What’s Happening

Hello Soccer Fans!

We have had a few seats open up for our bus trip to see Real Madrid play the LA Galaxy at the Rose Bowl on Saturday, August 7th.  I was able to buy some additional tickets and secure a larger bus for the ride up.  The cost for game ticket and bus ride (with beer on the bus) is $66 per person.  If you are interested, please email me and let me know.  The plan is to meet at the pub no later than 2 pm, start loading the bus just after 2 pm and be on the road no later than 2:30 pm.  The kick off is at 7:30 pm and we should be back at the pub around 12:30 am.  If you know people who might be interested, please forward this info to them.

Please join us for our viewing party for the USA v. Brazil game at the pub.  The game will be at 5 pm on Tuesday, August 10th.  Brazil has announced a mostly domestic based roster (but that includes Robinho) that only has 4 hold overs from the World Cup squad.  No word yet on the US roster, but you can figure most of those in the EPL will not be there.
 
The Premier League will start on August 14th.  Look for the Community Shield to be played on August 7th between Manchester United and Chelsea.  La Liga will start at the end of the month.  Europa League and UEFA Champions League qualifying is well under way.  And Concacaf Champions League qualifying wraps up next week with 3 MLS teams vying for spots.
 
Please sign the petition to support San Diego’s World Cup bid.  You can sign up at the O’Brien’s webpage, The San Diego Flash webpage or at the USA World Cup Bid webpage at: http://www.gousabid.com/city/local/san-diego-ca/.  You can also help the USA Bid get to 1 million signatures – it is just over 900,000!
 
Here are the upcoming TV games:
 
Saturday, 7/31:
12:30 pm – New England Revolution v. Philly Union – MLS Direct Kick
1 pm – FC Dallas v. Rapids – MLS Direct Kick
5:30 pm – NYRB v. Dynamo – MLS Direct Kick
6 pm – DC v. RSL – MLS Direct Kick
7 pm – Sounders v. San Jose – MLS Direct Kick
7:30 pm – Crew v. Chivas USA
 
Sunday, 8/1:

2 pm – AC Milan v. Lyon – Gol TV – Emirates Cup

4 pm – Arsenal v. Celtic – Gol TV – Emirates Cup
4:30 pm – LA Galaxy v. Chicago Fire – FSC

Tuesday, 8/3:

5 pm – Motagua (Hon) v. Toronto FC (Can) – FSC – Concacaf Champions League

7 pm – Metapan (Slv) v. Seattle Sounders (USA) – FSC – Concacaf Champions League

Wednesday, 8/4:

5 pm – Puerto Rico Islanders v. LA Galaxy – FSC – Concacaf Champions League
Also at 8 pm
 
Thursday, 8/5:
5 pm – Crew v. Union – ESPN

6 pm – FC Dallas – Inter Milan – FSC – also at 9 pm

Saturday, 8/7:

4:30 pm – New England v. DC United – MLS Direct Kick

5:30 pm – Kansas City v. Real Salt Lake – MLS Direct Kick

6 pm – Colorado v. San Jose – MLS Direct Kick

7:30 pm – LA Galaxy v. Real Madrid – FSC – Come join us for the game!

Sunday, 8/8:

On Tape – Chelsea v. Manchester United – Community Shield

3 pm – FC Dallas v. Philadelphia
 
Tuesday, 8/10:
5 pm – USA v. Brazil – ESPN

Wednesday, 8/11:

4:30 pm – Philadelphia v. Real Salt Lake – MLS Direct Kick

4:30 pm – New York v. Toronto FC – MLS Direct Kick

Saturday, 8/14: Premier League Kicks Off – Games TBD

3 pm – NY Red Bull v. LA Galaxy – FSC – see Henry and Donovan

5 pm – New England v. Houston – MLS Direct Kick

5 pm – DC unioted v. FC Dallas – MLS Direct Kick

6 pm – Real Salt LAke v. Columbus – MLS Direct Kick

7 pm – San Jose v. Kansas City – MLS Direct Kick

7:30 pm – Chivas USA v. Seattle Sounder – MLS Direct Kick
 
We’ll see you soon for some great soocer.   Cheers, Tom

Hello Beer Fans!
 
