O’Brien’s Pub – Maui, Sam Adams and Lagers!

Hello Beer Fans!

We have some great events happening this week and throughout the month of October before we even get to San Diego Beer Week in November.

Maui Brewing Company will be on tap at the pub for the first time this Friday, we get to try two Sam Adams beers before they are released, Alpine has made us a special cask of Token Imperial Porter with toasted coconut, we will host a lager night in honor of the Ballast Point Anniversary and our annual wet hop ale fest is coming up.

We also have a new round of Belgian and specialty glassware for sale that includes Delirium, Kasteel, Gouden Carolous, Moinette and the soon to be rare Konigshoeven glass as the brewery is switching back to the La Trappe name.

This Week
Wednesday night the 29th we will have some special beer and cheese pairings available.  We did three beer and cheese pairings in last weekends Belgian Beer and Food tasting at the pub and I ordered some extra cheese so that we could share this delicious pairings with more people.  Each cheese will be available for a special price with a select bottle of beer.  The three pairings are: Pondhopper, an Oregon goat-milk gouda made with beer pairied with Lucifer, a hoppy Belgian golden ale; Brunet, a creamy and pungent Italian cheese paired with Van Honsebrouck Bachus which is a fantastic Flemish sour brown ale; and Norwegian Gjetost which is carmelized whey, cream and goat milk (amazing texture and flavor) paired with either Kasteel Donker, a dark 11% beer that is rich and malty or Samichlaus, formerly the world’s strongest beer, it is even more rich and malty.  These pairings will be available starting at 6 pm and will be on the specials board until they are gone.  If they don’t sell out on Wednesday, look for them on Thursday night as well.  In addition, Lindsey has a few beer cheese tubs for sale to go, one made with Malheur 12 and one made with Gouden Carolous Hopsinjoor.

Speaking of Thursday, we have one of our favorite pub beers on cask this week at 5 pm – Green Flash West Coast IPA.  We also have a very special treat from Sam Adams.  Our local Sam Adams rep will be pouring two unreleased beers from the Beer Lovers Choice program – an American Rye Ale and a Belgian-style IPA.  You will be able to vote for your favorite beer and one of these two beers will be released as part of the series sometime next year.  The Noble Pils was the first release in this series earlier this year.  This is a rare opportunity to taste a commercial beer before it is released – and you get to have a say in which one will come out.  The samples will be available from 5 to 7 pm or until they last.  Sam Adams Octoberfest will also be on tap.

Friday the 1st we get an island treat as Maui Brewing Company will be on tap at the pub for the first time.  The brewery is just starting to send over a small amount of draft beer.  We should have Coconut Porter and a dark Belgian-style Rye IPA on tap.  Both will be in only five gallon kegs, so I do not expect them to last through the weekend.  But the good news is, that we should get a few Maui kegs on a regular basis from now on.  I will have both beers on tap no later than 5 pm.

Saturday the 2nd come by for our great hot dog specials using 1/4 pound Hebrew National dogs.  We’ve been dressing them up lots of different ways: the Chili Cheese Dog; the Cesar Dog with pepper jack, grilled onions and bacon and the Dirty Dog with Swiss cheese, bacon and chopped pickles.  Look for the hot dogs on the specials board every Saturday.  You can also enjoy 10% off all bottles all weekend end and our Saturday afternoon happy hour where all local and craft beers are just $3.50 for a pint from 11:30 am until 4 pm.  Sunday we will be open from 11:30 am until 6 pm and my guess is that the unable to stop a kick return Chargers will be blacked out again against the Cardinals.  If the game is on, we will be showing it though.  Either way, we’ll have our Fish and Chips, Chipotle Fish Sandwich and Fish Tacos on special both Sunday and Monday.

Next Week
Monday brings us New England v. Miami for Monday Night Football along with our fantastic pitcher specials – $10 for all craft and local beers and just $14 for all strong and rare ales from 4:30 pm until close.  Thursday the 7th we have a very special cask from Alpine Beer Company.  Shawn made up a cask of Token Imperial Porter with rum soaked oak chips and fresh toasted coconut.  I can’t wait to try this beer.  The Token is already fantastic on its own and this ought to be a great cask.  Friday the 8th we will start a weekend-long celebration of Octoberfest with some great lager beers including Spaten Octoberfest and Craftsman Octoberfest.  Look for some Octoberfest-inspired food specials as well.  The Chargers will be on TV against the Raiders on Sunday the 10th at 1:15 pm with no chance of being blacked out.

