Recipe: Lion’s Blood

Our second-annual Homebrew Summer program had such a fantastically high level of participation from San Diego County breweries—with over 30 of them taking part—that we’ve had to extend it into the fall. So you can keep checking back to San Diego Beer News each week for homebrew-scaled versions of popular beers from local brewing companies, as well as recipes from homebrewers that are being produced on a professional scale and put on tap around town.

The next Homebrew Summer beer borne of a pro-am collaboration will be a triple IPA called Lion’s Blood. Brewed at Nickel Beer Co. by the Julian operation’s owner and Brewmaster Tom Nickel with some elbow grease from San Diego Beer News founder and Executive Editor Brandon Hernández, it’s a recipe the pair conceived and originally brewed four years ago but weren’t able to ferment to life during the COVID era. Get a taste of this extravagantly over-hopped behemoth when it hits the taps at Nickel’s other business, Kearny Mesa’s O’Brien’s Pub, this afternoon.

Collaboration beers are, as a rule, a fun time. However, this is even more true when you get to collaborate with a dear friend for your combined birthdays. My birthday falls one day before that of my good friend Brandon Hernandez. We have done several birthday-beer collabs over the years, but obviously that was interrupted by the pandemic. So this year we decided to make a beer we had done before but not for many years, Lion’s Blood triple IPA. This behemoth of a beer finished at 11.2% (alcohol-by-volume) and used a ton of hops; nearly six pounds per-barrel before any dry-hopping was done! A blend of Southern Cross, Strata, Mosaic and Crystal was added while brewing. We then loaded up the mash tun as a giant hop-back with Simcoe and Mosaic whole-cone hops and some freshly picked local Cascade from Ramona. The malt bill was decided to minimize malt character as beers high in alcohol naturally have a high perception of malt flavor. Pilsner malt was the main base with some Golden Promise malt and flaked Corn added in, the latter was used to lighten the body and color while the former was added to provide biscuity malt undertones. A touch of Canadian rye malt was thrown in as well as two additions of raw cane sugar in the fermenter to help increase the ABV without adding more body. The result is a dry, light-colored beer with a massive hop profile full of citrus, tropical fruit and floral notes. This one is not an everyday drinker. It’s a sipper and perfectly suited to its purpose of celebrating friendship! Oh, and the name is a nod to all things crazy in life and Charlie Sheen, who summed it up best: Duh! Winning! And as we are both Leos, it’s Lion’s Blood rather than Tiger’s Blood that keeps us on that winning path!”

Tom Nickel, Owner & Brewmaster, Nickel Beer Co.

I have so many wonderful memories of discovering and falling in love with craft beer at O’Brien’s Pub back in the late-nineties and early-aughts. Were it not for that sacred spot and its killer tap-list, I’d never have been inspired to go down the rabbit hole to learn about beer, brewing and San Diego’s amazing brewery landscape. I also wouldn’t have met my good friend, Tom Nickel, who took over the pub and made it even better than it already was. On top of that, I wouldn’t have tried my hand at homebrewing…or found out that I’m way better at writing about beer than brewing it. Fortunately, Nickel has afforded me the opportunity to brew beers of far greater quality than I can produce on my own through collaborations at his eponymous brewery in Julian. We’ve created a variety of beers over the years, but Lion’s Blood really stands out. In addition to just being over-the-top hoppy and blatantly boozy, the last time we brewed it, my son, Brandon, joined in the brew day, making for yet another special memory I owe to my good buddy, Tom. I look forward to forging some more on Thursday when this beer taps at ‘the hoppiest place on Earth’.”

Brandon Hernández, Homebrewer