The next few weeks will packed with great beers at the pub.  We still have some great Christmas Belgians on tap from this weekend.  Alpine Hoppy Birthday and Duet IPA are flowing and we will casks of both beers this Thursday.  Sculpin will be on tap and cask next week and we get to debut the Green Flash-St. Feuillien collaboration, Beer de L’Amitie (Beer of Friendship) on August 7th.  You can also look forward to the return of Malheur on draft in August.
 
This Week
 
As I write we have Gouden Carolous Noel, Lost Abbey Gift of the Magi and Delirium Noel all on tap from our Christmas in July weekend.  N’ice Chouffe, St. Bernardus Christmas, Dupont Avec les bon Voeux and Santa Cruz Mountain’s Ginger’s Winter Warmer will be coming back on tap soon as those kegs empty out.  So there will be great Belgian beer on tap all week.  Lest you hop heads become concerned, we have Russian River Pliny the Elder and Coronado Idiot IPA both on tap as well.  And keep an eye out for a keg of the brand new Mission IPA.  The brewery just hired former Stone brewer John Egan as its brewmaster and this is the first batch of IPA that John has brewed – please let us know what you think.  We will also have North Coast Old Number 38 Stout on the nitro tap for the first time this week.
 
Wednesday the 28th is the MLS All Star game at 5:30 pm and we will have our last keg of Alpine Red Card Ale on tap for the game.  The best players in the MLS will square off against English giants Manchester United.  From the kitchen, Cesar will be continuing his Mexican food specials on Wednesday nights with the amazing Carnitas Torta and his tasty Tostadas.  Lindsey will also have Beer Cheese plates for sale as well as several flavors of Beer Cheese available to go including Deschutes Hop in the Dark Cheddar Beer Cheese with Bacon and Green Onion.  Look for the Chimay Burger, made with Chimay cheese, later in the week.
 
The bottle list will be updated for Wednesday night.  Among the new bottles we will have: Steenbrugge Blond, Wit and Tripel, Jandrain V Cense (a 7% alcohol saison), Inveralmond Black Friar from Scotland (a hoppy psuedo wee-heavy), Dieu de Ciel Rosee de Hibiscus (wheat beer made with hibiscus flowers) and the Stone-21st Amendment-Firestone El Camino (Un)Real Black Ale.  This three-way collaboration uses ingredients found along the historic El Camino Real including fennel seed, pink peppercorns and mission figs.  It is dark and 9.5% alcohol.  Other recent additions to the list include beers from Theillier, Revelation Cat, Amager, Haandbryggeriet, De Molen, Oud Beersel, Geants, Struisse, Fantome and Ecausinnes.  We also have St. Peter’s Winter Ale, Alaskan Smoked Porter and a few magnums of Anchor Christmas still for sale from our Christmas in July weekend.
 
Cask night on Thursday will feature two great offerings from Alpine – Duet IPA and Hoppy Birthday.  The Duet will be a full size cask and the Hoppy Birthday is just a five gallon cask, also called a pin.  Both will tap at 5 pm and we will have all of our local beers on special as well.  I will also have a sign up sheet for our annual bus trip to the Stone Anniversary Party on Thursday night.  The cost is $25 and we will be going to Port Brewing for some food and beer before the 1st session.  We will leave at 8:15 am on the 21st and return around 3 pm.  Since I pay the bus driver in cash, we can only accept cash as payment for the bus.  This always sells out quickly, so don’t delay if you want to get on board.  You have to buy your own ticket for the Stone Anniversary Party on line (cost $40).
 
Over the weekend we will feature beers from Airdale Brewing Company which is based in San Diego.  We will have Dark and Stormy Imperial Stout and Horizon Pale Ale for sure and maybe some other selections as well.  The beers will be on tap Friday, Saturday and Sunday so you can stop by anytime to enjoy one.  We’ll also have our 10% off all bottles special on Saturday and Sunday and all Belgian draft beers will be $1 off from 9 pm until Midnight on Saturday.  Fish Tacos, Fish and Chips and the Chipotle Fish Sandwich will be on special Sunday and Monday (as they are every Sunday and Monday) from the kitchen.
 
