Gender: Male
Status: Single
Age: 100
Sign: Capricorn
City: SAN DIEGO
State: California
Country: US
Signup Date: 9/17/2008
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Friday, March 13, 2009
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Current mood:  rockin
Friday the 13th we have a very rare treat from Brew Dog in Scotland - draft Punk IPA. We had the lads from Brew Dog by the pub when they launched their bottles in San Diego a while back. Now they are trying out draft kegs. The beer comes in a special recyclable plastic keg. There were only a few kegs sent over on this test run and we were lucky enough to get one. It is only an 8 gallon keg, so while it should last the night, it may not last much longer. For Belgian-style beer fans, we will also tap a keg of the Allgash Four, which is a quadruple using four malts, four hops and four yeast strains. And look for Humberto’s incredible Torta sandwiches on Friday all day.St. Patrick’s DayNext week we have St. Patrick’s day on Tuesday the 17th. We will have an amazing line up of food including Lindsey’s wonderful Corned Beef and Cabbage, Guinness Stew, Bacon and Guinness Beer Cheese Burger, Corned Beef Sandwiches, Ruebens and Irish Nachos. There will also be lots of great beer - and as you might expect - lots of great stouts. We will have Guinness along with Ballast Point Sextant Stout, Alpine Captain Stout and we will rotate through Muprhy’s Stout, Beamish Stout and Pizza Port Seaside Stout starting this weekend. And as an added bonus, we will have a full size cask of Alpine Boris Imperial Stout at 5 pm. St. Patrick’s Day is always a fun party at the pub. Stop by and catch your case of the Irish Flu for Wednesday!Thursday the 19th (see I skipped Wednesday, since it won’t really exist for most of us anyway) we have two local cask beers - Coronado Red Devil, a double Red and AleSmith ESB brewed with a special English yeast strain that was used for the upcoming Decadence release. Both casks will be on tap at 5 pm and all of our local beers will be on special.Russian River night is back on Friday the 20th. We will have 10 beers on tap and a few more in the bottle. We will have our 3 regular RRBC beers - Pliny the Elder, Blind Pig and IPA along with 6 TION beers including two barrel aged beers. Check the pub for a complete list of draft and bottled beers that will be available. We will also have some Russian River pint glasses for sale. This will be a great night of Russian River beers and all but one of the beers will be in a full size 15.5 gallon keg (last time, nearly everything was in a five gallon keg). So I expect every single beer to still be on tap for Saturday the 21st and most to still be on tap for Sunday the 22nd. So if you can’t make it by on Friday, stop by over the weekend for some great RRBC beer.Coming SoonLooking further ahead, we have some great events planned. On Thursday the 26th, we have a cask of Alpine Nelson Rye IPA. I have a very special, and at the moment secret promo planned for April 1st. Wednesday the 8th we are hosting Pizza night with Vince Marsaglia from Pizza Port and we will feature some very rare draft Italian craft beers. And our next round of Beer and Cheese Tastings with Taste Artisan Cheese and Gourmet shop in Hillcrest will be Wednesday, April 22nd and Sunday, April 26th. I will have more details in the next email. For now, you can sign up for the class at the pub (cash only please) or at Taste (find their link on our website). Cost is $40 and we will have about 7 beer and cheese pairings.The Belgian Beer Party at Pizza Port Carlsbad is Saturday, March 28th in two sessions. Both sessions will feature the exact same line ups of beer. More than 100 Belgian and Belgian-style beers will be available for sampling. The first session from 10 am to 4 pm is more than 50% sold out. The second session from 5 pm to 11 pm still has a good number of tickets left. Pre-Sale tickets are available for $40 at the Pizza Port website - www.pizzaport.com. Tickets will be $45 at the door, so you can save a few bucks and gaurantee yourself getting in by purchasing in advance. There will be 3 liter bottles opened every hour and the Pizza Port bottle shop will have glassware and full bottles for sale. Look for a pre-party on Friday the 27th at Pizza Port Carlsbad with 10-20 Belgian beers on tap at the pub.I always like to support folks who support the pub. And though no one really enjoys going to the Dentist, let me recommmend Dr. Craig Kubina. Craig is a beer enthusiast and he and his wife Rachel just started homebrewing. If anyone can make going to the dentist more enjoyable, it is Craig and his friendly staff. His office is in La Mesa just across from Grossmont Center, near another excellent doctor - Periodontist Dr. Harold Gulbranson. Harold is a long time homebrewer and pub patron and past president of the QUAFF homebrew club. Both doctors are highly recommended and do excellent work. Craig’s office number is 619-466-3271. Why not go to a dentist that likes good beer?
