O'Briens – Pizza Night, Casks and Lagunitas!
Hello fellow Beer Lovers!
We have a great slate of events coming up at the pub in the next few weeks including Pizza Night, pint nights with Lagunitas and Firestone, Nor Cal brewery night, an Alpine birthday party and our Beer and Cheese pairings with Taste Cheese shop in Hillcrest. So, as usual, there is much good beer news to share with you.
I will start with some new beers on tap and in the bottle. We have found one last keg of Sierra Nevada Harvest – I thought it was all gone, but then one turns up. We have the Firestone Lil Opal on tap which is an excellent wit-inspired beer with an excellent spice note to it. Full Sail Imperial Porter and Shipyard Imperial Porter are both still on tap, the Shipyard is only about 7.5%, but the Full Sail is a bit stronger at nearly 10% – both are quite good. For stout fans, the Murphy’s Stout is on tap. It is the sweetest of three major Irish stouts, without the bitterness or sourness found in Guinness. New in the bottle we have Lost Abbey Angel’s Share in 750ml bottles. This delicious brandy barrel aged barleywine is one of the world’s best. Ballast Point Dorado Double IPA is available in 22 oz bottles now. Alpine Ichabod, the pumpkin dunkleweizen is back on the list. Hair of the Dog Adam, a massive 10% dark ale is brand new to us along with the Avery Brabant, a barrel aged wild ale that is 100% brettanomyces fermented.
This Week
Wednesday the 8th is our Pizza Port Pizza Night with owner Vince Marsaglia. It is also Italian Craft Beer night and we will have several Port Brewing beers. Vince will be bringing down his mobile pizza kitchen and making up fantastic pizzas for dinner. The pizzas will be all one size and we should have 5-6 specialties from which to choose. I estimate that the mobile kitchen will be up and running around 5:30 pm or 6 pm. Due to the limited space Vince has to cook, it will likely take at least 15-20 minutes for your pizza to come up – so please be patient.
On the beer front we will have 4 very rare Italian craft beers in Vince’s honor. These are all beers that we have never had on tap, that I have never tasted on tap and have never even seen on tap. All are very unique. From Birrificio di Como we have Malthus Birolla, a 6.5% Chestnut ale using fresh, local chestnuts from the area around Lago di Como. Chiostro from Piccolo Birrificio is a beer that uses arthemisia absinthium, or wormwood in it – the major herbal ingredient in Absinthe. Verdi Imperial Stout from Birrificio del Ducato is an 8.2% Imperial Stout spiced with hot chilis. And finally from Birrificio Troll we will pour Shangrila, an 8.5% amber hued strong ale made with tandori spices from India. This is a very rare chance to sample some of the incredible beers in the Italian craft brewing scene. We will be offering 5, 8.5 and 14 ounce glasses of each beer.
And it just wouldn’t be Pizza Night without a few Port beers. We will have Hop 15, Lost Abbey Carnevale – a saison brewed with domestic hop varieties and Hot Rocks Lager – a stein or stone beer that used hot rocks in the brewing process to carmelize part of the maltose sugars in the boil. The beer was a collaboration with Tonya Cornett from Bend Brewing in Oregon and it is a very smooth amber lager. And just because we can, I am also tapping an Austrian stein beer – Granit Bock from Brauerei Hofstetten. It too uses hot granite rocks in the brewing process and his from the area where the tradition began. So two stein beers on tap at once just for your tasting pleasure. That makes 8 special beers for Pizza Night, so enjoy.
Thursday the 9th we tap our first cask of Green Flash’s great 30th Street Pale Ale. This is a very hoppy pale ale and I can’t wait to taste it cask conditioned. Look for the new Roast Beef Cobb sandwich on the specials board Thursday and Friday. Friday the 10th is Lagunitas night with 5 beers on tap including Hop Stoopid, IPA, Gnarleywine, Brown Shugga and Undercover Shutdown Ale. We’ll have some Lagunitas pint glasses for sale in addition to the glassware we have for sale now – Gouden Carolous, New Belgium etched goblets, Steenbrugge, Palm, and pints from Deschutes, Russian River and O’Brien’s. Friday is also now officially Torta day at lunch. We have ordered even more of the Torta rolls and you can expect to see them every Friday.
Over the weekend we will be open normal hours on Saturday the 11th, but we will be CLOSED on Sunday the 12th for Easter. Normal hours will resume on Monday, and no, this isn’t a portent of the end of the world. You can drink all of your favorite beers on Saturday and even take home a bottle to go (at 10% off all day no less). There is also plenty of Lindsey’s amazing beer cheese available to go for you to enjoy. Check the board next to the tap list for the current flavors.
Beer and Cheese Please
Our Beer and Cheese pairing classes are filling up fast. The first class at Taste on Wednesday the 22nd is sold out. As I write, there are only about 10 seats left for the class at O’Brien’s on Sunday the 26th at 6:30 pm. Cost is $40 and you can sign up at the pub (cash only please) or contact Taste to pay with a credit card (find the link on our Friends page on the website). We have started a waiting list for a potential third class if you can not make the Sunday class – you can also sign up for that at the pub. All of the final pairings have not yet been set, but so far we have some really great matches – some that even really surprised me. If you are interested in going, sign up soon. I think that be next week, the class on the 26th will be sold out.
Next Week and Beyond
We will be featuring Firestone next week. Thursday the 16th we will tap a cask of Firestone Walker’s Reserve Porter at 5 pm. This is also a new cask to us. The Firestone Porter is a great beer and can only improve with the smoothness of cask conditioning. Friday the 17th we will have a Firestone Night with Lil Opal, Union Jack and Abacus barrel aged barleywine all on tap.
Also next week is the one night only movie event for Beer Wars on Thursday the 16th. The documentary movie will be showing in theaters for one night only with a live simulcast after the movie that will feature some of the industry’s biggest names interviewed by Ben Stein. For more information and showtimes around town check out www.beerwarsmovie.com. It is basically the story of small breweries vs. the big three over the last few years. I know it is playing in Mission Valley – check the website for other theaters.
The following week we will have Nor Cal beer night on Friday the 24th with beer from Moylan’s, Marin, Drake’s, Triple Rock, Bear Republic and Russian River. Among beers on tap will be Marin IPA, Moylan’s Double Kiltlifter, Drake’s Denoggenizer and the collaboration brew between Triple Rock and Green Flash – Red Rock Rye.
At the end of the month you can look forward to our annual birthday party for Pat McIllhenney of Alpine Beer Company. In his honor we will be tapping a cask of Pat’s Exponential Hoppiness at 6 pm. And just for good measure, we will have a keg of Ballast Point’s Victory at Sea on tap, because one super strong beer is never enough. The next day on the 30th, we will have a cask of AleSmith IPA at 5 pm.
So that is your good beer news for now. If you haven’t seen it yet, check out our own Micaela Cano as bartender of the month at Sign On San Diego: http://www.signonsandiego.com/feature/one-more-round/. Also Check out the new dinner menu at the Toronado in North Park. We’ll see you soon for a great beer. Cheers, Tom
Tom Nickel
O’Brien’s Pub
20 Taps – Tons of Hops
4646 Convoy Street
www.obrienspub.net
