Town Hall Simcoe Pale Ale

mmmmmm gooooood. This is delicious guys and gals. excellent cloudy burnt orange in color nice thick creamy head that laces well enough. served on tap. it was on cask as well, but i opted for tap. taste is almost all hops, some malty tones early on but once this beast reaches the palate, it hangs on and the assault begins. bitter and tingly at first, then moves to a more sour, grapefruit route. It is a great beer to be sure grab one today!

Draught at the brewpub. Quite frankly, this brew blew me away. This is not your average APA. In fact, somebody (perhaps Pigfoot) decided to toss aside it’s own stated "Pale Ale" style and log it as an American Strong. I don’t know about that. The nose is a Three Floyds Alpha King clone. Doesn’t taste as much like Alpha King, but just as that brew is named an APA but listed on this site as IPA, I would lean toward TH Simcoe as an IPA over an American Strong. Nevertheless, Pigfoot does an outstanding job of conjuring up the emotional essence of Simcoe. A very romantic assessment, anything short of which would be an understatement. This is not an ordinary brew. Not sure how many people showed up on Monday for the Simcoe Pale release, but I’m guessing fewer than the throngs who went two days later on a Wednesday night to the Blue Nile for the Surly Two release. Although both brews have quite a bit going for them, the Simcoe Pale in my opinion deserves the higher kudos and greater attention. Wonderfully full bodied aroma, well balanced, sweet, hop nectar in the nose. Slightly hazy light amber with excellent lace. Decently lasting off-white head. Resiny hop; peppery yet creamy and pleasant. One of the best APA’s I’ve ever had. I like to see that this brew is getting the props it deserves. Delicious.

On-tap at the brewpub: Dull slimming orangey bronze shade. Medium cap of firm, curdled froth. Fades to keep a good skim and collar present. Lots of drifting lace. Heavenly aroma! Bright, heavy, crisp, and resin loaded. Semi peachy and citric with lots of oily resinous pine stinking it up. Outstanding nose! Taste is big and full on hops. So this is the Simcoe. Wow! Welcome to bliss. Man, this slips down quickly at first staying bright, crisp, crunchy, and forever playful in bite. Huge amounts of oily resin fill every crevice of the palate while sturdy piney soaked citrus blankets the top with brillantly clean, yet oily bitterness waves. This has a lot of flavor that never stops with the hops bringing tangerine, dark grapefruit rinds, and thick resinous pine oils.Very hearty through and through. Massive feel of fullness in this Simcoe Pale. Crunchy, thick, crisp, heavy, and bitter. Holy crap! It’ll make you sit down. Its a meal of oily citrus pine and bitterness. The first few sips and gulps just glide right down with crushing drinkability. But once those Simcoe hops and its heavy body start to take hold, you’ll be lucky to get through your second helping without having to unbuckle your pants.

Created, they say, for those Pint Club members who are addicted to Masala Mama IPA, although they certainly still have plenty of that, this ale was crafted with a mattress of Munich and Vienna malts for the hop bitterness to bounce off of...100% Simcoe variety. Two pints at the pub, and for this tasting, I crack a growler at home... classic, hazed bronze appearance (this one was unfiltered to let the taste shine through), with an appealing cap of creamy, tapioca topping of foam. Quite nice. Aroma begins with pine, a deep forest breath, inhaling almost down the bark...some grapefruity-type citric character creeps in afterward...ahhh, hops!!! That’s it, and that’s what you want, isn’t it, you drooling, salivating hopeless hophead....wait, was I talking to myself again? Taste: oh, let’s do! Big and emboldened as it crashes the palate, leaving bitterness in it’s wake, flooding fruit behind it...and met with each sip by bracing, but enticing bitterness...this is no one-hand affair, though, as the friendly malt back-up is delicious in it’s self and ably handles the hops. Tasty and a little toasty. A sturdy beverage, this, quite rewarding, and succulent. Full body, gripping texture, lip-smacking taste, extremely pleasant mouthfeel...a delight by every reckoning.

Holy hops! Its all hops in this, and they are some bitter ones. Had side by side with a Massala, and the Simcoe had a much more pronounced hop bite on the pallate, not as balanced as the Mama, but thats fine by me. Certainly get your hop fix here, and the fact that it sticks on your pallate for hours after its gone is a big bonus. This and the Muskie Capital APA are the hoppiest Pale Ales I have ever encounterd. Big fan.