That is your good beer news for now. We’ll see you soon for a great stout beer. Cheers, Tom
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Wednesday, March 04, 2009
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Current mood:  breezy
Hello Beer Fans, Just a short web update this week. We just got our new merchandise in today and we have some new women’s shirts and tank tops with new slogans including “Well behaved women rarely make history” and our Czech Proverb saying. We have new Men’s T Shirts, work shirts and zip hoodies. We have a new men’s slogan as well - “IBUs we can believe in” which come in a great new stone blue color. Check for the new merch above the bar on your next trip into the pub. We have some fantastic new beers on tap right now including: Ballast Point Sextant Oatmeal Stout on the nitrogen tap so it is extra creamy, Kern River IPA, Anderson Valley Double IPA and Rodenbach Grand Cru, Steenbrugge Dubbel and Palm Speciale are still on tap from our Friday night promo. We also still have some of the great Palm and Steenbrugge glassware for sale - just $3 a glass. And we have some great looking Deschutes pints for sale as well. Look for some more Russian River beers on tap on Friday - see below for more info. Thursday the 5th we tap the first of our two Sierra Nevada casks. We don’t get many, so this is a special treat. The first will be Chico IPA, a double IPA, tapped on Thursday, March 5th at 5 pm. The second is an Imperial Smoked Porter that I can not wait to try on Thursday, March 12th. I also have a 5 gallon cask of Green Flash Imperial IPA coming that I am going to try and tap for the 5th if it shows up in time. If not, look for it on the 12th. We will also have a Sierra Nevada beer cheese on the 12th. And speaking of Beer Cheese, Lindsey has the Guinness, Bacon and Green Onion and the Guinness and Chipotle beer cheese this week. It is a really incredible blend and the flavor of the beer is detecable. Look for Beer Cheese Plates as well as To Go Tubs. There will be plenty of Guinness and Cheddar Beer Cheese for St. Patrick’s Day. Check the board next to the tap list for all of the current flavors available to go and the food specials board for the Beer Cheese Plate. We will have a small Russian River day/night on Friday, March 6th. We will have 6 beers on tap and 6 more in the bottle. We will have Benediction, Happy Hops, Pliny the Elder, Blind Pig IPA and Russian River IPA on tap all day long - they are all full size kegs and none will blow before we close. There will also be a keg of Pliny the Younger tapped at 11 am during lunch, so bring your drinking shoes. We will have six more beers in the bottle including Consecration, Damnation, Batch 23 Damnation, Temptation, Batch #2 Supplication and Beatification along with 3 liter bottles of Damnation. Our next Russian River event will likely be Friday, March 20th - check the email and pub for details. New beers that you can look forward to over the coming weeks include: Hollister Bowling and Beyond double IPA, Alpine Nelson Rye IPA, Karl Strauss 20th Anniversary bourbon barrel Tripel, Deschutes Inversion IPA and Hop Henge, Lagunitas Hop Stoopid. In other beer news, Alpine Beer Company has finally received their new ABC license. This will allow them to finally start brewing into their new tanks and produce more Pure Hoppiness! Hopefully we will see more of their great specialty beer on tap at the pub in a month or so. BELGIAN BEER PARTYTickets for the Pizza Port Belgian Beer Party on sale now at the Pizza Port website - www.pizzaport.com. The festival is Saturday, March 28th at Pizza Port Carlsbad in TWO 6 hour sessions - 10 am to 4 pm and 5 pm to 11 pm. There will be more than 100 Belgian and Belgian-style beers available. Admision is $40 and includes a Belgian beer glass and 8 taster tickets. Additional four ounce tastes are just $1 each. This is one of the best collections of Belgian beer in the country. If the tickets sell out via the pre-sale, there will not be tickets available at the door. So if you want to go, buy your tickets now. The first session is 50% sold out already. Look for a pre-party at Pizza Port Carlsbad on Friday, March 27th featuring 10-20 draft Belgian beers. That is your good beer news for now. We’ll see you soon for a great beer. Cheers, Tom
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Thursday, February 12, 2009
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Current mood:  curious
Hello Good Beer Fans!
