Town Hall Haystack English Summer Ale

Brewed by Minneapolis Town Hall Brewery
Style: English Pale Ale
Minneapolis, Minnesota USA

Gold in color. Doughy taste with wheat as the main ingredient. Small head with good lace. A pretty good wheat beer, even though this isn’t my favorite style.

Dry, fruity aroma with some hops. Hazy gold in color with steady rising bubbles and a frothy, off-white head. Good lace. Doughy initial mouthfeel with some grassy notes. Very well balanced. More bitter than most English bitters, even good ESB’s, but still not really bitter. Doesn’t really have the essence of an ESB per se. Very nice brew. The commercial description speaks of the aroma of freshly cut hay. I can see that. Good session quality with it’s only mild shortcoming being that it is a little dry. Still, another winner from Mr. Hoops.

I think they were aiming for sort of a light pale ale and in that they were successful. I sensed only minimal fruit, but the herbal, flower aromas and flavors were there and dominated the beer. Bitter hops were the secondary flavor. Fairly refreshing, not so bitter or heavy that I could only have a single glass.

Hazed straw golden hue, fine layer of creamy, dotted milk-white foam stands guard above. Citrus greets the nose first, laced with honey, lemon, peach and apricot stand tall in the aroma, with herbal, grassy tones at the side. Taste...big time fruit rushes into the mouth, a complex texture, though, overall, malty, but made more distinctive with the wheat involved. Very crisp and refreshing, with a substantial medium-sized body. Long, citric finish. Very well-balanced, and clean, with significant flavor and unabating pleasure. Extraordinarily drinkable, I could easily down this growler in one sitting. Has just enough zing to keep the tastebuds happy, yet so light, crisp, and smooth that one is undaunted from attacking another glass of the stuff. A great summertime beer, but a bit of a headscratcher for those of us trying to pigeonhole into into a "style". Town Hall don’t play that, though, and they just keep brewing every style every known, and making up a few new ones along the way.