Padraic “Paddy” Lenehan is the Bar Manager at Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens. He’s got a big weekend coming up with Stone Winter Storm on Super Bowl Sunday, but we were able to catch up with him for five quick questions. Enjoy!
What are your main responsibilities?
As Bar Manager at Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens, I oversee everything that has to do with the bar and ensure that our philosophy on beer is followed through on a daily basis. I manage our inventory control and beer pricing, ensure our draft system is maintained, answer questions from guests and make sure everyone has a positive experience at Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens. I also oversee and coordinate beer for our public on-site events, as well as private events coordinated by the event team.
What sort of changes is Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens undergoing right now?
We are about to install a new tap tower at the inside bar that will increase our taps to 66, serving a total of 36 separate beers which will expedite service. “Dr.” Bill Sysak and I are looking at reformatting our beer menu to make it more user friendly and include more information.
Stone Winter Storm is coming up this Sunday. What do you have to do to prepare for that?
I work with Greg our CEO and co-founder to put together a truly epic list of beers for our Stone Winter Storm event. We’ll have 50 different craft beers on tap, and another 30+ bottles available. I help choose what we’ll serve first, and then subsequently the backup beers after the first round is out.
It’s an early day for me and my team, as there is a lot of preparation that goes into this event. We come in at 4 a.m. to start flushing beer lines, cleaning those that are needed and then start hooking up new kegs and flushing through the bars. We will hang up our posters, change out tap handles, label the taps, and change out our POS (Point of Sale) system. I also oversee the setup of the bars to ensure that our guests have a great experience.
What other events do you have coming up?
As far as beer events; 12 Brewers, 12 Casks, 12 Mallets is on February 6. At 5 p.m., 12 Stone brewers will tap their cask creations simultaneously and serve them to the public. This is a great event that shows off our creative brewers. On February 10 in the Stone Company Stores, the latest edition in our Quingenti Millilitre series will be released: Green Flash/Pizza Port Carlsbad/Stone Highway 78 Scotch Ale aged in Scotch Whisky Barrels Wagner Blend. March 16 is the 2013 Homebrew Competition and AHA Rally, where the winner will have the opportunity to collaborate with us and have their recipe brewed on our system and then distributed nationwide. April 7 is our annual Oakquinox festival that features dozens of all barrel-aged beers.
We always have great events going on and list them on our website, but you can also sign up for our newsletter if you want to be the first to know.
What beers/breweries are you looking forward to trying in 2013?
There are a lot of great beers and talented breweries I am looking forward to trying this year. Although my list is pretty hefty, a few of the beers I can’t wait to try are Green Flash’s Silva Stout, Lost Abbey’s Duck Duck Gooze, and The Bruery’s Rueuze. As far as breweries go, Almanac Beer Co., Monkey Paw Brewery, and Bagby Beer Company are one’s I’ll be watching.
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Stay tuned next week when we speak with Melanie Pierce, Event Manager at Pizza Port. Tonight Pierce will be on FM 94/9’s Rock & Roll Happy Hour starting at 7 p.m. to talk about the upcoming Brewbies Festival next Friday and Saturday. Pictured is Pizza Port Carlsbad’s Breast IPA Ever, which you can try along with 14 other pink beers next weekend; 100% of the proceeds go to Keep A Breast!