There has been a lot media attention on O’Brien’s this week. Draft magazine recently ranked us as the best beer bar in San Diego and several local TV stations have picked up the story - you might have seen our taps, or even one of our bartenders on Channel 5, 6 or 7 in the last week. Other local pubs that were honored include: Hamilton’s, Ritual Tavern and the Neighborhood. It is always nice to be recognized with an award. But really, it is all about the beer. We are not showy, we are not fancy and we don’t want to be. We serve good and we intend to keep serving the best beer we can to you, our wonderful customers. I think these awards are also an excellent reflection of our staff. Without them, we would not win these accolades. Good beer in an unpleassant environment, is still unpleasant. So a very heartfelt thanks to our bartenders: Micaela, Michele, Coral, Kat and Tiff and to our ktichen staff that cranks out all of that wonderful food: Humberto, Cesar, Jose, Said and Luis.
There has been a lot of turnover on the taps this week and we are fully geared up for our AleSmith night tomorrow. On tap right now we have fresh kegs of Sierra Nevada Bigfoot (which means we have the Big P - 1/2 Pale and 1/2 Bigfoot), Alaskan Smoked Porter, Stone Double Bastard, Alpine Pure Hoppines and AleSmith My Bloody Valentine. We also have plenty of new bottles on our list including New Belgium Dark Kriek - a cherry beer from the very limited Lips of Faith program, Russian River Consecration, De Dolle Still Nacht, Lindeman’s Cuvee Rene, Boulevard Quadruple, Hair of the Dog Fred and 3 liter bottles of Russian River Damnation. The very popular Dansk Viking Blod mead is back in stock as well.
Tonight, Thursday the 12th, we will tap a cask of AleSmith My Bloody Valentine at 5 pm. And tomorrow, Friday the 13th is our AleSmith Draft night with 6 beers on tap - My Bloody Valentine, Nautical Nut Brown, Horny Devil, IPA, Speedway Stout and Winter YuleSmith! The guys from AleSmith will be stopping by throughout the evening as well. It will be a great night of local beer and a great way to spend Friday the 13th!
Over the weekend we will be open normal hours, even on President’s Day. Saturday the 14th is likely to be a little slow due to Valentine’s day, so if you want to come by when the pub is not crowded, stop by Saturday night and hang out with Micaela. Sunday we will be open from Noon to 6 pm and Monday the 15th we will be open from 11 am to 10:30 pm. We will have our regular pitcher specials on Monday night and Fish and Chips and Fish Tacos both Sunday and Monday.
Lindsey now has her delicious beer cheese available To-Go. She is selling packed 8 ounce tubs and there is a board posted right by the draft list with what flavors are available. I know we have some of her 5 Cheese Italian Blend with Affligem Blond and Guinness and Cheddar and just created last night - the Alaskan Smoked Porter with Bacon and Green Onion. The bacon beer meets bacon beer cheese. Look for some great specialty burgers as well on the specials board with the beer cheese such as the Italian Burger on grilled sourdough with spinach and proscuito.
Next week we will have a keg of Ballast Point’s delicious Victory at Sea on tap Wednesday night at 5:30 pm. Thursday the 19th we have a double whammy of Alpiine casks - Duet and Boris Imperial Stout. The stout is just a 5 gallon cask, but the beer is over 10%, so it should be around for a while. Friday the 20th we will feature some beers from Full Sail Brewing Company.
Looking further ahead, we will host a Palm Brewing night on the 27th with several Belgian beers on tap. I am planning another Russian River night with not quite as many beers, and hopefully not quite as many people. More the beers will be in full kegs this time instead of 5 gallon kegs. And Lindsey’s birthday is coming up on March 6th and what she wanted for her birthday was a keg of Pliny the Younger. So our next keg of the Younger will be on tap at 11 am on Friday, March 6th. Yep, lunchtime Younger. It is evil, but that is just the way life is sometimes.