Also over this weekend, the USA will play Poland at 5 pm on Saturday the 9th.  We will be hosting a viewing party with the San Diego Chapter of the American Outlaws.  The USA will play again on Tuesday, October 12th at 5 pm against Columbia.  Stop by and join us for some great beer and to cheer on the USA soccer team.

Ballast Point Anniversary
Ballast Point will celebrate its 14th anniversary on Saturday, October 16th from 1- 5pm at Liberty Station for the bargain price of just $20 for 10 tasters, which makes it just about the least expensive beer festival in town.  There will be tons of Ballast Point beer and lots of great guest beer, including lots of fellow San Diego breweries.  For more info check out www.ballastpoint.com.

To help the brewery celebrate, we will be doing a little pre-party starting Thursday night with a cask of Fathom India Pale Lager at 5 pm.  This is a great hoppy beer that happens to use a lager yeast.  It will be a rare treat to get a lager beer cask conditioned.  Then we start our Ballast Point Lager weekend which will feature 7 incredible lagers on tap – Abandon Ship Smoked Lager, Navigator Double Bock – draft and barrel aged, Longfin Lager, Pescadero Pils, Fathom IPL and Octoberfest.  The beers will be on tap all weekend to celebrate 14 great years with a toast to many more.

To round out the weekend, my favorite indie-metal band Valient Thorr will be playing the Casbah on Sunday the 17th for only $10.  If you ever loved metal music in the 80s you have to check these guys out – www.valientthorr.com.

GABF
If you have not heard, San Diego yet again cleaned up at the Great American Beer Festival with Pizza Port in particular kicking a little ass.  Pizza Port Carlsbad won 7 medals and the Large Brewpub of the year award.  Pizza Port San Clement took the Small Brewpub of the Year award along with gold medals for IPA and Double IPA.  Four of the six Brewery of the Year awards went to California – Taps Fishhouse for Brewpub Group of the Year and Mad River for Small Brewery of the Year were the other two.  Other local medal winners were: Port Brewing (2), Stone (2), Lost Abbey, Ballast Point , Pizza Port Ocean Beach and Karl Straus all had one medal each.  I have posted up a list of local winners on the website or you can find the complete list at www.greatamericanbeerfestival.com.

Looking Ahead
There are some great events to look forward to at the end of next month.  We have our annual Wet Hop Festival the weekend of October 22nd, 23rd and 24th featuring beers made with freshly picked off the vine hops before they are dried for storage.  We will have some great local beers and a fine collection of beers from around the state.  All of them will be available in 5 ounce tasters so you can work your way through them without hitting the floor too early.

The following weekend we will have a Sierra Nevada 30th Anniversary Night on the 29th featuring a keg of each of the four 30th Anniversary beers along with new release of Celebration and a keg of the Estate Harvest.  The pub’s annual Halloween Party will be on the 29th as well.  Look for some Sierra cask beer on Thursday the 28th.

And finally, San Diego Beer Week is happening November 5th through 14th.  As we did last year, look for events each night.  Most of what we are doing is already posted up at www.sdbw.org.  We will have an AleSmith night with many different versions of Speedway Stout, Alpine night with fresh releases of Bad Boy and O’Brien’s IPA, Kern River night, Ballast Point night with several different kegs of Victory at Sea, a barrel aged beer night (I am shooting for 50 barrel aged beers), a Belgian night, Allagash night with owner/brewer Rob Tod and a few special tastings including one with Tomme Arthur of Lost Abbey on the 14th.  When I have more exact details I will post them up.

That is your good beer news for now.  Tickets for the Strong Ale Festival VIP Session on Friday, December 3rd at Pizza Port Carlsbad are on sale now – visit www.pizzport.com.  The session is about 25% sold out now, so make sure to get your tickets soon.  We’ll see you soon for a great lager beer!  Cheers, Tom

Tom Nickel
O’Brien’s Pub
20 Taps – Tons of Hops
Official U.S. Soccer Bar
4646 Convoy Street
www.obrienspub.net