Town Hall Masala Mama IPA

Brewed by Minneapolis Town Hall Brewery
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Minneapolis, Minnesota USA

tap at southern sun. red brown with a lasting head. aroma is hops, citrus and sugar sweetness. like a honey granola bar & an orange slice. flavor has a good balance, but the bitter is there with lemon and orange. a good sweet backbone. honey and lemon finish.

Tap at brewpub: Red gold color with a thin, creamy tan head. The aroma is more hoppy than the taste in my estimation. It has sort of a weird farm taste, like hops from the barn along with carboard and lavender. The finish is smooth and easy and dissipates quickly. A good IPA.

GTMW 06. Clear amber with off-white head. The aroma is caramel, grapefruit, oranges and floral. The flavor is dry, bitter, grapefruit and apricots. Medium body, slightly sticky with a bitter end. Very quaffable.

This is an IPA that never, ever disappoints. Where so many brewpubs make hoppy ales that vary in balance and roundedness from month to month, the Masala Mama is consistently fantastic. The hop flavors in this arrive in stages, each one with its own part to play. Pine, cedar, honey, and fruits complement each other in succession. Following malt flavors are caramel and toffee. A consistent favorite of mine for all occasions.

A friend was able to trade for agrowler of this. Big pillowy, soapy head. Thick, almost chewy bitter hops. Lots of pine and some sweet citrus in the finish.

Sampled on-cask at the brewery on July 3rd, 2005... On my visit to the legendary Town Hall Brewery, I was expecting nothing short of the best from this beer. IPAs are my favorite style, so I figured I had better try the beer some label as the "best" IPA in the world. Well, I can honestly say that after trying it, it set the bar....and set the bar pretty damn high. I was lucky enough to sample this legendary concoction in it’s purest form...on-cask, at the brewery. Also, considering the ridiculous hype that surrounds this beer, I was amazed with how impressed I really was. Out of the hand-pump, the bubbles cascade beautifully up & down in the hazy orange brew. When it finally settles down, the head sits proudly atop a beer that essentially looks like perfection in a glass. The aroma from this brew is incredible...as rich and aromatic as any IPA I’ve ever had. The lacing is the best I’ve seen on a beer to date..entire rings of sticky lacing form on every sip...I’ve never seen anything quite like it before. Then there’s the taste..how many hop varieties they use, I do not know...but whatever the recipe is, I want it. Not too bitter, not too sweet..just perfectly well-balanced and smooth. I’m sure being on-cask helped with the smoothness, but I’ve never had a beer that went down as good as this one did. It’s just a damn good thing I don’t live in Minneapolis, that’s all I have to say.

Woodsy aroma, amber color with normal head. Flavor is huge pine and grapefruit, with a bracingly bitter finish. I could stand a good deal more malt to balance this one out. The malt that is there leaves somewhat grainy sugars in my mouth. Not one of my favorite IPAs.

On tap at the brewery, August 2006. Lovely, translucent and golden chestnut in color with a sudsy, khaki-tan pocked head that could host a head retention clinic. Cool to the touch, and when the nose passes by, we discern emissions of fresh cotton and a hint of freshly bathed puppy. Grassy phenols couple with pine bark and embark on a northern Midwestern nature center hiking trail adventure. Rustic hop activity and copper entrapment tie up the loose ends of the nose, to a fault. Flavor kicks in with ripe and oppressive hops. Carbonation errs on the side of caution while an invigorating English toffee tune takes hold. Bright, light hop alpha acids duel with the buttered rum backdrop. Salient malt display, though the moderately caramelized malt and native English yeast esters aren’t in full agreement. Pumped up pumpernickel helps to summarize the spiciness. Alcohol hotness gains perpetual motion. Light aridness indicates bitterness at the tongue’s tip. Citric aggression doesn’t exactly meld with the buttery toffee belly, though the finish leaves a formidable wanton spruce caramel cube composure.