Greetings Beer Lovers,
We are finally getting around to our Wet Hop Festival this weekend. I have 27 kegs and casks to tap this year for your lupulin pleasure. The festival will take over many of our regular taps, but there will still be a few favorites on tap. The festival will run Friday, Saturday and Sunday – November 2nd, 3rd and 4th. On Friday night, we’ll tap our two casks – Sierra Nevada Harvest Ale and Pizza Port San Clemente Riptide – both at 5 pm. I’ll also have a good number of other wet hopped ales on tap Friday night. The plan is to put most of the 15 gallon kegs on tap Friday so that they will last through the weekend. Expect beers from Ballast Point, Stone, Pizza Port, Sierra, Butte Creek and Drake’s to be on tap on Friday night. We will have 5 ounce, 10 ounce and pints available of all of the wet hop beers.
Saturday will be the big day with more than 20 wet hop ales from all over California on tap. I’ll have a jockey box set up to help with the extra beers. We have a lot of new breweries participating this year like Beach Chalet, Half Moon Bay, Moylan’s, 21st Amendment and Butte Creek. And if there is any cask beer left from Friday, we will run that as well on Saturday. Sunday we’ll tap our few out of town beers from the likes of Rogue and Deschutes. The Chargers play at 10 am and we’ll open early for the game so you even have a few extra hours to drink. We’ll have the kitchen open early as well, but the breakfast menu is yet to be determined – we’ll talk to Cesar tonight and see what he feels like treating you all to. I expect to still have 18-22 wet hop ales on tap for Sunday. And as an added food bonus, we will be running our beer batttered Fish and Chips and Fish Tacos both Saturday and Sunday and Chili Cheese Dogs on Friday and Saturday.
For those reading this on Thursday the 1st, it may do you some good to know that we will be serving casks of AleSmith Evil Dead Red and Pizza Port Carlsbad Hop Suey tonight at 5 pm. We also tapped into the delicious Alpine Ichabod last night during our Halloween party. It is a red wine barrel aged spiced sour brown ale made with pumpkin. It is one of the best domestic sour brown beers I have ever had with a drinkabililty that is unmatched in domestic versions. We also tapped kegs of the Moonlight Brewing Company Boney Fingers, a strong dark lager and Wychwood Hobgoblin, an English-style bitter. You can also look for our great Fruit and Cheese plate on special for Thursday night. And yes, Ballast Point Sculpin IPA is still on tap!Â
Tickets are still on sale for the San Diego Brewers Guild Festival this Friday night at the World Beat Center. Pre-sale tickets are available until noon on Friday the 2nd. For more information, please visit the guild website at www.sandiegobrewersguild.org. The Tijuana beer festival was moved until November 9th, 10th and 11th due to the fires. For more info on that fest, visit www.tjbeerfest.com. And the Green Flash Anniversary Party is coming up on Sunday, November 18th. VIP tickets for the San Diego Strong Ale Festival are now available on line at Pizza Port’s website – www.pizzaport.com. Regular festival tickets will be availalbe at the door. The fest is November 30th and December 1st at Pizza Port Carlsbad.
As for next week, I still am not sure what the cask will be. I do know that we are hosting a Lagunitas night on Friday the 9th with kegs of IPA, Hop Stoopid and Capacino Stout. I have tasted the Hop Stoopid and it is a very nice double IPA and we have the only keg in San Diego. Planning ahead, we will be shut down Thursday and Friday, the 22nd and 23rd for Thanksgiving weekend. We will be open normal hours on Saturday and Sunday. And we’ll host our annual Strong Ale Fest pre-party on Thursday the 29th. I already have some great beers and casks lined up.
That about wraps it up for now. We’ll see you soon for a great fresh hop beer. Cheers, Tom