Hello Nickel Beer Fans!

It is my favorite time of the year to be brewing beer – hop harvest season in San Diego.  I managed to brew 6 different beers all with fresh picked San Diego grown hops and 3 of them are already on tap.  We have Star B Pale Ale made with hops from Star B Hop Ranch in Santa Ysabel and some other locally grown Julian hops including the wild hops growing behind town hall.  My Way IPA is a blend of Chinook and Cascade from Star B and Nopalito Farm in Valley Center.  It is then dry hopped with Crystal hops from Star B.  And our hop monster, Green Truck Fresh Hop Double IPA was brewed with Columbus from Nopalito Farm and then dry hopped with Columbus from Star B.  The beer is 8% alcohol and packed with hop flavor.

All three of these beers are on tap in our Julian tasting room.  Tonight, Thursday the 1st, you will also be able to find them at West Coast Barbecue and Brew in La Mesa – http://westcoastbbqandbrew.com/. In addition, West Coast will have the Lion’s Blood Triple IPA on tap.  All of the beer should be on tap by 4 pm today.  The kitchen at West Coast will have their soon to be famous Burnt Ends sandwich on special and I will be there to enjoy one and sip some fine fresh hop beer starting around 4:30 pm.  If you have never been to West Coast BBQ, this is a perfect excuse to try it out.  They have 28 taps and very tasty food.

Our local NBC station came up to Julian last week as part of a spot on the local hop growing scene.  They watched us brew our new fresh hop brown ale made with hops from SD Golden Hop Farm.  You can check out the very cool video here: http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/San-Diego-Craft-Beer-Industry-Spurs-Growth-of-Hop-Farms-391442391.html.  Look for the beer on tap by September 9th.

Labor Day Weekend

We will be open regular hours over Labor Day weekend – Friday and Saturday from 11:30 am to 8:30 pm and Sunday from 11:30 am to 7:30 pm.  On Monday the 5th, we will open earlier and be open from Noon until 7 pm for the holiday.  On Sunday the 4th, the popular Taco Cart will be serving up Carne Asada, Chicken and Al Pastor Tacos and Quesadillas from 12-5 pm.  They will only be at the brewery on Sunday, so be sure to stop by for some great food.

Also happening this weekend is the 20th Annual Julian Grape Stomp out at Menghini Winery.  The event will be Saturday the 3rd from 11 am to 7 pm and in addition to lots of local wineries, you will find Nickel Beer on tap.  We’ll be pouring Back Country Gold, Weekender Wheat and C.C. O’Neill’s Irish Red at the Grape Stomp.  You can find out more here: http://visitjulian.com/to-see-do/special-events/grape-stomp/.  We will also be pouring Nickel Beer at the 47th Julian Music Festival on Saturday, September 17th featuring Sara Petite and Gregory Page.  Get all of the details here: https://julianmusicfestival.com/.

And if you happen to be at Bacon Fest down at Liberty Station on Saturday, you will find Take A Hike at the O’Brien’s Pub booth.  Our GM at O’Brien’s, Tyson Blake will be cooking up beer braised slab bacon with pickled watermelon to pair with our hoppy Extra Pale Ale.  Get all of the details on Bacon Fest at: http://www.sdbaconfest.com/.

Looking Ahead

We have three more fresh hop beers in the fermenter – a fresh hopped brown brewed with Scot Blair of Monkey Paw and Hamiltons, and two fresh hop IPAs – one with Cascade and one with Crystal hops.  I expect to have both the Brown and the Cascade IPA on tap by Friday, September 9th.  And we will have Jeremy’s on the Hill serving up food on Saturday, September 10th from 12-3 pm.  When I confirm the menu I will post it up on our Facebook page.

We will have our entire line up of fresh hop beers on tap at the San Diego Wet Hop Weekend at O’Brien’s Pub in Kearny Mesa on September 16th, 17th and 18th.  The three day fest will feature beers brewed with San Diego grown hops.  There should be about 25 locally hopped brews to taste.

Look for barrel aged beers to be coming on tap later this month including Bourbon Barrel Aged Kupfernickel Barleywine and Rye Whiskey Barrel Aged Constantine’s Russian Imperial Stout.

And at the very end of the month we will be doing a 10 beer, 2 cask tap takeover at Hamilton’s in South Park.  I will have more details in the next email, but expect this to be a great night.

That is your Nickel Beer News for now.  We’ll see you soon for a great Julian brewed beer.  Cheers, Tom