Nickel Brook’s Mystery Pack Volume 2
Nickel Brook Brewing Company’s Mystery Pack is back with it’s second volume! Many of you in Ontario will recall the first Mystery Pack, released in late 2017, when Nickel Brook launched a pack of four beers and let us, the drinkers, vote for our favourite which would go on to become part of the year-round lineup. The original pack included a light Stout, a New England IPA, a Session New England IPA, and a Dry Hopped Sour. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the New England IPA won the day, which gave us what is now Wicked Awesome IPA. As it turns out, the other three did eventually join the core lineup too, with the Stout becoming Cheeky Bastard, the Session NEIPA becoming Lost in Orbit, and the Sour becoming Duplicitous.
This time around, the mystery pack is IPA focused. So we’ve got four IPAs, and we need to try them all and tell them which one we want more of! The winner will get it’s own branded release later this year. So let's put on our lab coats and get right into this!
Mystery Beer A
India Pale Ale - 5.5%
A pours orangey yellow in colour, with a frothy head keeping some good retention, and a fair bit of sediment. There’s bright citrus on the nose alongside melon and passion fruit. The first thing I notice on the palate is that this one drinks with notably high carbonation and generous citrus flavours like orange and lemon zest. This imparts some sharp acidity, which is not always my favourite, but it’s not off-putting here. From there, it settles into grapefruit pith on the mid-palate which gives some notable bitterness. There’s a bit of a peppery tingle on the finish. Overall there’s some nice tropical flavour here, but it loses me on the body, which leans on the thinner side of medium. That, combined with the high carbonation and citric acidity has it drinking more like a session IPA despite having an ABV over 5%. For that reason this one is not my favourite, but figuring that out is the whole point of this experiment!
Mystery Beer B
India Pale Ale - 6.5%
At 6.5%, B is the highest ABV of the pack. It’s pouring with a copper orange colour and quite a lot of sediment in suspension. The nose is giving off some prominent grapefruit pith and a serious resinous vibe. The sweetness and grapefruit on the aroma are very much putting caramelized citrus at top of mind before even taking a sip. The grapefruit carries through on the palate with pith and zest, along with some juicy pineapple providing ample acidity. There is a sticky, resinous element as well but with less sweetness than I was expecting based on the nose. Lemon zest is present as well, leading towards a decently bitter finish. The pineapple flavour does turn a bit astringent towards the end, but overall I like the depth of flavour in this one.
Mystery Beer C
India Pale Ale - 3.5%
At 3.5%, C is the session of the bunch. I’ll state up front that purely as a matter of personal preference, session IPAs tend not to be my favourite style. The typically lighter body with higher carbonation and hop profiles that trend towards sharp citric acidity tend to be off-putting for my palate. Similar to A, it’s got bright citrus flavours of grapefruit and lemon on the nose. On the palate, the lemon is making for some serious bitterness in the manner that’s characteristic of the style. The carbonation is fairly high, as expected. It’s sharp, but not bad. It’s expectedly thin in body, a touch grassy, and dry towards the finish. It’s quite similar to A in many ways but with a considerable 2% lower ABV. It’s not my favourite, but it’s a solid Session.
Mystery Beer D
India Pale Ale - 4.3%
Rounding out the pack is D, clocking in at 4.3% with a copper orange colour and tall frothy head similar to the rest of the pack. This one was packing quite a lot of chunky sediment. It’s got similar aromatics to B with grapefruit at the forefront, along with some resinous caramel sweetness. The palate matches, carrying grapefruit pith, brown sugar, and a sticky resinous feel. There’s a bit of a floral note to it as well, which is not mixing well with the citrus flavours for me. It does have a decent body for a sub-5% beer. The sweetness turns to warmth on the finish, giving it a kind of burnt sugar vibe.
The Results!
Nickel Brook are literally asking us to tell them which prototype beer we like best, so with the experiments completed, it’s time to make a decision!
For my palate, B had the best texture and flavour contrast, which earned it my first place pick.
Whichever one does win and ends up earning a place in the lineup, I would like to see some small tweaks to address things like the chunky sediment. As described, these beers are all prototype batches so it’s understandable that some adjustments would be in order before getting promoted to regular rotation.
I’m glad Nickel Brook decided to bring the Mystery Pack back for a second round. It was great the first time, though with four different styles it was really more a game of style preference, and with the widespread popularity of New England IPAs the end result was perhaps predictable. This time around with four of the same style, the differences were much more subtle and it forces a much closer examination of the flavour profiles. It would be cool if they kept this going with more style-focused versions in the future!
Have you had your say yet? You can grab the Mystery Pack Vol. 2 at the LCBO, select Loblaws and Sobey’s, or direct from Nickel Brook’s online store or onsite bottle shop. Once you’ve tried them all, vote for your fave here!
Article and photography by Nathan Lefebvre.
Find Nickel Brook online:
Nathan
Nathan is a craft beer enthusiast from Ottawa, ON. He is the Co-Founder of @TeamLactose, he’s passionate about travelling for beer and he loves talking about beer from Ontario, Quebec and beyond.