That is your good beer news for now. We’ll see you soon for a great AleSmith beer! Cheers, Tom
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Wednesday, January 14, 2009
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Current mood: breezy
Hello Beer Fans! Our 15th Anniversary celebrations are in full swing. We have already tapped more than 40 different beers this month and there are many more to come. Several of the delicious Green Flash beers from Friday are still on tap and the first of the Lost Abbey beers have already been tapped. A special thanks to head brewer Chuck Silva and the entire Green Flash crew for a fantastic Friday night last week. Also new on tap right now are Pizza Port San Clemente's Warrior Black IPA and the Karl Strauss Imperial Malt Ball Stout. The stout uses malted milk powder that is used to make malt ball centers in the beer - the equivalent of 5000 malt balls worth. This WeekThe celebrations start anew tonight, Wednesday the 14th, with a cask of Alpine Nelson Rye-IPA. This unique IPA uses New Zealand hops which have a very different aroma from the normal varieities. The fruity characteristic is more tropical, like that of a Sauvignon Blanc. This is always a great and very popular beer on cask. We will tap it at 5:30 pm. Look for our new beer cheese appetizer plate coming out of the kitchen tonight as well. Thursday the 15th our cask madness continues with two casks - Port Brewing Hop 15 double IPA and Lost Abbey Serpent Stout. Both casks will be tapped at 5 pm and given the strong nature of both beers I expect them to be around for most of the evening. As always, all of our local beers will be on special on Thursday and we should have a good line up of beers on tap in advance of the Friday night draft party with Lost Abbey. Friday the 16th is the big Lost Abbey draft party with more than 10 beers from head brewer Tomme Arthur on tap and several more in the bottle. From the Port side we will have Hop 15, Wipeout IPA, High Tide IPA and Midnight Black Lager (made from the second runnings of the Serpent Stout). From the Lost Abbey side we will have Devotion, Judgment Day, Red Barn Saison, Angel's Share Barleywine, Gift of the Magi and a very special O'Brien's-only double cherry blend of Red Poppy Ale all on tap. There might even be a few more surprises on tap as well. In the bottle, we will have Lost Abbey Inferno, Isabella Proximus, Cuvee de Tomme and Ne Goien Saison (brewed with Hildegard from Urthel). All of the beers will be on tap at 5 pm - most will be on well before that. If you can't make it by on Friday, we will still have plenty of great beers on tap for Saturday the 17th. New in bottles over the weekend will be the Boon Marriage Parfait Geuze. It is a great sour beer, and definitely my favorite of the Boon beers. The Charger-less playoffs will be on Sunday the 18th with the NFC game between Arizona and Philadelphia on at Noon and the AFC game at 3:30 pm between the Steelers and the Ravens. I honestly couldn't care less about who makes it to the superbowl betweeen those four teams. Hopefully the games will at least be interesting to watch. Next Week and BeyondNext week will start off with the Alpine O'Brien's IPA on tap on Monday the 19th. Some of you will get the day off, but we will be open normal hours and have our great pitcher specials all night. Wednesday the 21st we have a very rare cask of Ballast Point Sculpin IPA at 5:30 pm. Thursday the 22nd we again have two casks - Pizza Port Carlsbad Poor Man's IPA and Alpine Nelson Rye-IPA. Friday the 23rd is our Pizza Port draft night and while we have not set the full line-up yet, I am expecting Reeds Scotch Ale, Great American Brown, Wipeout IPA and Poor Man's IPA to all be on tap. The following week we will have an O'Brien's IPA cask on the 28th and Russian River casks on the 29th. Friday the 30th is the big Russian River TION night with at least 15 Russian River beers on tap including Pliny the Younger. There will be lots of special bottles as well that night. We'll be open for the superbowl on Sunday the 1st. I am planning a tasting of rare and vintage beers from Stone Brewing for Sunday, February 8th at 6:30 pm at the pub. Cost will be $25 and will include some light snacks paired with the beer from Lindsey. I have lots of different bottles from which to choose so I have not set the tasting list yet, but I will have more details in next week's email. I will have a sign up sheet at the pub as of tonight, the 14th. European Pub Crawl
I almost forgot! There’s another O’Brien’s Anniversary to celebrate! 2009 is O’Brien’s 5th annual Great Belgian Beer Tour hosted by our friend Bill Snider of Ciao! Travel. To celebrate O’Brien’s is offering a free hotel upgrade in London . If you BOOK THIS WEEK YOU’LL GET A FREE LONDON HOTEL UPGRADE FROM 1ST CLASS TO SUPERIOR 1ST Class on GBBT 2a – London & Belgium or GBBT 3 – London , Belgium & Paris.
