Hamiltons Tavern » News

Green Flash Hamilton’s Ale wins big!

sblair — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 15:49:32 +0000

http://gbbf.camra.org.uk/942

Rest Well Don Younger!

sblair — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 17:31:46 +0000

I’m sad to say one of the pioneers in our industry passed away earlier this week, Don Younger, Proprietor of the Horse Brass Pub. For about as close to the time I have been alive Mr. Younger has been instrumental in promoting good beer in what was truly the early renaissance of our industry. He really was one of the last pioneers with his “Public House” during the budding craft beer scene in the 80′s and continued to set the bar being a true inspiration to folks like me. He certainly will be missed. http://www.horsebrass.com/

Green Flash and Hamilton’s 4th Anniversary Ale

sblair — Sat, 04 Dec 2010 17:34:08 +0000

We are down to our last keg of our 4th Anniversary Ale which is a Fire Roasted Pumpkin Ale from Green Flash. Dennis and Sam went up and brewed it and we provided a massive amount of pumpkin.

Here is what Chuck Silva had to say about the beer:

I wanted to make it taste like beer not like pumpkin pie as so many do.

Here’s how it came together. First of all our brewer Ryan Pearson submitted one of his old homebrew recipes since Green Flash had never made such a brew much less myself. The grist is mainly Munich and Caramunich malts which gave the beer its terrific orange-copper color and toasted malt flavor. In keeping with a Green Flash flavor profile we used a higher than average hop rate with East Kent Golding hops and we used our house yeast, California Ale. Next consideration was how to use the pumpkin. First we added cooked pumpkin pulp to the mash, we stirred it right in. Second addition was fresh, fire-roasted local pumpkin that I hand picked in Escondido. The pumpkin was roasted over Mesquite charcoal, pureed with some wort drawn from the mash then added directly to the boil kettle. Not done yet! I felt like some spice was still in order and to compliment the fire-roasted character I dry roasted the spices (2 parts ginger, 2 parts cinnamon, and 1 part cloves) on the stovetop in a skillet. Spices were added to the whirlpool. Yet one more addition of pumpkin for complexity was added directly to the fermenter, caramelized with brown sugar, brandy and fresh grated nutmeg.

This all resulted in a surprisingly subtle and clean ale accented by the dry roasted spices and fire-roasted pumpkin. Some faint hints of smokiness come through the toasted malt flavors and are accented by a bit of English hop character. This easy drinking flavorful brew is known as “Hamilton’s 4th Anniversary Fire-Roasted Pumpkin Ale”.

San Diego Rocks!

sblair — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 21:19:09 +0000

SAN DIEGO WINNERS!

GABF 2010

Large Brewpub and Large Brewpub Brewer of the Year
Sponsored by Brewers Supply Group

Pizza Port Carlsbad, Carlsbad, CA
Pizza Port Brew Guys

Small Brewpub and Small Brewpub Brewer of the Year
Sponsored by Briess Malt & Ingredients Co.

Pizza Port San Clemente, San Clemente, CA

Category 44: English-Style India Pale Ale (32 Entries) GOLD Beech Street Bitter
Pizza Port Carlsbad
Carlsbad, CA

Category 5: Herb and Spice or Chocolate Beer (91 Entries) SILVER Stone Smoked Porter with Chipotle
Stone Brewing Co.
Escondido, CA

Category 6: Coffee Flavored Beer (52 Entries) Silver Coffee Monster
Pizza Port Carlsbad
Carlsbad, CA Category 47: American-Style India Pale Ale (142 Entries) GOLD “Pseudo” IPA
Pizza Port San Clemente
San Clemente, CA

Category 48: Imperial India Pale Ale (97 Entries) GOLD Doheny Double IPA
Pizza Port San Clemente
San Clemente, CA

Category 51: English-Style Mild Ale (27 Entries) Silver Skidmark Brown
Pizza Port Ocean Beach
San Diego, CA

Category 11: Other Strong Beer (48 Entries)

SILVER

Panzer Pilsner
Port Brewing Co.
San Marcos, CA

Category 13: Out of Category – Traditionally Brewed Beer (66 Entries) GOLD Fathom IPL
Ballast Point Brewing Co.
San Diego, CABronze

Hot Rocks Lager
Port Brewing Co.
San Marcos, CA

Category 55: Irish-Style Red Ale (23 Entries)

