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know I promised a stop-by-stop preview, but I’ve been so busy with some final preparations that I’m going to have to do it in abbreviated form, with a couple of special goings-on that might interest people:
- O’Brien’s: cask Alpine Duet IPA, more hoppy beers than anyone else
- AleSmith: cask vintage Wee Heavy, "a special version of" Speedway Stout
- Ballast Point: quick stop, just enough time for 10 or 12 beers on tap
- The Linkery: cask beer TBD, some fine-ass slow food cookin’ and local beers
- Ritual Tavern: Happy Hour $3.50 pints, cask Ballast Point Big Eye IPA, tasty corner grill/English pub grub.
- Toronado-San Diego: Toronado 20th? Cable Car? If you’re lucky. Yummy sausages.
- Hamilton’s Tavern: Cask Green Flash Le Freak and/or Ballast Point Whiskey Barrel Sea Monster Stout. Eclectic beer, eclectic pub grub.
- Port Brewing/Lost Abbey: Tomme Arthur wants to crush his competition. Cuvee de Tomme and Bourbon Angel’s Share (among others) for sale. Buy glassware!
- Pizza Port-Carlsbad: Private outdoor party zone for all of our shenanigans. Jockey box for kegs. And oh yeah-- they make some pretty good beers too. Bring glassware!
- Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens: Not to be outdone. . . Bourbon Russian Imperial Stout, Bourbon Old Guardian, Brandy Double Bastard ’06 (for growler fills too), 5-6 different Anniversaries, various small-batch one-offs, and an assortment of bottles. And food.
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And just so we have an idea of how this thing is gonna go down, here are some head counts. . .
Friday - 53 people, joining at some time or another
Saturday - 72 for Lost Abbey, 86 for the Grand Tasting
Sunday - 37 for Stone (although I suspect that number will rise [mostly from locals] now that the word is out about some of the beers available)
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that sounds lame Chris.
It would sound more fun if I was still in El Centro, but that is the only thing that makes the 4 weeks I spent in El Centro fun...there will certainly be a lack of shenanigans, and/or hijinks.
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Plus, because New York is hours ahead, it will be like shenanigans and hijinks that happen in the future...let your brain cook that shit for a second...yeah.........shit is going to happen at the same time but in the future.......if that isn’t the ultimate shenanigan or hijink, I don’t know what is.
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A couple of quick Public Service Announcements. . .
EVERYONE!! Do yourselves a favor and look at the food menus for each of the places in North Park - The Linkery, Ritual Tavern, Toronado, and Hamilton’s. We’re going to drop people off at different places at 5:30 when the bus ends the Friday run, so you should know in advance where you’re going to want to eat.
Food is pretty good at all places, but it ranges fairly drastically in price and composition. The Linkery is the most expensive at about $20-30 per person (and is a sit-down restaurant [and is probably where I’ll be going]); Ritual Tavern is next down the line, with a mixture of sit-down dining and bar space (at about $15-22 per person); Hamilton’s is a "neighborhood bar"-type place with some seating and about $10-14 per person; Toronado is a straight-up bar with sausages for about $5-8 per person.
LOCALS!! Please bring glassware to the Grand Tasting! We’ll have *some*, but probably not *enough*. . . I usually take 4 or 5 myself, by the end of the night (doh!)
EVERYONE AGAIN!!! We still could use help with clean-up on Saturday night at the end of the Grand Tasting. A few generous souls have volunteered, but if we don’t get at least 5-6 more folks to come out up front, we’re just going to have to shut it down and ask everyone to start cleaning up once things get late and the crowd starts thinning out. I’m not mopping up all of your vomit by myself.
AGAIN!! EVERYONE!!! WAIT!!! Please, no vomit. It’s going to be a crazy weekend, but that doesn’t mean you have to go overboard at ANY of the festivities. There will be no shortage of great beer, so just relax and enjoy yourselves, and slowly take it in. Please remember that we’re going to be mingling at most of these places with the local crowd of regular patrons, and the last thing we want to do is make all RateBeerians look like drunken, obnoxious assholes.
