Beer of the Week: Lion About My Age

From the Beer Writer: I’ve always enjoyed being a Leo. First off, lions are unarguably badass creatures. Additionally, my August birthday fell during summer vacay during my school years and there are no other holidays to get in the way of celebrations surrounding my big day. That’s pretty sweet, but on top of that, I’ve come to appreciate another big plus that’s bloomed into a tradition over the past decade. My birthday abuts that of publican, brewer and longtime friend Tom Nickel on the calendar. Each year, we use that as an excuse to take time out of our schedules to meet at his Julian establishment, Nickel Beer Co., to brew a beer of our mutual devising for the express purpose of tapping it at one of his other businesses, Kearny Mesa’s O’Brien’s Pub (the site of my first beer a quarter-century ago) so we can toast each other and enjoy a full-scale “frienassance”. That term was coined by flaky bohemian, Phoebe Buffet, on Friends. That sitcom was wildly popular. The beer style my friend and I selected this year is not. Going by the name Lion About My Age, it’s a Belgian-style farmhouse ale, AKA: saison. (AKA: “stays-on”, a term developed by beer salespeople to describe the style’s tendency to linger on tap at an account.) So why did we choose it? I could say we selected a Belgian beer and gave it a punny name in honor of our dearly departed friend and O’Brien’s regular, Bill Snider, who vocally championed that country’s brewing traditions and dispensed puns at the pace of an M-16 reeling off bullets, but that’s not why. OK, maybe the name, which not only references the Leo’s spirit animal to make a phonetic joke (the best kind are the ones you need to explain), but also describes what Nickel is to me–a lion-slash-Leo about my age. But as for style selection, I love saisons. Bring me your funky, barrel-aged, your Brett-spiked masses of unappreciated farmhouse ales. I’ll take them all! And on me and my buddy’s birthday, I’ll brew my own thanks to said pal’s willingness to venture beyond popular styles. Now that’s real-deal friendship. And I’m happy to report that our birthday beer is a real-deal saison!

From the Brewer: “It has become one of my favorite birthday traditions to brew a beer with my dear friend Brandon Hernández, whose birthday is one day after mine. The brew day is always a fun chance to collaborate and create, however, the real joy of doing this is being able to share the finished product with him at O’Brien’s, surrounded by friends and family. Brandon chose the style and it was fun to work out how we wanted the beer to taste together during the brew day. The malt bill was German Pilsner as the base with Vienna, aromatic and acidualted malt, and a kiss of rye. All of the hops were German‒Polaris Tettnang, Polaris Hallertau and Hallertau Blanc. Our intent was not to imitate, but to make a Southern California homage to the world classic Saison Dupont. We brewed with the Dupont yeast strain and let it ferment from 78 to 88 degrees over three days. The beer pours with a deep golden color. The aroma has an earthy quality with a hint of sweet lemon and a pleasant hop-forward European-style spiciness. The finish is dry and hoppy with an almost lager-like crispness despite the 6.5% ABV (alcohol-by-volume). I am already looking forward to our birthday beer for 2024!”—Tom Nickel, Owner & Brewmaster, Nickel Beer Co.