With the Dollar strengthening against the Pound and Euro, airfare bargains and European hotels lowering their prices, The 2009 GBBT prices haven’t been this low since 2006. Pick up a copy of the GBBT brochure at O’Brien’s and you’ll save $200 off regular web prices with the O’Brien’s server coupon. With the free hotel upgrade that’s $300 off!
If you haven’t read the incredible 2009 Great Belgian Beer Tour itineraries go to www.ciaotravel.com and click on O’BRIEN’S in the left hand column. Don’t miss out having fun with Belgian Ale with your pals from O’Brien’s. Hurry! There are only 12 spaces left!
That about covers it for now. 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
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Monday, December 29, 2008
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Current mood:  ecstatic
The pub will be open normal hours on Monday and Tuesday, December 29th and 30th. Tuesday, December 30th will be our annual New Year's Eve-Eve party. It is another night of great cheer and lots of champagne (roederer estate sparkling wine to be precise) and cham-Pliny cocktails (champagne and Pliny - very good, just ask Kat) and Malheur Brut and Dark Brut and Deus! It is a great place to ring in the new year a little early, without having to worry about all of the real drunks that will be out on the road on the 31st. So help us raid Lindsey's Champagne supply and toast farewell to 2008 and a welcome to 2009.
THE PUB WILL BE CLOSED WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 31ST AND THURSDAY, JANUARY 1ST!
Coming in 2009!
So I am not going to detail all of January's 15th Anniversary events, since I haven't made up all of the details yet. I can tell you that we will be tapping special beers and special casks throughout the month and releasing special bottles. We will start off with a bang on Friday, January 2nd - our first day open in the new year. I am putting some very special beers on tap for our employee party and we will have all of the beers on tap on Friday the 2nd. The line-up will include - Alpine Bad Boy, Ballast Point Sculipin IPA, Pizza Port Solana Beach Swami's IPA and Deschutes Abyss among others. I will probably find room to tap a few more special beers, but suffice it to say that we will have an incredible tap line up from the very first day of the year.
The main promos for the month focus on Thursday/Friday, cask/tap combinations. Each Thursday we will be featuring some fantastic cask beers and each Friday we will feature a huge line-up of beers from that brewery on tap. Here is the line-up of our great brewery events:
Jan. 8/9 - Green Flash (West Coast IPA cask)
Jan. 15/16 - Pizza Port Carlsbad (Poor Man's IPA cask)
Jan. 22/23 - Port Brewing and Lost Abbey (Hop 15 cask and a special barrel blend just for O'Brien's!)
Jan. 29/30 - Russian River - Southern California's first TION night with a dozen of Vinnie's Belgian-style beers on tap!
For each brewery night, I expect to have at least 10 beers on tap. Each brewer is pulling out some great beers and some will only be in five gallon kegs. I will be going up to Lost Abbey in January to blend the beer with Tomme for our Anniversary. I have no idea yet what it will be or how much we will get. For the Russian River TION night I expect to have nearly 20 Russian River beers on tap and Vinnie Cilurzo himself will be there. All of Russian River's Belgian-style beers end with TION, like Damnation, Supplication, etc.., hence the TION night. We will also have some special library/reserve bottles for sale inlcuding 3 liter bottles of Damnation. I will have a complete calendar of events along with some expected beers in the first email of 2009. All I can say is that every Friday in January at O'Brien's will be an unforgettable night of beer (unless you drink too much and then it will be all too forgettable). And expect the kitchen to be kicking out some amazing food to go with all that great beer.