Next Month
 
Next week’s cask will be Ballast Point Sculpin IPA on Thursday the 5th.  We will also have a draft keg of Sculpin so that the beer will be on tap all night.  Friday the 6th will be a Green Flash night, though the line up of beers has yet to be determined.  Saturday the 7th we will debut the new Green Flash Beer de L’Amitie which was a collaboration that head brewer Chuck Silva made at St. Feuillien during our annual Belgium Beer Tour earlier this year.  Chuck will be stopping by on Saturday along with the owners of Green Flash to help us kick off the new beer which will be a Belgian Golden Strong Ale hopped up with some American hops and a touch of spice added.  I will have more details on the event, the beer list and the timing in next week’s email.
 
There are still two seats left on our bus trip to the Real Madrid v. LA Galaxy game on Saturday, August 7th.  Cost for the bus, game ticket and beer on the bus is $66.  Please email me if you are interested.  The bus will leave around 2 pm for the 7:30 pm kick off in Pasadena and return around 12:30 am.
 
The following week is my annual birthday week celebration.  Monday the 9th is Port Brewing/Lost Abbey night with kegs of Older Viscosity and Angel’s Share Barleywine.  Tuesday the 10th the USA plays Brazil at 5 pm in its first post-World Cup match (actually, US Soccer did not consult me about this, it is just dumb luck).  Wednesday the 11th is Russian River night and I called in a favor for this one so that we could have Pliny the Elder, Blind Pig IPA and Russian River IPA all on tap again for a night.  We’ll also have kegs of Supplication, Temptation and Consecration.  Thursday the 12th is cask of Alpine Hoppy Birthday.  Friday brings the Alpine triple threat – Exponential Hoppiness, Bad Boy and O’Brien’s IPA all released on the 13th and only available at the brewery and O’Brien’s on that day.  I know we will also have Pure Hoppiness and most likely Tuatara and Nelson Rye IPA on tap too.  I am still working on Saturday – I will know for sure by next week.
 
Looking much further ahead, we will have the founder of the Chouffe Brewery in Belgium at the pub from 3-5 pm on Saturday, September 4th.  We will have plenty of great Chouffe beer on tap and I may even pull out one of our vintage kegs of N’ice Chouffe for the event.  The San Diego Festival of Beer downtown will be on Friday, September 10th – visit www.sdbeerfest.org for all of the details.  Still no word on an opening date for the pub at Alpine, but rumor has it that one might be announced next week.
 
That is your good beer news for now.  We’ll see you soon for a great beer.  Cheers, Tom

Hello Soccer Fans,

The World Cup may be over, but that doesn’t mean that there is not plenty of great soccer action on TV.  Many European clubs are on North American tours including Celtic, Manchester United, Tottenham, Sporting Lisbon and Manchester City.  Thierry Henry is now in the MLS with the New York Red Bulls who will host the New York Football Challenge July 22nd – 25th with all games on FSC.  The MLS All Star game will be on the 28th against Manchester United.  We have the MLS Direct Kick package for all of the regular season games.

The Premier League will start on August 14th.  Look for the Community Shield to be played on August 7th.  Europa League qualifying is already under way and Liverpool will play on July 29th – not sure if the game will be on Gol TV or not.  UEFA Champions League will have its third qualifying round at the end of the month as well.  The Concacaf Champions League also has qualifying games later this month.  And the USA will be back in action on Tuesday, August 10th against Brazil.

If you would like to go see some soccer, we are taking a bus trip up to the Rose Bowl to see the LA Galaxy take on Real Madrid on Saturday, August 7th.  Game tickets are $36 and the bus trip should be around $30-$35 with beer to drink on the way up.  We only have about 10 seats left – if you are interested in going, please email soon.  Locally, the San Diego Flash soccer club will have another eshibition match on Saturday, July 24th at 4 pm at Balboa Stadium on the San Diego high school campus.  The game is a tribute to the World Cup – wear any country’s jersey and get half price tickets.  For more info visit www.sandiegoflashsoccer.com.

