Town Hall IPA 25

 Town Hall IPA 25. 

6.7% ABV, Minneapolis Town Hall Brewery, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

It was in the summer of 2002 that I entered Minneapolis Town Hall Brewery for the first time. That’s means that for five years I passed by and thought “brewpub? Come on, how can they be as good as Summit? Pass!” Such a young fool. My obsession with beer was at all time high in 2002: toying with the beer selection at the Blue Nile, trying every new beer I could, beginning to take notes and discovering the communities at BeerAdvocate and ratebeer online, reading about everything and always exploring. I was ready to fix that mistake and got hooked on Masala Mama IPA from the first taste.

I posted the first BeerAdvocate review of Mama on January 1 of 2003. Go to my review for the rest of the story. As of this writing, I have 264 reviews of their beer on that site, and 200 here. There is a lot of crossover, but I haven’t yet determined what my total number of TH reviews should be. That’s a project for some rainy day.

Back in those early days, before Surly and the explosion of breweries and taprooms, Town Hall was one of the few places to find freshly brewed beer made on premise. I was there for almost every new release, took a growler (remember those?) home and took notes on every one. Things have only continued in greatness at Town Hall, but’s I don’t get down there like I used to for several reasons. Most importantly, I no longer live or work as near to the location as used to, and also, there’s the draw of the other, newer breweries nearer to me. Sisyphus, Wooden Ship, Arbeiter and the like see me much more often. 

It seems that I’ve only been there twice so far this year, for Barrel aged week, and just recently for Anniversary Week. I wasn’t able to make it to the big shindig on Saturday, I did stop in last Friday night to toast their 25th, and found some new beers. This one will make it 201.

Clear, bright golden toned, large ivory head.

In the nose: delightful aromatics, citrusy, floral.

In the mouth: happiness gets down to business from the get-go. From first sip and gulp, I am certain that they brewed this with me in mind. Refreshingly bitter, dry, even brittle. Customer made for my palate. Light bodied, with merest malt, easy drinking, a hopheads.

This is what should be coming out at every other brewery, instead of hazy, hazy, hazies. These guys know how it’s done!

Cheers to Pete, Mike, Derek and everyone else at Town Hall for 25 years of amazing beers!

Also had on tap, 97 Masala, a recreation of the original recipe last released in 2017.

I liked this one, Höplischious, so much I took home a crowler. Notes coming soon.

Can’t pass up a Grand Cru, one of my all-time favorites, and you know I love the Belgians.