We tapped our double bock Octoberfest party beers on the 14th with Spaten Optimator, Weihenstephan Korbinian, TJ Bufadora, Lightning Fulminator and San Diego Brewing Consecrator all making it on tap by the end of the evening.  It was a night of big MALTY beers at O’Brien’s for once. All 5 bock beers are still on tap and will be on special Saturday night the 15th. We’ll be open until 11 pm. Also new on tap is the AleSmith Nautical Nut Brown in place of the Lil’ Devil. The on tap list is now up to date for the weekend.
The Chargers play much hated New England with or without their extra video guy this Sunday the 16th at 5:15 pm and we will be staying open late for the game with the kitchen open through half time. So come by and watch the game and say hi to Coral. We will have a special Sunday night happy hour – 50 cents off any beer during the game. So that means pints of Wipeout for $3 and Pliny is just $3.50!
Next week you can look forward to double cask nights with Alpine – Alpine Ale on Wednesday the 19th at 5:30 pm and Pure Hoppiness on Thursday the 20th at 5 pm. Friday the 21st is a Craftsman Brewing Night with Point Five (a half IPA at 3.7%), Hefeweizen and Octoberfest. Hopefully we’ll be seeing more Craftsman beer in the coming months. The 21st is also the night of the San Diego Festival of Beer Downtown. And the following week we’ll end the month with a cask of AleSmith X, extra pale ale, on Thursday the 27th.
We’ll be getting some new bottles this week including the Stone 11th Anniversary Ale (already in) and the Pizza Port Signature Ale (coming) which was brewed by the Port gang at the De Preof brewery in Belgium. We have a Blegian stout – Buffalo Stout, which is very nice. And we have already ordered a second case of the GLUTEN-FREE Green’s Quest Tripel, which is really good just on its own merits. There are all sorts of fun kegs coming up including Moylan’s Moylander double IPA, Speakeasy Double Daddy, Alpine Captain Stout, Pizza Port Attenuation Anniversary Ale and Sticky Stout, and more of the very popular Koningshoeven Quadrupel.
We have set dates for our next Beer and Cheese pairings. The first one will be Sunday, September 23rd at O’Brien’s at 6 pm. It will feature Jeff Bagby, head brewer of Pizza Port Carlsbad and Valerie Thomas, the head cheesemaker at Winchester Farms in Temecula. Winchester Farms specializes in Gouda and we will pair them and a few other domestic artisan cheese with beers from the 3 Pizza Port brewpubs. Jeff and Valerie will discuss the tasty treats as well. And again we will be pairing up with George and Mary from Taste Artisan Cheese and Gourmet shop in Hillcrest for the pairings and cheese. The cost is $40. Sign up at the pub or at Taste.
We’ll also be doing a pair of our regular Beer and Cheese pairing classes in October with myself and Mary and George Palmer from Taste. We have not yet set the menus for these classes, but we have dates. The first will be Wednesday, October 17th at Taste in Hillcrest and the second will be Sunday, October 21st at O’Brien’s. Both classes will have the same line-up of cheeses, and that line-up will be completely different from our September class with Winchester Farms. Cost for these classes is $35. You can sign up for either class at the pub or at Taste.
That is it for now. We’ll see you soon over a great beer. Cheers, Tom