What makes Zombie Dust a Pale Ale/What makes Nugget Nectar an Amber?

I cannot speak to Zombie Dust as I've never had it, but I do know that Nugget Nectar starts off as their flagship beer, HopBack. This is an Amber. I believe the process of beefing up the hops is both quantity and variety (in a big way I might add) makes it an Imperial Amber. At least, that's what I was told.

 

A hoppy stout isn't an IPA any more than a hoppy amber is.

 

It is typically based abv, and IBU ratio...plus SRM.

 

I know what you mean. I am drinking lagunitas lil sumpin sumpin ale right now, and with the first sip, a thought it was an IPA. The aroma is IPA as well. Apparently, it's a pale wheat.

 

Nugget Nectar is labeled as an "imperial amber", which is a made up thing. So it can be whatever it wants to.

Zombie Dust, if we're gonna get super nitpicky, you might say is at the very upper limit of what you could call an American pale ale.

I agree with you though, they both drink like IPA's to me.

 

I think it probably has something to do with how they brew each beer.

 

It has to do with marketing. The recipes for both are fairly standard IPA recipes, but they want to stand out from the rest so they call it something else. Founder's does the opposite with their "session IPA" which is obviously a Pale ale. American craft beer is kind of gimmicky that way.

 

Yep. From their website:

Starting with the same base ingredients of our flagship HopBack Amber Ale, Nugget Nectar intensifies the malt and hop flavors to create an explosive hop experience.


So it makes sense for NN to be called an Amber if HopBack is considered an Amber.

 

I don't think the style matters as much as if its a good beer or not. At the end of the day who cares what it's classified as, just drink and enjoy it

 

This is mostly incorrect.

 

As far as I understood style definitions, the OG, FG, base malt and adjuncts (if any) are also taken into consideration, not just abv, srm, and IBUs. These two beers may differ in the grain bill or other areas enough to land them in different categories.

 

"What makes Zombie Dust a Pale Ale/What makes Nugget Nectar an Amber?"

What makes a king out of a slave?
What makes the flag on the mast to wave?
What makes the elephant charge his tusk in the misty mist, or the dusky dusk?
What makes the muskrat guard his musk?
What makes the sphinx the seventh wonder?
What makes the dawn come up like thunder?
What makes the Hottentot so hot?
What puts the "ape" in apricot?
What have they got that I ain't got?

 

Ive always wondered the same thing about Dale's Pale

 

You bought it, it's whatever you want it to be : )

 

The recipe

 

Care to explain?