Hello Nickel Beer Fans!

This sun filled weekend we will release our new IPA, tap a new cask beer and we will have some new brewery merchandise in stock.  We’ll also be showing the Chargers v. Chiefs on Sunday at 1:25 pm.  And next week we will be open a few extra days to help celebrate the new year.  Read on for all of the beer soaked goodness…

On Tap

On Friday the 27th we will tap our newest beer, Volcan IPA.  It is a golden colored ale that clocks in at 6.9% alcohol.  The beer is hopped with two of my favorite hops – Centennial and Columbus – throughout for bittering, aroma and dry-hopping.  I have been dutifully doing quality control on the beer for the past week and I can assure that it is simply delicious.  Though not quite 100% carbonated Thursday afternoon, it did not stop me from enjoying a pint full of its piney and citrusy flavors.  It will be on tap when we open at 11:30 am on Friday – look for the massive wooden-burl lion’s head tap handle.

Also on Friday you can enjoy our first cask of the grapefruit-tinged Fix It Pale.  Crystal is the predominant hop in the beer and it is also the hop that I used in the cask.  Cask conditioned beers are unfiltered (as are all of our beers) and naturally carbonated.  The lower level of carbonation and serving the cask on a beer engine combine to give the beer a smoothness that is different from normal draft beer.  Nitrogen-tapped beers like Guinness are a modern play on the texture and feel of cask beer.  I am really excited to see what a little extra hopping does to this already very enjoyable beer.

Our nitro tap will be taken over by a keg of the Devil’s Copper.  Nitrogen dispensing makes this hoppy and malty ale super creamy.  I have been making up at least one nitrogen infused keg from each batch of beer so far.  And though all of the beers are designed to be served with normal CO2, it is fun to see what the nitrogen dispense does to each beer.

Along with these new beers, we’ll also be serving our JPA (Julian Pale Ale), Chinook IPA and Stonewall Stout all weekend.  We will have a total of 8 taps flowing all 3 days.  I don’t know if we will get it in time to tap this weekend, but we will be serving Julian Hard Cider in the tasting room in the very near future.

More This Weekend

In addition to the great beers look for 3 flavors of Beer Cheese made with our brews.  We serve up tubs of the Beer Cheese spread with crackers for just $5 and you can buy the Beer Cheese to go.  Look for 3 flavors: Traditional (made with JPA), Cracked Black Pepper (also made with JPA) and Chipotle Cheddar (made with Stonewall Stout).  We have been making Beer Cheese at our pub O’Brien’s for a long time and it is very exciting to be able to make it with our own beer.

We just got in our new royal blue men’s shirts at the brewery this week.  They have silver and black printing which really emphasizes the coin logo on the back of the shirt.  All of our other brewery gear including hats, sweatshirts, long sleeve shirts and women’s wear has been re-stocked as well.  And we have new, unique item for sale – San Diego Brewery Poker Cards from Craft Company.  It is a deck of playing cards and each card has a different brewery logo on it.  Nickel Beer made the cut and is featured in the deck.  We have them on sale for just $10 tax inclusive.  You can check out the cards online at the company’s website: http://craftcompany.org/products/san-diego-county-breweries-poker-deck-of-cards.  We have gift certificates too, if you are still in need of a great gift idea.

The ever present threat of blackout has been lifted for the Chargers v. Chiefs game this Sunday at 1:25 pm so we will be able to show it.  We’ll know before kick off if the team still has a shot at the playoffs if they win.  The Chiefs have already secured a playoff spot and have said that they might rest a few folks.  There will be college bowl games on Friday and Saturday so it will be a full weekend of football.

On Sunday I will be brewing our next new beer, Bitter Beer Writer, a collaboration with local beer writer Brandon Hernandez.  It will be an ESB-styled beer with British malts and yeast and European hops.  I think it will be a great one to taste cask conditioned.  And though I swear I did not bribe Brandon to do it, he did name Stonewall Stout as one of the Best New Beers in San Diego for 2013.  Read the full article on his San Diego Beer News Blog at: http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2013/dec/19/beer-2013s-best-new-beers/.

Looking Ahead

We will be starting 2014 with some special expanded hours to take advantage of what will likely be a very long holiday weekend.  The tasting room will be open 11:30 am to 6 pm on Thursday the 2nd in addition to our regular hours on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  We will also be open for the NCAA Championship Football game on Monday the 6th which kicks off at 5:30 pm between Florida State and Auburn.  It will be a Monday night happy hour all night from 4:30 pm when we open until the game is over with $1 off all pints and pitchers of JPA, Devil’s Copper and Fix It Pale for just $13!  Expect the tasting room to be open until at least 8:30 pm on Monday the 6th.

