O’Briens Pub – Wet Hop Festival Weekend

Hello Hop Lovers!

The Wet Hop Festival weekend is finally here!  I am expecting 24 different wet hop beers from San Diego, Northern California and Oregon.  We should have 22 different draft beers, 4 casks and even one bottled beer.

The line up will include beers from Pizza Port Carlsbad and Solana Beach, Ballast Point, Port Brewing, Stone, 21st Amendment, Anderson Valley, Beach Chalet, Bear Republic, Black Diamond, Blue Frog, Butte Creek, Lagunitas, Moonlight, Sierra Nevada, Triple Rock, Deschutes and Full Sail.

The fun starts tonight with two very rare and special festival pre-party casks from Sierra Nevada – Harvest Ale and ESP.  This year’s Harvest is great and I can’t wait to try it on cask.  The ESP is one of my favorite Sierra beers.  It is the bottled version of the Pale Ale, which is a little stronger and more hoppy, with wet hops added in the conditioning tank.  These are the only casks of these beers in southern California, so don’t miss them tonight, Thursday, 10/23 at 5 pm.  We also have a few wet hopped ales on tap right now including Port Brewing High Tide, Sierra Nevada Harvest and Full Sail Lupulin.  More will be added tonight as well.

Friday the 24th we start the actual festival with two more local casks and all of the beers that are in full size kegs – so they will last all weekend.  We will have casks of Stone Arrogant Bastard ale with wet Chinook hops that were grown in the Bistro gardens added to the cask.  We’ll also have a cask of Ballast Point’s Schooner ale.  Both will be tapped by 6 pm.  There should also be nearly a dozen wet hop beers on tap including Pizza Port Carlsbad Plant to Pint, Anderson Valley Mendo Mellow, Bear Republic Grandma’s Homegrown, Butte Creek Initial Attack Fresh Hop IPA, Sierra Nevada Southern Hemisphere Harvest and Deschutes Hop Trip.  Check the board when you come in for the full list.

Saturday the 25th we will have all of the wet hop beers on tap – 22 on draft, 1 from the bottle and we will be serving any cask beer that might be left.  Among the new beers for Saturday will be Port Brewing Homegrown Hop 15, Triple Rock Harvest Ale, Moonlight Sublimmminal and Fresh Hop Lager and 21st Amendement Harvest Moon.  We will be serving the beers in 5, 10 or 16 ounce sizes.  So that everyone has an opportunity to taste the beers, we will not be serving pitchers of the beers that only come in 5 gallon kegs.  I will also have a 5 handle jockey box set up to accommodate the extra beers.  That way we can keep a few of the local favorites like Pliny the Elder on tap.

Sunday the 26th we will still have a full line up of wet hop beers and we will be opening early at 10 am for the Chargers v. Saints game from London.  The kitchen will be serving up breakfast and mimosas from 10 am to 12 pm including biscuits and gravy and breakfast burritos with fresh salsa.  This will be our last 10 am game until mid-December, so don’t miss it.  The wet hop beers will be on tap all day and I expect to have at least 20 pouring on Sunday.  I may be wrong, but I really don’t think that you guys can drink it all on Friday and Saturday.

And the beer won’t be the only great special this weekend.  Lindsey and Humberto are working up a great list of specials for the entire weekend including Jerk Chicken, Beer Chili, Chili Cheese Dogs (yes they are as good as they sound), and several new beer cheeses.  Lindsey has made her regular beer cheese with Sierra Nevada Harvest Ale and she also made one with goat cheese and Harvest Ale.  Show up thirsty and hungry and I guarantee that there will be no way to leave disappointed.

Next Week

Next week, you will have a few recovery days before we tap a cask of AleSmith Evil Dead Red on Thursday the 30th at 5 pm.  We only get one cask a year and it never lasts that long, so don’t show up late.  Friday the 31st we will have our annual Halloween Costume party with lots of special beers.  I have saved back a keg of AleSmith Evil Dead Red and we will be debuting the new Alpine Ichabod.  The recipe changes every year and this year it is a Pumpkin Dunkel Weizen.  We should also have a keg from Moonlight Brewing Company coming down as well, along with a double IPA from Drake’s brewing.

On the bottle (and can) front, the Maui Brewing beers – Coconut Porter and Big Swell IPA are back in stock.  We have our first Christmas beers if you can believe it – Delirium Noel and Gouden Carolous Noel.  Although some have already sold out, we still have about 30 new bottles from our San Diego County Fair list including the Mountain Meadows meads.  A lot of the beers on that list though are down to the last two or three bottles, so if there is something you want to try, now is the time to do it.  You can also get 20% off any of the import bottles on our Fair list when purchased to-go.

That is your good beer news for now.  Don’t forget about the San Diego Brewers Guild Festival on November 8th.  And VIP tickets for the San Diego Strong Ale Festival at Pizza Port Carlsbad will be on sale soon.  We’ll see you soon for a great wet hop beer!  Cheers, Tom

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