Beer of the Week: Nestor

Two weeks ago we went into great details about Thorn Street Brewery’s founders rebranding their 12-year-old North Park enterprise. In doing so, they chose the name Little Bird Brewing for the business and opted to also alter the monikers of their beers. That meant stripping longtime fan favorites of their handles, replacing them with new ones offering nods to the avian kingdom. When determining what to call their most popular IPA, they went with the name of a patron who loved and exclusively drank that beer. That nominal acknowledgement would have happened even if his name hadn’t worked from a bird-pun perspective, but fortunately it did. Enter this week’s featured beer, Nestor IPA. (“Nester”, get it?) A classic West Coast IPA, its navel orange and lemon zest aromas segue to tangerine, hash and resin on the palate, with those last two lingering in the finish. Bold and tasty, it’s anything but for the birds. Rather, it’s for a very special individual the crew at Little Bird will always remember, in part because of this touching tribute.

Nestor was a regular at Thorn for years. He was a great guy who was a beloved principal at a local school and a referee for our local youth soccer league. He loved this beer, and it was pretty much all he drank when he was at our brewery. Earlier this year, he passed away, and we decided to rename this beer in his honor. A West Coast IPA, it’s brewed with Simcoe, Centennial, Citra and Amarillo hops, and features a very neutral grain bill to let the hops shine through.”

Dan Carrico, Co-founder, Little Bird Brewing

Little Bird Brewing is located at 3176 Thorn Street in North Park