Pliny the Younger in San Diego, 2012

Tags

pliny the younger, pliny the younger san diego, pliny the younger san diego 2012, where to find pliny the younger in san diego

This post last year about where and when to find Pliny the Younger in San Diego got a ton of traffic and a whole bunch of folks told me it was very helpful. Since I’ve already been asked multiple times if I’ll be keeping a list this year I figured I should start. See last year’s post (linked above) for more info on Pliny the Younger and some notes about how quickly it tapped out at various bars in San Diego last year.

Pliny the Younger hits taps at Russian River’s Brewpub in Santa Rosa today according to their website. At the brewpub they have a dedicated number of kegs each day to make sure it lasts until at least mid February (meaning if they’ve sold enough one day it might be gone at 9pm, but they’ll have more on tap the next day when they open). Down here in San Diego we’re not so lucky. Most bars get a limited amount and it goes rather quickly, so if you want to get a taste don’t straggle, and be prepared for long lines, crowded bars (and sometime higher than usual prices for smaller than usual pours). But I think most people would agree, it’s worth the hassle.

It should be noted that we probably won’t see Pliny the Younger down here in San Diego for a week or two, I’d guess it will start showing up around town sometime between Feb 8th and 15th.

Below is a list of bars that I expect will be getting Pliny the Younger or have confirmed to me that they will be getting it. Any of the information could change, I suggest you check with individual bar’s if you want to be 100% sure, but I’ll do my best to keep this list updated.

Upcoming 2012 Pliny the Younger:

Blind Lady Ale House – Fundraiser, Monday 2/20/12 from 6-8pm. Tickets must be purchased in advance and will go on sale at 6pm today (2/13/2012). $16 for .25 liter of Younger, .25 liter of Elder and a raffle ticket. Read more about the fundraiser, all the details and buy tickets here. Tickets sold out in approximately ten minutes.

Churchill’s Pub – March 3rd for Churchill’s Renaissance via Beer Advocate

Downtown Johnny Brown’s – Friday, February 17th for a Russian River Night

Encinitas Ale House – They say they’re getting a full keg, no word on date it will be tapped.

El Take it Easy –  From their newsletter: “The Chef’s dinner at El Take It Easy featuring Pliny The Younger and other rare/allocated drinks, will be on Monday, February 27th.”

O’Brien’s Pub – via their newsletter. They’ll tap a keg on Saturday 2/11/2012 at 5pm. According to a comment below the keg ran dry after about 22 minutes.They’ll be tapping another keg for a charity event (proceeds going to local animal shelters and programs). There will be a sign up list at the bar, which your will be required to get a pour. Details will follow in their email newsletter next week (week of 2/12/12). They’ll tap another keg on Friday 2/24/12 at 11am.

Pizza Port Carlsbad – Saturday Feb 11th at Noon for the Brewbies Festival. As of this writing there are 40 $25 General Admission tickets left. Proceeds benefit Keep a Breast. Unconfirmed but according to this Untappd Checkin Pliny the Younger is on tap as of 4pm 2/17

Tap Room – Tuesday 2/21 at 5pm. And again Saturday 3/3 at 1pm for their 5th Anniversary Party.

Tiger!Tiger! – Saturday 2/25 12-2pm and Sunday 2/26 11:30-12:30pm. After selling over 100 ticket’s to the Pliny the Fundraiser night at Blind Lady Ale House in only 10 minutes, the folks at BLAH/Tiger!Tiger! were able to score a bit more PtY to make more money for a good cause. Tickets are limited to 75 people per day and go on sale Monday 2/20 at 7:00pm for Saturday and 7:30pm for Sunday. Same deal as before, $16 gets you a .25 liter of Pliny the Younger, a .25 liter of Pliny the Elder and a raffle ticket. (Dates above link to the online sales). Don’t straggle, they’re sure to sell out fast.

URGE Gastropub – Probably early March for a Triple IPA night, see comment below from Grant at URGE.

