Town Hall Centennial Pale Ale

On cask. Poured a nice slightly hazy, golden color with a beautiful head that only cask can deliver. Smell was citrusy and piney, with a soft biscuit note hidden in there too; even though the smell wasn’t real strong, it was still very nice. Taste is certainly hoppy, but there is an almost perfectly balanced malt backbone to it. Hints of sweet malt hidden behind a generous amount of hops in just the way Town Hall knows how to do it. Low carbonation levels and a medium body make the mouthfeel almost creamy smooth. Just amazing drinkability, I wanted to sit and drink this all day, but sadly I didn’t have enough time. Make a point to try this one when it’s available.

On tap at the brewpub on 6/22/07: Pours a transparent deep bronze with a full-lacing clingy white head. Aroma of big fresh citrusy hops and lightly sweet pale malt. Body starts with good light malty sweetness, nicely balanced with an assertive grapefruity piny hoppy balance. Very smooth, crisp and flavorful toward a slightly drier, lingering bittersweet finish. A very nice APA.

Pours a hazy orange amber, it remains hazy even after the cask pull cascading is long gone. Topped by a good inch and a half of thick creamy white foam. Great head retention. Fantastic thick paint-like, count-the-rings lacing throughout the pint. Perhaps the best lacing I have ever seen. Mild hop aroma, lightly citrus. No indication of what’s to come... I love the flavor - bold hops that are pine, floral, and citrus. These dominate the flavor, but there is an easily discernable malt backbone that is lightly sweet, and even a hair astingently smoky. A delicious grapefruit pithy bitterness shows up in the finish and lingers a good long time in the aftertaste. Medium body, very fresh and flavorful, with absolutely perfect soft carbonation.

Pours a yellow/orange with a nice creamy white head. Nice citric aroma and taste is the same with a nice persistant bitterness throughout. Nice mouthfeel. Another nice solid beer from Town Hall.

Cask. Writing from old notes. Swirling shades of cream lace the coppery hued body. Magnificent aroma - fragrant and floral, sweet, with warming spiciness. Immensely full flavor, especially in the warmer cask version, with enormous fruit flavors and sharply bitter, hoppy edge. Greets the mouth with the sweet, rich feeling of biting into a fresh peach, chased by a dry, flowery finish. A must have if it’s brewed again next year.

Re-released in December 2006: A major dissapointment. Offensively watery and wooded on cask, gratuitously bitter on tap with more of a leafy, spoiled, monolithic hop flavor. Likely a simple, though dramatic, issue of freshness. A sedated, lifeless shadow of its former self. Cue the requiem intro.