Hello Nickel Beer Fans!
San Diego Beer Week begins tomorrow and I have all the details on what we will be tapping in the tasting room and where our beers will be around town during the next 10 days. We have some fantastic specialty beers that will be coming out and for the first time we will be pouring at the San Diego Brewers Guild Festival downtown. Jalapeno Gold is back on tap and features in our Beer Week kick off event and we just released the new batch of Tahoma IPA. This batch uses Tahoma hops grown both in Yakima, Washington and in Goodrich, Michigan. It has great flavors with hints of Meyer Lemon in the aroma.
SD Beer Week at the Brewery
Friday the 4th we will kick off the first weekend of Beer Week with Hoppy and Spicy. We will have the very popular Jalapeno Gold and the aptly named Deathtongue IPA – which is made with fresh Scorpion Peppers chopped into the keg. And yes, it is very spicy.
We will also have the new Tahoma IPA on tap alongside a formidable line up of hoppy ales including: Lion’s Blood Triple IPA, Golden Nugget Wet Hop IPA, Pride of Chops IPA and Volcan IPA. All of the beers will be on tap all weekend long. I also expect to have the My Way Wet Hop IPA on Friday but I am not sure that it will make it into the weekend.
Saturday the 5th look for the release of Sour Apple Pie Ale when we open at 11 am. This beer is a blend of barrel aged sour ale with the regular Apple Pie Ale. The result is a beer that combines the flavors of Apple Pie with a pleasant sour finish and flavor. We have been barrel aging a sour version of the base beer we use for the Apple Pie Ale with no apple juice in it for nearly a year. This will allow us to blend up much more of the Sour Apple Pie Ale than we were able to produce last year. I am hoping to release versions of the Sour Apple Pie Ale blended with each different version of the regular Apple Pie Ale. So keep an eye out for more coming soon.
Sunday the 6th we will tap the last keg of the Buffalo Paw Wet Hop Brown at the brewery. This 4% alcohol brown was brewed with 100% locally grown hops all used within 24 hours of being picked. It was a collaboration with Hamilton’s and Monkey Paw owner Scot Blair and proved to be very popular on draft. Come enjoy the last keg with us. We will have the Chargers v. Titans game on at 1 pm as well.
Saturday the 12th we celebrate Super Stout Saturday. We will be pouring 3 versions of our award winning Stonewall Stout – draft, nitrogen and a Barrel Aged version with Tart Cherries. We will have all three versions on tap when we open at 11 am on the 12th and I expect all 3 version to be pouring all weekend. We will be showing the Chargers v. Dolphins game on Sunday at 1 pm.
You can find our brewery events listed on the San Diego Beer Week website under East County Events: https://www.sdbw.org/schedule?region=East+County. You will also find a number of great events with our friends at West Coast Barbecue and Brew in La Mesa listed there.
SD Beer Week Down the Hill
Thursday the 3rd: We start a little early with a Beer Week preview party on Thursday, November 3rd at O’Brien’s Pub in Kearny Mesa. The pub will be tapping a cask of Pride of Chops IPA made with Mosaic hops at 5 pm alongside a keg of Pride of Chops and the original Beachwood Pride of Chops for a 3 way hop extravaganza.
Friday the 4th we will be a part of Back Country Beer Night at O’Brien’s alongside Alpine Beer Co and Green Flash’s Cellar 3. There should be 10 Alpine beers on tap with another 5 from Cellar 3. We will have a great line up of beer including: Lion’s Blood Triple IPA, Pride of Chops IPA, Golden Nugget IPA, Rye Whiskey Barrel Aged Constantine’s Russian Imperial Stout, Sour Apple Pie Ale, Bagby/Nickel Lion’s Pride Old Ale (now almost a year old) and the release of our collaboration IPA with Kern River, Nick Rivers IPA. I was at Kern River Brewing a few weeks back to brew the beer which used Amarillo and Tahoma hops. All of the beers will be on tap by 5 pm on Friday the 4th and the pub will be open until 1 am. Some of our beers will be on tap during the day as well including the Pride of Chops.