Suspected based on Previous Years (but not confirmed):

Pizza Port Ocean Beach

Past 2012 Pliny the Younger:

Breakwater Brewing Company – 2/10/2012 via Facebook and it’s gone.

Eleven – Tonight (2/13/2012) at 8pm. Pre-sale at 7:30pm. Reportedly sold out during pre-sale time, before 8pm tapping.

Hamilton’s Tavern – Tapping PtY at 3pm on Wednesday, February 8th.

Live Wire – On tap as of 9pm 2/8/12 – via Twitter One person on Twitter says it ran out the same night.

Neighborhood – Sometime mid February via their Twitter (warning bit of profanity at the link). A reader emailed to tell me that they got 2 kegs, at least one of which will go on at 4pm today (2/13/2012). This has not been confirmed by Neighborhood. (Also, see this tweet from Neighborhood)

Newport Pizza and Alehouse – Wednesday 2/15/2012 at 4pm. A reader wrote in to say that it was gone an hour and six minutes after they first started serving it.

Pizza Port Solana Beach – Someone emailed to tell me that they put PtY on last night and as of this writing (2/10/12 at 4:45pm) I see it listed on the tap cam. Gone from the tap cam.

San Diego Brewing Company – Tuesday, February 14th at 4pm

Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens – 2/9/12 “At the Inside Bar Only!” Reports are that it ran out sometime around 6pm. A few people have told me that they’ve been told by bartender’s at Stone that they would have some Younger on tap Tuesday night, February 14th (not confirmed with Stone)

Toronado – 10am February 8th (they’ll be putting it on as soon as it shows up) and will tap a second keg when the first one blows per their newsletter. Toronado tapped two kegs, the first at 10am and the second when the first blew. The second ran dry around 12:45pm.They may also be tapping a keg when they open on Sunday at 11:30am. 10oz for $8 on Wednesday, “slightly more expensive” other times they tap it. 6pm tonight (2/14/12) for their last keg of Younger.

If you know of a bar or restaurant in San Diego that will be getting Pliny the Younger, or what day/time they’ll be tapping it, send me an email to get the list updated.

If you’re looking for Pliny the Younger in Orange County check out Craft Beer Culture’s list here.

Updated 2/17/12 at 4:04am

Advertisement

A Beer Lover’s Guide to New Year’s Eve in San Diego

New Year’s Eve and beer (well alcohol in general) seem to go hand in hand. As such, there are plenty of beer related New Year’s eve happenings in San Diego this upcoming Saturday night.

If staying at home is your thing

Starting Friday and going through 6pm Saturday Stone Brewing Co. will be releasing various beers from the past year at their Growler Fill Year in Review. Both the Stone Store in Escondido and South Park will be filling growler’s with limited and special release beers from the past year.

If going all out is your thing

Stone Brewing Co.’s New Years Eve Party at the Stone Brewing World Bistro and Gardens is the place to be. It’s not cheap (tickets will set you back $175) but it includes buffet dinner, live music, complimentary beer and a brewhouse dance party. Yes, you read that right, a brewhouse dance party.

If going to sleep early is your thing

Ring in the New Year with the Belgian’s at 3pm Pacific Time at Blind Lady Ale House. There will be a ton of great Belgian beer on tap of course. They’ll be open until 10pm if you decide to party a few hours into the (Belgian) New Year.

If you love Pizza Port but live in North Park

Head down to Toronado where starting at 11:30am and going through the night they’ll be filling all their taps with beers from all four Pizza Port locations. They say they’ll be posting the tap list to their website soon, but we expect there will be plenty of great beers no matter what they have.

If you want a cozy sit down dinner with great beer

Alpine Beer Co.’s Pub is the place to be. They’ll be serving a three course dinner with two beer (or wine) pairings for $35.95 which includes ‘Beeramisu’ Made with Captain Stout for dessert. Alpine Beer Co.’s pub is pretty small, so be prepared for it to possibly be a little crowded, but don’t let that deter you.

Didn’t find anything that sounded good here? Check out San Diego CityBeat’s comprehensive New Year’s Eve guide.

