Nimbus Brewing Company - Nimbus Pale Ale

Expect a moderately hazy, deep orange-golden color on the pour, with plenty of foam to coat your glass as it recedes. Aromas of caramel and lightly bready malts are apparent, accompanied by a light fruitiness and a spicy, earthy hop aroma overtop. On the palate, we found the bitter and sweet components to be in a very nice balance. The malt backbone offers notes of rich caramel, moderate toast, and crackers, and is quite robust and mouth-filling while still remaining somewhat soft, offering a good platform for the hops to deliver a spicy, earthy punch with a touch of citric zest acidity to dry this beer out nicely in the finish. This satisfying brew makes a great accompaniment to a variety of different types of foods including chicken, fish, pork, pasta, and Asian-style dishes. Enjoy!

Nimbus Brewing Company opened for business in the spring of 1996, and like most brewing companies struggling to get a foothold in the beer industry at that time, production was miniscule at first, totaling just 200 barrels that first year. But, as the craft beer industry began to pick up some steam, Nimbus found plenty of welcoming customers for their beer in Tucson and throughout Arizona. In June of 2000 James Counts joined the business as Managing Partner and oversaw a significant brewery expansion including the installation of a top-of-the-line 35-barrel brewing system. Fast forward to today and Nimbus has grown into the largest brewery in Arizona, although they're still quite small for a regional brewer with production of just over 22,000 barrels per year. That might sound like a lot, but even in the world of craft beer it's fairly small; many other regional craft breweries produce hundreds of thousands of barrels per year.

Under Head Brewer Scott Schwartz, Nimbus has brought home numerous awards, including silver medals at the World Beer Cup for both of this month's featured beers. The brewery makes a point of acknowledging the groundwater of the Tucson area, which happens to be very hard and very similar to the water of England's famous brewing town, Burton-on-Trent. It's a perfect water for brewing ales, and the only treatment the brewery performs is charcoal filtration for purity. Plans are in place to install a reverse osmosis system to give them the ability to remove the minerals in their water supply, opening up the option of brewing lager styles with the kind of soft water found in central Europe.

For more information, visit them at www.nimbusbeer.com or call 520-745-9175.