Saturday the 5th we will be pouring beers at the San Diego Brewers Guild Festival at the Broadway Pier. The fest runs from 2-5 pm with an option for early entry at 1 pm. You can find all of the relevant details and ticket info at: https://www.sdbw.org/guild-festival. We will be pouring a variety of beers during the fest including Barrel Aged Tart Cherry Stout, The Crab Apple Pie Ale, Lions Blood Triple IPA, Golden Nugget Wet Hop IPA and Tahoma IPA. My assistant brewer Tony Helm will be there pouring beers – please stop by and say hello.
Also on Saturday we will be pouring a non-blended version of our Barrel Aged Sour Beer at O’Brien’s in Kearny Mesa for the pub’s Double Talkin’ Jive Mother Pucker sour event. The non-blended version has plenty of pucker to it.
Tuesday the 8th we will be back at O’Brien’s as part of Kern River Brewing Night. The collaboration Nick Rivers IPA will be on draft and cask starting at 5 pm along with an amazing list of Kern River beers that will include JO IPA, Citra Double IPA and Hop Nookie Triple IPA. We will also be pouring Tahoma IPA for the night.
Wednesday the 9th we will be a part of Tyson’s Big Ass Barrel Aged Beer Night at O’Brien’s. We reached deep into the cellar to pull out a keg of 2014 Rum Barrel Aged Kupfernickel Barleywine. It has been over a year since we have served any of this beer and I can not wait to see what it tastes like.
Thursday the 10th we head over to West Coast Barbecue and Brew in La Mesa for a Nickel and Friends Night featuring a bunch of our collaborative beers. We will have Nickel/Monkey Paw Buffalo Paw Brown Ale, Nickel/Star B Golden Nugget IPA, Nickel/Brandon Hernandez Lions Blood Triple IPA, Nickel/Kern River Nick Rivers IPA, Nickel/Volcan Mountain Foundation Take A Hike XPA and both Nickel and Beachwood versions of Pride of Chops IPA. West Coast will also be pouring several other Kern River Brewing beers. In addition to the beer line up, look for Nickel Pickel food specials including the incredible Nickel Pickel Patty Melt.
We will also have a keg of the Buffalo Paw Brown Ale on tap at Monkey Paw during Beer Week, but I am not 100% positive when it is getting tapped. You can find out more at: http://monkeypawbrewing.com/.
For more information on our events at O’Brien’s, or any of the pub’s other SDBW events, check out: https://www.sdbw.org/schedule?region=Kearny+Mesa.
And though it is not really Nickel Beer related, I do want to make mention of one more event at O’Brien’s – Warrior Foundation Bottle Share on Saturday, November 12th. I will be at the pub from at least 1-4 for this event. The idea is that everyone brings in bottles to share with their friends. O’Brien’s will charge a $5 cappage fee to open the bottle and 100% of that money goes to the Warrior Foundation to help our veterans in San Diego. It is a great way to kick back and enjoy some special beers with friends – and make new friends – all while supporting a great cause. If you can’t make it by but would like to help out, you can visit the Warrior Foundation website at: http://www.warriorfoundation.org/.
Looking Ahead
The brewery will be celebrating its 3rd Anniversary the weekend of November 18th, 19th and 20th. The 2016 Tripp’s Tripel – our annual Thanksgiving beer – will be released that weekend and I have a Heaven Hill Bourbon Barrel Aged version of Constantine’s Russian Imperial Stout to tap. It will be a weekend full of great beer. I will have all of the details in the next week email about what is getting tapped when. Bring up your growlers as we will be selling the Tripp’s Tripel to go.
And I will confirm this in the next email but it looks like we will be open from 4-7 pm on Thanksgiving, Thursday the 24th. We will be open normal hours Friday and Saturday, the 25th and 26th. We will be opening up early on the 27th for the Chargers v. Texans game at 10 am. Look for Bloody Beers and hopefully a brunch delivery. The annual Julian Country Christmas Tree Lighting will be at dusk on Saturday the 26th.
That is your San Diego Beer Week update. We’ll see you soon to celebrate all things beer in San Diego with a great Julian brewed beer.
Cheers, Tom