Hefeweizen (Town Hall Brewery, Minneapolis, MN)

Town Hall Hefeweizen

Snow white head drifts heavily on top of a burnt sunset orange ale.  Haziness enhances the color, and I assume that this beer is unfiltered and full of vitamin laden yeast.  Strong spicey yeast nose with plenty of banana and fruity esters characteristic of the style.  Fruitiness--banana, mango, lemon--continues in the taste with a solid bite on the tongue.  Assertive, full beer for the style, which is why it's one of my favorites.

A perennial Town Hall favorite, just wait and it will come around again if you missed it.  BA's on  BeerAdvocate aren't nearly as glowing about this beer as I am.   Reading through the reviews, it seems like they are drinking different beers.  In my experience, this has been somewhat true.  When I opened the growler, I decided to do the review, in part, because it's a good version of this brew.  Not the best that I've had, but really good.  However, I've had it a couple of times that it's not quite up to its own standard.  Not sure if it's a variability of the batch or if time affects this one.  Showing up when it's tap has proven to be a good strategy in the past when I've had the better pints of hefeweizen.

Plus, though I don't generally care about styles (thus why I don't judge homebrew competitions), TH's hefe, like Masala Mama, probably won't win a medal at GABF any time soon.  Medals are about hitting the style bullseye and some of Town Hall's beers just don't hit that target--but when they are this good, I surely don't care.  I don't drink medals.