And as if the beer gods smiled upon us for our 15th Anniversary, Beer Advocate magazine just named O'Brien's the 15th best beer bar on the planet!
Cheers!!!
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Hot Rats
By Frank Zappa
Release date: 1995-05-02 |
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Tuesday, December 09, 2008
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Current mood: breezy
We will have the pleasure of hosting Tonya Cornett from Bend Brewing in Oregon. Tonya was named the Small Brewing Company Brewmaster of the Year at the 2008 World Beer Cup Awards in San Diego earlier this year. She will be at the pub along with four of her fantastic beers - Hop Head Imperial IPA (just won a GABF bronze medal), Scarlett Imperial Red, Dopplebock and Elk Lake IPA. This is a very rare chance to taste these award winning beers from Bend. It is also the first time that we have hosted an event with an American female head brewer. Tonya will be at the pub around 5 - 8 pm to answer questions and talk about her great beers. Please stop by and say hi and enjoy a new beer. For more info on the brewery, visit: www.bendbrewing.com.
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The Dethalbum
By Dethklok
Release date: 2007-09-25 |
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Wednesday, November 19, 2008
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Current mood: breezy
Our cask for Thursday the 20th will be Lightning's Black Lightning Porter. This beer was the clear standout at the Lightning Anniversary party and I can't wait to try it again at the pub. Friday the 21st I have a night of local specialty beers lined up. I have three great local beers to tap - Ballast Point Barrel Aged Piper Down Scottish Ale, Coronado Coffee Stout and Karl Strauss Double IPA. We will also have the Stone Double Bastard on tap.
Sunday the 23rd we will be staying open late for the Chargers vs. Colts game which has a 5:15 pm kickoff. We will stay open until the end of the game and the kitchen will be open until half-time.
We will be tapping a cask of Alpine Pure Hoppiness on Tuesday and Wednesday, the 25th and 26th since there will be on Thursday cask. We will be open late on Wednesday the 26th until Midnight. We will be closed Thursday and Friday, November 27th and 28th for the Thanksgiving holiday so that we and our employees may spend it with family. We will be open normal hours Saturday and Sunday, the 29th and 30th - Noon to Midnight on Saturday and Noon to 6 pm on Sunday (Chargers play at 1:05 pm that day). The UEFA Champions League will also pick back up on the 25th and 26th with live games at 11:30 am.
New Bottles
New bottles out for sale include Scaldis Noel, N'ice Chouffe 2007, St. Feuillien Cuvee de Noel, Scaldis Presitge and Saison Dupont. We also have the new Dupont Avril Table Beer. It is thoroughly delicious and only 3.5% alcohol. Probably the best sub-4% alcohol beer on the planet. Delirium Noel and Gouden Carolous Noel are also available in bottles right now. Speedway Stout from AleSmith is currently out of stock from the brewery, but we will have it back soon. Try the Riptide Stout from brew Dog in Scotland.
The incredible Danish meads from Dansk are back in stock on. We have the Klapojster (with caraway seeds), GI Dansk (with hops and ginger) and a new one called Old Danish Braggot. It is a braggot, which is made from half malt, half honey so it is a beer/mead hybrid. It has plenty of beer flavor and plenty of honey notes without finishing too sweet.
We also now have 6 liter bottles of St. Bernardus Abt 12. Yes, you read that correctly - SIX liters. For those unable to imagine just how big that is, it is 1.6 gallons! The bottle comes in a beautiful wood box – these bottles are very limited.
Looking Ahead
The 12th San Diego Strong Ale Festival at Pizza Port Carlsbad is coming up on December 5th and 6th. The festival will feature 75 beers all over 8% to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the repeal of Prohibition on December 5th, 1933. VIP tickets are on sale at Pizza Port's website - www.pizzzaport.com. The tickets are more than 75% sold, so if you want to go to the VIP session from 1-4 pm on Friday the 5th, buy your tickets soon. There will be at least 20 extra beers on tap just for the VIP session from all over the country.
