900 English Ale
Town Hall Brewery

 

 

900 ESB. Little brother of 1800 IPA (not, as I first expected, a recipe from 900 A.D.)

Clear, light amber coloring, Large, lace-leaving white head.

Hops and fruit hit the nose right off. Grapefruit meets apricot. Prickly pine and pear. Bold bitterness, distinct malty notes. Quite pleasant, and rather unique.

Light-bodied, lean, and clean. Crisp and cracker-y, with an unrelenting bitterness up front. Citric fruit shows up from the hops, nice and lemon-y.

If this reminds me of anything, it's another singular ale, Town Hall's Single Malt ale, which was brewed with Golden Promise malt.

Good drinking, fine flavor, yeah, I'll do it again.

 

 

Had a pint at Town Hall. The slightly hazy amber ale proved to be a great example of the style. It's very drinkable and has a pleasant, subtle mix of grain, hops, and English yeast. The aroma is very muted, even for this style, I just get a little grain dust, but the taste holds lightly caramel barely and gentle, spicy hops that finish the beer out. Overall, a great session beer and a rare locally-brewed example of the style.

Listed as English Bitter on the menu, and as a little sibling of the award winning 1800 IPA, 900 is a surprising little beer that has more to it than expected.

A thin white head fall quickly and disappears, which is why the appearance score is a little lower. Dark yellow beer with a copper tinge is very pretty in the pint. Nose is very subtle--light breadiness below an earthy and floral hop. So far, so good, but the taste is the real trooper for this beer: caramel, bready malt with a respectable hop twang and excellent hop flavor that earthy, woodsy and floral. Nose opens up after 10 min in the glass. Malt and the English hops shine more.

Extremely clean and well brewed beer. As an IPA/DIPA/hop addict, this is a beer that delivers a super hop flavor in a session ale without the scorched earth of a hop bomb or the dizzying height of a ABV monster.

While still a sucker for a big beer, this is a pretty amazing beer with a great flavor, a social ale that doesn't skimp on taste.

Had this on 2011-11-18 at the brewery (from tasting notes)

A - Mostly-clear, light straw with a 1-finger white head and good lacing.

S - Bready, nutty and light fruit.

T - Sourdough bread and nuts. Nice bittering hops. Light but interesting flavors. Aftertaste has a little pepper and decent bitterness. Dries nicely.

M - Light body and medium carbonation. Clean.

O - Pretty darn good taste for a light ABV brew.

900 Ale

Clear amber colored, good retention and lacing. Aroma is certainly the hops from the other side. Earthy. Very very bitter with a quite dry finish. Low carbonation and clean finish. Too bitter to be called a bitter, but otherwise ok.

4, 3.5, 4, 4, 2

 

A: golden color with nice head and excellent lacing retention. Sticky, like most of their beers.

S: smells of some bitter hops and malt. Some fruity character, maybe berries.

T: taste is mostly the malt, then the bitter hops. It also has a bit of fruitiness.

M: good carbonation and medium-light body, this goes well as a bar beer.

O: easy to drink, well crafted, and solid all around.

On cask at Town Hall Tap. This beer arrives a clear bright bronze-gold color with a large white cascading head that leaves thick lacing all the way down the glass. The aroma is of oranges, lemons, and floral hops. The taste is similar to the aroma with a soft maltiness in the background. The mouthfeel is medium bodied with a silky texture, and mild carbonation. Overall, this is a good beer that I could see myself sessioning.