Please sign the petition to support San Diego’s World Cup bid.  You can sign up at the O’Brien’s webpage, The San Diego Flash webpage or at the USA World Cup Bid webpage at: http://www.gousabid.com/city/local/san-diego-ca/.  You can also help the USA Bid get to 1 million signatures – it is almost at 900,000!

Here are the upcoming games:

Saturday, 7/17:

4:30 pm – USA Women v. Sweden – FSC – also at 8 pm and noon on Sunday

4:30 pm – NY Red Bulls v. Columbus Crew – MLS Direct Kick

5:30 pm – Real Salt Lake v. FC Dallas – MLS Direct Kick

6 pm – Kansas City Wizards v. Colorado Rapids – MLS Direct Kick

Sunday, 7/18:

Noon – Celtic FC v. Seattle Sounders FC – ESPN

4:30 pm – DC United v. LA Galaxy – FSC

Wednesday, 7/21:

4:30 pm – Manchester United v. Philadelphia Union – ESPN

5 pm – Celtic FC v. Sporting Lisbon – FSC - also at 8 pm

Thursday, 7/22:

5:30 pm – NYRB v. Tottenham – FSC – also at 8:30 pm

7:30 pm – San Jose Earthquakes v. LA Galaxy – ESPN

Friday, 7/23:

5:30 pm – Manchester City v. Sporting Lisbon – FSC – also at 8:30 pm

Saturday, 7/24:

1 pm – FC Dallas v. Toronto FC – MLS Direct Kick

4 pm – San Diego Flash World Cup Tribute Game – Balboa Stadium

4:30 pm – Houston Dynamo v. Crew – MLS Direct Kick

6 pm – US Soccer U-19 Boys National Championship game – FSC

7 pm – Chivas USA v. RSL – MLS Direct Kick

Sunday, 7/25:

12:30 pm – NYRB v. Manchester City – FSC

3 pm – KC Wizards v. Manchester United – FSC

Tuesday, 7/27:

5 pm – Toronto FC (Can) v. Montagua (Hon) – FSC – CCL qualifying

7 pm – LA Galaxy (USA) v. Puerto Rico Islanders (PR) – FSC – CCL qualifying

Wednesday, 7/28:

7 pm – Seattle Sounders FC (USA) v. Metapan (Slv) – FSC – CCL qualifying

Saturday, 7/31:

12:30 pm – New England Revolution v. Philly Union – MLS Direct Kick

1 pm – FC Dallas v. Rapids – MLS Direct Kick

5:30 pm – NYRB v. Dynamo – MLS Direct Kick

6 pm – DC v. RSL – MLS Direct Kick

7 pm – Sounders v. San Jose – MLS Direct Kick

7:30 pm – Crew v. Chivas USA

Sunday, 8/1:

4:30 pm – LA Galaxy v. Chicago Fire – FSC

Thursday, 8/5:

5 pm – Crew v. Union – ESPN

Tuesday, 8/10:

5 pm – USA v. Brazil – ESPN

We’ll see you soon for some great soocer.   Cheers, Tom

Hello Beer Fans!
 
We have lots of great cold beer for you at the pub over the next few weeks.  The World Cup is over and Spain is the new champion of the world.  It was nice to see team USA and Landon Donovan win an ESPY award this week for Best Sports Moment for the last second goal against Algeria.  There are a lot of great Belgian beers coming on tap in the next ten days and we have an awesome line up of IPAs and double IPAs right now as well.  Coming soon on tap keep an eye out for Alpine Hoppy Birthday, Dogfish Head Festina Peche (Berliner Weisse with a touch of peaches), Ballast Point Sculpin IPA and another keg of the very tasty Deschutes Hop in the Dark.  So here is what you can look forward to at the pub…
 
Thursday the 15th we get a double shot of casks from brewer Tomme Arthur of Port Brewing/Lost Abbey.  We’ll have the amazing 4th Anniversary double IPA and the equally fantastic Wipeout IPA.  Look for both casks just after 5 pm.  We’ll have Mongo IPA and the new Lost Abbey Road to Helles Lager on tap in addition to the casks.  You can also enjoy Kern River Just Outstanding IPA, Alpine Duet IPA, Alpine Nelson IPA, Russian River Pliny the Elder, Green Flash West Coast IPA, Bear Republic Racer 5 IPA and New Belgium Ranger IPA if you want something hoppy.
 
