Ultimate Hoppiness and X-Mas Ales!
Hello Holiday Beer Fans!
The Shopping (aka Christmas or Holiday) Season is upon us. It is a busy time of year, but hopefully not too busy to have a good beer. There are always a number of great winter ales available this time of year, even if we don’t really have the winter weather to go with it. Although the rain did put a damper in the Strong Ale Festival on Friday, folks came in droves on Saturday to try the more than 70 beers on tap. It was a great weekend, if a little wet. Probably the biggest buzz at the fest Friday was over the Firestone Walker Parabola – a bourbon barrel aged Imperial Oatmeal Stout that is 14.1% alcohol. The big beers always cause a frenzy. The beer was all very good and thankfully there was just enough to satisfy the thirsty crowds. Next fest at Pizza Port Carlsbad will be the Belgian Beer Party in March.
At the pub this week we have an awesome Friday night event on the 7th (Pearl Harbor Day) – The Night of Ultimate Alpine Hoppiness. We will have for the first time ever, all of Alpine’s hoppy ales on tap at once – Alpine Ale, Pure Hoppiness, Nelson IPA, Duet IPA, Bad Boy double IPA and Exponential Hoppiness. Nearly everything will be in full kegs, so it should last all night. As an added bonus, we will have both Nelson IPA and Exponential Hoppiness available on cask at 5 pm! We’ll have lots of people working to help keep your wait for a beer short. We will also be offering 5 ounce and 10 ounce pours on all of the beers, except the casks which we will offer only pints or 10 ounce (5 ounce glasses are very hard to fill on the cask beers).
If you are coming by tonight, Thursday the 6th (guitarist Randy Rhoads birthday) we have a rare cask of stout – Ballast Point Sea Monster stout at 5pm. We only do a few stout casks a year, and I expect this one to be great. As always, all of our local beers will be on special from 4:30 to 9 pm. You can also try the new wedge salad with blue cheese and bacon (my kind of salad) and the Chimay Cheese Burger is back. Over the weekend, the Chargers face the Titans in Nashville at 10 am on Sunday the 9th. We will be open early and we will have breakfast cooking along with our fish and chips and fish tacos. With a Broncos loss to KC and win on Sunday, the Chargers would be AFC West Champs for the third time in four years.
Next week is our Winter Warmers and Christmas Ales week from Monday the 10th through Sunday the 16th (Chargers v. Detroit at 1:15 pm). I have saved up a number of great winter beers on draft and we have more in the bottle as well. I am not sure what exactly will be on tap what day, but I will do my best to update the website often. I have the following draft beers lined up: Gouden Carolous Noel, Anchor Christmas Ale, Young’s Winter Warmer, Delirium Noel, Lightning Black Lightning Porter, N’ice Chouffe, Moylan’s White Christmas, Ballast Point Three Sheets, Pyramid Snow Cap (surprisingly very good), Port Brewing Old Viscosity, Sierra Celebration (which I am enjoying right now) and casks of AleSmith YuleSmith and Coronado Winter Warmer. There will be more beers in the bottle and maybe even a few more on draft over the course of the week. My plan is to have as many on tap on Friday as I can, although I know a few are likely to blow early in the week. I will start tapping some of the bigger, stronger kegs after the Alpine event. The casks will both be tapped on Thursday the 13th at 5 pm.
If you are looking for the ultimate gift for someone (or yourself), our annual Great Belgium Beer Tour through Ciao Travel just might be the ticket. We are spending an entire week touring the breweries and beer bars of this beer mecca in late February and early March. The two city tour will take us through Ghent and Brussels and culminate in the Zythos 24 Hour Belgian Beer Festival (over two days). The grand three city tour will also visit Amsterdam, which is an incredible city to walk around and drink beer in. There are about 30-35% of the spots left for either trip. Most of those signed up are folks from the pub. This is a great trip that is hosted, not herded, so that you do not feel like you are always traveling in a big group. Lindsey and I can’t wait to go. The trip is organized by pub patron and travel agent Bill Snider of Ciao Travel. Bill’s company runs jazz tours to Europe during the summer. For complete itinerary information and prices, visit the Ciao website at www.ciaotravel.com. Bill has helped us and our parents with a number of trips, and I would highly recommend hime for any of your travel needs.
Just a reminder, the pub will be shut down the 24th, 25th and 26th for Christmas, which is a Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. So plan on getting your final Pliny and Pure Hoppiness fix in on Sunday the 23rd. We will also be shut down on the 31st and the 1st for New Year’s. We will have our end of the year party on the 28th with a Green Flash night and plenty of Champagne! Have a great weekend and we’ll see you soon over a great beer. Cheers, Tom