Town Hall Broken Paddle ESB

Brewed by Minneapolis Town Hall Brewery
Style: Premium Bitter/ESB
Minneapolis, Minnesota USA

Sample at the brewpub. Bright medium copper, massive caramel nose; sweet, lightly oaky front, bit of vanilla in the middle, dryish finish, delicately soft body...some nice cherry-whiskey late. Rather impressive.

This is a solid ESB, in my opinion, rivaling any bottled out there. Good blend of malt and hop, and the crisp hint a fruitiness is appreciated. I hope it goes cask!

Bronze-hued, with an appealing cream-toned, fuzzy froth. Nose: fresh, clean, with soft fruitiness. Lively on the tongue, brisk and energetic. Much more active and hoppy than many bitters I've encountered. Bright, fruity, copper-toned flavor. Finsih is clean, crisp, long. Light in body, but generous with taste, this ESB leans back on the easy chair of your mouth and makes itself comfortable, leaving it's mark in every corner' and before long it's mail is coming to your address, and you're fetching it's slippers.

This has the fruit aroma of an ipa. Light red color, small head. It was served too cold and had little flavor. As it warmed there was was bitter hops, and some taste of bread in the finish. A session beer. good.

Color is a nice hazy dull copper color with a bone white finger high super whipped frothy tight head that puffs away very slowly to a thick lumpy haze on top and leaves snowflaking sheets of lace. Smell is roasty/toasty and lightly sweet, a bit like apple and grape skins in some of its sweetness, hops lightly noting on a dried floral variety, Cluster maybe. Taste is roasty/toasty and has a quickness to its character, running through the toasted caramel, biscuit crispness upfront then some sweet dried fruits and light floral hop bitterness showing through late. Simple yet a bit complex. Buttery soft and smooth medium body feel, some light grainyness mixed in as well, pleasantly easy and a soft sweet and toasty balance, making this a nice drinkable ESB.

Original rating (10/6/02): College frat basement smell - wonderful! Beautiful fine bubble head reminiscent of the glass hugging lace of Guinness. The Bitter category is a bit of a tease, as it doesn't tend to have a lot of bitterness. Regardless, this is a very good beer overall. Wish it was not just available as a seasonal. Have I said before that the folks at Town Hall know what they are doing?!? Re-Rate (10/1/03): Nice, sweet, somewhat bitter, English bitter aroma (8). Beautiful lace! Cloudy, light amber in color with mostly diminishing head. (4) Some slight off-flavors. Diacetyl? Some bitter twang. Decent finish (6). Palate (3). Overall, this is the most flawed Town Hall beer I've experienced. Not nearly as good as a year ago. (11)

Tap. Typical British bitter appearance and aroma. A bitter dry flavor with malt character. The cask version was better.