A green truck, an Amarillo harvest and a father’s favorite pint: a Julian transmission with heart. Nickel Beer Green Truck is the wet-hop double IPA that Tom Nickel calls his favorite brew day of the year, and on Oct. 12, 2026, San Diego Beer News published his homebrew recipe for it, along with a tribute to the father who loved it.
The Bureau has observed many Earth recipes. Few arrive with this much of the brewer inside them.
Nickel Beer Green Truck: what the brewery says
Nickel Beer Green Truck is an 8% double IPA brewed with Oregon-grown Amarillo hops that went into the kettle less than 24 hours after picking, according to JollyPint, which cites the brewery’s newsletter. JollyPint reports that Nickel tapped it around Oct. 2 alongside two other wet-hop beers. In the newsletter, Nickel calls it “a real standout” and one of his favorite brews of the year.
In his own words for San Diego Beer News, Nickel says the beer “has all of the dank, fruity flavors that Amarillo has to offer combined with a light malt bill and some sugar to create a beer that’s very drinkable with a dry finish.” JollyPint’s summary of the newsletter adds cannabis-like aromas and citrus in the finish.
That makes Nickel Beer Green Truck a harvest specimen: fresh cones do not keep, so Earthlings get one shot per year.
Why it’s called Green Truck
The name comes from a green Toyota Tundra. Nickel writes that it kept him safe while rolling over on Interstate 805 at 65 miles per hour. The beer, he says, is also an homage to Amarillo, one of his favorite hops from his early brewing days.
Most humans who survive a rollover buy a new vehicle. This one named a double IPA after the old one. Extremely brewer behavior.
A pint for his father
Nickel’s father enjoyed nothing more than a bourbon barrel-aged beer of at least 12% ABV, Nickel writes, but a double IPA was always his warm-up beer, and Green Truck was his favorite DIPA. He drank many pints of it at Nickel Beer Co. and at O’Brien’s Pub, the Kearny Mesa bar Nickel also runs. He died suddenly last summer.
Nickel remembers him in a signature driver’s cap at O’Brien’s, telling stories about puffins and asking trivia questions, a man “with many passions” and “a child-like enthusiasm for all of them.” Some of Nickel’s earliest craft-beer memories, he writes, are of sharing a beer with his father over jigsaw puzzles of Neuschwanstein Castle. San Diego Beer News says that with the support of his family and his “pub family,” Nickel is healing, and sharing the Green Truck recipe is one way he is honoring his dad.
So enjoy brewing this beer and raising a glass to the ones you love, whether you are sharing a beer with them or toasting them in your heart.
Tom Nickel, owner and brewmaster, Nickel Beer Co., via San Diego Beer News
Brewing Nickel Beer Green Truck at home
The Nickel Beer Green Truck recipe is part of San Diego Beer News’ Homebrew Summer series, which the outlet says includes more than 20 beers this year. Both an all-grain and an extract version are available as downloads on the San Diego Beer News recipe page. The Bureau will not reprint another being’s recipe.
About Nickel Beer Co.
Nickel Beer Co. is at 1485 Hollow Glen Road in Julian, half a mile east of downtown, per the brewery’s website. San Diego Beer News describes Nickel as a former World Beer Cup Brewmaster of the Year and says no other San Diego County brewery produces as many fresh-hop beers. The Bureau logged this year’s Nickel wet-hop trio in its Oct. 9 San Diego new-beer roundup.
Wet-hop batches are small and seasonal, so check with the brewery before you drive up the mountain for Nickel Beer Green Truck. Then raise a glass to someone you love.
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