Ruination, Green Flash and Turkey Day

Hello Beer Fans!

I have a bunch of great new beers at the pub to tell you about including some fantastic new bottles. On tap we have the Stone 2007 Double Bastard (which we also have in the bottle). There is still some of the Hollister beers on tap from Santa Barbara – Hip Hop Double IPA and The Pope IPA. These beers are from brewer Eric Rose, former head brewer at Santa Barbara Brewing Company. Boddingtons is finally back after our distributor flushed out a bad batch of kegs. And we have Moonlight Brewing’s Bombay By Boat IPA. Coming on tap soon will be Sierra Nevada Celebration and Harvest, Green Flash IPA, Pizza Port Carlsbad While the Cat’s Away IPA, Mission Brewery IPA and Helles Lager, Koningshoeven Quadrupel, Gouden Carolous Noel and San Diego Brewing Company Choco-Latte Porter on nitrogen.

We have added a number of new bottles to our special release list (the yellow one, not our regular blue bottle list). We have the new Eisenbahn Lust, which is an excellent Champagne-style beer from Brazil (really). I also restocked the Nogne O Imperial Stout from Norway and we have new bottles from Avery including Kaiser Imperial Octoberfest and The Beast Grand Cru which is 14% alcohol. The Thiriez Extra is back in stock as well and we still have all 5 beers from De Glazen Toren in bottles – Saison D’Erpe Mere, Ondineke Tripel, Jan de Lichte Dubbel Wit, Canaster Winter Scotch Ale and Cuvee Angelique which is a dubbel-style ale. The Drie Fontenein Oude Geuze is now available in 375 ml bottles. And Alaskan Smoked Porter is now available in 22 ounce bottles (and it will be back on tap soon, too). I am sure that there are many more that I am forgetting right now, so be sure to check out the list next time you are at the pub.

As for what we have on tap for you this week, you can look forward to a cask of Stone Ruination IPA that has wet hops added in the cask (Centennial for the curious). We’ll tap it at 5 pm on Thursday the 15th. Friday night we will feature the two Mission Brewery beers I mentioned – IPA and Helles. The Mission Brewery is the pub inside the new Miami Grill restaurant. The brewery is being run as a separate business for the moment under the Mission name. The location has been Hops and On Tap in recent years. These two beers won medals at the Great American Beer Festival – a gold for the Helles and bronze for the IPA under the names El Amigo Lager and El Camino IPA. Needless to say, due to the existing Pizza Port beers using those names, Mission Brewery is changing the names of the beer, but luckily not the recipes. Both beers should be on tap all day Friday for your drinking pleasure. Lindsey will also be cooking up a batch of her famous beer chili for Friday.

Over the weekend, the United States Men’s Soccer team plays South Africa. The game is live at 6 am and we will NOT be open. We’ll be replaying the game at noon and again at 5 pm. It is the USA’s last game of the year. Sunday the 18th, the Chargers play at 10 am and we’ll be open early for the game and have our breakfast burritos availalbe along with our fish and chips and fish tacos. And we offer 10% off all bottles on both Saturday and Sunday and that includes any import bottle purchased to-go (limit one per person). The Green Flash 5th Anniversary Party is also on the 18th from Noon to 4 pm. Visit the brewery’s website at www.greenflashbrew.com for more information.

Next week is a short week due to the Thanksgiving holiday. We will closed on Thursday and Friday, November 22nd and 23rd so that the employees and ourselves can spend time with family and friends. We will be open normal hours Saturday and Sunday, Noon to 11 pm and Noon to 6 pm respectively on the 24th and 25th. The Chargers game is at 1:15 pm on the 25th. We’ll be serving fish and chips and fish tacos on both days as well. On Tuesday the 20th we tap a cask of Green Flash Imperial IPA at 5:30 pm. We’ll roll the cask over to Wednesday night as well at 5 pm, since there will be no Thursday cask.

The week after Thanksgiving brings us the San Diego Strong Ale Festival. It is hard to believe that the festival I started with brewer Tomme Arthur is now in its 11th year and has grown into a two day affair featuring more than 75 beers. We will be doing the VIP session again from 1 to 4 pm on Friday the 30th. There are less than 40 VIP tickets. To buy them, you must go to the Pizza Port website at www.pizzaport.com. The regular fest will run 4 pm to 11 pm on Friday the 30th and 11 am to 11 pm on Saturday the 1st. Tickets are $25 and include a fest glass and 8 taster tickets. Additional tickets are just $1 each. And if you haven’t been yet, check out the Pizza Port bottle shop while you are up there.

So if Strong Ale is on the 30th, that means that the official festival pre-party will be Thursday the 29th at O’Brien’s. I have a nice stash of beers for the evening including casks of Port Carlsbad Hop Suey and Alpine Nelson IPA and draft kegs of Ballast Point Sculpin IPA, Drake’s Denogginizer, Bear Republic Black Rye (Rye Whiskey Barrel Aged
Imperial Stout – sounds awful doesn’t it?), Alpine Barrel Aged Black Forest Captain Stout (barrel aged Captain Stout with raspberries!) and a few other surprises I will let you in on later. Needless to say, we will have an awesome line-up that night and throughout the entire weekend.

Looking ahead a little bit, I can torture you with thoughts of our upcoming Alpine Ultimate Hoppiness Night. What is Ultimate Hoppiness you ask? It is having Alpine Ale, Pure Hoppiness, Nelson, Duet, Bad Boy and Exponential Hoppiness all on tap at the same time for the first time ever, anywhere (not even at the brewery has this happened). Just for good measure, we’ll also have Nelson and Exponential on cask at 5 pm. Alpine brewer Shawn McIllhenney will be celebrating a birthday shortly after the 7th. He is letting us tap the keg of Bad Boy that he had set aside for himself for this evening. So if you see him there, buy him a beer and wish him a happy birthday (he already has a ride home, too).

That wraps it up for now. And anyway I am out of Sierra Harvest (I love the big bottles!). I will not be sending out an email next week so I will wish all of you a very happy Thanksgiving. Over a very hard last 30 days in this town, we have much to be thankful for. I hope that the holiday finds you and your family in good spirits (literally) and health. We’ll see you soon over a pint of great beer.

Cheers, Tom

PS Wild Turkey Rye makes a great baste for that holiday bird (as does any good amber ale!)

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

If you haven’t already make sure you check out O’briens because it is definitely one of the best beer spots in San Diego if not the West Coast.