December 10, 2009
Today they went through two casks of different recipes of Sculpin, and one cask of Victory at Sea. And this was a frigging regular Thursday. When Ihit it at 9:30 they still had the Craftsman sour, the RR IPA, adnd the Mission Dbl IPA. Last week on a random day they had the BA Xanus. Really?

October 30, 2009
One of my go-to bars in SD. It’s not perfect but I like it. Cons: Hot as hell in summer, but building owner can’t install AC without a major re-design. Is popular due to good beer, can get crazy packed, esp during their special events. Parking lot sucks, don’t even bother dealing with it, find street parking instead. Pros: While they keep their taps on the hoppy side, they do have a good rotating variety. Food is good pub food, and interesting. Special events, lots of ’em. Newsletter keeps you upto date 2 weeks in advance of what’s going on. Great green chairs. Knowledgable staff. If I were to improve: more taps, short draw system. Wider variety to take a short step away from hop-centric lists. In fact, I think they’ve outgrown their currently location, a bit bigger, more taps (double) would be really nice.

April 7, 2009
When I die, I want whatever is left my my soul to go here. Pure heaven! All kinds of excellent beers on tap, cool staff, and I love the strip mall faux Belgian style they did here! The faux vaulted ceilings make you forget you are in a strip mall.

March 14, 2009
Somewhat crowded for a Friday lunch time. Odd location in a strip mall, with plenty of parking. Comfy seats and a small bar. Awesome bottle selection that would make any ratebeerian salivate. Taps were awesome too. I had RR Benediction, Alpine Nelson, Karl Strauss Bourbon Aged Trippel, and there was a ton of other good stuff, but I was in a "new beer mood". I had a chicken sandwich on marble rye which was pretty good.

March 4, 2009
(Visited 07/2008): O’Brien’s is a small pub on the end cap of a strip mall off Balboa Ave, pretty much between the 805 and CA-163. The parking lot is fairly large.

The space is small with the bar along the left and seating on the right. There is also a small patio.

The beer selection is impressive, especially considering how small the bar is. The tap list includes beers from Stone, RR, Craftsman, Alaskan, Alpine, New Belgium, etc. A couple of the beers seemed to be limited in nature too. The bottle list had at least 100 beers available.

Service was good on a weekday early dinner. The bartenders were efficient and knew their beers.

No complaints about the pub grub either. My burger was tasty and enjoyable.

Overall it took me a few trips to SD to get around to visiting something other than a brewpub but I am glad I had a chance to make it here. I would absolutely visit here again just to see what new beers they have.

February 10, 2009
I only got to have one beer here, which made me very very sad. However, they were sporting a couple casks, Bloody Valentine, RR IPA, Kern River BA Stout, and sundry others that I didn’t see anywhere the whole weekend. Really dark, rather small, very stripmallish. A US tavern to the last detail.

February 10, 2009
This is one of the best beer bars in the Country. It is a hoppy place (pun intended). They ALWAYS have a great selection of craft brews with an emphasis on IPA’s. I’d go their more often but I live 1500 miles away

January 24, 2009
I like the feel of the beer, it’s not pretentious. I have only been there for special events, and it has always been very crowded. Excellent brews, some of the best I have had. I have not tried the food, but they serve the standard hamburgers, fries, etc. I recommended visiting O’Briens.

January 21, 2009
Visited the first day of RBSG2008. Relatively small spot with lots of good beer. Nice tap selection with fairly reasonable prices and a good bottle selection as well. Worth dropping by for a pint or two.

January 20, 2009
Cool place with good stuff on tap. A bit small inside. Double Cherry Red Poppy and new batch Angel’s Share gives a bump in the score.