A Public Apology: June 24th, 2010 from stonebrew on Vimeo.

The Pizza Ports

After a long delay (I heard once that it was opening in October 2009), Pizza Port is opening their fourth, and perhaps most anticipated, location in Ocean Beach tonight, May 14 at 5pm.

Here’s the announcement as it went out Pizza Port cousin Port Brewing/Lost Abbey’s Facebook page:

Word just came from Gina that our Pizza Port cousins will finally be opening the new Ocean Beach brewpub tonight (Friday, May 14) at 5pm. Be one of the first to pick up a pint of Pizza Port brew and you can get a
“I drank the first brew T-shirt”
for only $10!

Pizza Port Ocean Beach is located at
1956 Bacon St. San Diego (corner of Bacon and Santa Monica)
Tel number is (619) 224-4700.

We’re a good 40 minutes from Ocean Beach, but knowing the area, I can’t help but think this is going to be a very, very popular location. If you get a chance, you definitely need to check the place out.

Here’s the location on Google Maps:

View Larger Map

Green Flash Brewing Co

I had read that Green Flash Brewing Co. was open all week for tastings and tours for San Diego Beer Week, so I headed over after work.

Green Flash Brewery Draft List

Grant was nice enough to pour  me a few tasters.  30th Street Pale Ale, Gruit (a hopless herb beer), Hop Head Red, West Coast IPA, Palate Wrecker Double IPA, Imperial IPA and Coffee Stout.   I was not impressed with the Gruit, but I did have it after the 30th Street.  Next time I need to try it before something so hoppy.

On Thursday JSix Restaurant hosted The Lost Abbey Original Art Show.   They were displaying the original artwork that is featured on the Lost Abbey labels.  You could see up close just how disturbing the Inferno label really is.  To make it eaven better, they were pouring samples ( Duck Duck Gooze, Cuvee de Tomme, Angel’s Share, Carnavale…hell..they had a better selection than the brewery had) and they were serving appetizers.

Jsix Art & Beer 1

Jsix Art & Beer 2

Jsix Art & Beer 3

"Once I caught a fish thiiiiis big."

Angel's Share..mmm

BLAH's Green Flash Tap List

Little Freak from Green Flash

The next stop was the Blind Lady Ale House.  I decided on a Green Flash Little Freak and like it; very refreshing.  Then off to The Ritual Tavern…again.  I thought I took a picture there too…but maybe that was Wednesday.

The Ritual Tavern

After a long-ass day I stopped at the Ritual Tavern and rewarded myself with an Armada Imperial IPA, a collaboration brew from Mission Brewery and Dean Rouleau of San Diego Brewing Co.

Armada Imperial IPA - Collaboration brew from Mission Brewery and Dean Rouleau of San Diego Brewing Co.

Armada Imperial IPA - Collaboration brew from Mission Brewery and Dean Rouleau of San Diego Brewing Co.

Toronado San Diego

A short walk and I was at Toronado…along with everyone else in San Diego.   As usual I did not get close to tasting all that was available on draft.  BLAH’s Lee Chase spewed a list of recommended beers and I ended up with a New Belgium Le Terroir.

New Belgium's Draft List

Le Terroir - New Belgium

A couple of Blind Pigs - Russian River Brewing

My night-cap was a pint of Russian River’s Blind Pig IPA.

Help cover SD Beer Week

With well over 200 events for San Diego Beer Week (begins tomorrow!), there’s no way our intrepid reporters can cover the happenings as thoroughly as we’d like, so we’re solicting folks who will be here to help us cover the event(s) as widely as possible (for posterity, of course).

If you’re going to be in town and attending SDBW events, we’d be pleased to make you a special reporter for MyBeerPix.com. Basically, all you need is a camera (or cameraphone). The ability to type a few words is helpful, but not required.

If you’d like to be one of our SD Beer Week reporters, just complete the form below and we’ll send you instructions on posting to the website.

cforms contact form by delicious:days

Even if I had that much Duck Duck there’s no way I’d be giving it to you for free. But it did get you here, which was my intent all along.

And now for my real, much more nefarious, purpose:

Dan from the Full Pint

The slightly blurry gentleman (and I use the term loosely) to the left is Dan of The Full Pint fame.

Dan recently blasted out an email asking everyone to vote for what they thought was the best brewery in Southern California, an email I had planned on ignoring, right up until Lisa from Green Flash blasted her email list asking everyone to vote for them.

Well, that and I went to thefullpint.com and found that the graphic Dan is using to represent Southern California a) pretty much defines Southern California as “everything south of San Francisco”, and b) uses the USC logo to represent Southern California.

(Side note: As a Berkeley grad, I happen to know that all you need to do to get a master’s degree at USC is drive your Mercedes across campus without hitting anything. But whatever — that’s UCLA’s problem.)

(Extra side note: Stanford sucks.)

…But I digress.

Anyway, checking the website now, I see that Green Flash is leading the vote, no doubt due entirely to Lisa’s email ballot box stuffing. So I am calling on the countless dozens of readers of this blog to do your own ballot box stuffing and vote for Port Brewing/Lost Abbey as the best craft brewery in Southern California.

As many of you may know, my wife, Terri — aka: “Beer Molly” — is the tasting room / special events manager at the brewery (some would call her Evita Perón with 16 taps of great beer), so I have a vested interest in PB/LA winning this thing.

Plus Dan’s wife is about to have a baby, and she’s pressuring him to get one of those “real jobs” so many wives of craft beer enthusiasts are always talking about (not really sure what that is). So a big bump to him would allow him say, “See honey, I need to drink this beer. People are looking to me.”

Plus, I believe in old school bare-knuckle, vote buying politics. If Port/Lost Abbey wins and you come into the tasting room, look me up and tell me you voted for the brewery. I’ll buy you a beer.

No, it won’t be a Duck Duck Gooze, but it’ll be a pint of something you can count on being great.

» Click here to vote for the best craft brewery in SoCal

Last year's GABF haul - a lot of beer to drink

This week the MyBeerPix crew will be fanning out to two of the world’s great beer festivals and sharing what goes on with you.

Molly, Adam and I are heading out to the Great American Beer Festival this morning (Wednesday, Sept. 23) and will using our vast craft brewing influence to muscle our way into places and get you all the best reports from the show floor, many of the events, and occasionally the street (it happens).

You can follow us on Twitter (@mybeerpix, @beermolly, @heatmizer and @bluntsage), or by subscribing to our RSS feed right here. We’ll also be hitting a couple of GABF Tweetups, so make sure to say hi if you see us. #GABF, #GABFTweetup

Half a world away, Matt Dolman will be plundering Lower Saxony and hitting the original beerfest, Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany.

Beyond simply wearing dirndls and soaking up the suds, our intrepid foreign correspondent will be taking a bicycle tour of Germany for several days (conveniently beginning and ending at Oktoberfest). He’s on the tour with our good friend Ivan Derezin, owner of Churchill’s Pub and Grill.

Word is Matt’s phone doesn’t work in the EU, but you’ll be able to follow all his adventures right here. (hint: subscribe to the RSS feed.) #oktoberfest

Looking forward to the adventure! Hope you follow along, because it’s about to start in 2 hours or so!

Alpine Beer's Pat Mcilhenney (l), Port/Lost Abbey's Tomme Arthur, and Avery Brewing's Adam Avery (r)

Apparently some people can get Cable Car whenever they want it.