11-11-11

Man what a whirl wind SDBW has been, with 3 days left we are not slowing down. Yesterday I got a bottle of Iron Fist "Resistance". Their Wild Ale aged 10 months in Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc barrels and bottled for 2 months of maturation. I am at a crossroad as to whether or not I should open it or save it for a big bottle share. Yesterday Jason and I had a bottle of Telegraph Petit Obscura from Telegraph Brewing while we watched the Chargers get smashed by the Raiders. Petit Obscura is another american wild Ale aged with Brettanomyces and Lactobacillus. Very good sour with a deep sour nose. It has a smooth drink and can probably drink a bottle or 2. 


Today I will be attending the Carrier Classic (Thanks Geoff). This is a College Basketball game pitting #1 North Carolina vs. Michigan St on the USS Carl Vinson. I cannot wait to watch Harrison Barnes play basketball in person. This is going to be an interesting game with the weather conditions outside. 66 degrees with a 20% chance of rain. Most kids do not play outdoor basketball anymore so it will be interesting to see the adjustments the players can make with the cold and the wind. 


After the game we will be attending the grilled cheese pairing with Karl Strauss at K&B Win Cellars in Del Cerro. This is the one beer week event that Sarah has been looking forward to so I am excited to get her out. After that we will be headed to Tipsy Crow if the weather permits. 

Beer Week Day 3

Yesterday we took a trip El Cajon Brewing Company and Mazanitas Brewing out in east county. I had the Shady Lane pale ale at ECBC. It was a decent pale ale. For lunch I had a deep fried burger stuffed with sausage and pepperoni. It was very good. I will go back to ECBC in hope that they will have more of their own beers. I have heard good things about the El Cajones IPA, unfortunately they were out of it.
After ECBC we went out to Santee to Manzanitas Brewing. It has taken me a while to get out their because I haven't heard anyone rave about it. After going out their I can see why. first off it was very small and extremely packed. Let's go ahead and chalk that one up to beer week. Hopefully when they move into the new building it will have a bigger tasting room. Again we went out their for the Chaotic IPA and Witches Hair pumpkin ale, and both were out. We enjoyed a flight of their 5 staple beers. None of which grabbed my attention, although Sarah really likes their Gillespie Brown. I will give them a try again when they get moved into the new building.
 Football day is here, you can find me every Sunday at Typhoon Saloon in PB among the masses of "Niner Nation". The 6-1 49ers take on the 3-4 Redskins. This is another one of those games that should be an easier win for the Niners, but we don't take anything for a given with this team. Frank Gore is looking for his 5th consecutive game of over 125 yards and a TD. The Niners have scored a rushing TD in all 7 games this year without allowing a rushing TD. Alex Smith continues to do just enough with the football and more importantly not turning it over.
After the Niner game we will head over to Taproom for their Ommegang event. I'm starting to become a fan of their beers. Open to suggestions for an event after that. Please leave a comment and let me know where you are headed.

Beer Week Day 1

Alright beer week is finally upon us. With over 450 beer centered events, this is one of the highlights of the year in San Diego. Today's agenda includes lunch at Blind Lady Ale House for the cask of Pizza Port flights. Pizza Port won Small and Large brewpub of the year at GACBF this year. The lineup for the flight is as followed: 


Poor Mans IPA – Double Imperial IPA, GABF Best in Show 9%
Hakuna Ma Tatas – Pink IPA brewed to benefit Breast Cancer Research 7.5%
Sharkbite Red – Red Ale with Centennial and Cascade Hops, 6.%
Whipper Snapper – Chinook Fresh Hop Pale Ale 5.6%
Port Truck Stout – Dry Irish style Stout, 4.5%
High Maintenance Blonde – Golden Blonde Ale, 5.3%

After Blind lady I will be making my way over to Sessions public for their sour event. This will be the first of many sour events I will be attending this week. Beers on tap for this event include Ommegang Aphrodite, Ballast Point Sour Wench, Craftmans Flanders Red and others. 

Next stop is Downtown Johnny Browns for their Barrel Aged event. This is one event I have been looking forward to. With an amazing tap list, Barrel aged beers are becoming some of my favorites. Here is a list of the kegs they will have tapped at DTJB.