Friday the 16th we begin our 10 day celebration of Belgian Beer.  Sunday the 18th is the feast day of St. Arnoldus who is famous for imploring people to drink beer and not water during the great plague in the mid 14th century.  Since beer is boiled, it killed any infectious bacteria that might have been carried in the water.  Beer really was safer than water.  To celebrate St. Arnoldus and his “drink beer, not water” campaign, we will have Kwak and Tripel Karmeliet from the Bosteels Brewery on tap with the brewery’s great Deus champagne-style beer in the bottle, Bockor Cuvee des Jacobins Rouge which is a great Flanders-style sour red ale and the dark, spicy St. Feuillien Printemps (spring) all for Friday through Sunday.  Affligem Blonde and New Belgium’s Belgo-IPA and Eric’s Ale are all on tap right now as well.  We will have some limited amounts of Belgian and Belgian-style glassware over the weekend.
 
Next Week
 
Next week we celebrate Feestdag, which is Belgium’s Independence Day, on Wednesday, July 21st.  We will have another great round of Belgian beers on tap including Rodenbach Grand Cru, Palm, Ommegang Zuur (a barrel aged sour brown with fruit that was a collaboration with Leifman’s) and Duvel along with some bottled beers from Steenbrugge.  I expect to have a few of the Belgian ales around from the weekend as well as we have several kegs of each beer.
 
Thursday the 22nd we take a break from our Belgian theme to tap a a cask of AleSmith YuleSmith.  This will be the beginning of our Christmas in July weekend.  I have saved back some great beers including St. Bernardus Christmas, N’ice Chouffe, Scaldis Noel, Dupont Avec les Bon Voeux and Gouden Carolous Noel.  I also have bottles of St. Peter’s Winter Ale (very nice 6% dark English Ale) and Alaskan Smoked Porter.  My favorite part of tapping these beers nearly one year after they are brewed is to see how they have aged.  The holiday beers I only have one keg of each, so we will tap them Friday and when they run out, they will be gone – but only until November when the beers start coming back in.
 
Real Madrid Bus Trip
 
On Saturday, August 7th, the LA Galaxy will host Real Madrid at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena at 7:30 pm.  We will be taking a bus up to the game and buying a group of tickets (in the $40-$60 range).  We’ll have beer on the bus to help ease the pain of driving to LA.  If you are interested in going, we have about 15 seats left on the bus.  Please email me and let me know as soon as possible.  The next USA soccer match will be Tuesday, August 10th against Brazil at 5 pm.
 
You can look forward to a cask of Alpine Duet IPA on the 29th.  Every Monday night we feature our great pitcher special – just $10 for craft and local pitchers and $14 strong ale pitchers from 4:30 pm until close.  That is your good beer news for now.  We’ll see you soon for a great Belgian Beer. Cheers, Tom

Hello Beer Fans!

We have a great line up of beers in July including quite rather a good number of Belgian and Belgian-style ales.  But don’t worry, there are lots of hops right around the corner as well.  And the World Cup is finally winding down.  There are only two matches left – both at 11:30 am – on this Saturday and Sunday.  We will be celebrating our annual Christmas in July this month as well.  So onto the beer news…

Tomorrow (or tonight for those reading in the morning), Thursday the 8th we have a cask of the very tasty Coronado Idiot IPA at 5 pm.  We also have a draft keg of this great double IPA that I expect to be on tap soon.  All of our local beers will be on special including Alpine Pure Hoppiness, Alpine Red Card Ale, Alpine Nelson Rye-IPA, Green Flash West Coast IPA and AleSmith Wee Heavy to name a few.  Look for the new Bacon Gouda burger on the specials board.  And Lindsey tells me that her awesome Sausage-Chicken Gumbo will be back soon along with new batches of beer cheese.

