American Craft Beer Week – O’Brien’s Pub San Diego

Although we celebrate great craft beer every day of the year, May 17-23, 2010 is officially American Craft Beer Week.  To commemorate the week, we will be serving up some of the best craft beers around.  We will be tapping something new each night from a great American (in most cases San Diegan) brewery.  Here is the line up of events we have planned:

Monday, 5/17 – Russian River Night with Blind Pig IPA, Russain River IPA and Pliny the Elder all on tap at the same time.  We also have bottles of Consecration, Supplication and Temptation and even a 3 liter of Consecration.

Tuesaday, 5/18 – Sierra Nevada Night – We will have Southern Hemisphere Harvest (made with fresh New Zealand hops), Bigfoot, Pale, the Big P (1/2 Pale, 1/2 Bigfoot) and Dark Forces Imperial Porter which was made with the brewers from Pizza Port.

Wednesday, 5/19 – Coronado Idiot IPA is back on tap

Thursday, 5/20 – Cask of AleSmith Nut Brown at 5 pm and all local beers on special

Friday, 5/21 – Green Flash Night with Palate Wrecker, Coffee Stout, American ESB and West Coast IPA

Saturday, 5/22 – Alpine Night with Bad Boy, Duet IPA, O’Brien’s IPA and Pure Hoppiness

Sunday, 5/23 – enjoy what is left from a week’s worth of great beer.

You can find even more events at www.americancraftbeerweek.org and while there you can also find the Declaration of Beer Independence.  So join us in raising a glass (or three) to the great craft beer we produce here in America.

Our Alaskan night on the 21st has been pushed back until June 4th to accommodate our ACBW celebrations.  We will still host a Lagunitas night on Friday, May 28th with Gnarleywine and IPA for sure.

New Bottles

We have a bunch of new bottles in at the pub including Allagash Hugh Malone (Belgian-IPA), Allagash Victor (Golden Ale with red grapes), Het Anker Lucifer (from the makers of Gouden Carolous), Gouden Carolous Classic, Nogne Tiger Tripel (from Norway), Mikkeller 1000 IBUs (Danish Double IPA – not really 1000 IBUs but very hoppy) and two of the Danish meads are back in stock – Viking Blod and Klapojster (made with caraway seed).  New on tap we have the Flying Dog Coffee Stout.

This coming Saturday, May 22nd, we will be opening early at 11 am for the UEFA Champions League Final between Bayern Munich and Inter Milan.  Both teams have already won their domestic leagues and domestic cup competitions making this a true clash of champions.  For those unfamiliar with the competition, it is the most prestigious club competition in Europe and the final is watched by more people than the superbowl (although there are no good ads like the superbowl).  I am expecting a full house for the game, so if you want to miss the crowds, just show up after 2 pm.  There will be no darts during the game.

Real Ale Festival

The San Diego Real Ale Festival is happening June 4th and 5th at Pizza Port Carlsbad.  Tickets for the VIP session from 1-4 pm on Friday the 3rd are on sale now at www.ticketderby.com – just search “real ale”.  VIP tickets are $40 and are only available on-line.  The regular festival will run from 4 pm – 11 pm on Friday and 11 am to 11 pm on Saturday.  Tickets will be available at the door and will cost $30 each and include 8 taster tickets and a festival glass.  Additional tastes will be just $1 each.  More than 45 cask conditioned beers are expected at the festival each served out through an authentic British beer engine.

Looking Ahead

We will be CLOSED Monday, May 31st for Memorial Day.  We will be open normal hours on Sunday the 30th from Noon to 6 pm for your beer drinking pleasure and resume normal hours on Tuesday the 1st of June.  Thursday, June 3rd we will host a pre-party for the Real Ale festival featuring a cask of Alpine Bad Boy at 5 pm and another cask, yet to be determined.

The World Cup starts Friday, June 11th.  We will be taping every single game during the tournament.  We will be opening up early for all of the USA matches.  On Saturday, June 12th we will open at 9:30 am for the 11:30 am USA v. England game.  Friday, June 18th we will open at 6:30 am for the 7 am USA v. Slovenia game and Wednesday, June 23rd we will again open at 6:30 am for the Algeria game.  We will be serving breakfast all three games as well, though just 9:30 am – 10:30 am for the England game.  All of the USA games will be replayed at lunch and again after work around 6 pm or so.  If you would like to join our U.S. Soccer supporters group, the American Outlaws, just sign up at www.theamericanoutlaws.com.

The USA will also have warm-up matches against the Czech Republic at 5 pm on Tuesday, May 25th and Turkey at 11 am on Saturday, May 29th (pub open at 10:30 am). If you have a group that would like to watch other early games, please email me and let me know and we will do our best to accommodate you.  For all of the latest soccer info from the pub, you can sign up for our soccer email newsletter – just reply to this email and tell me that you want to be on the list.

Look for a short San Diego Beer Weekend June 11th and 12th.  We will be hosting an Alpine night that will include the release of the brewery’s newest beer, Red Card Ale.  It was an idea that Shawn McIlhenney and I came up with to make a beer for the World Cup.  It is going to be a hoppy, deep red ale that should come in at just over 6% alcohol.  We’ll have a cask of it sometime around mid-late June as well as having it on tap during all four weeks of the World Cup.

New Face

You may have noticed a new face behind the bar over the last week.  It is Tyson Blake, our new manager.  Tyson worked for a long time at San Diego Brewing Company before coming to O’Brien’s.  He knows his beer and he is a great guy.  Starting this week, he will be full time with us.  So please make him feel welcome at the pub when you see him.  Among his many duties, Tyson will be in charge of updating our Facebook page and keeping the online tap list up to date.  If you want to follow Tyson’s updates on Facebook, just search O’Brien’s Pub or find us at: http://www.facebook.com/pages/San-Diego-CA/OBriens-Pub/56730476319?ref=mf.

Those are your beer updates for now.  We’ll see you soon for a great American-made craft beer.  Cheers, Tom