More Pizza Port News

Tags

hollister brewing, jeff bagby, Noah Regnery, Pizza Port cans, pizza port carlsbad, pizza port palomar airport rd, pizza port production facility

Some more Pizza Port news to report following Monday’s post about Head Brewer and Director of Brewing Operations Jeff Bagby’s plans to leave Pizza Port to open his own brewery…

• As reported by Barbara Henry at the North County Times, Pizza Port has plans to build a 37,050-square-foot new facility to be located in Carlsbad at Palomar Airport Rd and Gateway Rd. Not only will this be Pizza Port’s fifth restaurant location, but it will also serve as a production and distribution facility. The production side of things will brew beer and produce pizza dough in bulk for Pizza Port’s restaurants. Henry also  reports that it will also house a canning facility. It sounds like things are still in the early planning stages, so there’s always the possibility that plans will change, but Pizza Port beer in cans (and presumably wider distribution) sounds pretty cool to me. Pizza Port’s proposal goes before the Carlsbad’s Planning Commission tonight at 6pm. A copy of the report to the Planning Commission can be seen here.

• I heard back from Jeff Bagby and he tells me that he’ll be staying on at Pizza Port through the end of the month. He says he’ll take a bit of time off before he starts full time on his own brewery project. He also mentioned that while his brewing position at Pizza Port Carlsbad will be filled by Ignacio (Nacho) Cervantes (as Gina Marsaglia told me), there is not as of yet a replacement for his operations position with Pizza Port. According to Bagby the recipes he developed while at Pizza Port are owned by Pizza Port and will stay with the brewpub.

• I had heard previously that Pizza Port San Clemente Head Brewer Noah Regnery was leaving for Hollister Brewing in Goleta  but didn’t have more details. Beernews.org tracked down a tweet from Regnery about training his replacement. Ryan Fields, former Lead Brewer at Port Brewing/Lost Abbey has taken over as Head Brewer at Pizza Port San Clemente.

This post was updated at 3:19pm on 12/7/2011

Jeff Bagby Leaving Pizza Port, Plans to Open New Brewery

Tags

jeff bagby, pizza port carlsbad head brewer

I unfortunately wasn’t able to attend this past weekend’s Stong Ale Festival at Pizza Port Carlsbad (the beer list looked fantastic).

I did hear that Jeff Bagby, head brewer at Pizza Port Carlsbad has announced that he’s leaving Pizza Port with plans to open his own brewery. From what I hear he’ll be staying on in a consulting role for a while as he looks for a location for his future brewery.

Bagby has been the Head Brewer at Pizza Port Carlsbad since 2005 and I believe he has been Director of Brewing Operations for all four Pizza Port brewpubs. Under Bagby Pizza Port Carlsbad has brought home the “Large Brewpub of the Year” award at the Great American Beer Festival for the last three years as well as numerous medals.

I have an email into both Pizza Port and Jeff Bagby and will update this post if I get more info about who will become the new head brewer at Pizza Port Carlsbad or Bagby’s future plans.

UPDATE: Gina Marsaglia, co-founder/co-owner of Pizza Port had this to say: “Yes, Jeff is leaving and we are sorry to see him go, but luckily Ignacio Cervantes (Nacho) who has been the assistant to Jeff is going to continue to brew and some of our other guys are stepping up to fill most of Jeff’s duties until we find someone who will be a perfect fit. Hard to fill those shoes for sure!”

Photo from Jeff Bagby’s Facebook page.

Blind Lady Ale House Meet the Brewer Tasting Flights

Tags

guided beer tasting, meet the brewer, san diego beer week, San Diego Beer Week events, sdbw, sdbw blind lady ale house

Chuck Silva of Green Flash Leading a Flight Tasting During SDBW 2010

Yesterday I posted a roundup of what in my opinion are some of the best events happening during San Diego Beer Week. (And also posted a list of some of the best looking food and beer events as well).

