Town Hall Big Dog

Formerly brewed at Minneapolis Town Hall Brewery
Style: Imperial/Double IPA
Minneapolis, Minnesota USA

Dark orange color with a small head. Not nearly as powerful an aroma as I was expecting for a hop beast. Typical floral and pine hits. The taste is, well... hoppy. Slight pine, floral, bread and citrus notes. It is not bone-crushingly dry which is a nice surprise. Good malt support.

A good beer for sure. Aroma of hops. Light orange, small head. Flavor starts off with hops everywhere. The hop intensity was all over. After coming in closer to room temperature, some fruit flavors started to show. Moderate palate. A much better than average ipa, but not up to their Masala Mama, which has more fruit, and more body.

Orange/Copperish Coloring with White Head. Subtle Hop Aroma for What is Most Assuredly a Hop Monster... On the Tongue.. Strong Malt Presence, Although Not Offensive to non-Hop Heads. Citrus Hit at the Beginning...and Dry Hop Aftertaste. Little Piney Overall but Quite Balanced and Very Drinkable for a Double IPA.

...after a couple tastes at Winterfest last Saturday, and 3 10 ounce samples at the pub tonight, I sit down with a growler to encapsulate it’s essence. Let’s see if I can do it. Clear, bright orange color, with flush, full foam, nicely carbonated (some of the snifters at the pub held little head)... Aroma: big bitterness, bold piney, fruity flavors, pineapple, peach, apricot, tangerine, orange, big orange, some small traces of lemon and lime, but orange leads the pack. In all, a little more subdued than I’d hoped. Taste: bang, poppity-poppita, boom, delivers a bracket of bitterness, a brace of juicy fruit, tangy, citric, and very tasty...sticky mouthfeel, a real mouth-gripper, lays tracks and digs into the palate. Richly flavorful, and extra-ordinarily memorable, this was a beer I looking forward to at the tapping, and could not stop drinking. So tasty, just enough and not too much bitterness. There may be some question about it’s placement among DIPAS, for it’s is higher in alcohol than the typical IPA, and higher in hops, too, but not overly bitter. This one was hopped every 10 minutes during the 90 minute boil, then dry-hopped after that. My kind of beer. However, there is so much of a malt buttress, and significant caramel flavor that the hops aren’t as raw as they are in others of this style. it’s an astonishly well-balanced DIPA and if you’re looking for some caustic tongue-raper, this is not for you, go elsewhere, masochists and daredevils. It is an above average beer, and if you’re a hophead here in the twin towns, Big Dog is barking up your tree.

Hoppy aroma with a distinctive hop variety I am not familiar with to identify. I believe it is Amarillo? ChrisPants thought he Willamette or Cascades. Beautiful amber body and heavy visible carbonation. Small, off-white head. PERFECT lace that could pass for art. Creamy mouthfeel and very hoppy. Reminds me of a hot summer day in a on a grassy field, perhaps tailgating, perhaps at a baseball game, drinking this all day long with a great, carefree beer buzz. Not my favorite hop variety, whatever it is, but I still really like this beer.

On-tap at the brewpub: Clear ocrhe gold color with a small whitish cap that sits for a short while before making its way to a thin frothy little collar. Lacing very minimal in glaring spots. Aroma is a lovely but light nose array of caramel biscuit malt creating a fairly sweet enterance to a hint of citrus orange underneath. Flavors are sweet with a very nice caramel glazed biscuit malting and a feverant pop of orange zest, juice, and marmalade. Touches of lemon and lime sprite to the surface with a freshly squeezed grapefruit controlling a slight citrus edge and hop bite far along the scale of the sweet caramel backing. Has s nice toasty edge with a superb clean hop profile that brings across a beautiful orangeyness with other citrusy stuff mingling around the corners. Some leftover tropical fruits stick along with a small alcoholic hop heat in the finish. Feel is clean and smooth with a very tame hop edge, sweet mostly, with overtures of citrus orange and bits of pithy stuff protruding at the palate late as the toasty warmth of malts and a firm feel of alcohol sits just right. All this wraps up in a very simple medium body without much heft or hop bitterness, the body is never heavy nor slim, yet is incredibly smooth and lightly creamy adding up to one remarkably easy drinker. Its not quite the hop monster with bitterness, its quite balanced and malty sweet with a nice toasty orange thing mixing together very well. ...Nice doggy.

Clear golden brew/white head.Gotta’ big blast of piney grapefruit in the old nostrils from this and I wasn’t let down one bit when I took my first sip,man another great Dbl IPA and another great brew from Town Hall.This isn’t a over the top kick you in the balls IIPA but it is right in your face Nice mouthfeel.

On cask - cascades to a lightly hazed copper orange, with an inch or so of soft creamy foam. Fantastic full lacing – coating the entire inside of the glass all the way to the bottom of the pint. Nice sweet tangerine and pine hops in the aroma. To describe the taste, I will start with the balance. Hoppy indeed, but there is a nice malt profile to hold up its end of the bargain too. Sweet caramelly malt, and a little bit of honey stand up nicely to all the hop flavors swirling around on my palate. For hops, there’s lots of citrus – notable tangerine and grapefruit, and then just a hint of pine in the finish. The beer is bitter enough, but not in a ragged or uneven way.