Hop Wallop, Alpine Casks and the Chargers
Hello Beer Lovers!
It is time to get you caught up on all of the good beer news from O’Brien’s.
Tomorrow we start the weekend with beers from Victory Brewing in Pennsylvania. On tap will be Hop Wallop Double IPA, Hop Devil IPA (on tap now) and Golden Monkey Tripel. In the kitchen, Lindsey made a new beer cheese with Boon Lambic that is awesome – look for it on burgers all day. Saturday the 13th we have our AleSmith Vintage and Barrel Aged Tasting at 6 pm. There are still three seats left for the tasting, cost is $30 and you can sign up at the pub.
And even if you aren’t coming to the tasting, Lindsey will be making her famous Pear Tarts and have some for sale at 6:30 pm – first come, first served. The OSU-USC football game starts at 5 pm on Saturday. The nearly, almost, so close to 1-0 but really 0-1 Chargers play at Denver at 1:15 pm on Sunday. We will have our 10% off all bottles special all weekend and Fish and Chips and Fish Tacos on Sunday for the game.
Next week starts off with Monday Night Football at 5:30 pm with the Eagles vs. the Cowboys (with Jessica Simpson’s trash talk to help them). We’ll have $9 pitchers of all local and craft beers after 4:30 pm and $13 pitchers of strong ales including Pliny and Pure Hoppiness. Wednesday night the 17th we host a Lagunitas night with Hop Stoopid double IPA and Lagunitas IPA on tap.
Thursday the 18th we have a very special cask night in spite of, and not because of, English Jonathon’s birthday (just kidding – we love you Jonathon, most of us anyway). We will have two casks from Alpine Beer Company – O’Brien’s IPA and Exponential Hoppiness both tapped at 5 pm. The O’Brien’s IPA is a full cask, and the Expo is a five gallon cask. Look for some great food specials from Lindsey in the kitchen on the 18th including a batch of Duvel Mac n’ Cheese.
Friday the 19th is the 14th San Diego Festival of Beer downtown from 6-11 pm. More than 50 breweries will be pouring beer at the event. And this year should not be overcrowded since Street Scene starts the same night over in the Gaslamp. Luckily, the beer fest is at Columbia and B far from the hordes of Street Scene. The fest is a fundraiser and all of the proceeds go to local cancer charities. So drink beer for a good cause. For more info visit www.sdbeerfest.org. If you don’t head downtown, we will have plenty of great beer on tap at the pub including some specials on bottles from Boulevard and The Bruery.
On Saturday the 20th we will host our own fundraiser for pub patrons Alex and Stephanie and Dave and Kemoyah who are participating in the 3 Day Breast Cancer Walk. We will have some special beers on tap to help them raise money for the walk. They will also be holding a raffle with some great prizes. So stop by between 1-6 pm on the 20th and help them raise money to help fight breast cancer. There is no Chargers game over the weekend since they play the Jets on the 22nd for Monday Night Football.
Tuesday the 23rd we are still on for our meet the brewer night with Elysian Brewing from Seattle. I expect six beers on tap including ESB, IPA, Stout, Jasmine IPA, Tripel and Pumpkin Ale. Brewer David Buehler will be at the pub to drink beers and drink some more beers, hang out and perhaps answer a few questions. That week we will also launch this year’s High Tide IPA fresh hop beer from Port Brewing. We will have not one, but two casks for Thursday the 25th at 5 pm. So drink all you want, the casks should last all night.
Next month we have our Fall Beer and Cheese Tasting classes with Taste Artisan Cheese and Gourmet Shop. The dates are Wednesday, October 15th at 7 pm at Taste in Hillcrest and Sunday, October 19th at 6:30 pm at O’Brien’s. Cost is $40 and I will have a sign up sheet at the pub tonight (cash only please). You can also contact Taste to use a credit card – there is a link to them on the friends page of the website. We are holding the same contest as last time for folks who sign up early. You will be entered into a drawing to help pick the pairings. We have not yet set the date for that, but I would expect it to around the end of this month. So if you sign up at either place soon, you will have a chance to taste all of the possible beers and cheeses for the class and help decide on the final pairings.
On the technology front, we are still knocking the bugs out of the new wi-fi system. If you are having any problems logging onto the network, please ask for the directions behind the bar. I would also be interested in hearing about any ongoing problems anyone is having so that we can fine tune the system. And we are in the process of getting our satellite dish upgraded so that we can get HD channels on the big tv. It should happen by next Tuesday. Then we can get all of the ESPN channels and the Chargers in HD.
For Soccer Fans, the UEFA Champions League starts up this coming week. We will have two live games every matchday. On the 16th we will have Chelsea v. Bordeaux and Marseille v. Liverpool both at 11:30 am. And on the 17th we will have Manchester United v. Villareal and Dynamo Kyiv v. Arsenal. There will also be more matches each day starting at 2 pm. We do have a soccer section on the website that lists upcoming games as well as a soccer-specific email. If you would like to be on it, just reply back to this email and note that you would like to be on the soccer list. And for anyone that is interested, I have some extra tickets for the MLS Cup Final on Sunday, November 23rd at the Home Depot Center in Carson. Email me if you are interested.
I want to say thanks to Jim Crute at Lightning for hosting a great 2nd Anniversary Party this past weekend. The highlight (other than the version of War Pigs by the band) was Jim’s cask conditioned ales. The Black Lightning Porter and Fairweather Pale were both fantastic. We will definitely be getting some Lightning casks soon. Also, for fans of Pizza Port, Hamilton’s Tavern in Southpark is tapping 22 Port beers this Saturday if you are in the neighborhood. And finally, I am working on the details of our wet hop fest this week and should have more news and hopefully a date next week. With the hop shortage, it may not be as big as in year’s past, but I should have at least a dozen beers – hopefully more – on tap.
That should be more than enough for now. We’ll see you soon over a great beer. Cheers, Tom
Tom Nickel
O’Brien’s Pub
20 Taps – Tons of Hops
4646 Convoy Street
www.obrienspub.net