But I wanted to highlight a series of events that Blind Lady Ale House did last year and will continue to do this year, Meet the Brewer Guided Flight Tastings. Throughout the week they’ll have a handful of different brewers in leading tastings through some of their beers. Last year I went to guided tastings at BLAH with Mark Jilg from Craftsman, Chuck Silva from Green Flash and Pat Mcilhenney of Alpine Beer Co. All were extremely educational, there’s no better way in my opinion to learn about a beer than to hear the brewer himself talk about it while tasting it, and affordable. Last year prices were around $25 per event. I haven’t seen prices this year, but I’d guess they will be similar. In order to keep things fun and make sure everyone can hear and ask questions BLAH limits the size of the events, which take place in the Hamm’s Room (West room at BLAH). So make sure to get there early if you’re interested in sitting through one of these guided tastings.

Blind Lady’s Meet the Brewer Guided Flight Tastings start tonight (technically SDBW Eve) and go throughout San Diego Beer Week. The full schedule (subject to change, so check with BLAH) is below.

Thursday, November 3rd 5pm with Tomme Arthur of Lost Abbey and Port Brewing Co.

Friday, November 4th 12:30-2:30pm with Jeff Bagby of Pizza Port Carlsbad

Sunday, November 6th 12:30-2:30pm with Mother Earth Brewing Co.

Wednesday, November 9th 5pm with Yiga Miyashiro of Pizza Port Ocean Beach

Thursday, November 10th with Chuck Silva of Green Flash

Friday, November 11th 12:30pm with Patrick Rue of The Bruery

Sublime Ale House Opens in San Marcos

Tags

north county beer bars, sublime ale house san marcos

Even though there are a ton of great breweries and a handful of great bars and restaurants up there,  I don’t make it up to North County to drink much. It’s so easy for me to have a beer within a short distance of my house at Toronado, Blind Lady, Hamilton’s or any number of other beer places that driving up to North County to drink beer just doesn’t make sense.

That said I do find myself drinking up north every once in a while, and last night I got to check out one of the newer beer-centric restaurants, Sublime Ale House during a media preview night.

Located in San Marcos’s Restaurant Row, Sublime Ale House isn’t far from Churchill’s Pub & Grille and while it’s certainly an oversimplification on one level Sublime Ale House felt like Blind Lady to Churchill’s Toronado. There is no judgement in that statement at all, I love both BLAH and Toronado quite a bit and my more limited experiences at Churchill’s and now Sublime have been great as well. But they do have a different feel from one another.

Sublime Ale House is bright without being too bright and feels like it has plenty of space. There’s a bar in the middle of the restaurant, with different types of tables spread throughout, some long picnic style tables and other smaller more intimate.

I’m told they have 56 taps (I didn’t count) and the draft list was good, a lot of local stuff, plenty of craft beer from the rest of the country, a handful of Belgian’s and a few other beers from Europe and Canada. Not a macro beer in sight on the draft list. They also have bottled beer but I didn’t look to closely at the list. I had beers from Pizza Port Carlsbad, Coronado Brewing and Iron Fist.

The food is upscale pub grub (Gastropub?), with salads, pizza, macaroni and cheese, burgers, sandwiches and more. The salad and pizza I tried were both good. You can see the full menu here.

With San Diego Beer Week events already showing up on their website Sublime Ale House is a great addition to ever growing craft beer scene in North County. There might not be enough to draw folks from central San Diego up just for food and beer, but if you find yourself up there, or better yet if you live nearby, check it out.

Fiery Mac & Cheese

Mac & Cheese photo by Kinsee Morlan

San Diego Brewers Bring Home Awards Aplenty at 2011 GABF

Tags

gabf 2011, gabf san diego 2011, gabf san diego awards, gabf san diego medals, great american beer festival, san diego beer awards

Last year San Diego breweries brought home fifteen medals from the Great American Beer Festival in Denver. Saturday afternoon the awards were announced in 83 beer categories with San Diego breweries bringing home twenty medals. In addition to the individual beer categories six brewery awards are given out and San Diego breweries brought home two of those titles.

