla bean inside it.  I also expect to have the Green Flash Imperial IPA on tap for the game and still have plenty of Alpine beer on tap all weekend.  I can not wait for Sunday, it seems like an eternity since the last Chargers game.  We can only hope that the offense comes out and takes over the game and doesn’t make us wait until the final play.

Next Week

Though there is no more Monday night football, our great pitcher special is still happening every Monday night from 4:30 pm until close.  We have $10 pitchers of all craft and local beers and $14 pitchers of strong ales.  It is hard to find a better deal on good beer anywhere in town.  And every Sunday and Monday we offer our beer battered fish and chips and fish tacos.

Wednesday the 20th we will tap a keg of 2008 N’ice Chouffe.  Every year I age a keg of this delicious Christmas ale and it just gets better with age.  Thursday the 21st is our double cask night from Ballast Point featuring the brewery’s two IPAs – Big Eye IPA and Sculpin IPA, both tapped at 5 pm.  All of our local beers are on special every Thursday from 4-8 pm.

Friday the 22nd was going to be my random keg night and it has morphed into more of a random Sierra Nevada keg night.  We have got some very rare kegs from the brewery including a now nearly one year old keg of The Empire Strikes Black Imperial Stout.  We’ll also the two collaboration beers done with Dogfish Head – Life and Limb and Limb and Life. The first is a 10.2% alcohol strong ale and the next beer is made from the second runnings from the mash tun and is a 5% alcohol session ale.  I also have kegs of Sierra Nevada Porter and Stout, both of which I love, and a keg of the new golden bock, Glissade, which replaces the old Pale Bock.  And if all goes well, we will have the new 2010 Bigfoot on tap and that means we’ll also have the Big P – half Pale and half Bigfoot.

Saturday the 23rd the USA will play Honduras in friendly match at the Home Depot Center in Carson, CA.  Our American Outlaws bus up to the game has one seat available on it, but unfortunately all of our group tickets for the game have been sold.  So if you have a ticket (or you just go buy one) and you want to ride up with our rolling tailgate, please email me.  The game will be on at the pub at 6 pm on Fox Soccer.  As mentioned, both NFL playoff games will be on Sunday the 24th.

We will have some new merchandise in next week as well including some Tie-Dye shirts, more yoga pants and some shirts with new slogans.  Everything should be out for sale by Friday the 22nd.

Great Belgian Beer/US Soccer Tour

I have the latest updates on our annual beer tour to Belgium from Ciao! Travel owner Bill Snider.  Here they are:

1.       There are only 14 spaces left on the 2010 Great Belgian Beer Tour.

Hurry! The O’Brien’s Pub $200 off published web rates expire January 21, 2010 or when the 14 spaces are filled.

2.       The US Soccer Friendly Game in Amsterdam on March 03

Bill has set up a way for us to enjoy lunch at Westvleteren, take the hi-speed Thalys train from Brussels to Amsterdam, enjoy the game, stay overnight in Amsterdam at a central four star hotel with breakfast, then train back to Brussels to connect with the tour coach the next day. With an $88 game ticket, a $121 round trip second class Thalys Hi-Speed train ticket and 1 night in Amsterdam’s four star hotel NH Carlton (crediting the Gent hotel night) the total is a quite reasonable $239 per person. (Prices are per person, based on two persons in one room)

3.       GBBT 2a Special Offer!

When booking GBBT 2a and purchasing an extra Amsterdam hotel night (from $69 per person 3 star hotel), you’ll receive one extra night and breakfast free! Come early and enjoy 3 nights in A’dam instead of one for just $69

If you are interested in going to the USA Soccer match on March 3rd against the Netherlands, please contact me or Bill as soon as possible as we have a very limited number of seats purchased for the game.  I can’t wait to cheer on the US team on foreign soil for the first time.  The USA will be using all of its Euorpeam based players so we should see both teams at their absolute best.  And spending one extra night in Amsterdam is really not going to upset me.  If you have questions about the trip, feel free to email me or visit the Ciao! Travel website at www.ciaotravel.com.

