O’Brien’s Pub – Sculpin, Chouffe Founder and SDFOB!
San Diego, CA – We have some great beer to help kick off your Labor Day weekend festivities. Fresh Kegs of Alpine O’Brien’s IPA, Malheur 12, Russian River Pliny the Elder and Marin White Knuckle just went on tap and there is still some Alpine Exponential Hoppiness left (more will be coming in on Friday!).
Rodenbach Grand Cru bottles are back in stock and we have the very limited Dogfish Head Bitches Brew in bottles. We have two great Ballast Point casks on Thursday (yes, one is Sculpin) and on Saturday the 4th we host the founder of the Chouffe Brewery from Belgium.
This Week at the Pub
Tonight, Wednesday the 1st we will have the Dogfish Head Bitches Brew 750 ml bottles for sale. The beer is a blend of 3 parts Imperial Stout and 1 part honey ale made with Gesho Root. It is dark, delicious and 9% alcohol. It was made to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Miles Davis album of the same name. We have re-stocked our Ballast Point Sculpin IPA 22 oz bottles and Kern Rive J.O. (Just Outstanding) IPA is also now avaialable in 22 oz bottles. We have some Gavroche, 3 Monts Golden and 3 Monts Amber Reserve bottles left from our Eurobrew night. These are three great French ales – the Gavroche is a strong red ale, 3 Monts Golden is dry, hoppy and Duvel-like and the 3 Monts Amber Reserve, while not very dark in color is very rich and flavorful. For fans of big, dark Belgian ales try the Ecausinnes Brune before it is all gone. Blind Pig IPA should return to the tap line up tonight as well.
Thursday the 2nd we start celebrating the weekend a little early with 2 tasty casks from Ballast Point – Sculpin IPA and Black Marlin Porter with Cocoa Nibs both tapped at 5 pm. This is the first time that we have had the Black Marlin with Cocoa Nibs at the pub and I am really looking forward to it. We also get to watch folks who likely won’t be Chargers play folks who likely won’t be 49’ers at 7 pm for the (thankfully) last pre-season game for both teams. All of our local beers will be on special Thursday night as well. The kitchen has Cambazola cheese back in stock. It is a blend of Camembert with a layer of Gorgonzola which makes for a wonderfully creamy cheese with just a hint of blue cheese twang. Look for the Chicken Cambazola Melt and the Cambazola Burger. Keep an eye out as well for our new and very popular Hot Dog specials.
And can you believe the NFL season will start on the 9th? The Vikings travel to the Superdome to face the defending Super Bowl Champion Saints at 5:30 pm on a special edition of NBC Football. The other kind of football is on international break this weekend and EURO 2012 Qualifying starts. England will play Bulgaria at Noon on Friday the 3rd on Fox Soccer. The UEFA Champions League will start group play on September 14th and 15th with all games live at 11:30 am.
Friday the 3rd we will kick off our Chouffe Weekend. The Houblon Chouffe is on tap right now and no later than Saturday we will have Mc Chouffe, La Chouffe and N’ice Chouffe all on tap. Houblon Chouffe is a strong Belgian golden ale made with American hops – a Belgian-style IPA. La Chouffe is the brewery’s flagship blond ale – highly drinkable, this beer hides it’s 8% alcohol very well. Mc Chouffe is a Strong-Scotch ale – a style that was originally brewed on the Continent for British troops stationed in Belgium during the World Wars. N’ice Chouffe is the annual Christmas beer and we have been saving a keg of the 2009 vintage for just such an occasion. This massive 10% alcohol dark beer is lightly spiced with thyme and curacao.
And why all of the Chouffe beer on tap? It is because we will be hosting the founder of the Chouffe brewery, Chris Brauweraerts, at the pub on Saturday, September 4th from 3-5 pm. Chris will be there to share some beers with us as well as answer questions about his fantastic brews. Houblon IPA is his favorite Chouffe beer and I am sure that we will all be drinking quite a bit of it. Anyone who has a Chouffe gnome hat, please wear it – there will be a free gift for all those who show up in their Chouffe hats! Lindsey will be making an amazing La Chouffe Mac n’ Cheese as well as some special beer cheese plates. Please stop by and help us welcome Chris to San Diego. He is very excited to be visiting the Hoppiest Place on Earth and he is looking forward to trying our wonderfully hoppy San Diego beers. As an added bonus, the Padres will be on Fox Sports at 1:10 pm on the 4th.