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Also a couple of quick updates about some little things:
LODGING:
I just called both the Motel 6 in Hotel Circle and the Motel 6 in Carlsbad, and both places still have rooms available, even outside of my blocks of room reservations. Some of those are no doubt smoking rooms, and some are single-bed rooms, but for those lazy stragglers who have not signed up yet, you still have a chance to join in and stay at these not-so-luxurious digs. Addresses/phone numbers, one more time, are 2424 Hotel Circle N., San Diego - (619) 296-1612
for Hotel Circle (Friday night) and 1006 Carlsbad Village Dr., Carlsbad - (760) 434-7135 for Carlsbad (Saturday night).
TRANSPORTATION/ITINERARY:
Here is The Official Itinerary as it stands right now, with a few minor tweaks from what I had outlined before:
Friday, August 1st
(10:30 AM – 1:15 PM) O’Brien’s Pub (15-minute drive to next stop)
(1:30 PM – 3:00 PM) AleSmith Brewing Co. (15 min. to next stop)
(3:15 PM – 4:15 PM) Ballast Point Brewing Co. (30 min. to next stop)
(4:45 PM – 5:00 PM) Motel 6 – Hotel Circle (30 min. to next stop)
(5:30 PM – 2:00 AM) North Park Pub Crawl !!!
(Open-ended visits to Toronado – San Diego, Ritual Tavern, The Linkery, and Hamilton’s Tavern)
Saturday, August 2nd
(10:30 AM) Bus departure from Motel 6 – Hotel Circle (15 min. to next stop)
(10:45 AM – 10:55 AM) O’Brien’s Pub for 2nd pick-up (35 min. to next stop)
(11:30 AM – 3:00 PM) Lost Abbey/Port Brewing (30 min. to next stop)
(3:30 PM – 3:55 PM) Motel 6 – Carlsbad (5-minute walk to next stop)
(4:00 PM – 12:00 AM) Pizza Port-Carlsbad/RBSG Grand Tasting
Sunday, August 3rd
(10:30 AM) Bus departure from Motel 6 – Carlsbad (30 min. to next stop)
(11:00 AM – 2:45 PM) Stone Brewing Bistro & World Gardens (45 min. to next stop)
(3:30 PM) Final farewells at Motel 6 – Hotel Circle
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BUS RIDERS!!
I have previously mentioned two "bonus" stops on Saturday to help work out some kinks for specific individuals who may require some help but wanted to sign up for the bus transportation:
1) Adding a stop on Saturday morning at O’Brien’s (after Motel 6 and before Lost Abbey) to drop off people who left their cars in the neighborhood overnight (PLEASE DO NOT LEAVE YOUR CAR IN THE O’BRIEN’S PARKING LOT OVERNIGHT!! IT MAY BE TOWED!). This stop can also serve as a secondary pick-up point for those folks who wish to be picked up there instead of at the Motel 6 in Hotel Circle.
2) Adding a stop on Saturday morning at Motel 6-Carlsbad (after Lost Abbey and with an immediate return back to Lost Abbey), to pick up those folks who just got their cars at O’Brien’s, and wanted to drive them up to Carlsbad to drop them off (and possibly check in to the hotel). The bus would go to Motel 6-Carlsbad immediately after dropping off people at Lost Abbey, and these people would probably arrive at Lost Abbey about an hour late for the Lost Abbey party (with still plenty of time to spare). This stop can also serve as a tertiary pick-up point for those folks who wish to be picked up there instead of at Motel 6 in Hotel Circle or O’Brien’s.
If you would like us to make either/both of these extra stops, I need to hear from you ASAP, like at least by Friday. We’d just as soon have the bus driver pass on both stops if nobody is going to take advantage of them, or if the parties who were previously interested have worked out other arrangements so that this is no longer a concern. We’ll save a little on fuel costs by eliminating either stop or both stops, and that will make it more likely that we could throw a little money back to the group in the form of extra amenities or whatnot.
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If I can get off work early enough on friday, I will probably hit up Alesmith while you guys are there and maybe go to Ballast afterwards since it’s so close.
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Im gonna get fucking ripped and arrested. Who’s with me????
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I have a serious beer boner
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Are you going to cite obsure laws when held against your will and freak out the 4ft. tall security guards??
And yeah, I’ll be at Alesmith on Friday...
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