India Wheat Ale
Town Hall Brewery

Hazed, dull copper. Medium sized dirty white head. Nice retention and lace properties. Aroma is spicy and citrusy. Nice traits from both the wheat and hops. A little wheat tang and a bit of melon character as well. My taste buds really enjoy this little experiment. The spicy and tangy wheat properties blend very nicely with the spicy and citric hop properties. Malts add a little toffeeish aspect to it all. And some nice fruitiness rounds out everything. A little orange. A hint of pineapple. A smidgen of tangerine. Yeah, it all comes together nicely in this one. Quite drinkable and flavorful.

I picked up a growler of this while having lunch there a few days ago. I had never heard of anything like this….gotta try it. Growler poured into a pint glass…again…and again…and again.

A—pours a clove honey color (yes, I got that from my daughter’s box of 64 Crayola crayons), clear, with a bright white, 1 inch foamy thick head, slowly…and I mean slowly fades down to a whispy sheet, lacing is web like.

S—floral and citrus hops, wheat, sweet candy tones, some faint sourness is hidden underneath the rest of the aromas

T—Huh? This is very different…the definition of unique, I think. Wheat, floral hop bitterness is balanced well by some mild sweetness, I get a little smoky flavor, too. There is a lot going on here…and I like that

M—crisp and maybe a bit fizzy…at least at first, light bodied

D—I like it. It goes down really easy. Thanks again, Hoops!

Note: I had my second and third pints with a grilled teriyaki chicken breast. Excellent!

This beer is kind of the color of straw, quite cloudy, a lot like a hefewiezen but with out the glow to it, kind of an off color, but still looks alright. There is definitely a wheat-like smell to this but the copious amount of hops are what is mainly noticeable, fresh, citrus hops. This beer has a solid malty character, it has over 50% wheat malt in it, but it's still has a pretty full body. The hops though, are what rule this beer. The hops are generally citrus like, grapefruit mainly, but they are quite resinous too, creating a relatively dry mouthfeel, but it's still a quite refreshing beer, and goes down smoothly. I really have never encountered a beer quite like this one, a wheat ale with so many hops and full body. It's very much like an IPA. A wheat beer for hopheads.

Fresh growler: Smeared orangey gold with green tints in certain light. This growler pour produced barely a skim of a head. Kind of a bubbly, miniscule collaring is all. Tiny spots of lacing make their mark here and there as it goes about its sinking. The strange green color appears in changing light as it takes on a chameleon effect with its surroundings. Weird.

Aroma is funky at best with strangely effective wheat grain, green grasses, fresh cut hay, and musty basement. Slender and over ripen grapefruit notes makes for some souring undertones of old citrus.

Taste is unique and weirdly bittered in flavor and bite. Strangely soured in grapefruit, wheaty tang, and cooked cabbage. This is a weird one. From the pints I had 2 different times at the pub, this did seem to quantify my unwillingness to really like it. Something about it seems off. Not sure if its a balance thing, a flavor thing, or what, but its weird. I want to like it, but each sip continues to baffle me as to what the hell is going on. The wheat is there, but in a very odd format of moldy cereal grain and bread. Tanged in a semi paled and cooked vegetable soup. Lengthy pithy-like bitterness and slightly chalky, high pine dryness ensues onward past the wheat base.

The feel seems decent enough. Bold, popping, and wheaty slick with a fairly interesting hoppy dryness and bittered tangyness all displayed within a medium body. The hops are surely mixing with the wheat malt in a strange fashion that just isn't sitting well with me on this one. A twist on an IPA recipe, no doubt, it will either float your boat or sink it. Weirdly good, yet weirdly not so good.

"Latest addition to our 'India' ale line. Brewed with over 50% malted wheat and no caramel malts, this beer offers a unique blend of 'tart' wheat character with the flavor explosion generally offered from hops. Don't worry, we did not skimp on hops here...this beer is loaded with generous additions of English nobles, and you can taste them!"

This was quite a switch, going from Blueberry Hill to this one! (on double release night!)

Very hazed, golden amber hue, under a bone white head...looking lovely.

Aroma: spanking hops, citric, spicy, but not too loud, just enough. Lightly sour, and a little sweet, just a whisper bitter. Eggs on the tongue to taste...

And so...hops blast the palate, and taste is delicious. Drips delightfully onto the tongue, and more is desired...yum, yum...Medium bodied, with a great wheaten character, excellent drinkability, delectable texture...just tasty, and hoppy enough to keep this hophead satisfied...yum, yum, yum.

I noted with another ale aficianado at the bar that we both had never tasted a beer quite like this, that is so much a wheat beer, and yet so hoppy. Who else has done anything like this, before? I haven't a clue, but who cares, I'll just enjoy this one while it lasts...