Town Hall Banana Bread Beer

Brewed by Minneapolis Town Hall Brewery
Style: Fruit Beer
Minneapolis, Minnesota USA

Maybe fruit beer is a better category because 150 lbs of bananas are part of the recipe.

This is an opaque orange beer with almost no head. Good banana aroma, but it would benefit from more aroma and might be enhanced by some artificial banana flavoring. Good flavor as wel, with fresh bread, banana, light citrus and wheat. It does taste like banana bread in the thick, sweet finish. A good mid-winter hefeweizen.

A nice hazy golden, with a layer of fine white head. Yeast, banana, clove aroma. Slightly accentuated banana, but still within the range of something like a German hef. Warm spritzy banana flavor. Great balance. Not at all a bombastic banana slap. Light palate, but not thin. I wasn’t expecting much from this one, but I actually really enjoyed it!

Bananas galore. This one has 150 pounds of bananas, which is a heck of a whole lot. Let me guess, this one’s going to taste like, bananas. What a guess. On the serious side, this has a good flavor and as opposed to some fruit beers, I can appreciate this as an actual beer (versus say Leinies Apple Spice).

Pours a cloudy orangish hue with a decent off-white head. The aroma is very similiar to a German Hefe, with a hint more banana. The flavor is very nice and echoes the nose. It tastes like a solid hefe w/ accented sweet banana flavor. A pleasant suprise for sure.

Been sitting on this rating since February. Sour and sweet, unique aroma. Fresh and citrusy. Deep orange, very cloudy body. Small, off-white body. As it warms I lose the banana. Sweet and very quaffable. Very well done. In fact, I love it.

"This crazy ale may remind you of a wheat beer. It is loaded with barley, wheat, oats, water, yeast, ... very much the same make-up as a loaf of bread. We thought what would make a (liquid) bread recipe more interesting...the answer seemed simple---bananas! We added bananas to the boil, we added bananas to the fermentation, and we added bananas while the beer aged. We added bananas until we reached 150 lbs. The result is a medium malty, unfiltered beer that has the aroma and finish of nice ripe bananas. Again, may remind you of a wheat beer--certainly a treat in Minnesota in January." Banana Bread Beer, 4.6% abv. Thoroughly clouded, utterly hazed, amber/ dull orange hue, smallish head. Aroma: slightly sweet and wheaty, definite bananas. Taste: lush mouthfeel, floods the mouth, plump and tasty, Smooth, ...yummy...reminds one of a wheat beer, indeed, but flooded with banana flavor. Exceptionally likable, although I must admit, I was looking forward to something breadier. I like bananas, and wheat beer, though, so it’s impossible to complain. Quite a nice quencher, and a worthy experiment. Can’t really find a reason to stop drinking it. This after halfway into the first pint from my growler and 3 pints at the pub tonight. I’m thinking I like it. Wanted to like it better, but as experiments go, it’s tough to quibble. Yums, I say, and keep on sippin’.

Hazy Gold to Orange Coloring wiht White Head. Heavy Wheat and Encompaassing but Subtle Banana Nose. Flavor is Pretty Spot on to the Nose. Nice Subtle, Yet Very Evident Flavor of Bananas Throughout...Medium Mouthfeel with a Heavy and Lightly Dry Wheat Flavor Finishing on the Palate. I had an Expectation of Artificial Banana Flavor Stuck in My Head Like ’Runts’, Whereas This Brew Has a Very Nice Subtle Taste and Smell of Fresh Ripe Bananas. Never Overbearing. Nice Brew!

On-tap at the brewpub: Very clouded browned golden yellow color served with absolutley no head to it; just a thin ring around the edge. Very little lacing as well. Aroma is brief but stable in a wheat malt supply of soft, chewy, and cereal-like malts with a bit of sweet dulled banana. Taste is adequate with a solid wheat malt base of tender sweetness and soft grainyness. With 150 pounds of banana added to the malt base I thought there was gonna be a huge banana character to this, but its only a subtle play along the back of the wheaty snapped tone of flavors. The banana is there in a light current of mushy toned banananess under the score of a main pale wheat base. Tasty to a point then over sooner then expected. Not all of a whole lot of body to this beer but seems to fit the trend of this style thats become the new winter style of ’Winter Wheats’ from Bell’s and now a few others have almost gained the norm in my book of findables in the midwest. Not a bad thing really, but not hearty enough for full enjoyment in such cold, frigid weather for some reason. Feel is slick and paled in a sweet malt sided cerealness of wheat and a light banana pucker of fresh banana flavor and texture adding to its body just a stint enough to bring it up a notch. One thing for sure, given its simple pleasure and demeanor, is its fairly fine drinkability to slide down to the Ol’ gullet. Very pleasingly simple and easy to quaff. Just enough body and flavor to enhance the overall experience. Perhaps a tad understated compared to other Town Hall offerings, but well done and conceptually the same consistent drinkers as most others from the taps there.