Posted January 15th, 2009 by Chris
“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.” -O’Briens
Website: www.obrienspub.net
Where: Tap Room (map)
Tags: Cask, LostAbbey, Port
Posted January 15th, 2009 by Chris
“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.” -O’briens
Website: www.obrienspub.net
Where: Tap Room (map)
Tags: LostAbbey
Posted January 15th, 2009 by Chris
Website: www.hamiltonstavern.com
Where: Hamilton’s Tavern (map)
Tags: Cask, GreenFlash
Posted January 7th, 2009 by Chris
“The holidays have passed yet there is still plenty of reason to celebrate.
Toast the recent Chargers win or just get out of the house and enjoy a few great beers with friends – some of which are small batch, limited release specialty favorites.
Kick off the weekend this Thursday night at Downtown Johnny Brown’s for our 2nd Ballast Point Night of the year.” -Ballast Point
Website: http://www.ballastpoint.com/
Where: Downtown Johnny Brown’s (map)
Tags: BallastPoint
Posted January 7th, 2009 by Nate
I’m mad at AleSmith. They are evil, conniving people. AleSmith has gone off and created a beer that will most likely ruin me for beer for weeks to come. I will not be able to drink a pint of anything without comparing it to said beer, and thus all others will fall short.
I had the opportunity privelege glorious luck of getting to try the new (unreleased) Decadence at AleSmith’s tasting night at the wine cellar in Escondido. It was about the tenth beer and things were really starting to get interesting when they busted this out. As soon as I tried it I got the chills. I’m not exaggerating.
AleSmith’s newest Decadence (which they offer up every year) is an Imperial Porter. As previously mentioned, I am not a huge Porter fan, or at least I wasn’t before this. Decadence is aged in Bourbon Barrels for nine months. The nose is a strong mix of bourbon and vanilla. It’s definitely complex; you get hit with all sorts of flavors while drinking this, but nothing really gets lost. It is a perfectly balanced beer.
I begged and pleaded with them to sell me a bottle. They politely refused. AleSmith hasn’t said when they’re releasing this, but rest assured that we will be there when they do, and we’ll let you know about it (as soon as we’ve bought ours, that is).
photo credit: brixton
Tags: AleSmith, BuyThisBeer
Posted January 5th, 2009 by Chris
Website: www.pbtaproom.com, www.stonebrew.com
Where: Tap Room (map)
Tags: Cask, Stone
Posted January 5th, 2009 by Chris
Tags: Stone
Posted January 5th, 2009 by Nate
We had a chance to stop by Hamilton’s Tavern on Friday night. They were pumping a cask of Coronado Brewing Co’s Chocolate Porter.
The bar had a good sized crowd, but wasn’t so crowded that is was uncomfortable. As soon as we entered we were greeted by either:
A) A very large dog
B) The van from Dumb & Dumber or
C) A horse dressed like a dog
None of us could figure it out, but this place is laid back for sure.
The beer was excellent, very light for a porter. I could have about a dozen of these. We tried to get in on the shuffle board but our time was short so we’ll have to hit Hamilton’s back. They also have an excellent collection of tap handles screwed in to the ceiling.
Apparently Hamilton’s does a lot of featured beer nights and they have tons of local stuff on tap. Check back for details, we’ll keep them up-to-date in the events section.
photo credit: D.B. Blas
Tags: CoronadoBrewing, HamiltonsTavern, Porter
Posted January 2nd, 2009 by Chris
Beer of the Week!
Beer of the Week: AleSmith Brewing Company – AleSmith X
Serving Type: 22oz. Bottle
Price: $3.99
ABV 5.0%
Style: American Pale Ale (APA)
I recently had the pleasure of attending an AleSmith tasting, at the Holiday Wine Cellar In Escondido, and sampled many of the offerings of AleSmith including AleSmith X. While this was not my favorite brew from AleSmith, I thought it deserved a second chance but this time apart from it’s more dominating counterparts. Read the rest »
Tags: AleSmith, BeerOfTheWeek
Posted January 1st, 2009 by Chris
Website: www.hamiltonstavern.com, www.stonebrew.com
Where: Hamilton’s Tavern (map)
Tags: Cask, Stone
