Hello Nickel Beer Fans,

It finally seems to have turned to fall in the mountains.  The leaves have turned color and the weather has cooled off.  The drives along Sunrise Highway and on the 79 by Lake Cuyamaca are both beautiful right now.

And of course cooler fall weather is perfect beer drinking weather.  We have our Hopster Douchebag Double IPA back on tap after a long absence.  This 8.2% alcohol hop monster is brewed with Citra, Simcoe and Amarillo hops and then dry hopped with Cascade and Mosaic.  The result is a punch in the face with hops, firm bitterness and plenty of citrus and fruit hop flavors and aromas.

We still have a great selection of wet hop beers all made with San Diego grown hops including our Wet Hop Table Beer, Buffalo Paw Brown, Star B Pale, Hook in Mouth Chinook IPA, Ninja Tune IPA, Deathtongue IPA (with Scorpion Peppers) and the Last Star B Fighter IPA.  And we have a keg of our Room 101 collaboration with Burning Beard on tap.  This beer was made with Neo Mexicanus hops and it is as delicious as it is unique.

Believe or not we actually have one last wet hop beer in the fermenter right now. It is a hoppy session beer with Cascade and Nugget from Star B with a smattering of Southern Brewer and Crystal.  The hops were vacuum sealed at harvest and they smelled amazing during the brew day.  Look for Hessian Session to be on tap by the end of the month.

Our monthly potluck will be this Saturday starting around 4 pm.  Bring a dish to share and enjoy food, friends and good beer.

SD Beer Week

Tonight, Friday the 3rd, we will be pouring 3 Nickel beers and our new Cellar 3 collaboration at O’Brien’s Pub for the Back Country Beer Night with Alpine, Cellar 3 and Nickel.  Look for Hopster Douchebag DIPA, Devil’s Kashmir Wet Hop Rye Red and Rye Whiskey Barrel Aged Constantine’s Russian Imperial Stout.  Our collab with Cellar 3 is called WETtanomyces and it is a wet hopped barrel blend beer that appropriately enough has brettanomyces in it.  I think the fruitness of the brett and the wet hops really married together well.  The beer has barrel aged triple, white IPA and Rayon Vert blended in it.  I think Green Flash put out the best beer description post I have ever read and I have to share it with you:

Wettanomyces ~ 9.2% Wet Hop Barrel-Aged Wild Ale | We tossed a dank and fruity melane of Star B Buffalo Ranch & Hop Farm wet hops into a blend of 3 different Barrel-Aged Beers. What emerged was an earthy and fruity funk factory of complexity. Picture a dripping wet Old English Sheepdog emerging from a cold blue lake and diving head first into a massive pile of fresh hops as if they were wet leaves. Then you lick that dog and continue eating fresh apricots. Voila! Come try it tomorrow.

Pretty vivid imagery, right?

On Saturday we will be pouring beer at the San Diego Brewers Guild Festival.  We’ll have Hopster Douchebag DIPA, Devil’s Kashmir and Ninja Tune Wet Hop IPA.  Our brewer Brian will be manning the booth – stop by and say hi if you head to the fest.

Also on Saturday we will have a keg of Respect My Aciditie at the O’Brien’s Sour Beer Weekend.  This is the base barrel aged sour that we use to blend up our Sour Apple Pie Ale.  Without the balance of the Apple Pie beer it definitely comes across with an acidic bite and just a hint of oak tannin.

We will be pouring the Rye Whiskey Barrel Aged Constantine’s Russian Imperial Stout again at O’Brien’s for Tyson’s Big Ass Barrel Aged Beer Night on Friday the 10th.

Finally, you can find our beer at the Karl Strauss Collabapalooza Festival on Saturday the 11th.  Our new Karl Strauss collaboration, Triple Mosaic, will be poured at the fest.  It is a 9% alcohol version of the brewery’s awesome Mosaic Session Ale.  It is 100% hopped with Mosaic and I can’t wait to try it.  We are planning to bring Hopster Douchebag DIPA for sure and we’ll be right next to Burning Beard who will be pouring our Room 101 wet hop collab.

For more information on Beer Week or any of the above events, check out the official website at: https://www.sdbeer.com/sdbw.

Looking Ahead

The brewery will be celebrating its 4th Anniversary later this month over the weekend of November 17th, 18th and 19th.  Our Tripp’s Tripel will be released that weekend and I will be tapping some barrel aged beers including the Rye Whiskey Constantine’s.  It is hard to believe that I have been brewing again for 4 years up here.  Thank you to all who have supported the brewery these past 4 years.  You really have helped make a dream come true.

We will be CLOSED on Thanksgiving, Thursday, November 23rd.  We will be open regular hours the remainder of the weekend – Friday the 24th 11:30 am to 8:30 pm, Saturday the 25th 11 am to 8:30 pm and Sunday the 26th 11 am to 7:30 pm.  We will likely be open a little later than usual on Wednesday the 22nd as well.

That is your Nickel Beer News for now.  We’ll see you around San Diego or in the tasting room for a great Julian brewed beer.  Cheers, Tom