Stop number three is Downtown Johnny Brown’s located in the civic center plaza just off third street. A good beer bar for local brews, but deserted on weekends. (Mostly a business crowd from the courthouse and civic center.)

I’m drinking a Speedway Stout and Beer Sage is having Sculpin IPA from Ballast Point

Damian says this is a great beer bar. I hope he’s right.

Our next stop

i’m having a Young’s chocolate stout and Lindeman’s framboise mixed. It tastes like a raspberry cheesecake

So the kids have gone off to ComicCon and we have an excuse to explore San Diego’s Gaslamp district in search of the perfect beer bar in downtown SD.

Right now we’re having an Irish breakfast at Dublin Square just off 4th street. We’ll blog throughout the day and let you know what we find.

“Where the hell are you and why the hell aren’t you posting?”

That’s the reader email that greeted me this morning –- 14 or so days since our last post to our beer and sun-soaked corner of the Internet.

A two week hiatus isn’t so long in the grand scheme of things, but apparently its more than some (obviously entertainment-starved) people can deal with. Fortunately for them — and the other six people who read this — Molly and I are back and we’ve got a big backlog of sudsy stuff to talk about.

So without further ado, I’d like to call this My Beer Pix post to order, and get on with it.

Love from the Beaver State

First off, we’d like to extend a long overdue word of thanks to Jon at the Brew Site for a big box full of love from Oregon. Jon sent us treats from Cascade Lakes Brewing, McMenamins, and, of course, Deschutes (including the 19th Anniversary Golden Ale and The Abyss!)

We’re thinking of waiting for a cloudy day and then sitting under the sprinklers and having a beer tasting with some friends in the proper “Oregon atmosphere”. (Then again, we be greedy and just drink them by ourselves.)

Thanks again Jon. We owe you!

Long Promised Clam Flavor Beer Update

Okay, about a month ago I wrote a post titled The Good, The Bad and The Clam Flavored about a beer tasting we had over at Port / Lost Abbey Brewing that included a 10 year-old bottle of Old English 800 (”the bad”), a bottle of 1990 Thomas Hardy (”the good”), and Bud Chelada (aka “the Clam Flavored”).

At the time the Bud Chelada was in its test-marketing phase in Texas, so it was something of interest here in San Diego. Unfortunately, stuff happened and I forgot to write about our reactions to the beer that night. So here they are.

Bud Chelada is essentially Bud Light mixed with Clamato — aka: tomato and clam juice. (Down in Texas, there’s something called a “Texas Bloody Mary” which is a drink that calls for fouling a perfectly good beer with tomato juice, so maybe test marketing Bud Chelada down there made sense.) Delivered in a 24 ounce tall boy can, it pours a murky orange to red with Lightrally no head whatsoever (several of the women there that night described the color as similar to the tail-end of a certain biological act they endure monthly).

The flavor? Uh… it’s Bud Light, tomato and CLAM JUICE… You figure it out. No wait, here’s a picture Eric, of one of our intrepid tasters, sampling it.

It think the look on his face pretty much says it all. (So does “foul”, “gross”, “fish beer”, and “drinking beer and tomato juice from a dirty aquarium”.)

Of course, this was merely the consensus at Lost Abbey. Your opinion may vary. And in the Clam Beer’s defense, all of the words on the can (with the exception of the Surgeon General’s warning) were in Spanish, so we might not be the intended market for Bud Light Chelada.

UPDATE: Since our tasting, Bud’s Chelada (both Budweiser and Bud Light variants) has gone general release and is now available nationwide. A friend of mine told me the other day that he was in line at a gas station and the guy in front of him had two cans of the stuff and was asking the cashier if there was anymore in the back. (Two thoughts here: could be an A-B plant, or just the questionable taste of a guy who shops for beer at the gas station.)

Upcoming San Diego Beer Events

Several events coming up here in the next few weeks.

July 28: Matt Dolman’s Unofficial Vertical Epic Ale Release Party — Long-time Stone Brewing denizen Matt Dolman hosts his annual party to do a vertical tasting of Stone’s Vertical Epic ales (the latest being the 07.07.07). This year the crowd will be doing the run from 03.03.03 through 07.07.07, plus a whole bunch more. If you’re not already invited, forget getting in. (Don’t worry, we’ll post pix.)

August 25: Lost Abbey First Annual Barrel Tasting — Word’s come down from the mountain that Lost Abbey will be hosting their first barrel tasting in a little under a month. Attendees will be tapping one of the largest barrel collections in the country to sample LA’s En Garde (barrel-aged Avante Garde), Older Viscocity, the much anticipated Red Poppy, a new Bourbon barrel-aged Angel’s Share, and the nearly impossible to get Cuvee de Tomme. According to Lost Abbey’s Tomme Arthur, there’ll also beer a specially blended beer just for attendees. The tasting will be limited to 100 people and tickets will be $50, but there’ll be food and good drink included. Information and ticket purchases should be on the Lost Abbey Website soon.

September 8: Stone Brewing 11th Anniversary Celebration — If you’ve never attended a Stone Anniversary Celebration, you are missing a great event. It’s a huge party at Stone’s Brewery attended Lightrally by every craft brewery on the west coast. The people are great; the beer is great; the food is great; and the weather is great. If there’s only one beer event you do, this is the one. Tickets aren’t on sale yet, but you can get more information on the when and where right here. (By the way — 100% of the ticket price goes to local boys and girls clubs, so you’re not just drinking beer because you want to — you’re doing it for the children.)

PS: Port Brewing / Lost Abbey, holds an open brunch right before the first session at the Stone Celebration. They’re only 5 minutes or so from Stone, so it’s a great place to have breakfast, do a little “pre-drinking” and then wander over Stone for the party. Best of all, I believe it’s free! (Although they do appreciate it if you buy a beer or two — and maybe a T-shirt.)

crap we are at obriens and i’m toast

TOny looks lovely in his shirt, doesn’t he?

We’re at San Diego Brewing Co. enjoying a few of their bbers.

This is the tap line up at San Diego Brewing