Town Hall Fresh Hop Ale 2005

Pours a hazy orange amber, topped with a huge head of rocky, cream-colored, soft and sudsy foam. Superb head retention and lacing. Hoppy aroma of citrus with an herbal zing. Smells delicious! The flavor is dominated by the hops, as expected. Plenty of crisp, clean, green, and bitter citrus hops to go around. Lots of bitter grapefruit, with fresh lemon and a mild pine hop flavor in the finish. These same flavors in the aftertaste linger forever. Well behind the hoppiness is a mild malt presence. Try as I might (and I’ve mightily tried a couple pints, a growler, and a few samples at the Autumn Brew Review), I can’t pinpoint a malt flavor. But it is there – if only for balance and body. And to tell you the truth, that’s all I am interested in from a fresh hop beer anyway. Medium body, amply but gently carbonated, and fairly smooth.

On-tap at the brewpub: Clouded and hazy goldish yellow with a small white cap of smooth froth. Great lacing is placed all throughout the glass as its comsumed in the patterns of snowflakes and bigger splotches. Aroma is quite nice and pungent at first, very citrusy fruity with clean popping hops. Nice hints to underlying pine and grasses sweep up under the lemony citrus as does some toffee and cereal-like malting which tends to add a bit of dry biscuity grainyness. Its got a great nose, the only thing was it tended to fade by midglass. Flavors are nearly the same from what comes out of the smell with a very well balanced and toned brigade of evenly handled hops where mild lemony citrus makes the mainstay with very clean bitterness with a light toffee backing and grass edged pineyness in some of the late effects of the middle and finish. The finish continues to breathe new life into its composition as the fluffy cereal-like biscuit dry malting adds some nice nuances over the end of the clean and easy bittering citric hops. Feel is quite clean given its unfiltered nature in appearance, light on the buds mostly, which is amazing to behold as its flavors really make thier way around with ease due to that overall lighter-like body. Drinkablity is down right simple, easy, and clean. By the pint. Yes. And more so! Damnable. Drinkable! Yum! And at only 4.8% this is sessionable by leaps and bounds!

Dirty Orange/Brown Coloring with White Skin. Citrusy Wet Hop Aroma. Medium Mouthfeel. Really Expressive Fountain of Hops, Light Malt Background and Citrus All The Way Through. Not Too Piney.... with a Dry Aftertaste.

This gets a five for appearance. RAYBOY01 brought back a growler from Minneapolis and poured me a slightly hazy, deep orange ale with a sustained creamy head. During the pour there was a "plop," a sound I normally don’t care for in my beers... but out dropped a large hop cone. This exemplified the drink, strong grapefruit, orange, and pine hop smells over a caramel malt. The hop bitterness in the taste is what most brewers shoot for in their IPAs, but here it was in Town Hall’s APA atop a sturdy malt backbone. Nice prolonged bitter finish. Great brew!

From RAYBOY01’s Fridge