St. Patrick's Day Celebrations!

Hello Beer Fans!

St. Patrick’s Day is almost upon us and we will be celebrating all weekend with great beer. We will have Irish themed casks on Thursday, a Stout night on Friday, Pliny the Younger on Saturday and a huge party on Monday for the actual St. Patrick’s Day (with no green beer, I swear). We already have our first Irish Stout on tap right now – Murphy’s. It is not as bitter as Guinness, with a little more malt flavor in the finish. We also just tapped a keg of Ballast Point’s excellent coffee Imperial Porter, Victory at Sea.

Also new on tap is Avery Collaboration. It is a deep golden Belgian-style ale that is about 9% alcohol. The recipe is a collaboration with Russian River. Both breweries make a beer named Salvation. One is dark, one is golden. Rather than argue over the name, the two breweries decided to make a beer and name it Collaboration not Litigation that blended the flavors of the two beers.

Tomorrow, Thursday the 13th, we have our first St. Patty’s Pre-Party when we will tap not one but TWO casks from Alpine Beer Company. The first is Captain Stout and the second is McIllhenney’s Irish Red. Both beers are great and we don’t often get them on cask. Both will be tapped at 5 pm. Because there are two casks, I expect both to last through the night. Look for Irish Nachos as an appetizer special and Chimay cheese burgers.

Friday the 14th we have our second St. Patty’s Pre-Party when we feature Stout night. I am not sure exactly how many stouts there will be, but I will put on as many as I can. I know for sure that we will have Murphy’s, Beamish (also Irish), Ballast Point Sextant Oatmeal Stout, Pizza Port San Clemente Oatmeal Stout and two very special Belgian-style stouts: Buffalo Belgian Stout and Allagash Black (from Maine). We have not had either of these beers on tap before, but we have had the Buffalo Stout in the bottle and the Allagash Black is brand new in bottles right now. I also will have a keg of AleSmith Speedway Stout, Alpine Captain Stout and Guinness which will all be tapped if room allows. If not on Friday, look for them on Saturday. The kitchen will have several types of corned beef sandwiches on special all day as well.

Saturday the 15th we have a very special treat as we tap our third keg of Russian River’s epic Pliny the Younger triple IPA at 4:30 pm. Don’t expect it to last until Sunday, because it might not make it. Also, don’t expect us to start serving it before 4:30 pm. The idea is that it will last Saturday night – we hope. Sunday we will be serving Fish and Chips and Fish Tacos – but the Tacos will only be served on Sunday and not Monday because of St. Patrick’s Day.

For St. Patrick’s Day on Monday the 17th we will be serving beer until Midnight – so we will be open much later than usual. We will have Guinness and Harp along with locals like Alpine Irish Red, Alpine Captain Stout, Ballast Point Sextant Stout and others all on tap. We will be serving up half and halfs and Poor Man’s Black and Tan (Stout and Cider) and Black and Tan’s (made with Alpine Irish Red not the English made Bass as is commonly seen). We will also have two Alpine casks for Monday. Again there will be Irish Red and Captain Stout both on tap at 5 pm. The kitchen will serving up Corned Beef and Cabbage, Guinness Stew, Fish and Chips, Corned Beef sandwiches and lots of other specials including the Cambazola Filet Mignon Meltall day long. The kitchen will be open until at least 10 pm and maybe later depending on how busy we are. The pub is always a lot of fun on St. Patrick’s Day, even if it is on a Monday.

Our new merchandise just came in. We have several new girls T’s and hats and some new guy’s T’s including a new slogan – “Fine beer may be judged with a single sip, but it is best to be thoroughly sure – Czech Proverb” and some cool new canvas shopping bags. We also restocked our annual “I (Shamrock) Hops” for St. Patty’s in Men’s and Women’s styles.

Later on next week, look for a keg of Ballast Point Calico Amber on Thursday the 20th. Later in the month, the Pizza Port Belgian Beer Party will be on Saturday, March 29th in two sessions from 10 am to 4 pm and 5 pm to 11 pm. Limited pre-sale tickets are available now at the Pizza Port website – www.pizzaport.com. And expect a lot of great beer during the industry-only Craft Brewers Conference the week of April 14th including the launch of a little brewery from Delaware.

That should do it for now. Hope to see you soon for a bit of St. Patrick’s revelry!

Cheers,

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