Beer Spotlight!

Nost Beer Project

When Rachel Howard was in college (not so very long ago — thanks for helping us feel old, Rachel), she knew she loved science but didn’t know what she wanted to do with it. A course-mandated internship and help from a father who worked in beer distribution solved her riddle. After a summer working at a hometown brewery, Howard returned to college knowing how she would use her chemistry degree. She got a job as a bartender, worked in the brewery on her off hours, and, after graduating, looked for brewing jobs. Oozelfinch Beers & Blending of Fort Monroe, VA snatched her right up. Now their head brewer, Howard has been there ever since.

Nost Beer Project is not just a separate brand for Oozelfinch but it’s also a separate approach to brewing. If you don’t know, Oozlefinch does some wacky brews. We mean, there’s some wacky brewing and then there’s Oozlefinch wackiness! (Let’s see … currently on tap in Fort Monroe they have the Peach Patrol — a sour ale with peach, apricot, marshmallow, and vanilla; the Party Dinosaur (that’s a popular one) — a sour ale with papaya, raspberry, pineapple, oats, and vanilla; Ooo! and there’s the Azucar Azucar — an imperial stout with coffee, cinnamon, piloncillo sugar, nutmeg, vanilla, and cayenne pepper. So … yeah.)

Though Howard makes all of these beers well, she admits that when the kettles are cooling and the dust is settling, those aren’t the types of beers she drinks nor that she really enjoys making. Hence, Nost Beer Project.

“Nost” is the root for “nostalgia” (from the ancient Greek “nostos,” a return home). The project is Howard turning to more traditional styles — a chance to play unplugged, as it were, to show that she can do more than heavily adjuncted sours and stouts.

Loving the simple and fine as much as the complicated and dazzling, we’re eager to see how Howard handles what she calls, “the kind of beer we all fell in love with.” We have two of them in shop right now. (Hey, wait a minute. Aren’t these the type of beers that we still drink ourselves? Thanks for making us feel really old, Rachel!!)

Nost Vaguely Melancholy

$15.99 for the 16oz four-pack cans
West Coast IPA
Restrained malt backbone to showcase light citrusy and herbal hops.

Nost Desiderium

$17.99 for the 16oz four-pack cans
Double IPA
Medium-bodied off-dry malt well-balanced by hops.