Gold Red Trolley Ale
Karl Strauss Brewing Co.
San Diego, CA

Category 16: American-Style Sour Ale (39 Entries) BRONZE Red Poppy
The Lost Abbey
San Marcos, CA

Category 56: English-Style Brown Ale (46 Entries)

Silver

Good Grief Brown
Pizza Port Carlsbad
Carlsbad, CA

Category 58: American-Style India Black Ale (53 Entries)

bronze

Stone Sublimely Self-Righteous Ale
Stone Brewing Co.
Escondido, CA

Category 68: Belgian-Style Strong Specialty Ale (54 Entries)

GOLD Revelations
Pizza Port Carlsbad
Carlsbad, CA

Category 71: Classic Irish-Style Dry Stout (23 Entries) Bronze Port Truck Stout
Pizza Port Carlsbad
Carlsbad, CA

Category 76: Imperial Stout (50 Entries) Silver Night Rider Imperial Stout
Pizza Port Carlsbad
Carlsbad, CA Category 77: Scotch Ale (34 Entries) GOLD Reed’s Wee Heavy
Pizza Port Carlsbad
Carlsbad, CA

2010World Beer Cup

Category 11: Other Strong Beer, 44 entries
Silver: Green Flash Stout, Green Flash Brewing Co., Vista, CA

Category 13: Out of Category – Traditionally Brewed Beer, 47 entries
Gold: Fathom IPL, Ballast Point Brewing Co., San Diego, CA
Silver: Hot Rocks Lager, Port Brewing Co., San Marcos, CA

Category 16: Wood- and Barrel-Aged Beer, 32 entries
Gold: Bourbon Barrel Aged Piper Down, Ballast Point Brewing Co., San Diego, CA

Category 59: English-Style Brown Ale, 46 entries
Silver: Longboard Brown, Rock Bottom Brewery – La Jolla, La Jolla, CA

Category 64: Scotch Ale, 38 entries
Gold: AleSmith Wee Heavy, AleSmith Brewing Co., San Diego, CA
Bronze: Reed’s Wee Heavy, Pizza Port Carlsbad, Carlsbad, CA

Category 33: German-Style Doppelbock or Eisbock, 43 entries
Gold: Broken Skeg, Breakwater Brewing Co., Oceanside, CA

Category 40: Baltic-Style Porter, 28 entries
Bronze: Token, Alpine Beer Co., Alpine, CA

Category 45: Belgian-Style Flanders/Oud Bruin or Oud Red Ale, 20 entries
Silver: Red Poppy, The Lost Abbey, San Marcos, CA

Category 48: Belgian-Style Pale Strong Ale, 33 entries
Silver: Revelations, Pizza Port Carlsbad, Carlsbad, CA

Category 75: South German-Style Weizenbock/Weissbock, 27 entries
Bronze: AleSmith Decadence 2009, AleSmith Brewing Co., San Diego, CA

Category 76: Irish-Style Red Ale, 26 entries
Gold: Red Trolley Ale, Karl Strauss Brewing Co., San Diego, CA
Bronze: Ragtop Red, Rock Bottom Brewery – La Jolla, La Jolla, CA

Category 77: Classic Irish-Style Dry Stout, 22 entries
Silver: Port Truck Stout, Pizza Port Carlsbad, Carlsbad, CA

Category 81: American-Style Strong Pale Ale, 59 entries
Gold: O’Brien’s IPA, Alpine Beer Co., Alpine, CASilver: Hop Bomb IPA, Rock Bottom Brewery – Bellevue, Bellevue, WA

Category 82: American-Style India Pale Ale, 104 entries
Bronze: Duet, Alpine Beer Co., Alpine, CA

Category 84: American-Style Amber/Red Ale, 66 entries
Gold: Rudolph’s Red, Rock Bottom Brewery – La Jolla, La Jolla, CA

Category 85: Imperial Red Ale, 32 entries
Bronze: Shark Attack, Pizza Port Solana Beach, Solana Beach, CA

Category 88: American-Style Stout, 31 entries
Gold: Black Magic Stout, Oggi’s Pizza & Brewing Co., San Clemente, CA
Silver: Sticky Stout, Pizza Port Carlsbad, Carlsbad, CA