Great Belgian Beer Tour
In addition to Chris being at the pub, our friend and travel agent Bill Snider will be there with a sneak peak of the 2011 Great Belgian Beer Tour. 2011 will be our 7th year of pub crawling through Europe with Bill and friends. Every year the trip has been amazing and in 2011 there are plans to visit the Chouffe brewery as well as Rochefort! Please bring your questions for Bill about the trip, dates, itinerary, etc… This is one of the best ways to experience the beer drinking culture of Belguim. As we have hosted many Belgian brewers at O’Brien’s, we are warmly received at many of the best breweries: La Trappe, Gouden Carolous, Malheur and now Chouffe! The trip culimiates in the two-day 24 Hour Belgian Beer Festival featuring more than 150 Belgian beers available for sampling. It is a great time with good friends. For more information on the trip, or Ciao! Travel, please visit www.ciaotravel.com.
And now for the one bit of bad news. The pub will be CLOSED on Monday, September 6th for Labor Day. We will be open normal hours Saturday the 4th, 11:30 am to Midnight and Sunday the 5th, Noon to 6 pm. Normal hours will resume on Tuesday at 11 am and we won’t shut down again until Thanksgiving. Enjoy the holiday. Make a visit to one of the other fine beer bars in San Diego – Toronado, Hamilton’s, Churchill’s, Blind Lady, etc… Find out where they all are with the new San Diego Brewers Guild Brewery Map. It lists the location of every brewery, brewpub and beer bar in San Diego. Pick up a free copy at the pub or find it online at the Guild website – www.sandiegobrewersguild.org.
Next Week – SDFOB
Next week we will tap a keg of Moylan’s Hopsickle on Wednesday the 8th. This is a delicious, 10.5% double IPA that rivals Exponential Hoppiness and Pliny the Younger. Thursday the 9th we have a cask of AleSmith IPA at 5 pm It is always a great cask beer and we have not had in a while. Friday the 10th is the San Diego Festival of Beer downtown from 6 pm to 11 pm. Tickets can be bought in advance – only through today, September 1st though – for $30. Tickets will be available at the door for $40. This year there will be more than 70 breweries and each brewery is bringing 3 kegs so there will be a lot more beer than last year. The festival also has a special deal with the W Hotel for discounted room rates. Check out all of the info on the festival and find out about the cancer charities that the proceeds support at www.sdbeerfest.org.
Over next weekend we have the Padres on Fox Sports again at 1:10 pm on Saturday the 11th. The NFL gets under way on Sunday the 12th. We will be open at 11:30 am on Sundays starting on the 12th to match our Saturday opening time. The Chargers don’t play until Monday the 13th at 7:15 pm against the Chiefs at Arrowhead. It is part of a Monday Night double-header that includes LT and the Jets facing off against Baltimore at 4 pm. We will have our amazing pitcher special from 4:30 pm until close Monday night – $10 pitchers of craft and local beers and $14 pitchers of rare/strong ales. Great pints of beer for less $2.75 all season during Monday Night Football! We will be opening early for the two 10 am Chargers games and staying open late during the two Sunday night games.
Belgian Beer and Food Tasting
Our next Sunday night tasting will be September 26th featuring a line up of great Belgian beers paired with small food plates and cheeses. Tyson and I are teaming up with Wetten Importers for this tasting. We are going to be using some incredible beers: Delrium Tremens, Gouden Carolous Hopsinjoor, Van Honsebrouck Bachus, Kasteel Donker, Lucifer, St. Louis Lambic and more! We will even have all of the brewery glassware for each beer (and it will be available for purchase as well). We already have some amazing cheeses set up with a few of the beers and we are working on the food pairings that will include a dessert. The cost is $35 and I have a sign up sheet at the pub (cash only please). The tasting will start at 6:30 pm on the 26th.
Looking Ahead
Look for two delicious lager beers from Ballast Point in the coming weeks – Abandon Ship Smoked Lager and Navigator Double Bock. We will have a cask of Firestone Union Jack on September 16th. Friday the 17th we will feature one of San Diego’s newest breweries – Manzanita Brewing Company – which is located in Santee (they will be hosting a big bluegrass festival and chili cook off in their parking lot on the 11th of September). The Chargers host the Jaguars on the 19th at Qualcomm. We get one more Fox Sports Padres game on Saturday the 25th at 1:10 pm. We will have our annual Wet Hop Festival in October – dates yet to be determined. The Ballast Point Anniversary Party will be October 16th. San Diego Beer Week is coming November 5th through 14th. The website www.sdbw.org is live and we will be posting events this week. VIP tickets for the San Diego Strong Ale Festival at Pizza Port Carlsbad December 3rd and 4th will be on sale next week. Check the brewery website www.pizzaport.com next week for more info. Keep up to date on all of the latest O’Brien’s tappings on our Facebook page atwww.facebook.com/obrienspubsd.
That is your good beer news for now. We’ll see you soon for a great Chouffe beer. Cheers, Tom
Tom Nickel
O’Brien’s Pub
20 Taps – Tons of Hops
Official U.S. Soccer Bar
4646 Convoy Street
