Price: $9.99/6-pack
Where Spotted: Kogod Liquors, 441 New Jersey Ave. NW
Balancing Act: What do you say about the beer that has everything? At a modest—but not puny—6 percent alcohol by volume, a deep, chewy palette of red malts makes way for the zesty finish of Nugget hops. Bitter enough for IPA fans and rich enough for those in the malt camp, it sounds like a mash-up of styles that’s too busy to work. But in reality it’s kind of, sort of, just…perfect.
Nuggets of Wisdom: It was just a few weeks ago that hopheads, still buzzing from the most recent wave of Bell’s Hopslam Ale to hit the shelves, were subjected to another rush of cultish IPAs when Tröegs Nugget Nectar made its seasonal appearance. Built on the same Nugget hops, it’s the HopBack’s bigger brother; both share the signature bitterness that is deified on the label, in all its whole-cone glory.