For a party at work, Mike brewed a 3½-gallon batch of American Pale Ale (APA) using the Cellar Science Nectar yeast. Given the task to brew a beer for a large crowd, he decided it was time to get back into the classic pale ale groove.

His goal was to capture that familiar spirit of the Sierra Nevada-style pale but play with malt percentages and yeast to deliver something a little different. Check out the results of this beer.

Nectar APA Recipe

This recipe is for a 3.5 gallon batch.

Water
Spring water with gypsum added to boil

Grain Bill
60 % American 2-row base malt
40 % Munich (~7–8 °L)

Hops
12 g of  Nugget hops added at 60 minutes to go in the boil.
56 g of Citra hops added as a whirlpool addition.
56 g of Ekuanot hops added as a whirlpool addition.
56 g of Azacca hops – cold dry hop (details below)

Yeast
1 packet of Cellar Science Nectar Dry Yeast

Procedure
Mike followed this mash schedule:
Step mash: 135 °F / 140 °F for 50 minutes
158 °F for ~10 minutes
168 °F for ~10 minutes

Boiled for 60 minutes and chilled to fermentation temperatures ~65-68 °F (basement temps).

After primary fermentation was complete, Mike cold crashed the beer to ~40-42 °F in keg, then dry hopped with Azacca hops for 5 days at the cold temperature.

Outcomes
Original Gravity: 1.052
Final Gravity: 1.012
ABV: 5.5%

What Did We Think?

We were very pleased with this beer. The aroma on transfer was off the charts with notes of pineapple and lime-citrus. The flavor had a big hop-forward profile and a clean and dry finish (despite the Munich heft).

Mike wasn’t chasing a NEIPA haze or smash-beer simplicity. He wanted a pale ale with body, character and hop punch.

The yeast performed beautifully as it fermented aggressively yet clean. The in-keg dry-hop addition of Azacca locked the hop aroma and flavor.
Mike would definitely brew this one again and may scale it up. For anyone looking to experiment with yeast beyond the usual suspects in an APA framework, give Cellar Science’s Nectar a shot.

Brew ON!