And of course, we will have our annual Strong Ale Fest Pre-Party at the pub on Thursday the 4th. I already have some great beers lined up and more are on the way. We will have a cask of Ballast Point 3 Sheets Barleywine for sure and probably a second cask as well. On tap you can look for Stone 11th Anniversary black IPA among other great specialty beers – I will have more news the week of in the email.
No email next week – enjoy the holiday. We'll see you soon for a great winter beer. Cheers, Tom
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Opiate
By Tool
Release date: 1992-03-10 |
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Thursday, November 06, 2008
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Current mood:  crunk
Today, Wednesday, November 5th we have a very special celebration - 25 years of Chimay in the United States. We will have Chimay on tap and all three Chimay beers in the bottle - White Cap, Red Cap and the Grand Reserve along with magnums and 3 liters of the Grand Reserve. There will also be specially engraved 25th Anniversary Chimay glasses for sale. The kitchen will have Chimay cheeseburgers and Chimay cheese plates featuring three different Chimay cheeses. The celebration starts at 6 pm and goes until closing. Our Chimay representative for California, Jay Baum, will be on hand to answer questions, share beer and talk soccer. Chimay is one of the most recognizable Belgian beers and this is a great milestone. Chimay was a forerunner of the good beer movement in this country. O'Brien's is proud to host the 25th Anniversary party for Chimay in San Diego.
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Sunday, November 02, 2008
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Current mood: exotic
Category: Parties and Nightlife
Halloween was a blast! There were some great costumes and some great beer, most of which is still pouring. We have the MOONLIGHT - Boney Fingers, which is a black lager, CRAFTSMAN - Edgars Ale, a dark strong barrel aged beer, ALESMITH - Evil Dead Red, and ALPINE - Ichabod. This is a pumpkin beer that style changes every year. Last years award winning sour pumpkin was awesome and this years is just as good. It is a Pumpkin Dunkel Weiss!! What is even crazier...It's on NITRO!! We also had it on cask and what little is left I will be pouring tonight. We will also have our regular 10% off all bottles special. Sunday we will be open normal hours, Noon to 6 pm, since there is no Charger game (hey, at least they can't lose this week). For those who signed up for our Lost Abbey tasting, it will be at 6:30 pm on the 2nd. Monday, November 3rd, we get the Steelers at the Redskins for Monday Night Football and we'll have our great $9 pitcher special going all night long. The paper may tell you the economy is in the toilet, but with gas under $2.85 and pitchers of Russian River IPA for $9, it can't be all that bad. For soccer fans, the Champions League will be on Tuesday and Wednesday, November 4th and 5th at 11:30 am both days.
NEXT WEEK - 11/3
Next Tuesday is election night. And you have to allow me to get on my soapbox for a minute. Voting is important. It doesn't matter who you vote for, it matters that you participate. The only way we can hope to get this city, state and country of ours in the direction we want it to go, is to vote on election day for the issues we believe in. I don't care who you vote for, but I will offer to bribe you to vote. Just bring in your I Voted sticker and you will get your first craft or local beer for just $2. You might as well wake up with a hangover on Wednesday, because no matter what happens, your head will probably hurt as soon as you read the paper or watch the news in the morning. At least we won't get any more of those damned election mailers.
Now, back to the beer. On Wednesday, November 5th we have a very special celebration - 25 years of Chimay in the United States. We will have Chimay on tap and all three Chimay beers in the bottle - White Cap, Red Cap and the Grand Reserve along with magnums and 3 liters of the Grand Reserve. There will also be specially engraved 25th Anniversary Chimay glasses for sale. The kitchen will have Chimay cheeseburgers and Chimay cheese plates featuring three different Chimay cheeses. The celebration starts at 6 pm and goes until closing. Our Chimay representative for California, Jay Baum, will be on hand to answer questions, share beer and talk soccer. Chimay is one of the most recognizable Belgian beers and this is a great milestone. Chimay was a forerunner of the good beer movement in this country. O'Brien's is proud to host the 25th Anniversary party for Chimay in San Diego.
