Happy 4th of July From O’Briens Pub

San Diego, Ca – A very happy birthday to the USA this weekend!  We will be closed on Saturday, July 4th to spend the holiday with family and friends.  The pub will be open normal hours on both Friday (11 am to Midnight) and Sunday (Noon to 6 pm).  Friday the 3rd we will host a night of beers from Green Flash Brewing Company – West Coast IPA, Double Stout (which is dark and delicious) and the new Summer Saison, which is light in alcohol at 4.5% but very flavorful.

We also have lots of new beers on tap and in the bottle.  New on tap is Dogfish Head Festina Peche, a tart peach beer, and Mission Mai Bock, a German-style lager with an excellent bready-malt flavor.  We also have the Ballast Point Piper Down Scottish Ale and you can look for more of the O’Brien’s IPA from Alpine Beer Company on Friday or Sunday.  We will tap a cask of O’Brien’s IPA, tonight, Thursday the 2nd, at 5 pm.

New Bottles

Bottle-wise, there are a ton of great bottles that have come in recently.  The new AleSmith Decadence 2008 – an English Barleywine – is in stock now and tasting great.  We have the Cuvee de Tomme and still more of the Angel’s Share from Lost Abbey.  Avery 16 Anniversary Ale, which is a saison is in 22 oz bottles as is New Belgium’s La Folie sour brown ale.  The new Ola Dubh 40 from Harviestouns is aged in 40 year old Whiskey casks and has a strong Scotch nose and flavor to it.  On the sour side we have the Doesjel Lambic from Drie Fonteinen.  The beer is bottled nearly still, as are all traditional lambics.  Geuze is the sparkling version of lambic.  But perhaps my favorite of our new bottles is the North Coast Old Rasputin 12.  Brewed in honor of the beer’s 12th anniversary (I believe the brewery is now 20 years old), this is a barrel aged version of Old Rasputin and it is incredible.  We will have bottles of Sculpin IPA from Ballast Point available soon as well.

Next Week

We have a ton of great beer coming next week.  Wednesday the 8th we will have Idiot IPA and Blue Bridge Coffee Stout from our friends at Coronado Brewing Company.  The coffee stout was great last time, but we only got one keg, which did not last long, so not many of you may have tried it.  To rectify the situation, I asked Shawn at Coronado to send us two kegs so that more people can get to try this phenomenal beer.  Also on Wednesday, the USA soccer team plays Honduras in the 2009 Gold Cup at 6 pm.

Thursday the 9th we have a cask of Poor Man’s IPA from Pizza Port Carlsbad.  The beer is on tap right now and tasting great.  Congratulations to head brewer Jeff Bagby and brewer Yiga Miyashiro for winning the Best of Show award at the San Diego County Fair Craft Beer Competition for Good Grief Brown.  More than 25 gold medal beers were tasted against each other and Jeff’s beer came out on top.  The San Diego International Beer Festival this past weekend at the Fair was a great event.  More than 300 beers were available for sampling with a much better layout than last year making it easy to find and get to all of the beers.  The arena also has a new roof so that the whole festival was in the shade which was very nice.

Friday the 10th we have a New Belgium brewery night with the new Dandelion Ale. It is a Belgian blond ale, about 7.5%, made with dandelions in place of hops.  I have not tried it yet, but I am really looking forward to it.  We will also have the great Biere de Mars and Skinny Dip, a summer lager with cascade hops, on tap.  Pint glasses and NBB Goblets will be on sale.  From the kitchen, look for some new sandwiches featuring French Brie next week and the Humberto’s great Crab and Corn Chowder.

Saturday the 11th I am tapping a very special keg from Redstone Meadery – Nectar of the Hops.  This is the same base mead that is used for the fruit nectars, but instead of adding fruit, it is dry-hopped in the conditioning tank.  Owner/Meadmaker David Myers has been to the pub several times to help lead our Mead tastings.  He only sent one keg out and he told me that he couldn’t think of a better place to send out the first keg of Nectar of the Hops in California than the Hoppiest Place on Earth.  We will tap it at 4 pm on Saturday the 11th, which coincides with the USA v. Haiti soccer kick off.  It is only 5 gallons so I don’t expect it to last for too many days.

Coming Soon

After the 4th of July we are going to start our Christmas in July program.  Every year  I save back a few kegs of Christmas and Winter beers to tap in the summer.  Many of these beers improve with a few months of aging, but they often sell out so quickly in the wintertime, that we never get to taste them with a bit of age.  All through the month we will have at least one winter beer on tap.  I do not have any kind of set schedule yet.  I can tell you that I have kegs of St. Feuillien Noel, Delirium Noel, Bigfoot, Alaskan Smoked Porter, N’ice Chouffe and many others.  I will have a better idea of what will be on tap when by the next email.  In the meantime, start looking for the beers to show up next week.

Thursday the 16th is AleSmith Summer YuleSmith night.  We will tap a cask at 5 pm and a keg immediately after the cask blows.  Friday the 17th is Weihenstephan night and we will have a bunch of great German beers on tap including the brewery’s fantastic Weizenbock.  Other kegs you can look forward to this month are: Brewdog Paradox, Schneider and Brooklyn Hopfenweiss, Guinness 250th Anniversary Stout and Shipayrd XXXX IPA.

And though I don’t have a date set yet, this event is just too good not to tell you about.  It is at least 3 weeks, probably even a little more away at least.  It is the Night of Ultimate Alpine Hoppiness.  We will have EIGHT different hoppy beers on tap from Alpine.  This will be the first and likely only time that this many hoppy beers from Alpine will ever be on tap.   We will have Alpine Ale, O’Brien’s IPA, Duet IPA, Nelson Rye-IPA, Sippin on the Dock of the Bay IPA (made for the AHA conference), Pure Hoppiness, Bad Boy and Exponential Hoppiness – all fresh batches and all on tap at once.  Believe me, when I have a date set, you will all know about it.

Beer and Cheese Please

Our Malheur Beer and Cheese tasting class on Sunday, July 26th is about half full.  The class on the 19th is now sold out again.  So if you want to claim one of the last 15 seats, please sign up soon.  I would expect the class to be sold out about one week in advance, so by the 18th or so.   The class will feature 5 Malheur beers with 7 great cheese pairings.  The cost is $40 and you can sign up at the pub (cash only please) or contact Taste Cheese Shop in Hillcrest to use a credit card.

Finally, next time you are at the pub you might run into our new bartender, Andrea.  She just started last week.  We already feel that she is a great addition to our outstanding crew.  Please make her feel welcome and at home at O’Brien’s.

That is your good beer news for now.  Please have a happy and safe 4th of July.  Enjoy some great local beer over the weekend and we’ll see you soon at the pub for a great draft beer.  Cheers, Tom

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