Weekend Tap Update: Hops and More Hops.

Unfortunately, it been a while for Weekend Tap Update. The good news is, it’s well worth any wait…

…because it’s a bit like a dream come true, at least if you’re a fan of hop forward beers. A couple of annually released fan favorites are showing up at various spots all around Roanoke. (Including what is arguably my own all time favorite beer, and that’s saying quite a bit.) Yes, no matter where you turn, you’re likely to be able to get your hop fix on.

Troegs Nugget Nectar, what the brewery calls its “Imperial Amber”, showed up at Local Roots this past Sunday, and will also make an appearance at Blue 5 this weekend. An extremely flavorful beer, Nugget Nectar doesn’t sacrifice any bitterness but mainly leads with a mouthful of mouth puckering tangelo like flavor, which is paired with a swift moving light caramel sweetness. The hops lend what some might call an herbal, hop leafy, or almost slightly peppery spice to the beer, but for me the selling point is that turned up volume of citrus aroma and flavor, which I cannot find the same hint of in any other beer than Nugget Nectar.

Making an appearance likely tonight at Blue 5 is Bell’s Hopslam. An imperial IPA brewed with honey, you’ve also likely had this near legend before too – but year after year is of course worth revisiting. A perhaps more rounded out, smoother attack on the palate than many bigger IPAs out there, Hopslam is still one of the better ones out there, and like the Nugget Nectar, has an aroma and taste that is undeniably all its own, and instantly recognizable. It features a honeyed sweetness, some lighter herbal or grassy type flavor, a bit of pine like flavors as well, and orange or tangerine type citrus. Year after year, I cannot pin down just how this beer tends to come across with such soft, rounded off edges, but delivers such flavor. It’s a mild form of attack, but one that still wins you over. Must have to do with the honey, I always think.

Apparently, a cask version of Ballast Point’s IPA Sculpin will also be at Blue 5 as well, which should offer a new and interesting take on that highly regarded beer.

Cheers!