On Thursday, November 6th we will have a cask of the aptly named Green Flash Palate Wrecker double IPA at 5 pm. Friday the 7th we will feature the beers of Airdale Brewing Company, a new San Diego based outfit. The guys are making their beer at Bayhawk in Orange County, but unlike other contract brewing company's, they have a head brewer and their own recipes. David Lusk, formerly the brewer at Backstreet Vista, is the head brewer for Airdale and he goes to Orange County to make the beer. The company does have plans to open a brewery in San Diego in the future. We will have a Pale Ale, Hefeweizen and Porter from Airdale. So be sure to check out these newest beers in San Diego. Sunday the 9th, the Chargers and new defensive coordinator Ron Rivera face Kansas City at 1:15 pm.
FESTIVAL NEWS
Saturday the 8th is the annual San Diego Brewers Guild Festival. This is always one of the best beer events of the year. It features beer from every single San Diego brewery and only San Diego breweries - though there will be San Diego county wines. Most of the breweries bring out great specialty beers that aren't regularly available. There will also be some food pairing with the beer from pub members of the Guild and live music. The festival is at the World Beat Center in Balboa Park - it is the funky looking round building you pass before getting on the freeway. It will run from 7-11 pm with a special VIP session from 5-7 that will feature a line up of VIP only beers. Tickets are cheaper if you buy them in advance, which you can do through the Guild website at www.sandiegobrewersguild.org.
And while I am on festivals, the Green Flash Anniversary Party is coming up on November 15th. It will be at the brewery in Vista from 12 - 4 pm. For complete details visit http://greenflashbrew.com/2008celebration.html. If you are looking for a safe way to get up to Vista, consider Brewer Tours of San Diego. They are driving folks round trip for $20 and will pick you up at O'Brien's at 11:30 am. For more info visit: http://brewerytoursofsandiego.com/ridegreenflash.html. And VIP tickets for the San Diego Strong Ale Festival are sale now through www.pizzaport.com. This session always sells out, so don't delay in buying your tickets.
That is your good beer news for now. We'll see you soon for a great beer. Cheers,
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Tuesday, October 28, 2008
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Current mood: fabulous
Hello Beer Fans!
The Wet Hop Festival was a great success! We had 24 beers total over the weekend and there were some truly great wet hopped ales. More of the Northern California beers showed up in full size kegs than I expected so we still have a lot of the wet hop beers on tap including some of the standouts like Lagunitas wet hop IPA, Bear Republic Grandma's Homegrown, Butte Creek Initial Attack IPA, Black Diamond Rye IPA and Pizza Port Carlsbad Plant to Pint. We also have a Blind Pig, Pliny the Elder and Yellowtail on tap and the tap list should be back to normal by Wednesday with Racer 5, Russian River IPA and Pure Hoppiness. So if you missed this weekend, be sure to stop by soon to taste some of these great, once a year harvest ales. I have updated the tap list as of Monday morning.
I have to give a big thanks to two folks, without whom this weekend could have been a total disaster - Josh Miner from Drakes Brewing and our own resident handy man Fix It Paul. Josh was helping to organize the Northern California beers and ship them down here. The shipping company though didn't do its job and the beer never left. So Josh piled the beer in a van and drove down from San Leandro on Friday with about 17 kegs in the van to save the day. Otherwise, we would have misse out on all of the Northern California beers.
Continuing with the theme of things going wrong, our CO2 system and our glycol chilling system for the taps both had problems - one on Friday the other on Saturday and Paul was able to come in and fix both problems and keep the draft beer flowing and cold. So a big THANKS to Paul and Josh for basically saving the Wet Hop Festival from certain doom.
Later this week you can look forward to a cask of AleSmith Evil Dead Red and then our big Halloween Costume party on Friday. I have kegs of AleSmith Evil Dead Red, Alping Ichabod (a pumpkin dunkle weizen) and Moonlight Boney Fingers all lined up for Friday. And the Chargers can't lose this Sunday! Well, they don't play, but at least we won't have to suffer through another agonizing loss. The pub will be open normal hours from 12-6 pm on the 2nd. Hard to believe it is almost November and that Christmas decorations are already out at the stores.
That is your web update for now. We'll see you soon for a great beer. Cheers, Tom
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When It Falls
By Zero 7
Release date: 2004-03-02 |
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