What’s Happening

Hello All,

It is nice to see that our county has maintained its composure during the firestorm crisis.  It is an amazing thing when the shelters need to turn away donations because of the huge outpouring of support.  It is a time of sorrow, but I can say that I am proud of the way we handled ourselves as a community.  If you would like to make a donation to the Red Cross’s relief effort for the victims of the fire, please visit: www.sdarc.org.  All the directions on how to earmark your donation for the fire is on the website.  I hope that each and every one of you is safe.

As for the beer end of things, I am going to postpone the Wet Hop Festival until next weekend, November 2nd, 3rd and 4th.  I will have some wet hop beers on tap this weekend.  Right now we have several from Sierra Nevada including Harvest Ale, 20th Street Fresh Hop Ale and the ESP – Extra Special Pale, which is the pale ale with wet hops added.  I should also have the Port Brewing High Tide IPA on tap this weekend.  I am still expecting about 25 beers for next weekend and we will have the Harvest and Riptide casks on tap on Friday, November 2nd.

As for this week, we tap a cask of Ballast Point Sculpin IPA at 5 pm.  The beer is also still on tap and should continue to be for at least another week.  This is the first time that we have ever gotten a meaningful amount of Sculpin kegs and I am going to just keep tapping them until we run out.  Tomorrow, I’ve got a special treat for the lunch crowd – Alpine Nelson IPA on cask at lunch.  There is a good amount left from Wednesday’s cask night and we’ll tap it around 11 am.  If you are eating lunch tomorrow, you can also try the new Double Dip – our great french dip, but with twice the meat. 

There are also a lot of great new beers on tap in addition to the wet hop beers already mentioned – Alaskan Smoked Porter (aka the bacon beer), Sierra Nevada Celebration is back, Redhook Sun Rye – which is a very nice light rye ale, the rye gives the beer a unique dry twang that I really like and the AleSmith Evil Dead Red is back on tap thanks to a herioc effort on the part of our Stone Salesman who drove up to the keg for us.  On the food front, Lindsey has brought in several new cheeses which will all be available for sale to go starting on Friday – Stilton with lemon, Wensleydale with cranberries and St. Andre.  Look for some  special cheese plates as well.

Tickets are on sale for the San Diego Brewers Guild Festival on Friday, November 2nd at the World Beat Center in Balboa Park.  The fest has a special VIP session from 5 to 7 pm with normal hours from 7-11 pm.  There will be lots of San Diego brewed beer, food from local brewpubs and live music.  Proceeds benefit the music education programs at the World Beat Center.  Buy your tickets on line at: www.sandiegobrewersguild.org.  The Guild has also redesigned its great brewery map which can be found for free at the pub.

We have a great line up of beers for our annual Halloween Costume contest on Wednesday the 31st.  First off we have a cask of AleSmith Evil Dead Red at 5:30 pm.  And on tap we will have the new Alpine Ichabod pumpkin ale, Moonlight Brewing’s Boney Fingers, Wychwood Hobgoblin and Alpine Captain Stout.  The costume party is always fun and if you show up in costume, you can get any local or craft beer (not strong or Belgian) for just $2!

I will send out an email next week with all of the details on the Wet Hop Festival.  Next week’s Thursday cask is likely going to be some more Pizza Port Carslbad Hop Suey.  Please take care and continue to help each other out.  We’ll see you soon for some comfort and a great beer.  Cheers, Tom