Tröegs Nugget Nectar Ale

Brewed by Tröegs Brewing Company
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania USA

It’s almost a cliché these days to talk about how intense and hoppy American craft beers are becoming. In fact, it’s reaching a point where hoppy beers are saturating the market and we might even see a backlash against it. I don’t see anything wrong, in principle, with this trend since I drink beers for their quality - not their popularity. Troegs Nugget Nectar is, as of this writing, one of the trendiest and hoppiest brews on the craft beer scene and for good reason - it’s delicious and highly drinkable. It’s a genuine bitter beer, not a gimmicky, arbitrary brew.

APPEARANCE AND AROMA

I rarely get caught up on a beer’s surface elements of appearance and aroma, but as soon as I poured Nugget Nectar I immediately had an intense craving for it. This beer is a beautiful, clear shade of reddish amber and forms a perfectly-proportioned layer of frothy, off-white head (which lasts until the last sip and leaves generous lacing on the glass).

The aroma is extremely inviting with an intense presence of tropical fruit or citrus (I’m thinking mango, tangerine and ruby red grapefruit). There also seems to be a bit of a sweet piney component to the nose indicating this is a real beer at heart.

TASTE

My first sip of Troegs Nugget Nectar was akin to taking a huge gulp of tropical fruit juice after being parched for days - not only was it extremely refreshing, but the taste was wonderful. Immediately I get a tart, bitter taste of grapefruit, orange and passion fruit. As the beer finishes the malts take over to deliver a sweeter component of confectionary sugar. It’s a great one-two punch of satisfying flavor.

The hops linger for only a little while with this beer. There is a noticeable dry aftertaste, similar to East Coast-style IPAs with a sticky, dry, piney resin coating but not quite as intense. This is an amber ale after all, so the beer is a bit drier than an India pale ale. Still, the flavor combinations of citrus and sweetness really add up to form an impressive palate.

What’s interesting is this beer uses nugget, warrior and tomahawk hops for an IBU rating of "93ish" according to the bottle, yet it doesn’t taste quite that bitter. It’s also nice to drink a hoppy beer that utilizes these types of hops instead of the usual cascade variety.

DRINKABILITY

Troegs labels this beer as an "imperial amber," which would seem to indicate an overtly intense, boozy quality, but I found Nugget Nectar to be surprisingly drinker-friendly. There is no alcohol present in the nose, the taste or aftertaste - the malts and hops do all the work here. Even at 7.5% ABV this is still only above-average in terms of potency and it definitely drinks as such (one glass only had me slightly tingling and two had me barely buzzed).

Despite the intense bitterness this is still not a challenging beer to drink. The mouthfeel is rather soft, although thick, but finishes smooth. It’s not the kind of beer you could slug down easily, but it isn’t the type only professional drinkers can get down. The great taste lends it to savoring and tastes just as good on the last drop as it did from the first sip.

FINAL THOUGHTS

I drank this beer with a friend who isn’t as big of a fan of intensely-hopped beers as I am but even he felt the great taste and drinkability made Troegs Nugget Nectar a very good beer. If you’re into beers with chutzpah you’ll probably find this beer to be a winner. Even if you’re not, you’ll likely appreciate the great taste and be surprised at just how enjoyable it really is.

NOTE: watch the video version of this review at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VrBsPKZsvA

This beer wasn’t exactly what I expected, but I liked it quite a bit for what it was. I thought it was going to be a really BIG beer, teetering on the edges of what is possible with hoppiness...packing as much hop bitterness into a beer as is zymurgically possible on this earth. And it wasn’t that, which surprised me, given as much hype as this beer gets. Instead, it was a very hoppy, yet still fairly light and eminently drinkable beer. It didn’t, as the commercial description suggests, make me "pucker up," but it did have more than enough hops to satisfy my cravings for bitterness, while being sessionable enough to have several. This beer looks beautiful - it is a copper red, but has a brilliant body (unlike a lot of other highly hopped DIPAs which seem to become cloudy and opaque with their increased bitterness). Aroma is hoppy with lots of citrus undertones. Flavor is surprisingly balanced, with a good amount of maltiness under-cutting some of the hop bitterness and perhaps explaining why this beer didn’t seem as BIG as I expected. Hop characteristic in the taste was more the sweetly-sweaty-sock variety - think a toned-down Moylan’s Hopsickle. Mouthfeel was mildly sticky, but pretty good. All in all, a nice beer. A bit pricey at $12.99/6-pack, but certainly worth the price of admission if you’ve yet to try it.

I USUALLY TAKE MY TIME WHEN CHOOSING MY BEER FOR THE EVENING. ALTHOUGHT THIS BREW HAS A GREAT NAME AND LABEL NOT TOO MENTION A GREAT BREWERY, I WASNT IMMEDIATLY DRAWN TOO IT, NOT RELIZING IT WAS A IPA SEEING THAT THE LABEL SAYS IMPERIAL AMBER ALE, BUT IT CAME DOWN TO THIS AND TWO OTHERS AND ULTIMATELY THIS WAS THE NIGHTS CHOICE AND I HAVE TO PAT MYSELF ON THE BACK BECAUSE IT WAS A GOOD DECISION. THIS BEER POURS A REDISH COPPER WITH A SLIGHTLY CREAMY HEAD THAT TAKES A MINUTE TO DEVELOP, IT SMELLS OF WONDERFULL SWEET FRUITY HOPS AND CEDAR CHIPS. AND IS REMARKABLY SMOOTH AND EASY TO DRINK ,IT HAS NICE BALANCE OF BITTER HOPS AND SWEETNESS BUT IS SUPRISINGLY LIGHT FOR AN 7.5% IPA. GREAT NAME, AND LABEL FOR A DARN GOOD BEER!

Thanks to Hophead101 for trading me this beer. The beer pours an orangish-amber color with a white head. The aroma is orange and grapefruit. The flavor is very complex, with the major components being orange and grapefruit. At times I also get some pineapple and pine notes. The bitterness is about medium for the style and the finish is bitter orange. Medium mouthfeel and carbonation. Truly an outstanding beer.

Very nice. Pours a deep golden-orange with a soap-bubbly head. Smells like fruit, but not fruity. It’s a crisp, bitter ale. Two thumbs up.

aroma is grassy resin and hint the citrus to come. appearance is translucent dark gold with lingering mess of a head and good lacing. flavor is excellent juicy citrus and resin backbone. sharp striking lemon. mouthfeel is full and reveals the malt stacked underneath, which reveals late in the flavor with a strike of chewy caramel. solid beer all around, its hop character alone is so fresh it makes the brew delectable but all around balance to boot pushes it over the edge.

Bottle. Pours a nice clear ruby and copper color with a small off-white head. Aromas of pine sap, citrus, floral hops, and some nice sweet malt. Flavor is bitter citrus rind, fresh pine, and grass, with a caramel malt backbone to balance things in the finish. This is smooth, easy-drinking, and creamy. Really good beer.

Great aroma with blend of malt and hops, orange color and pours with a full white head. Hops taste is strong and full, but not overpowering. Excellent beer.