Belt’s Beer Garden: Breath of Fresh Air

In the heart of Charleston, South Carolina sits Edmund’s Oast Brewing Company, a brewery whose mantra is “Quality first. Everything else will follow.” The brewery also operates a restaurant and a beer and wine bottle shop, both of which are a little more than a mile up the road from the brewery.

The brewery takes their name from a pair of historic things. Edmund is an homage to an English-born brewer, Edmund Egan, who lived in Charleston in the 1760s and donated so much money to the American revolution that he earned the nickname of “the Rebel Brewer”. And an oast is an old European term for a kiln that dries hops for brewing.

Edmund’s Oast has developed a nice distribution range, as you can find them in both Carolinas, Alabama, Florida, Tennessee, and New York City.

Today I have their Breath of Nebula, a New England IPA brewed with Azacca, El Dorado, and Huell Melon hops. It has a 6.7% ABV and single 16-ounce can was a modist $4.50, with a four-pack costing $16. Mine was canned on December 4th and this review was written on January 25th.

This hazy IPA poured a bright, but cloudy, orange straw color with minimal head. No more than half a finger of thin, eggshell white head topped the beer and, within moments, it had fizzled down into a razor thin ring around the glass.

The aroma was straight juice! It smelled damn near identical to Sunny D...insanely orangey with a light tang to it. There was only one thing that distinguished the two - this brew had a slight flaked wheat and oat aroma behind the massive amount of citrus that gave off a very light cereal-like quality to it.

My tongue is almost instantly hit with those super juicy notes of orange and tangerine but, quickly following those is the culprit behind the tang in the aroma - pineapple. A huge wave of pineapple washes over the orange and takes control for a few moments, bringing with it that distinct acidity and flavor.

After a few seconds of the fruit flavors fighting for control, a light hum of carbonation fizzled across my tongue and, joining it, a slight hoppy bite that settled near the back of my tongue.

Once the late fizz had finished, there was one last pop of juicy flavors. However, it wasn’t just orange this time. The last hurrah of hops brought a bit of mango and some pithy lemon and grapefruit notes as well.

Breath of Nebula finished mostly clean. There was some residual dryness and a very mild stickiness that lingered on after everything.

Overall, I loved the way the beer smelled and looked. It was tasty and rather easy to drink but...the aroma was quite a bit better than the actual flavor. If it tasted as good as it smelled, it’s an easy A. However, as it stands, it’s still a very good, above average NE IPA.