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.

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San Diego Brewers Bring Home Awards Aplenty at 2011 GABF

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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.

Russian River Brewing Co. Pliny the Younger in San Diego

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Russian River Brewing Co.’s Triple IPA Pliny the Younger is one of the most anticipated beer releases amongst hop head beer geeks. Released just once a year, usually in February the beer is very limited which adds to the intrigue and demand. Last year Russian River sold out of Pliny the Younger at their brewpub in Santa Rosa in about ten hours. This year they changed things up a bit so it will last longer; they aren’t filling growlers, it is available for on-premise consumption only and they have specific allotments for each day, so even if they run out one day, they’ll have another keg to put on the next day so it will be on tap for at least two weeks. But Santa Rosa is quite the drive from San Diego, so thankfully Russian River is sending some kegs down our way.

While I appreciate a good IPA or Double IPA I’m not the biggest hop head aound, and I’ve actually never gotten to try Pliny the Younger, but I’m hoping to get a taste this year. In the past lines at San Diego bars have been long when Pliny the Younger is released and a full keg blew at O’Brien’s Pub in about 45 minutes a year or two ago. So it might be a hassle to get some, but from what everyone says it’s worth it.

I’m unsure of how many kegs will be sent to San Diego, and exactly which bars will be getting it, but below is a list of the bars I do know that are getting it, as well as my best guesses on which other bars might get some Pliny the Younger and those that got some last year. It’s expected that the kegs will be arriving in San Diego this week, maybe even as early as tomorrow, Wednesday February 9th. UPDATE: According to Ian Black at Toronado the first kegs of PtY did indeed arrive at Stone (they distribute Russian River in San Diego) Wednesday and should start going out to bars Thursday. I’m told that there will probably be at least two different shipments of kegs down here, so we could see Pliny the Younger start showing up at bars this week and then again in a week or two.

This is all subject to change and you should check with individual bars for more info. But I’ll try to keep this list as up to date as possible. If I hear of any bars tapping additional kegs at a later date I’ll post that info as well.

Know of any other bars that will be getting Pliny the Younger? Or have updated info on when it will be tapped at any bar? Leave a comment below or send an email: events@sandiegobeerblog.com

• Pizza Port Ocean Beach – Tuesday, 3/8 at 4pm
• Neighborhood – Tuesday, 3/15
• Churchill’s Pub – Saturday, 3/5 at 11am for Churchill’s Renaissance
• The Linkery – Thursday, 3/3 at 5pm. Only served paired with food, click here for the details
• Toronado – Thursday, 2/10 at 10am UPDATE: The first keg ran out around noon, they tapped a second keg which ran out around 3pm. They had another keg on when they opened at 11:30am Sunday 2/13.
• Stone Brewing World Bistro and Gardens – Thursday, 2/10 at 4:30pm UPDATE: Their keg kicked around 5:45pm. I’ve heard second hand that they have two additional 1/2 barrel kegs.
• Pizza Port Solana Beach – 2/11 at 4pm
• Newport Pizza and Ale House – Wed 2/16UPDATE: They’re tapping another five gallon keg 3/1 at 5pm
• O’Brien’s Pub – Saturday 2/12 at 4pm UPDATE: I heard the keg kicked in just over 20 minutes.

• Hamilton’s Tavern – Sunday 2/13 at 1pm UPDATE: They also had a keg on 2/28
• Blind Lady Ale House – Tuesday 2/15 at 5pm UPDATE: BLAH had a 1/2 barrel keg which was emptied in about an hour.
• Tap Room – Monday 2/21 at 5pm and at their Anniversary party Saturday 2/26
• Live Wire – Sunday 2/13
• San Diego Brewing Company – Tuesday, 2/15 at 4pmUPDATE: I’m told the keg kicked around 5:3opm
• Downtown Johnny Brown’s – 2/25 at 6pm
• Pizza Port Carlsbad – Unknown

Check out THINKBREW for a list of bars in Los Angeles and Orange County that are expected to get Pliny the Younger

This post was last updated 3/7/2011 at 3pm

2010 Great American Beer Festival San Diego Winners

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To say that Pizza Port, and specifically Pizza Port Carlsbad did well at the 2010 Great American Beer Festival would be an understatement. Pizza Port Carlsbad took home the award for Large Brewpub of the Year for the second year in a row, along with seven medals including 3 gold. Pizza Port San Clemente took the award for Small Brewpub of the Year. In addition to Pizza Port Carlsbad’s seven medals, Pizza Port Ocean Beach, Port Brewing Co., The Lost Abbey, Stone Brewing Co., Ballast Point Brewing Co. and Karl Strauss Brewing Co. all brought home medals.

In all San Diego County breweries took home 15 medals listed below. The full list of winners can be seen here.

Gold:

• Category 13: Out of Category – Traditionally Brewed Beer, Ballast Point Brewing Co. Fathom IPL
• Category 44: English-Style India Pale Ale, Pizza Port Carlsbad Beech Street Bitter
• Category 55: Irish-Style Red Ale, Karl Strauss Brewing Co. Red Trolley Ale
• Category 68: Belgian-Style Strong Specialty Ale, Pizza Port Carlsbad Revelations
• Category 77: Scotch Ale, Pizza Port Carlsbad Reed’s Wee Heavy

Silver:

• Category 5: Herb and Spice or Chocolate Beer, Stone Brewing Co. Stone Smoked Porter with Chipotle
• Category 6: Coffee Flavored Beer, Pizza Port Carlsbad Coffee Monster
• Category 11: Other Strong Beer, Port Brewing Co. Panzer Pilsner
• Category 51: English-Style Mild Ale, Pizza Port Ocean Beach Skidmark Brown
• Category 56: English-Style Brown Ale, Pizza Port Carlsbad Good Grief Brown
• Category 76: Imperial Stout, Pizza Port Carlsbad Night Rider Imperial Stout

Bronze:

• Category 13: Out of Category – Traditionally Brewed Beer, Port Brewing Co. Hot Rocks Lager
• Category 16: American-Style Sour Ale, The Lost Abbey Red Poppy
• Category 58: American-Style India Black Ale, Stone Brewing Co. Stone Sublimely Self-Righteous Ale
• Category 71: Classic Irish-Style Dry Stout Pizza Port Carlsbad Port Truck Stout