Changing Tastes: Hopslam & Nugget Nectar

I happen to like Nugget Nectar much more than those others. And I didn't need to drive around.

They are all different beers - with different malt profiles, different levels of bitterness, different hop flavors/aromas too.

 

Yup. I remember when a bar in Philly tapping Pliny the Elder was big news, and gone within an hour. A local bar just recently had a keg last almost a week.

 

If you paid $20 a six pack then that's just a local anomaly.

It's about $45 a case in PA - or probably $14 a six pack if you buy it that way.

And not to nit-pick about calling it an amber vs. an IPA - but the reason I like Nugget Nectar is because it's a very hoppy beer that has that great balance of good malt flavor. Versus the current trend of extremely pale IPAs.

 

Yup, exactly this. NN is delicious to me specifically because it doesn't just taste like every other IPA; that malt backbone will makes the beer delicious to me.

 

Nugget Nectar is not an IPA it's a hoppy amber... IPA and hoppy are not synonymous.

 

Not according to the marketing people at a lot of breweries.

Red IPA! Black IPA! Brown IPA! White IPA! Session IPA!

 

I know... I'm waiting for the Gruit IPA.

 

Ha, nice!

Now with extra bog myrtle!

 

To say that it's one and not the other, you are assuming that there is a very clear cut difference between the terms.

 

Can a beer truly be an IPA if it's not pale in color? I always wondered this about SN Celebration.

 

I'm aware, but:

It basically tastes like an IPA with slightly different and more pronounced malt (at least it did when I had it). We're also discussing it in the context of there being plenty of other comparable options available locally, and I have to assume a lot of those options will be your standard IPA (and not an amber).

I feel like at this point we might as well just refer to every beer style as an IPA. Porters can be Roasty IPAs, hopped sours can be Sour IPAs, etc.!

 

Guess it depends on what definition you are using - historical, modern American, modern English?

I had a pint of cask Wells Eagle IPA yesterday. At 3.6% ABV, only mild hop flavor, and almost brown in color, I think most American beer geeks would feel duped.

 

Doing apples to apples comparisons is not the strong suit of this board, unfortunately.

 

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I thought last year's NN tasted better than the last few years and I posted it on here. Others in my drinking group thought the same as well (hopefully not the result of groupthink but that could be a factor).

Wasn't this year's Born Yesterday also considered substantially better than last years according to most people?

But I do agree with you that the majority of the time people think seasonals get worse over time.


Oh and for the "standard lineup" IPAs, I agree that 60 min. doesn't wow me like it used to. Tastes rather bland, where in the past I thought it was very hoppy.

 

Probably the closest widely-available beer is Oscar Blues G-Knight. Which used to be labeled "Imperial Red" similar to NN's label of "Imperial Amber". But then they recently changed with the trend towards calling everything an IPA.

 

I was just going to say to @TongoRad that I'm not even sure where I'd turn for a comparable beer (quality-wise) to NN around these parts. Red/amber ales don't have the same name cachet as everyone's favorite India Pale.

 

I swallowed about 2hrs ago on that....

 

OP made me want to stand up, clap and yell testify. His message reads like a sort of progression of drinkers maturity that most people go through.

However, you totally derailed on that 3rd to last sentence because whether you want to acknowledge it or not there are variables beyond our evolution of taste that factor into a seasonal brew being better or worse than prior years.

 

It only has to be more pale than a porter or a stout.

 

These days the letters IPA equate to $$$, at least in the eyes of the breweries. And who can blame them when the beer lemmings are all gravitating in that direction?