Bruery Cuir
Lost Abbey Bourbon Angel Share
Port Older Viscosity
Kern River Brewery Class X Stout
Port Ad Lib
Rodenbach Grand Cru
Sierra Nevada Brewers Reserve 2010
New Belgium La Folie
Ballast Point Victory at Sea
Ballast Point Piper Down Scotch Ale
Ballast Point Sextant Stout
Ballast Point Three Sheets Barleywine
Ballast Point Navigator Doppelbock
Ballast Point Black Marlin
Allagash Curieux
Bellegem Bruin Flander
Verhaeghe Echte Kriekenbier


To finish off the night, I will be checking out the Griffen for the first time for SDDIALEDIN 5th anniversary  featuring one of my favorite bands, Fierce Creatures. This is a can't miss show for any music fans out there.

Guess Whose Back!

New computer is in and the blog is coming back with the start of San Diego Beer Week. 2 Pre Beer Week events going on tonight. Golden Road Brewing from Los Angeles will be at Tiger! Tiger! tonight. After that Making my way to The Linkery for Cask vs. Draft. Pictures and recap coming tomorrow morning along with a full list of my beer week events.

Coachella Weekend Day 1

Wow what a ride Coachella was this year. Honestly one of the best weekends of my life. So the weekend started on Thursday with the drive to Indio. Once we arrived in Indio we went to meet the rest of our group at Food 4 Less. We stocked up on our food and beer of choice for the weekend. Then tried to hide our growlers for the car check. We arrive at the Polo grounds at choose what we feel will be the fastest line of cars to get inside and try to set up camp before the sun goes down. An hour in and 12 pack later we are inside with the growlers safely hidden. We get camp set up just after sundown and the party had begun. We set up camp right next to some Australians that were party animals. Our first stop for the night was the roller skating rink. Courtasy of @logiebearsall we got hooked up with free skates. After about an hour of skating we went back to the campsite and continued partying and meeting the people around us. Friday started off with a DJ set from Tokimonsta and 12th planet. After 12th Planet I did 3 songs at !!!. They had amazing stage presence and really had the crowd moving. After that I made it over for 3 songs on Moving Units. Again a lot of energy on the stage along with a very talented lead singer. Omar Rodriguez Lopez was next on my list. I have seen him with The Mars Volta numerous times so I stayed until about 3:20 to get to the Sahara Tent for Skrillex. I am not one for this dubstep movement, but after seeing Skrillex I can finally say that I get it. He was my top preformance of night one. Pulsating beats and you can tell by watching him that he was enjoying himself just as much as the crowd was. About 2/3 through his set he gets on the mic and announces that he is gonna have some friends join him on stage for the next song. I thought to myself that it was going to be "From First to Last". Sonny Moore A.K.A "skrillex" first band. It was not but instead Jonathon Davis from Korn came out and preformed a new song that they said will be on their new album. After Skrillex, I made my way over the the outdoor stage for Warpaint. Warpaint was on a lot of peoples list as a must see up and coming band. They are 4 musically talented ladies from LA. After that it was time to relax in some shade and enjoy a cold beer. I wondered into the what I called the "Lack of beer garden". In this "Beer garden" you had the choice of Newcastle or Heineken. So I had a Heineken found some shade and listen to the sound guy shut off the sound of Cee Lo Green when he ran over his set time after arriving 30 minutes late. After my beer I made my way out among the masses again to get a good spot up close for Lauryn Hill. Again to my disappointment she asked the crowd if anyone was a fugee fan, making me think that pras and wyclef were going to come out and perform some songs. Instead she did them solo. Still this was a great show and left people knowing without a doubt that she still has it and when she chooses to is going to take over the female rap game. Next came Cold War Kids. Anyone that knows me knows that CWK are one of my favorite bands. It took so long to get over there from Lauryn Hill, I couldn't get as close to the stage as I would of liked. After half the set and my phone dead I decided to go over and drop my phone off at the charging station and watch the end of Sleigh Bells. What a great choice it was. Slamming bass and good looking girls running around on stage is just what I needed. Black Keys were my next choice. Touted as one of the best bands out right now I was very interested in seeing them. Sadly again the sound was just horrible. What made it even worse and harder to hear was the crowd chanting "turn it up". I decided to go get some food and attempt to listen to the rest of the set. Sadly you can tell on their faces on that they could tell the crowd was not into it. After my dinner, I went to watch Kings of Leon. I loved their first couple albums, their last album was not as good as previous stuff. I know bands have tendancies to play newer music. Kings of Leon however did not. They played a lot of old songs and really did put on an amazing show. After KOL I went to pick up my phone and stumbled upon Robyn. She had the crowd rocking and dancing for 11:45 at night after a long day of music. I retrieved my phone and headed back to camp. To my suprise their was no one back at camp yet. I deicided to relax in the tent and wait for everyone. Not to my suprise I feel asleep. Overall It was a great first day and was kind of glad I had got some rest for what was going to be an Epic Saturday.