Pizza Port Carlsbad was named Large Brewpub and Large Brewpub Brewer of the Year for the third year in a row. Pizza Port Ocean Beach and brewer Yiga Miyashiro took home the award for Small Brewpub and Small Brewpub Brewer of the Year for the first time. Overall the three San Diego Pizza Port locations dominated, bringing in twelve of San Diego’s twenty medals (Pizza Port San Clemente took home one bronze medal).

Pizza Port Carlsbad alone brought home six medals, tied for second place for most medals with Firestone Walker (Rock Bottom also took six medals, but all Rock Bottom locations were entered together, not separate for each location as Pizza Port was). Pizza Port Carlsbad also tied for second place with Firestone Walker for most gold medals won with three. Sun King Brewing in Indianapolis took home the most gold medals (four) as well as most medals overall with eight.

California breweries took home the most medals with 51 total while Colorado came was second with 44. The state of Oregon was third with fifteen medals. Think about that for a moment, San Diego breweries alone came home with five more medals than the entire state of Oregon and San Diego accounted for nearly 40% of California’s medals.

Congrats to Pizza Port Carlsbad, Pizza Port Ocean Beach, Pizza Port Solana Beach, Rock Bottom La Jolla, Rock Bottom San Diego, The Lost Abbey/Port Brewing Company, AleSmith and Karl Strauss for their awards. Keep reading for the list of San Diego winners and a link to the full list.

Pizza Port Carlsbad Poor Man’s IPA Earns Best in Show at 2011 San Diego International Beer Festival

Tags

2011 San Diego International Beer Festival results, 2011 San Diego International Beer Festival winners, big wednesday belgian ipa, good grief brown ale, poor man's ipa, Red Poppy, San Diego International Beer Festival results, San Diego International Beer Festival winners, shark attack, veritas 008

The results are in from last weekend San Diego International Beer Festival competition and this year Pizza Port Carlsbad’s Poor Man’s IPA took home the gold medal for Imperial IPA’s as well as the best in show top honors. This marks the third year in a row that a beer from one of the four Pizza Port locations has been designated Best in Show. Last year’s Best in Show winner was Big Wednesday, a Belgian style IPA from Pizza Port Solana Beach. In 2009 Pizza Port Carlsbad received Best in Show for Good Grief Brown Ale (which recieved a Bronze this year in the English-Style Brown Ale category).

Plenty of other San Diego breweries took home medals this year. Stone Brewing Co., Tailgate Beer, Green Flash, Karl Strauss and AleSmith all walked away with a gold medal each. Pizza Port Ocean Beach took home two gold medals while Port Brewing/The Lost Abbey was awarded three gold medals (Shark Attack on the Port side and Veritas 008 and Red Poppy on the Lost Abbey side) as well as receiving the most overall medals out of any brewery with six total by my count.

Click here for a PDF of the full list of medal winners.

 

San Diego Beer Events May 19th – May 25th

Tags

Bacon & Eggs, Cho Saiko, Falco Imperial Red Ale, judgement day party, judgment day, kelsey mcnair, Night Rider, Night Rider Imperial Stout, North Park Beer Co., Pereo Pilsner, Pizza Port OB anniversary, Pizza Port Ocean Beach anniversary, San Diego County Session Ale, San Diego History Center, San Diego Now, The State of Beer in San Diego, Trintas Belgian Pale Ale

If you know of anything that isn’t on the events calendar, please email events@sandiegobeerblog.com to get it added.  Not all of the beer events happening in a given week make it on the list below, I pick one or two per day to avoid information overload. Make sure to check out the Events page or the calendar below this post for all the week’s events.

