Harvest Cask, Guild Fest and Bastards…
Hello Good Beer Fans!
As always, there is much to write about, but I will try to contain myself. First off, I want to thank everyone who came by for the Wet Hop Festival this past weekend. There were a number of great beers – many of which are still on tap. In all we had 28 wet hopped ales over the 3 days, making it the country’s largest wet hop gathering.
Today/Tonight (Wednesday the 8th) we have a couple of treats. First off we have New Belgium’s new winter beer, 2 Below. It is a well hopped (by Colorado standards) strong pale ale – 6.5%. It is very tasty. We’ll also have Fat Tire on tap and the very popular New Belgium Globe glasses for just $3 each. Both beers will be on special all night long.
In addition, we finally received the first of our Dogfish Head bottles. We now have three in stock, cold and ready to drink. First is the 90 Minute IPA, one of the East Coast’s hoppiest beers and quite tasty in the bottle (you didn’t think I would write about it without tasting it did you?). Second is Midas Touch – a 9% golden ale with honey, Muscat white wine grapes and saffron based on an ancient Sumerian recipe for beer. And finally, the very drinkable Raison D’Etre, a Belgian inspired Dubbel made with raisons that is 8% alcohol. These bottles are very reasonable – only $3 – $4 each. O’Brien’s is the only spot in Southern California to have Dogfish Head beers and we won’t be able to restock these until sometime next year, so enjoy them while you can. We will have a draft keg of the 90 Minute IPA on Wednesday, November 22nd.
This Thursday, the 9th, I am going to have a very special wet hop surprise for you – I have another cask of the Sierra Nevada Harvest Ale to tap at 5 pm. We are the first pub in the world to tap cask beer from Sierra, and I can assure you that the cask is delicious. In addition to the cask, I am also going to set up the jockey box so that we can tap additional wet hop beers from the fest. I know last week I had mentioned doing a cask of Alpine Duet IPA on the 9th and that Alpine’s email even mentioned it, but that cask will now be tapped on Thursday the 16th along with the pin of Irish Red. Sorry for the confusion – I wasn’t sure if there would be a second cask or not.
This weekend is the San Diego Brewers Guild Beer Festival at the World Beat Center in Balboa Park (it is the big round building on Park blvd. with murals painted on it). It is Friday and Saturday from 6-10 pm both nights. Tickets are $25 in advance or $30 at the door. I do have a limited number of tickets available at the pub – email me if you are interested. You can also buy tickets at Home Brew Mart in Linda Vista and online at the Guild website – www.sandiegobrewersguild.org. Every San Diego brewery will be there and I have seen what most of them are bringing and it will be a great festival – Sculpin IPA, Lou P. Lin, Double Bastard, Lost and Found, Cask of Espresso Stout, AleSmith Grand Cru and many many more. This should become one of the best festivals of the year. Come support your local brewers and try a bunch of really great beer.
After the Guild Fest on Sunday the 12th we have another special exclusive for you lucky beer drinkers (it seems that there are a lot of them this email). For the Chargers vs. Bengals game at 10 am we will tap a keg of the new Bear Republic Apex IPA. This new IPA won the silver medal at the Great American Beer Festival and is even hoppier than the Racer 5. There is only one keg south of San Francisco and we have it. So stop by to watch the game and try out this fantastic new IPA. We’ll also have some breakfast items on the specials board in addition to our regular menu.
See all of that great beer just in the next 5 days. We truly are America’s Finest (Beer) City.
Next week we’ll have our much anticipated dueling Duet cask night with Alpine Duet IPA on cask (look for it on tap in the next few days) and Alpine McIllhenney’s Irish Red on cask which Pat just couldn’t help but dry hop. So we will have a very hoppy IPA and a likely to be hoppy Irish Red both at 5 pm on Thursday the 16th. Also on that Thursday you can look for us in the Night and Day section of the Union Tribune as the featured Happy Hour of the Week.
Friday the 17th is our big Stone Double Double Bastard Night. We’ll have the new 2006 Double Bastard on tap along with a vintage keg of the 2005 Double Bastard AND bottles of the 2003 and 2004 Double Bastard – 4 years of Double Bastard all in one night. The draft beers will tap at 5 pm and the bottles will be available all day.
That weekend, the Chargers game has been moved to a night game at 5:15 against Denver on the 19th. Like it won’t be cold enough in Denver during the day, we need to play them at night. Great. We’ll be open to cheer them on regardless, with the kitchen open until halftime. So on Sunday the 19th our hours will be Noon to 9 pm so that the TV gods can further conspire against a Charger victory.
On the horizon, we will be closing down Thursday and Friday for Thanksgiving on the 23rd and 24th. But we will be open Saturday and Sunday so you shouldn’t have to go more than 48 hours without Pure Hoppiness or Pliny. And I am already saving up beers for the Strong Ale Festival Pre-Party on Thursday, November 30th. The VIP tickets for the Strong Ale Festival are now available at the Port website – www.pizzaport.com. I forgot to mention that our new merchandise is in – we have men’s long and short sleeve shirts and beanies. Hats are on the way and we will be ordering new women’s wear this week. Christmas beers continue to roll in and the first kegs will be coming on tap next week.
That is all for now. We’ll see you soon over a great San Diego beer. Cheers, Tom