I am guessing that the Bitter Beer Writer ESB will be on tap the second weekend in January.  Other upcoming beers include a Porter, Extra Pale Ale and Barleywine.  The first batch of JPA is nearly gone, but don’t worry, the new batch is nearly ready to go and tasting fantastic.  I hope to start selling some beer down in San Diego by the end of January as we fill up our taps at the tasting room.  For those down in San Diego, O’Brien’s will have our Fix It Pale on tap when the pub opens at 11 am on Friday the 27th, but no guarantee on how long it will last.

The weather is supposed to be beautiful this weekend with sunny weather in the low 60s forecast all three days.  It should be warm enough to enjoy a beer on our patio (which is dog friendly).  You can find our hours, directions and links to places to stay up here all on our website at: http://nickelbeerco.com/.  If you stay or shop in Julian, please let the merchants know that you are up here to visit Nickel Beer Company.

If you are thinking about getting some beer to go in one of our 32 or 64 growlers for New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day.  The beer will stay fresh and carbonated if you keep it cold and unopened.  Once you open the jugs, it is best to consume the beer the same day so that it does not go flat.  Most jugs will last one or two weeks if kept cold and unopened.  We can and will fill other brewery’s growlers – the existing brewery name and logo just need to be covered with tape or something similar.

Since this is the last email of 2013, I will wish everyone a very Happy New Year and may your 2014 be filled with happiness and great beer.  A very sincere Thank you to all who have supported us during 2013 including our first few weeks open – Lindsey and I very much appreciate it.

That is your Nickel Beer news for now.  Please share this email with your beer-loving friends, you can easily forward it with the link at the bottom of the email.  You can keep up to date in between emails on our Facebook page – click on the link below.  And I even have started a Nickel Beer Co. Twitter account (again, link to it is below).  We’ll see you soon for a great Julian brewed beer.  Cheers, Tom

Tom Nickel
Brewer/Owner

Hello Nickel Beer Fans!

As everything around here is new and mostly happening for the first time, I have a few updates for you this week.  The first one is that we will be opening on Thursday the 12th this week from 4:30 pm to 8:30 pm or so for the Chargers v. Broncos game that kicks off at 5:25 pm.  Next football season I hope to be open for all Chargers games and in an ideal world both Monday Night and Thursday Night football games.  We’ll be doing our first Happy Hour for the game on Thursday and taking $1 off pints of draft beer while we are open.  We’ll be pouring JPA (Julian Pale Ale), Devil’s Copper (both Draft and Nitro versions), Chinook IPA and Stonewall Stout.  And the weather will be nearly 20 degrees warmer than this past weekend!

The next update is about our beer line up for the weekend.  Friday afternoon we will be tapping our new Strong Pale Ale (which has a name, I am just waiting for the weekend to release it).  The style is a tweener that is hoppier than a Pale Ale but not as big and bitter as an India Pale Ale.  So it will fit nicely between the JPA and the Chinook IPA at just under 6% alcohol.  The hop profile includes lots of grapefruit flavors and aromas along with hints of tropical fruit.  It is hopped with Crystal hops predominantly along with some Simcoe and Amarillo.  So far it is tasting great and I can not wait to taste all chilled and carbonated.  I am planning on doing a Nitro keg of this beer as well, which is dispensed on a blend of nitrogen and CO2 like Guinness for an extra creamy texture and finish.

And I have more on this weekend’s beer line up.  We will be tapping a cask of the Devil’s Copper, our 6.7% alcohol all Centennial hopped red ale.  To do something a little different, I dry hopped the cask with some Amarillo hops.  There are no dry hops in the main batch of beer, so this ought to pull out the hoppiness a little more.  If you are not familiar with it, cask conditioned beer is the method that was used to dispense beer in England before the use of compressed gas.  Naturally carbonated beer was drawn up to the bar through a beer engine instead of pushing it to the tap with CO2.  The cask allows for dry hops to be added directly to the cask for extra flavor.  Our Stonewall Stout cask opening weekend I added Vanilla Bean to.  The softer carbonation of the cask beers gives it a different feel and finish than regular draft beer and allows me to play around with some different flavors.  I am trying to tap a different cask beer each weekend, but the casks are only 5 gallons, so be sure to try it while it lasts.

We will be serving up some of Lindsey’s Beer Cheese this weekend made with our beer.  Look for it while it lasts on Saturday and Sunday.  We also have bags of Kettle Chips to snack on.  I am hopeful that we can soon have the food truck from Jeremy’s on the Hill in our parking lot on the weekends.  Jeremey’s is a great place to get a meal and it is just 2 miles west of Julian down the 78 Highway in Wynola.  In addition to great food and boutique wine, Jeremy’s has a fine selection of bottled beer including lots of local favorites.  You can check them out online at: http://jeremysonthehill.com/.

