Hello Nickel Beer Fans!

It almost seems like winter with some much needed rain.  Though it will probably be back to sunny and warm next week.  At least it makes for good beer drinking weather.  We have lots of great cask beer coming up around the county and at the tasting room.  Read on for all of the beery goodness…

Tonight, Thursday the 27th we will be tapping 4 beers and a cask at West Coast Barbecue and Brew.  The cask will be Volcan IPA with all Centennial for dry hopping.  It should be tapped by 4:30 pm.  On draft, we will have Julian Pale Ale, Fix It Pale, Bitter Beer Writer ESB and Filthy Paws Porter.  This will be the first time that we are serving the Porter outside of the tasting room.  It is dark, rich and has a light hint of smokiness in the finish from the use of Black Malt and very dark Crystal malt.  If you can’t make it by tonight, I expect most of the beers to be on tap through the weekend down there.  I plan to be there from 4 to 6 pm this evening – I am very much looking forward to the cask.  For more info on West Coast and directions, visit: http://westcoastbbqandbrew.com/

Over the weekend at the tasting room we will be tapping our first cask of Filthy Paws Porter which was dry hopped with Cascade.  We’ll put it on tap on Friday and it will be around all weekend.  Since the patio won’t be much use in the rain, I will be bringing in some benches into the brewery for some extra seating.  The new batch of Volcan IPA will be on tap as well so we will be back to filling IPA growlers again.  The Bitter Beer Writer ESB is back on the nitrogen tap alongside Stonewall Stout.  And who knows, it might just get cold enough for us to fire up the pot belly stove this weekend.

Next week, we will be tapping a cask of Volcan IPA at O’Brien’s on Thursday, March 6th at 5 pm.  That cask is dry hopped with all Amarillo hops.  And I filled a third cask to tap at the tasting room after the Porter is gone that is dry hopped with all Citra hops.  The casks are a nice way to experiment with some different hopping for the IPA.  Speaking of IPAs, the new Hop Heaven Farms IPA is done with primary fermentation and ready for more hops to be added.  All of the hops for this beer come from Hop Heaven Farms in Baker City, Oregon.  I don’t think it will quite make it on for next weekend, but it will definitely be on tap by the 14th of March.

Looking ahead, I will be making up some variations on the stout for St. Patrick’s Day weekend.  I will be making another Vanilla Bean Stonewall and I am working on a version inspired by Lindsey’s Pomanders using cocoa nibs, orange peel and clove.  We’ll also be filling a cask of Stonewall Stout for O’Brien’s for Thursday the 13th of March.

Finally, I just got in two Rum barrels that I am very excited about.  It is now time to get the barleywine in the tank and start making some barrel aged beer.  I hope also to brew an Imperial Stout into one.

That is your Julian beer update for now.  I hope to see you soon and share a Nickel beer.  Cheers, Tom