Thursday May 19th:

A brand new brewery is opening up in Carlsbad. On the Tracks Brewery is holding their 3 day Grand Opening celebration and kicking it off today from 4-7pm. They’ll be doing it again tomorrow from 4-7pm and Saturday from 1-7pm. I don’t know much about them but they say they are “specializing in the darker side of beer with tasty ales, ports & stouts,” they’ll have seven beers and one mead ready to go. If you stop by On the Tracks this weekend drop me a line and let me know what you think: events@sandiegobeerblog.com

Friday May 20th:

The third installment of Hess Brewing Co.’s Friday Afternoon Club (FAC) is shaping up to be the best yet. The Barnacles will be playing some music, a wood-fired pizza truck will be serving up some pies and of course there will be beer. Three new beers to be exact. They’re introducing Trintas Belgian Pale Ale, Falco Imperial Red Ale (a 9.3% ABV, 90+ IBU red using Falconer’s hops) and Pereo Pilsner, a rye based German Pilsner 100% Nelson Sauvin hops and designed by home brewer extraordinaire Kelsey Mcnair (of North Park Beer Co. and San Diego County Session Ale).

Saturday May 21st:

Some people say it’s Judgment Day. Whether the world ends at 6pm or not, the hours leading up to it at Lost Abbey should be a fun time. They’ll have discounts on their Belgian-style Quad as well as prize giveaways and the original label art on display. Apocalypse themed costumes are encouraged.

Blind Lady Ale House says they’ll have a flight of beers from The Bruery, I don’t have many details on it but the beer is bound to be good. I haven’t heard for sure but it sounds like The Bruery flight might be postponed. I’ll update this if/when I hear one way or the other. Read about the flight from The Bruery they had last summer (no word if Patrick Rue will be around this time).

Sunday May 22nd:

Pizza Port Ocean Beach is celebrating their One Year Anniversary all weekend long (starting Friday night and ending Sunday night). They’ll have some special beers from all the Pizza Port locations as well as The Lost Abbey and Port Brewing Co. Pizza Port OB brewed Cho Saiko and Bacon & Eggs will be back on draft as well as an OB anniversary beer.

Monday May 23rd:

It’s Monday, that means $3 local pint night at Toronado.

Tuesday May 24th:

QUAFF holds their monthly homebrew club meeting at Randy Jones All American Grill in Hazard Center.

But if that’s not your thing stop by The Tipsy Crow downtown where they’ll be tapping a cask of Pizza Port Carlsbad Night Rider Imperial Stout.

It’s also Toronado San Diego’s 3 Year Anniversary. Rumor has it they’re throwing a party but details are scarce at this point. Look for a full post with details when I know them.

Wednesday May 25th:

I don’t know much about this event, heck I’m not even sure there will be beer there. But from 6-7:30pm the San Diego History Center will host a discussion on The State of Beer in San Diego featuring “local brewmasters and industry leaders”. No word on who those people might be, but it could be interesting. Grab a beer at The Prado’s happy hour before hand or head somewhere after for a pint, the event is free.

LOVELIKEBEER and Vegan Beer Dinners

Tags

Le Freak, Le Freak Belgian IPA, LOVELIKEBEER, Red Barn Saison, ruination ipa, speedway stout, Stone Ruination IPA: Double Dry Hopped with Citra Hops, Stone/Green Flash/Pizza Port Carlsbad Highway 78 Scotch Ale, vegan beer dinner, vegetarian beer dinner

As a vegetarian beer dinners don’t often hold much sway for me. Sure, pairing awesome beer with some of the best chefs in town is great, but when you can’t eat half the food on the menu there’s no point in going. I don’t think I’m the only vegetarian/vegan that feels left out when it comes to beer dinners, Stone Brewing Co.’s Master Pairings Vegan Beer Dinner happening tonight sold out well in advance.

Thankfully for us vegetarians there’s a new group in town, LOVELIKEBEER, with a focus on vegan food and craft beer. They’re putting on their first vegan beer dinner at Sea Rocket Bistro this Thursday (May 12, 6-10pm) and the beer list, along with the food each beer is paired with looks fantastic. Each pairing is $10 for the food and 6oz beer, which means you can have a full five course meal or you can just have a few of the pairings. While all of the food and beers sound good,  I can’t wait to try the cask of Ruination IPA dry hopped with Citra hops.

If you’re not a vegan or vegetarian, don’t let the lack of meat scare you away. Check out the menu below including beer pairings.

Click on over to LOVELIKEBEER‘s website for more info.