Nirvana Brewery Hoppy Pale Ale

The name Nirvana Brewery to me evokes feelings of calm, well-being and mindfulness, mainly because of the association of the word with Buddhist teachings and yoga. But not only did Nirvana Brewery take the name, they also initially adopted many of the yogic philosophies that come with it. Indeed, for a while the company offered ‘beer yoga’ at their brewery premises. Using beer bottles as points of focus, participants would be taught many postures, such as the warrior pose, with of course an alcohol free beer or two to cool down with afterwards. Downward dog with a hair of the dog? Sounds fine to me!

Nirvana Brewery also initially took the names of their beers from yogic and Buddhist terms. Tantra, Sutra and other names plastered their old bottles, and the pale ale we’re reviewing here was formerly known as ‘Karma’. Their beers were rebranded back in the summer of 2019, citing confusion among their customers as one of the reasons for doing so. They chose to go from enigmatic monikers for their beers to concise detailed labels, and thus Karma was reborn as ‘Hoppy Pale Ale’. But what we’re eager to know now is, does the taste match the description?

Pouring the beer out from the bottle we get a dark straw liquid with quite lively carbonation, birthing a small frothy head which is quickly dispatched. On the nose tropical and citrus aromas abound, grapefruit and pineapple, along with a toffee sweetness. Mosaic hops are in use here, and it’s smelling more like an American Pale Ale than a traditional one. This is not a bad thing.

Taste-wise the hoppy flavours continue, with citrus dominating over tropical pineapple, but any malt sweetness quickly disappears. Whilst the bitter hoppy flavours are there, they aren’t at the high level that was teased by the beer’s aroma. The body is rather watery despite the initial effervescence, but we are left with a clean bitter finish.

This is certainly a good sessionable pale ale, though from the ‘hoppy’ title given to it I was expecting more. The aroma promises more than the taste can provide, which as a hop-head I find a bit disappointing. A good addition to the Nirvana Brewery arsenal however, just needs another bundle of hops thrown in near the end of the brewing process to really develop the flavour.

Nutritional Information (per 100ml)

0.5% alcohol by volume
9 calories energy
0.1g fat
1.4g carbohydrates
0.1g sugar
0.1g protein

(taken from the side of the bottle)

Ingredients

Water, Barley Malt, Hops, Yeast