Nectar Ales Pale Nectar

Formerly brewed at Firestone Walker Brewing Co.
Style: American Pale Ale
Paso Robles, California USA

Bottle. Medium golden and excellent foam retention. There’s a great bit of floral perfume in the mildly hoppy nose. Amazingly tasty and well-balanced light medium body with good hopping and not much sweetness. Gains bitterness as it warms. Humboldt ROCKS.

Original, 1/02/02: Exceptional in every way. PhillyBeer2112 mentions the somewhat buttery flavor and mouthfeel, and man is he right. The hops are perfect, in aroma and in taste, for the style. Head retention perfect, color, body -- everything. Bitter finish, but not too bitter. I am deeply saddened to state, clearly and for the record, that Bell’s Pale and Great Lakes Burning River are a slight step behind. Rerate on 2/15/02: Some slight consistency problems have had me drop it a bit, now the equal in my master APA list to the 2 above and Smuttynose Shoals. Super beer!

Pours gold with a white head. Smells of yogurt, straw, grapefruit and a bit sugary. Taste is of oranges and caramel. One of the best APAs I’ve had to date.

Extremly large head that piles up to resmeble whipped cream. Took me about five minutes to get all twelve ounces in the glass. Hazy orangish, slightly reddish body. Bit of honey and cinnamon in the nose as well as some flowery hop smell. Wow, this is different, for a pale. I suppose (and thus added it under the style) Humboldt was going for an english pale ale style. It actually tastes a lot like a german hef. Has banana and clove flavors to it. Sweet and smooth, almost a creamy texture in the mouth. I guess if I rated this against true english style pale ales it would score low. However, I rated it for what it was: a realy nice beer. (Got a lower score for the apperance only because the head was SO big initially.)

Poured a orange-tinged copper color with a big cratered head. Very nice orange-buddy citrus nose. Very citric bite in the flavor, too, like spiced oranges, very nice dry finish.

12oz bottle poured a clear copper/gold color with a small white head. Aroma has a strong citrus hop character with a slightly sweet carmel malt note. Taste has the perfect bitterness for a pale ale and a great hoppy finish that is good and dry. Overall a great American Pale that should definitely be on the top 25 list.

This might have tasted hoppier, but I preceded it with a HopDevil! Still it had a nice hop flavor and aroma - a bit floral. The real story here, though, is its Englishy fruitiness and slight butteriness and buttery mouthfeel. Smooth, slightly sweet, and very drinkable. A nice beer. Golden yellow with a good head.

Pours a lightly hazy deep amber, the head is beige, creamy and long lasting, the sheets in huge sheets to cover the glass. Nose is ’Hop Floral’, malt tones, sweet, and quite pleasant. Front is lightly sweet, top is light, the finish is quite acidic, nicely hopped and a real ’Session’ beer if I have ever tasted one. Ranks #336 on my current 1000 beer list. Thanks once again Herbjones