{"id":169,"date":"2010-11-09T00:26:30","date_gmt":"2010-11-09T08:26:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/?p=169"},"modified":"2012-05-09T13:46:46","modified_gmt":"2012-05-09T20:46:46","slug":"tom-nickels-two-cents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/2010\/11\/09\/tom-nickels-two-cents\/","title":{"rendered":"Tom Nickel’s Two Cents"},"content":{"rendered":"

I caught up with Tom Nickel of O\u2019Brien\u2019s American Pub<\/a> just before things started picking up on Alpine\u2019s Bad Boy\/O’Brien’s IPA release night. We grabbed the few remaining leather chairs that litter the interior with comfort.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
O'Brien's exterior in Kearny Mesa<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cFriday night was super busy,\u201d he answers my question as to how the AleSmith Night of a Million Zillion Speedways went. \u201cPhysically getting the beer into the hands of the customer was difficult. With the line going out the door and down the block for 2oz tasters, I knew I did something right when people came up to me at the [San Diego Brewers Guild] Festiva<\/a>l the next day and thanked me even after waiting in line.\u201d I asked him what he would do differently. \u201cNext year, we need more beer.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

A native San Diegan, Tom began brewing when he was 18. He couldn\u2019t buy beer legally, so once a friend mentioned that he could make it himself, he gave home brewing a shot. Leaving for Yale out east forced him to budget his brewing time. Spring break at home he would brew for summer vacation, while he would spend all summer brewing for winter break. The cycle continued until he was continuously drinking and brewing beer during his time at home.<\/p>\n

As a longtime player in the San Diego Craft Beer Community, Tom has perspective on what makes this a great beer town. He was the head brewer for Oggi\u2019s<\/a>, a brewer for Pizza Port Solana Beach<\/a>, collaborator with Alpine <\/a>on the aptly titled O\u2019Brien\u2019s, and an alumni worker of Home Brew Mart<\/a>. While O\u2019Brien\u2019s is his main gig, Tom calls throwing beer festivals his hobby (see Pizza Port Carlsbad\u2019s Belgian Beer Festival, as well as O\u2019Brien\u2019s Wet Hop Festival).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
O'Brien's interior during Alpine's Bad Boy\/O'Brien's San Diego Beer Week release. O'Brien's, The Hoppiest Place on Earth, is located on 4646 Convoy Street, (858) 715-1745<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I asked him how this SDBW <\/a>was going compared to the last. \u201cThe media has been more involved, and there has been greater interest in terms of people coming in from out of town.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWith San Diegan breweries doing so well when craft beer only commands a small percentage of the beer drinking market, there\u2019s high growth potential.\u201d I pressed him further on what his thoughts were on the future of San Diego Beer. \u201cSomeone once asked me what is one thing that I like now that I will like five or ten years from now. I answered: I don\u2019t think there\u2019s going to be a time in my life when I won\u2019t like Iron Maiden. Now, I would say there\u2019s never going to be a time in my life when I won\u2019t like Iron Maiden or craft beer.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the bar began to fill up, it was time for me to let the boss get back to work. Tom left me with a parting thought: \u201cGenerational beer drinkers that grow up in a community of craft beer drinkers aren\u2019t going to trade down. If you grow up in a community of great beer, you aren\u2019t going to drink anything else.\u201d How lucky we are, San Diego.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien\u2019s is heavily involved with SDBW. Check out a listing of their upcoming events by clicking here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I caught up with Tom Nickel of O\u2019Brien\u2019s American Pub just before things started picking up on Alpine\u2019s Bad Boy\/O’Brien’s IPA release night. We grabbed the few remaining leather chairs that litter the interior with comfort. \u201cFriday night was super busy,\u201d he answers my question as to how the AleSmith Night of a Million Zillion […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[581,151,150,152,144,41,149],"class_list":{"0":"post-169","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-san-diego-beer-beverage-news","7":"tag-alesmith-brewing-company","8":"tag-alpine-bad-boy-ipa","9":"tag-alpine-beer-company","10":"tag-alpine-obriens-ipa","11":"tag-obriens","12":"tag-san-diego-beer-week-2010","13":"tag-tom-nickel","14":"entry","15":"has-post-thumbnail"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","wps_subtitle":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdtr4y-2J","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}