Opening Day part 2

Today we get to celebrate our World Series title with the team for the 1st time. This of coarse is the pre party to Friday and Saturday in SF. The Giants take on the Padres right down the street and 3:35 cannot come soon enough. Today is the first look we will have at MadBum who had himself quite the awesome post-season last year. Starting for the Padres is Aaron Harrang making his first start in San Diego, which is also his hometown. If I remember I will post pictures from today. Also we have the opening of Hodads downtown and Mission Brewery tasting room downtown.

Ok so last night was the worst national championship game I have ever seen. 34.5 % shooting, 1-11 behind the arc, Those are UCONN stats 5-19 from Kemba. And those are stats from 2011 National Champions. 94 total points. Butler had a 6 point lead with 19:00 left and then decided to take their ball and go home. They just shut down as UConn outscored them by 18 in the 2nd half to end Butler season the same way last season ended. Watching a Big Time program cut down the nets. I will congratulate the Huskies, Winning 11 straight knockout games from the Big East Tourney, all the way through the madness of March and on to a National Championship.

So todays bets are

Bos -145
ChiSox - 117
SF -128

Good Luck to the lady Irish as they look to win the women's National Championship tonight!

World Series Jitters??

Now I am not going to panic. We dropped 3 out of 4 to the hated Dodgers. 5 Errors cost us the first 2 games. Then on Saturday a 10-0 smash job showed the potential this lineup has. here is my breakdown of the first weekend and we get ready to celebrate on Tuesday as the boys come visit me in SD and we get the ball rolling.
1. Pat the Bat....after going 0-11 with 9 strikeouts in the World Series, Pat has started the season 2-14 with 2 Home Runs. I think he has to be the odd man out when Ross the boss comes back. Huff goes back to left witch in that ballpark is easier to play. Pat goes to the bench as a pitch hitter when he need a HR.
2. Starting pitching the first 3 starters combined for allowing 2 ER. Zito gives up 3 in the first inning then retired the next 14 batters. You have to admire Zito passion to go out there and compete. There are going to be nerves, there are going to be jitters, playing in the most hostile environment for the Giants and Zito is public punchingbag #1. His next start will come at home and we will see what he is made of.
3. Tejada - first 2 games he bats at the back of the lineup and goes 1-8. Saturday he leads off with Torres getting a rest and Rowand playing center. Tiggy goes 2-5 with 2 R and 2 RBI. Sunday he goes back to the bottom of the lineup 1-4 and ended a rally in the 7th with a greedy hack at a pitch at his ankles following 3 consecutive walks. You cannot hack like that especially as a veteran. I would like to see Brandon Crawford or Ehire Adrianza get hot and press the issue of calling one of them up. There is no other SS on the current bench.

Tonight we have the National Championship game pitting Butler making their 2nd consecutive National Title game vs. University of Kemba Walker. Kemba Walker will without a doubt be the best player on the court, but Butler is talented and as they are proving the best coached team in the tournament. UConn has playing in 10 knockout games in a row and just keep winning. a Kemba flop got them past SDSU. Tonight I think the run for UConn finally ends. I think Butler wins the game outright.

Todays plays are
Butler +3.5
Butler over 129.5
NYY -145
STL -150
Atl/Mil ov 8.5