Finally, I have some news on upcoming brews.  I have a new IPA in the tank that I suspect will be more along the lines of what our full time IPA will be.  It should be just under 7% alcohol and it is hopped with Centennail and Columbus hops for big piney and citrusy aroma and flavor.  It tasted fantastic going into the fermentor on Monday.  It won’t be ready until after Christmas though, so think of it as a bonus present that you didn’t open on the 25th.  It should be pouring when we open on Friday the 27th after a week or two of dry hopping with more Centennial and Columbus.

I will be brewing some of our house beers again and then later this month I will be doing a brewing collaboration with local beer writer Brandon Hernandez inspired by our trip to London last year – Bitter Beer Writer, which appropriately enough will be in the style of an English Bitter.  If you are not familiar with Brandon’s work, check out the wonderful things he said about us on his San Diego Beer News blog: http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2013/dec/02/beer-touring-nickel-beer-co/.

We have lots of great merchandise for the brewery with men’s and women’s shirts, long sleeve shirts and sweatshirts along with pint glasses, logo mason jars and stickers.  We just ordered some new men’s shirts that should be in before Christmas and re-ordered some items that we are already sold out on.  Speaking of the holidays, this year they will not affect our hours, so we will be open Friday, Saturday and Sunday thru the end of the month.

For more news on what is happening, please follow us on Facebook.  And you can always find out about other businesses, events and places to stay in Julian on FB at: https://www.facebook.com/VisitJulian.  Please help spread the word about Nickel Beer Company.  I hope to be bringing some beer down the hill in January once we get a full line up going at the tasting room.  If you stop by this weekend, Lindsey and Corrine may con you into making a Pomander (http://www.instructables.com/id/Pomander-ball-Christmas-gift/), just so you have been warned.  We’ll see you soon for a great mountain brewed beer.  Cheers, Tom

Tom Nickel
Owner/Brewer

Hello Beer Friends!

Welcome to the first email newsletter from Nickel Beer Company!  It has been a long time in the making and I am happy to report that we will begin pouring beer this weekend.  We will have three beers on tap – JPA (Juilian Pale Ale), Chinook IPA and Stonewall Stout.  We’ll have both a CO2 draft and Nitrogen-dispensed version of the stout on tap.  And it looks like we will even have a cask of the JPA with cascade hops on tap.  More beer is already in the fermentor and we are planning on doing a grand opening celebration in the next month or so.

For now, we are going to open with regular hours on Friday and Saturday 11:30 am to 6 pm and Sunday 11:30 am to 5 pm.  We will be serving up draft beer in 5 oz, 9 oz and 16 oz glasses along with 60 oz pitchers.  For to-go beer, we will offer 32 oz grumblers and 64 oz growlers.  The brewery will also have a wide selection of merchandise including pint glasses, mason jars, shirts, sweatshirts, hats and beanies.

Here is a little info on our first three beers.  The JPA is just under 5.5% abv and hopped with Palisade hops and just a touch of Cascade dry hop in the serving tank.  It is clean and drinkable and currently the lightest beer we are brewing.  The Chinook IPA as you might have guessed is 100% hopped with Chinook.  It is a big IPA at roughly 7.8% with huge Chinook bitterness and flavor.  We will have several IPAs in our line up and I will be brewing something with a more Columbus hop bent in this next round.  The Stonewall Stout is just under 6.5% but packs a massive flavor punch.  A blend of British roasted and crystal malts give this beer a very coffee-like flavor.  It is finished with UK Challenger hops.

The next beer to be added to our line up will be Devil’s Copper, a 100% Centennial hopped red ale that should come in about 6.5%.  It is just about done fermenting and will be on tap the first weekend of December.  Also in December, I am expecting our first barrels to arrive so that we can fill them up and start barrel aging some beer.

I am trying to keep our Facebook page up to date with what is happening at: https://www.facebook.com/NickelBeerCompany.  We will be updating our website now that we are opening as well at: http://nickelbeerco.com/.  Thank you for all of the support and we hope to see you soon for a great Nickel Beer!  Cheers, Tom

Well, we don’t have beer to sell, but we do have T Shirts and Pint Glasses in stock.  The shirts are available in men’s and women’s sizes at O’Brien’s and by appointment at the brewery in Julian.  The pint glasses will be available for sale at O’Brien’s starting Friday afternoon, the 11th.

The website is now live and you can sign up for our email newsletter there to keep up to date on our progress.  You can also follow us on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/NickelBeerCompany.

More news soon as we get closer to brewing!  Cheers, Tom