Across The Nation Northern Nectar
Central City Brewers + Distillers

Can: Poured a yellow color ale with a medium size foamy head with light retention and minimal lacing. Aroma of honey notes with light malt notes is pretty bland. Taste is a mix of grainy malt notes with some light honey and bland aftertaste. Body is about average with OK carbonation. Bland and not drinkable enough to be memorable.

 

 

355 mL can from the LCBO, included in their Across the Nation Collaboration (Out West) mixed pack; dated Apr 6 2018 and served slightly chilled.

Appropriately enough, this pale ale pours a golden-amber hue that gives it a strong resemblance to honey; its body is crystal clear, and situated atop is one cm of bubbly, off white-tinged froth that fizzles away within 90 seconds. A thin collar sticks around afterwards, but not much of anything else - minimal lace; looks pretty plain. It smells of biscuits and doughy bread, intermingling with an earthy, dirty hop note as well as a fair bit of caramelized malt sweetness. Hints of apricot, muddled citrus and some earthiness.

Yep, it's a 'Canadian pale ale' alright - easy-drinking with a decent hop bite, but the saccharinity is probably the most noticeable aspect, at least to my taste buds. Caramelized malts and some biscuity, bready notes persist throughout the sip, as does a moderate honeyed sweetness; these are eventually joined up with some muddled grapefruit, red berry and apricot fruitiness by mid-sip. It concludes with some earthy, floral hop bitterness and a flash of marmalade sweetness at the finish, leading up to an earthy, weakly resiny aftertaste that lingers for a second or two. Medium in body, with middling carbonation levels that gently prickle the surface of the palate, resulting in a relatively smooth texture that improves its drinkability. A decent pale ale, but I don't feel that the honey/sweetness really helped the profile much.

Final Grade: 3.39, a B-. Yukon's Northern Nectar is a passable effort at best. After some contemplation, I finally remembered which beer from my past this reminds me of: that Alexander Keith's Cascade Single Hop ale (now off the market, but if my memory is correct the similarities are striking). In all fairness, this can is more than six months old, which is about when I'd expect a pale ale to really start declining - normally I'd just procure a fresher sample to review, but that isn't an option here - and besides, these things are still sitting on the shelves, so if nothing else this review will tell people what to expect from it.

 

 

 

Clear copper, pretty much instantaneously headless, settles to just a partial ring. Nothing to smell here. Bitter up front, lots of caramel malt, a hint of a bitter metallic finish. Not so good actually.

 

Collaboration Yukon Brewing, canned: Clear dark golden color with tons of activity. Slightly creamy beige 1-2 finger head, lasting around 5-10 minutes, with decent legs and good swirl reaction. Flavors of toffee, sweet barley, pears, apricot, and herbal hops. Slick and smooth medium body with a moderate crisp. Medium strength finish, dominant maillard effect, slightly fruity while more grainy. Freshness is alright, missing a bit of balance. A typical pale ale but overall a decent quality one.

Clear copper with a good head. Malty nose with some grapefruit notes. Mild malt body sweetened with honey. Balanced between smooth and crisp.

 

Pours a light amber body with a nice amount of head that dissipates quickly, though it could be from the glass sweating. The aroma is richly malty and hoppy with classic cascade notes of grapefruit and pine. The flavours are really interesting, with the toffee-like malt characteristics and citrus hops interacting with really floral honey flavours. The finish is really pleasant with floral and citric flavours continuing. Great honey ale.

 

 

 

 

355ml can, part of the 2018 Across the Nation collaboration pack with 12 different Canadian breweries, one from each province and territory. This one involves the Yukon's, er Yukon Brewing (which means they should have 'Up North', rather than 'Out West' on the label), and is a Honey Pale Ale.

This beer pours a clear, bright medium copper amber colour, with three fingers of puffy, chunky, and mildly fizzy ecru head, which leaves some decent splotchy lace around the glass as it quickly sinks out of sight.

It smells of grainy and crackery cereal malt, rather earthy honey, a bit of musty yeastiness, some buttered white bread, and ethereal leafy, herbal, and floral green hop bitters. The taste is gritty and grainy pale malt, faint clover honey, some weird earthy mustiness, and a still very hard to detect leafy, weedy, and musky floral hoppiness.

The carbonation is quite tame in its barely-there frothiness, the body a so-so middleweight, and sort of smooth, I guess, with just a touch of clamminess joining the 'party' as things warm up a tad. It finishes off-dry, the wan malt pretty much closing up shop all by its lonesome.

Overall - yeah, I can't quite confirm it as such, but I suspect that something is off with this one. The honey is weak, and there's that weird otherness that I can't exactly wrap my head around. Anyways, not good, and definitely not anything resembling a nectar.