Final Musings

Our favorite gypsy jazz guitarist, John Jorgenson, is playing a second area show this Sunday the 17th at 7:00 pm in Del Mar.  You can find info and tickets at: http://delmarfoundation.org/Pages/jjQuintet.html.  The Pizza Port Brewbies benefitting the Keep A Breast Foundation will be at the Carlsbad location on Saturday, February 13th from Noon to 5 pm.  For more info, visit the Pizza Port website – www.pizzaport.com.  You can also now follow Pizza Port on Twitter for updates on beer tappings, casks and guest beers.  I am also happy to report that San Diego made the cut as one of the 18 final cities for the USA World Cup Bid.  Thank you to everyone who showed support for our bid!  We will find out if the USA will host the World Cup in December.

Finally, our Russian River World Tour is starting to take shape for Saturday the 30th and Sunday the 31st.  I am expecting to have 14 beers on tap including Temptation, Consecration, Perdition, Salvation, Damnation, Benediction, Redemption, Pliny the Elder, Blind Pig, Aud Blonde, Russian River IPA, Happy Hops, Porter and Dead Leaf Green.  We will also have some Beatification bottles and possibly some 3 liter bottles.  As the details get finalized next week, I will let you know.

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

Hoppy 2010 Beer Fans!

This month marks the 16th Anniversary of O’Brien’s Pub.  It is a lot of years and a lot of great beers.  I have fond memories of O’Brien’s as a patron, a brewer bringing down kegs and casks of Torrey Pines IPA and now as an owner for the last 7 years.  One thing is for certain – there are many more great years and great beers to come!

Sweet 16

We start the celebration off this week on Thursday the 7th with a surprise cask (to me anyway) of Brew Dog Paradox, which is a whiskey barrel aged Imperial Stout.  This particular batch was aged in Smokehead Islay Whiskey barrels.  We have had several Brew Dog beers on tap before but this will be our first cask from them.  We’ll tap it at 5 pm to coincide with the start of the BCS National Championship game between Alabama and Texas.

Friday the 8th we will feature some great beers from Northern California.  We’ll have Drake’s 1500 Pale and Denogginizer double IPA, Triple Rock Dragon’s Milk Scottish Ale and IPAX, Sierra Nevada Pale and Bigfoot – and that mean’s we’ll have the Big P which is half Pale and half Bigfoot, Bear Republic Racer 5, Blind Pig IPA and Russian River Pliny the Elder among others.  Nearly all of the beers are in full kegs so I expect them to be around most of the weekend.

Saturday the 9th the NFL playoffs start with the Jets v. Bengals at 1:30 pm followed by Cowboys v. Eagles at 5 pm.  Saturday night we will have a Lost Abbey and Jolly Pumpkin Bottle Night with at least 6 different Lost Abbey bottles including Angel’s Share, Cuvee de Tomme, Carnevale, Red Barn, Brother Levonian and the very rare Duck Duck Gooze.  We’ll have Oro de Calabaza, Bam Biere and La Roja from Jolly Pumpkin in limited quantities.  All of our great bottles will be 10% off all weekend.  The playoffs continue on Sunday with Ravens v. Patriots in the early game (we’ll open at Noon) and Green Bay v. Arizona in the afternoon.

Next Week

Next week we continue with our fantastic anniversary events.  Tuesday the 12th we will have a special promotion with our friend Matt Pushinsky from Belukus Imports.  We’ll have Blanche de Bruxelles wit beer and De Koninck on tap and all of our Malheur bottles will be 10% off including the Brut and Dark Brut Champagne-style beers.  We’ll also have a special glass promotion with the Blanche de Bruxelles.  Thursday the 14th we tap a cask of the beer that was not, but could have been, named for any member of Congress or the state legislature – Idiot IPA from Coronado Brewing.

