Hello Nickel Beer Fans,

Happy 4th of July!

Julian will be celebrating with its annual parade from noon to 1 pm down main street complete with a fly over by vintage war planes.  We’ll be open 11:30 am to 6 pm on the 4th and  you will also be able to find our beer at the American Legion BBQ Cookout on the 4th.  We will be open normal hours on Friday the 3rd – 11:30 am to 8 pm and Sunday the 5th – 11:30 am to 6 pm.  If you come up on the 4th through Ramona, expect Main Street to be closed down between noon and 1 pm for the parade.

New Beers

Last weekend we tapped the Borrego Dark Sky Vanilla Oatmeal Stout.  The beer is 6% alcohol and made with 20% oats.  Fresh vanilla beans were added to the beer in the conditioning tank.  The flavors are well balanced between the vanilla, stout notes and oat finish.  We are currently pouring the beer on draft and nitrogen tap.

Dark Sky was a collaboration with the Anza Borrego Foundation and a portion of the proceeds from the beer will be donated to the ABF to help with its mission to preserve and expand the Anza Borrego State Park.  We will be doing a fundraising weekend with the ABF July 24th, 25th and 26th featuring a special cinnamon and chocolate version of the Dark Sky Stout.  For more information on the ABF, please visit: http://theabf.org/

New on tap this weekend is Penalty Shot Pale, our hoppy summer soccer themed beer.  It is on tap just in time for the Women’s World Cup Final this Sunday between Japan and the USA.  We’ll be showing the game at 4 pm and staying open late if the game goes into extra time.  Penalty Shot is light in color, 5.5% alcohol and brewed with Mosaic and Simcoe hops giving the beer plenty of hop fruitiness.

In the not too distant future we will be tapping a little big of this year’s Kupfernickel Barleywine – most of the batch will be going into Rye/Bourbon barrels for aging.  This year’s batch is 10.5% and full of Centennial hop flavors.  We’ll also have a new batch of Tahoma IPA coming out with an extra round of dry-hopping now that I have Tahoma whole flower hops to use in the serving tank.  And it won’t be long before I am brewing fresh hop beers with local San Diego grown hops.

At the Brewery

Our new shade cover is nearly finished at the brewery and it looks great.  We are finishing up the trim work on it and we still have a new bar rail to put in along the fence.  The structure utilizes local logs for support and local cedar beams for framing.  We have moved 3 of the tables underneath it which makes the patio a perfect place to enjoy a beer during the summer.

The Candied Apple is delivering food every Saturday and Sunday from Noon until 5:30 pm with a menu that includes sandwiches, salads and thin crust pizzas.  Candied Apple is a great local coffee and pastry shop – if you have never been it is worth the stop to pick up some fantastic desserts (more than just apple pie) and fresh baked bread.  The Skordalia Dip is a must try – like hummus but a Greek, garlic based version.

We have a full supply of Nickel Pickels for the weekend including a few tubs of Spicy Green Beans.  You can also find Nickel Pickels incorporated into food specials at O’Brien’s in Kearny Mesa and West Coast Barbecue and Brew in La Mesa.

Down the Hill

We have some beers coming down the hill this month.  On Sunday the 5th you will be able to enjoy Penalty Shot at both O’Brien’s and West Coast BBQ for the Women’s World Cup Final.  Both spots will also have casks of Penalty Shot coming up – I’ll post the dates on our Facebook page once they have been locked in: https://www.facebook.com/NickelBeerCompany

We’ll be doing a big draft event with our friend Scot Blair at Hamiltons in South Park on Friday, July 24th.  Right now we are planning to have 8 beers on tap including a cask of Volcan IPA, 2015 Kupfernickel Barleywine and a rare San Diego keg of the Apple Pie Ale.  I will have more details as we get closer to the event.

The very next day we will have Volcan IPA and Stonewall Stout on tap at the Races in Del Mar.  The beer will part of the San Diego Craft Beer Festival where you can get a wristband to do tasting from more than 50 breweries and you can also purchase full pints of anything on tap.  Find all of the details at: https://www.dmtc.com/calendar/detail/beer

That is your Nickel Beer News for now.  Come up and enjoy these long summer days up in the mountains and we’ll see you soon for a great Julian brewed beer.  Cheers, Tom