Hello Beer Fans!
The next few weeks are shaping up to be a great time to be drinking beer at the pub. We start our annual Christmas in July this Friday, next week is Sierra Nevada Week at the pub and I am already tracking down a number of amazing specialty beers for my birthday next month. And we’ll be opening up early for a few pub breakfasts to watch the US Women’s Soccer Team in the Olympics. Read on for all of the tasty details…
Coming Soon
We have a cask first tomorrow on Thursday the 19th – Green Flash Park West Porter. This is one of the beers in the brewery’s San Diego series along with 30th Street Pale and East Village Pilsner (which is on tap right now). We have not had the new Porter on tap or cask before and I am really looking forward to trying it. It will get tapped at 5 pm. And this cask is just a five gallon, so I don’t expect it to last all night.
Friday the 20th we begin our annual Christmas in July weekend. Tyson pulled out a bunch of great beers for the weekend that we have been saving for just such an occasion. We will have lots of Belgian beers including Delirium Noel, Gouden Carolous Noel, St. Bernardus Christmas, N’ice Chouffe, Scaldis Noel and Dupont Avec les bon Voeux. There will also be some great non-Belgian beer including Schlenkerla Oak Smoked Double Bock, Alaskan Smoked Porter and beers from Lost Abbey and Stone among others. If you can’t make it by on Friday, look for the beers to be on tap throughout the entire weekend. Nearly all are in 5 gallon kegs so don’t expect them to be all be around come Sunday.
As predicted our Sierra Nevada Beer Dinner is now sold out. We are still taking names for the waiting list in case anyone cancels. If you would like to be on the waiting list, feel free to call the pub (858-715-1745) and leave your name and number along with how many seats you would be looking for.
The good news for those not going to the dinner is that next week will be Sierra Nevada Week with lots of amazing specialty beer on tap all week from one of my favorite breweries. Right now, we already have the Sierra Nevada/Russian River collaboration Brux on the bottle list. It is a Belgian-inspired ale with wild yeast. Right now, we are still not 100% sure what beers will be coming down for next week, but I am expecting to have some Flipside Double IPA on tap next week, which is amazing along with some of the Ovila beers, Bigfoot, Kellerweiss, Hoptimum and a barrel aged Chili Chocolate Imperial Stout. Make sure to follow Tyson on Facebook for what is coming on tap on what days at www.facebook.com/obrienspubsd or on Twitter at #obrienspubsd. When we know, we will let you know. No matter what, you can look forward to a cask of Green Flash Serrano Double Stout on Thursday the 26th at 5 pm.
Breakfast at the Pub
The US Women’s National Team begins the quests for its third straight Olympic Gold Medal on Wednesday, July 25th at 9 am against France. The women have won 3 out of the 4 Gold Medals since Women’s Soccer was introduced at the Olympics in 1996, and they were the runner up in 2000, the year Norway won. We will be opening up at 8:45 am for the three group stage matches and serving breakfast thanks to Humberto. So please stop by and join us in cheering on the US Ladies as they go for an unprecedented third straight gold medal. Here is the schedule of games and dates we will have breakfast:
Wednesday, July 25 – USA v. France at 9 am
Saturday, July 28 - USA v. Columbia at 9 am
Tuesday, July 31 – USA v. North Korea at 9 am
Assuming the USA advances out of the group, I will let you know when the quarterfinal match will be. We will be partnering up with our local women’s soccer team, the San Diego Sealions, for the Olympic viewing parties. The Sealions are in the Pacific Regional Playoffs for the WPSL this weekend. Here is the info on the playoff weekend at Cathedral Catholic High School.
The WPSL Pacific-South Division Champion San Diego SeaLions (5-1-0) will host the Women’s Premier Soccer League Western Regional Playoffs this weekend at Cathedral Catholic High School. Semifinals will be played on Saturday, with the Regional final on Sunday. The Western Regional winners will advance to the WPSL Final-Four National Championships in Florida.
Regional Playoff Schedule:
Saturday, July 21 – Semifinals
Game 1: SeaLions v. Issaquah, 5:00 p.m.
Game 2: Salt Lake vs. California Storm, 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, July 22 – final
Game 1 Winner v. Game 2 Winner, 4:00 p.m.
GET TWO GAMES FOR THE PRICE OF ONE!
Purchase a ticket to see the SeaLions take on Issaquah at 5:00 p.m. on Saturday, and stay for the Storm v. Salt Lake game for FREE!
Looking Ahead
I am working on getting as many of my favorite beers as I can for my birthday next month. Already we have secured a cask of Alpine Pure Hoppiness for Thursday the 9th. On Friday the 10th we will have an amazing line up of Alpine hoppy beers including Duet IPA, Nelson Rye IPA, Pure Hoppiness, Toronado 25th Anniversary Double IPA and the New Belgium/Alpine colloboration Super IPA that is a double IPA brewed at New Belgium under the supervision of Alpine. We’ll also have the entire hoppy line up from Societe that night including Dandy, Pupil and Apprentice. I am working on other beers from Avery, Russian River, Firestone, Ballast Point, Kern River, Sierra Nevada, Lost Abbey and Green Flash. It also looks like we are going to have local Pink Floyd tribute band Have A Cigar play somewhere nearby for a birthday concert. I will have more details on that next week.
In addition to events at the pub and the concert, I will be planning an evening of special beers at our new spot in La Mesa, West Coast Barbecue and Brew, which was opened with our friend Larry Koger. If you haven’t checked it out, the spot is on Lake Murray Blvd about a mile north of the I-8 freeway. The barbecue is slow oak smoked, the beef ribs are amazing and all of the bbq sandwiches come on our signature torta rolls. Larry has a 28 tap tower with loads of great beer. Last week when I was there I counted 6 double IPAs among the taps. If you want to keep up to date with events and beer tappings at West Coast, visit the website to sign up for the email newsletter at www.westcoastbbqandbrew.com or follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/westcoastbarbecuebrew. I will be over there this evening (Weds, 7/18) for Manzanita Night drinking some Chaotic Double IPA.
That is your good beer news for now. We’ll see you soon for a great beer. Cheers, Tom