Friday the 15th is our massive 15 beer Alpine Beer Company Extravaganza.  We’ll have 15 different beers from Alpine including Pure Hoppiness, Nelson, Duet, Exponential Hoppiness, O’Brien’s IPA, Captain Stout, Good, Great and the new Imperial Porter.  The Good will be on cask along with either the Imperial Porter or Duet (which will both be on tap as well) for 15 different beers on the 15th and 16 total Alpine handles for our 16th Anniversary!  All of the beers will be on tap by 5 pm, most much earlier.  Some will have back up kegs so that they will be on tap all weekend.  Pat, Val and Shawn will all be joining us in enjoying a few of their fine wares.  This will be a great night to celebrate the pub’s anniversary with incredible local beer.

The weekend of the 16th and 17th the NFL playoffs continue and the San Diego Super Chargers will be playing on Sunday at 1:40 pm against the Jets, Bengals or Patriots.  I wouldn’t normally tap a cask of 11% alcohol beer on a Sunday, but Ballast Point’s Victory at Sea seems too appropriate not to tap.  So we will have a 5 gallon cask of this delicious coffee-vanilla Imperial Porter on tap for the game.  If our opponent is the Patriots, our in house collection of rag tag Patriots fans will have to watch the game elsewhere unless they agree to lose in advance.  If all goes well, the AFC Championship game will be on at Noon on Sunday the 24th.

Looking Ahead

The following week we continue the festivities with a double shot of cask IPAs from Ballast Point on Thursday the 21st – Sculpin IPA and Big Eye IPA both on tap at 5 pm.  Friday the 22nd we will have a random collection of kegs that I have been saving including Sierra Nevada Empire Strikes Black, N’ice Chouffe 2008 and Avery 16th Anniversary among others.  I have not yet assembled a final list, but I trust that there will be plenty of great beer.  When I have more details, I will pass them along.  I will be tapping random beers all week leading up to the event, so if you can’t stop by on Friday, any night will be a night of great beer. 

The USA will play Honduras in a (un)friendly match on Saturday, January 23rd at 6 pm.  We have a sold out bus load of folks going to the game in LA at the Home Depot Center.  We will still have the game on at the pub though – and maybe you can see us and our San Diego American Outlaws banner on Fox Soccer Channel.  Both the NFC and the AFC Championships will be on Sunday the 24th – AFC at Noon and NFC game after that – we will stay open until the end of the second game on Sunday.

There will be no Pliny the Younger this month from Russian River – it is not getting kegged up until early February.  However, I am working on a Russian River event for the end of the month.  I will keep you posted with the details once I have everything worked out.  You can look forward to the Younger be on tap by the middle of next month.  Look for a cask from Green Flash Brewing on the 28th.

I am printing up some US Soccer shirts.  The front will read – Don’t Tread on Me, I Support US Soccer – with the O’Brien’s Logo on the back with “San Diego’s Only Official US Soccer Bar” underneath it.  I am printing the shirts in three colors – Red, White and Blue and I can print them in any size from Small to XXXL.  If you are interested, just let me know what size, what color and what quantity you want.  You can pay for the shirt when you pick it up.  I figure they will be about $10 each.  We’ll also have a few new O’Brien’s shirts coming in soon including some tie dyes.

Off to Europe

It is hard to believe that our annual pub crawl to Europe is coming up next month.  The Great Belgian Beer Tour will start at the end of February and visit Holland, Belgium and Germany before it is all over.  This is the 6th year that we have partnered with Ciao! Travel to bring you this trip.  Ciao! Travel is owned by our friend and pub ambassador Bill Snider, who has been in the travel business for more than 20 years doing jazz tours to Europe including Montruex.  I myself, can not wait to see the new tasting room at La Trappe (aka Konigshoeven) and visit Malheur for the first time.  Info can be found at the pub – where there are discount coupons for the website prices – or at Ciao!’s website – www.ciaotravel.com.

That is your anniversary good beer news for now.  This email has been brought to you by two bottles of Sierra Nevada Celebration (with a third on the way this Tuesday night).  If you are in to Gypsy Jazz guitar, I highly recommend John Jorgenson who will be playing at Anthology on January 14th.  Here’s hoping we get out of the mess we got into in 2009 and that we all have a great 2010.  We’ll see you soon for a great beer.  Cheers, Tom