Friday the 9th brings us a brand new beer from New Belgium Brewing Co. in Ft. Collins, Colorado – Belgo IPA.  This is a beer that uses a Belgian yeast strain but hopped up like an American IPA.  I have yet to taste it, but imagine it in the same vein as Green Flash Le Freak, Chouffe Houblon IPA or Uthel Hop It!.  We will be able to taste the Belgo-IPA alongside the brewery’s Ranger IPA which will be on tap as well.  To round out the evening, we will have Eric’s Ale from Lips of Faith series, which is a sour peach ale that has a great mouth puckering flavor.

Look for some great new bottles to hit the list this weekend.  La Trappe (formerly Konigshoeven) Quadrupel is back in stock after a short absence.  The brewery is now switching over all its brands to the La Trappe label.  Same great beer, just now under the original name.  Alaskan Smoked Porter has been re-added to the list for Christmas in July.  Chimay White is our current bottle special.  We’ll also have another new beer from the tiny Dutch brewery, De Molen – SSS Stout.  It is an English-style stout brewed from a recipe dating to 1914.

World Cup

The weekend brings us the last World Cup action until 2014.  Saturday the 10th is the third place match between Germany and Uruguay at 11:30 am.  The pub will open at 11 am.  Both teams had great tournaments and it should be an exciting game.  The Final is Sunday the 11th at 11:30 am featuring two teams that have never won the World Cup – Spain and the Netherlands.  I will lay plain my allegiance to the Netherlands, but I will be almost as happy to see Spain lift the trophy.  The pub will open at 10:30 am with our regular lunch menu on Sunday.  We will again set up an extra TV on the patio and we just got a new bulb for our 65″ big screen TV so the screen is much brighter and it looks brand new again.  I expect to have a very large crowd, so if you are not coming for the game, please avoid the pub until after 2 pm.

Next Week

Thursday the 15th we get a double shot of casks from Tomme Arthur at Port Brewing Company in San Marcos.  We will tap casks of Port 4th Anniversary and Wipeout IPA at 5 pm.  The 4th Anniversary is on tap now and tasting great – but be careful it is over 10% but drinks like a much smaller beer.  We should also have a keg of Port’s Mongo IPA on in addition to the casks.

Friday the 16th begins our mini 10 day Belgian fest.  We will be celebrating St. Arnoldus Day at the pub with kegs of Kwak, Triple Karmeliet, Jacobins and St. Feuillien all weekend.  St. Arnoldus Day is the feast day celebrating the patron saint of Belgium brewers.  Although widely celebrated in Belgium, the holiday is not much recognized over here.  So we will help change that by having a weekend featuring Belgian beers on tap and highlighting our extensive list of Belgian bottled beers.

More Belgians

Wednesday the 21st we continue our Belgian theme with Feestdag, which is the day of Belgium’s Independence.  On this day in 1831, Leopold I took the first constitutional oath as king of Belgium.  We will be featuring beers from Latis Imports on this day which include Rodenbach, Palm and Steenbrugge.  Look for a mix of draft and bottled beer.

Friday the 23rd we reach the conclusion of our Belgian trio – Christmas in July.  I have saved back some great Belgian Christmas beers including Scaldis Noel, Dupont Avec les Bon Vouex, N’ice Chouffe and St. Bernardus Christmas among others.  We will tap these beers on Friday night and feature them all weekend, along with other great Belgian ales.  So any time that you can stop in between the 16th and 25th of July, look for great Belgian beer on tap.

And just to tie in with our holiday theme, we will have a cask of AleSmith YuleSmith on Thursday the 22nd at 5 pm.

By request from the brewery, we have moved our Airdale night from the 16th to the end of the month.

That is your good beer news for now.  Check out Brewery Rowe for news on Santee’s new brewery – Manzanita Brewing Co. – at http://www.signonsandiego.com/weblogs/brewery-rowe/.  The brewery is having a grand opening party this Saturday.  And the pub at Alpine Beer Co. is expected to be open by the end of the month.  Follow the latest O’Brien’s updates on Facebook.  We’ll see you soon for a great Belgian beer.  Cheers, Tom