Little Dog
Town Hall Brewery

A bit too one-sided in my opinion...hazed golden color with a nice juicy citrus/pine/leafy hop aroma on the nose....but the taste is too one-sided for an APA....big bitterness on the flavor...hop tea like....needs more malt (some malt?) to balance things out...a nice caramel malt component would have added a lot to this..very dry finish...body is on the light side of medium and the ABV is relatively low which makes this relatively an easy drinker in my opinion (growler in about 2 hours and not much buzz)....Still...One of my least favorite TH beers....Rock Bottoms Itasca is considerably better as is Summitt's APA...still worth a try if you enjoy a good hop fix...and a lower ABV beer..paired nicely with the pizza we had tonight..

This beer came a light copper with little head. Smells of nectarines, grapefruit and pine with a very prominent dryness. Tastes extremely dry and fruity with tons of sour and bitter fruits and a mouth puckering dryness. Fortunately, there is a smooth underlying base of smooth creamy honey to help this beer finish a little better. The body is medium with a nicely paired carbonation. I was surprised at how hoppy this beer was considering it’s only heralded as a pale ale.

Slightly hazed dull copper. Decent sized creamy tan head. Lace is quite bountiful, as is usually the case with TH brews. The nose is outstanding. Like a hop garden. Lots of Columbus goodness. Special attention was given to achieving a great aroma with this beer and it payed off. It's full of hop resin, bong resin, pine resin... you get the idea. Juicy and bright. Full of citrus rind like properties. And some caramel and toffee to boot. And that's just the nose so far. Within the flavor profile, take everything I said above and add an edgy attitude to it. And some grassy notes. This one is a little raw. But in a good way. The grassy bitterness lingers long after the sip. And that just begs another sip. Good thing I've got many sips in that growler to last me a while tonight.

Smeared peach. Medium dusty white moonscape sits atop. Keeps a solid layer always present and the lacing sticks across the glass in thin stringy sheets.

Aroma isn't quite up to par with what the tap provided at the release, its not quite as bright and crisp out of the growler. On-tap was an instant 5. Big, bright, and cleanly hoppy. Still, its magnificently hoppy from the growler. The Columbus profile is standing tall, mostly resinuos, herbal, finely grated and twisted peels of lemon, lime, and orange are thrown in as is a touch of crisply saturated pineyness. Has a great toasty bright edge to it to boot.

Taste gives out the hops with a big surge of resinuos flavors with touches of herbs in the front and first applications of crispy toastyness. Blamm-o, it begins with the lips, sits on the tongue, and ends on the palate. Slides into some citric notions in the middle. Returns to a smokey resin filled grab of pine-sided, clean, bitterness which sits for a good portion of time before a bitteredly dry realm of herbs rebound back with a slight twist of lemon and orange pithyness and yet more resin. It gives and gives and gives. Memorable and eager to please with a great toasty backing. One fantastic ride of hop filled goodness. Yummy wowness!

Feel is well-balanced in a medium, quenchable body of toasty crisp hops and clean bitterness. The Columbus hops do their thing with this one. Quite resinous with great additions to citrusy piths and peels and pine. So remarkably clean and down right addicting. Hoops knows his hops. This will not disappoint the hopheads out there. Little Dog sits up with hops, rolls over with toastyness, and begs to be drank.

a little info from the brewer:
Little Dog is the smaller sibling to
the popular "Big Dog Double IPA" we made last year. To make this pale ale
we used virtually the same grain bill (percentage basis) only in a
smaller amout. Hops in Big Dog were Centennial and Ammarillo (one addition
every 10 min) Little Dog is made with Columbus and Cascade (one
addition every 10 min)....and... we drained the beer out of the kettle over
a bed of 44lbs. of leaf Columbus. (this beer smells great!)

Hazed, pale orange hue, huge white head, enormous,...I bow before it...

Aroma: amazing. That's from the samples (at least 4, that I remember) at the pub tonight, but we're basing this on the growler tonight, so...very, very wonderful. Big fat freshness, lively, huge hoppiness, ripe hops, intense aromatics...big pine and herb...grassy galore, with plenty citric kick, too...large and in charge hop intensity. Much worth the sniffing...

On the tongue, utterly pleasing, a massive hop attack, well-met malt, and integral hoppitude. Astounding, really. Big, brittle bitterness. Super huge freshness. This was a delight on tap, I had, what, 5 pints, there....and here at home, dang, but they just can't stop!

An incredible beer, fresh and delicious. zesty, yummy...full-bodied, long, citric finish.
Lord, I love it....love it now, will love it again...great beer.