This week’s edition of Beer for Breakfast is all about wet-hop beers, ales and lagers made with fresh, whole-cone hops during the harvest season. Those “wet hops” are incorporated into the brewing process within days or, in many cases, hours of being picked from the bines, bringing amplified flavors and aromas to the beers they’re added to, which are typically pale ales or IPAs. No local brewer is more enthusiastic about crafting wet-hop beers than Tom Nickel, a former World Beer Cup champion brewer, and the owner of Julian’s Nickel Beer Co. and Kearny Mesa’s O’Brien’s Pub. Listen along as the crew tastes two wet-hop creations from the former, then shares info about a festival featuring 37 wet-hop beers at the latter. It’s fresh…it’s wet…it’s Beer for Breakfast!
Nickel Beer Co. is located at 1485 Hollow Glen Road in Julian, and O’Brien’s Pub is located at 4646 Convoy Street in Kearny Mesa