Category 90: International Pale Ale, 28 entries
Gold: Sculpin IPA, Ballast Point Brewing Co., San Diego, CA
Brewers Association World Beer Cup 2010 Champion Brewery
Small Brewing Company Category
Ballast Point Brewing Company, San Diego, CA
Ballast Point Brewers

Eleven…. One More..

karen — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 16:38:19 +0000

Eleven.. Im sure a few people have heard whispers, rumors, innuendos etc about the new spot up in Normal Heights. Yes, we took over what use to be the Radio Room, Zombie Lounge, and Little Equity. We we’re real excited about what we could do in the space and after a ridiculous feet dragging ride with Sacramento we’ve finally completed our work on the space and are all good to go. I couldn’t be more proud of what we’ve done (about 8 weeks of work in 4). We had a vision for it 5 months ago and we nailed it. Those who are familiar with the space WONT recognize it J We have about 17 handles of draft beer on our bitchin/unique tap tower (dennis demanded we do) which is show casing great beer and our fabulous Eleven Lager (brewed locally), we have a full bar (with emphasis on bang for buck), games, Jukebox and live music even a BBQ/Matinee show once a week! We’ve got 2 house bands planned that we’ll be rotating on a fixed night weekly and of course will have live music a few times a week but NOT 7 nights a week. We will have beer events and of course cask ale.

Louis Mello is our General Manager and pretty much will be running the show/working with me while Dennis and I continue to focus on Hamiltons and Small Bar. We’ve coined Eleven as “YOUR Neighborhood Rock and Roll Joint!” Our grand opening weekend will start August 26^th however, we will be open for the North Park Music Thing starting 2morrow. Im sure there is a couple speed bumps involved in the first week but this aint our first rodeo so J I would suggest following eleven on Facebook, email list (karen@elevensandiego.com) and our web (once josh gets that going – hopefully soon!). Lastly, why Eleven? Well, it’s “one more” isn’t it? If you don’t get the reference go to Netflix now and rent Spinal Tap. Nuff Said..

Myself, Louis, Dennis, Willy, Karen, The Justins, Mattie and a myriad of other volunteers worked their asses off to strip down and rebuild and I couldn’t be happier for the consolidated effort and enthusiasm in the project let alone the tireless work ethic. I’ve always prided myself on the ambassadors we have in our family and it’s times like these that exemplifies our luck.

Hamilton’s Smooth from Portland Maine

Blair — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 00:33:16 +0000

Denno recently returned from Portland, Maine where he was brewing Hamilton’s Smooth a west coast hopped pub ale (think San Diego meets Boddington). If you recall last memorial day we launched our inaugural Shipyard Lobster Bake for firkin Friday. This year we decided to go brew a beer to release for the event so Dennis went north east to ’get’r done’. Dennis recaps:7am (4am San Diego time!)Federal Jacks brew pub –the home of Shipyard brewingAfter a night on the town of Portland Maine, sampling the fine English style ales that Shipyard Brewing had to offer, I went back to my room to sleep for what seemed like 45 min. then up at 6am (which is 3 san Diego time—about the time I usually am going to bed!) a scenic 20 min. drive and I am in Kennebunk –a cute seaside new England town.The brewery at Federal Jacks is a 7 bl, open fermentation system. They have 5 fermentation tanks. During the busy season they will brew 2 batches a day 7 days a week!With brewers Mike and Paul, I was the brewery monkey, helping with all aspects of the brewing process. We milled in the grain–steeped it– then transferred it to the kettle. With 3 hop additions of “West Coast” hops. This isn’t going to be a Boddingtons clone!Shipyard uses a very healthy strain of English yeast. While transferring the wort thru a heat exchanger to the open fermentation tanks, we scooped off some yeast from the top of a brew that had been bubbling away for 3 days. We added that yeast to about a gallon of our wort and within 45 min. it had rose and was spilling over a 5 gallon bucket! Now that was some happy healthy yeast.We pitched the yeast and continued to do the never ending cleaning that is required to keep a brewery ship shape. By the time we were done cleaning, the top of the tank already showed signs of fermentation. Then it was time to go upstairs and drink some of the other fine beers that Shipyard produces.Going to Maine to help brew this special beer for Hamiltons was a great experience. The people I met were all friendly and made me feel right at home. I cant wait for Memorial Day weekend to get to drink this beer with all of you!” Denno

Congrats WBC

Blair — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 16:26:46 +0000

http://worldbeercup.org/winners.html