London, Lost Abbey and Nelson!
Hello Beer Fans!
Our 15th Anniversary celebrations are in full swing. We have already tapped more than 40 different beers this month and there are many more to come. Several of the delicious Green Flash beers from Friday are still on tap and the first of the Lost Abbey beers have already been tapped. A special thanks to head brewer Chuck Silva and the entire Green Flash crew for a fantastic Friday night last week. Also new on tap right now are Pizza Port San Clemente’s Warrior Black IPA and the Karl Strauss Imperial Malt Ball Stout. The stout uses malted milk powder that is used to make malt ball centers in the beer – the equivalent of 5000 malt balls worth.
This Week
The celebrations start anew tonight, Wednesday the 14th, with a cask of Alpine Nelson Rye-IPA. This unique IPA uses New Zealand hops which have a very different aroma from the normal varieities. The fruity characteristic is more tropical, like that of a Sauvignon Blanc. This is always a great and very popular beer on cask. We will tap it at 5:30 pm. Look for our new beer cheese appetizer plate coming out of the kitchen tonight as well.
Thursday the 15th our cask madness continues with two casks – Port Brewing Hop 15 double IPA and Lost Abbey Serpent Stout. Both casks will be tapped at 5 pm and given the strong nature of both beers I expect them to be around for most of the evening. As always, all of our local beers will be on special on Thursday and we should have a good line up of beers on tap in advance of the Friday night draft party with Lost Abbey.
Friday the 16th is the big Lost Abbey draft party with more than 10 beers from head brewer Tomme Arthur on tap and several more in the bottle. From the Port side we will have Hop 15, Wipeout IPA, High Tide IPA and Midnight Black Lager (made from the second runnings of the Serpent Stout). From the Lost Abbey side we will have Devotion, Judgment Day, Red Barn Saison, Angel’s Share Barleywine, Gift of the Magi and a very special O’Brien’s-only double cherry blend of Red Poppy Ale all on tap. There might even be a few more surprises on tap as well. In the bottle, we will have Lost Abbey Inferno, Isabella Proximus, Cuvee de Tomme and Ne Goien Saison (brewed with Hildegard from Urthel). All of the beers will be on tap at 5 pm – most will be on well before that.
If you can’t make it by on Friday, we will still have plenty of great beers on tap for Saturday the 17th. New in bottles over the weekend will be the Boon Marriage Parfait Geuze. It is a great sour beer, and definitely my favorite of the Boon beers. The Charger-less playoffs will be on Sunday the 18th with the NFC game between Arizona and Philadelphia on at Noon and the AFC game at 3:30 pm between the Steelers and the Ravens. I honestly couldn’t care less about who makes it to the superbowl betweeen those four teams. Hopefully the games will at least be interesting to watch.
Next Week and Beyond
Next week will start off with the Alpine O’Brien’s IPA on tap on Monday the 19th. Some of you will get the day off, but we will be open normal hours and have our great pitcher specials all night. Wednesday the 21st we have a very rare cask of Ballast Point Sculpin IPA at 5:30 pm. Thursday the 22nd we again have two casks – Pizza Port Carlsbad Poor Man’s IPA and Alpine Nelson Rye-IPA. Friday the 23rd is our Pizza Port draft night and while we have not set the full line-up yet, I am expecting Reeds Scotch Ale, Great American Brown, Wipeout IPA and Poor Man’s IPA to all be on tap.
The following week we will have an O’Brien’s IPA cask on the 28th and Russian River casks on the 29th. Friday the 30th is the big Russian River TION night with at least 15 Russian River beers on tap including Pliny the Younger. There will be lots of special bottles as well that night. We’ll be open for the superbowl on Sunday the 1st.
I am planning a tasting of rare and vintage beers from Stone Brewing for Sunday, February 8th at 6:30 pm at the pub. Cost will be $25 and will include some light snacks paired with the beer from Lindsey. I have lots of different bottles from which to choose so I have not set the tasting list yet, but I will have more details in next week’s email. I will have a sign up sheet at the pub as of tonight, the 14th.
European Pub Crawl
I almost forgot! There’s another O’Brien’s Anniversary to celebrate! 2009 is O’Brien’s 5th annual Great Belgian Beer Tour hosted by our friend Bill Snider of Ciao! Travel. To celebrate O’Brien’s is offering a free hotel upgrade in London. If you BOOK THIS WEEK YOU’LL GET A FREE LONDON HOTEL UPGRADE FROM 1ST CLASS TO SUPERIOR 1ST Class on GBBT 2a – London & Belgium or GBBT 3 – London, Belgium & Paris.
With the Dollar strengthening against the Pound and Euro, airfare bargains and European hotels lowering their prices, The 2009 GBBT prices haven’t been this low since 2006. Pick up a copy of the GBBT brochure at O’Brien’s and you’ll save $200 off regular web prices with the O’Brien’s server coupon. With the free hotel upgrade that’s $300 off!
If you haven’t read the incredible 2009 Great Belgian Beer Tour itineraries go to www.ciaotravel.com and click on O’BRIEN’S in the left hand column. Don’t miss out having fun with Belgian Ale with your pals from O’Brien’s. Hurry! There are only 12 spaces left!
That about covers it for now. We’ll see you soon for a great beer! Cheers, Tom