Townsite Brewing

B.C. Beer Reviews with Nic Hendrickson: Townsite Brewing – Shiny Penny

There are very few breweries currently producing a Belgian IPA, and even fewer producing one to style. Townsite Brewing has been releasing one as a seasonal for quite some time, so B.C. Beer Reviews is here to crack open the bottle and see how this one holds up to a seldom-brewed style.

B.C. Beer Reviews: Townsite Brewing – Shiny Penny

Colour

This beer pours a clear copper colour from the bottle. In the glass, this beer presents itself with a fantastic clear and copper colour. It matches up with an IPA nicely.

Nose/Aroma

This beer is very much malt-forward in its aroma. The initial aromatics you are presented with are that of caramel and sweeter malty notes. Caramelized sugar is the best way to describe the aroma.

There is a lightly fruity aroma that could just as easily be from esters as it could from the hops used. There is no description on the bottle, so it is hard to discern. Either way, it helps this beer to just barely avoid being one dimensional in its aroma.

Tasting Notes

This beer put all its eggs in one basket with the taste. The notes of malty sweetness and caramel present themselves here again, but they are not the only ones at play here.

There is a slightly spicy phenolic profile, but it is not prominent. This spicy taste is much more of a background note and it is well within balance of everything else.

There is also the fruity note that presents itself in the aromatics again. It is extremely light, so once again it is hard to discern whether this is a light touch of a fruity ester profile or whether it is a late addition/cold-side addition of a fruity hop.

The one thing that presents itself fairly noticeably here is an ester profile outside of fruit. There is a noticeable taste of bubblegum here. If you have ever chewed pink bubblegum, you will know exactly what you this taste is like.

Other Notes

The branding stays true to the style of Townsite Brewing. They are consistent with their style of labels. The main colourway of the label is copper and white.

This beer pours a significant head at first. It retains that head for a long period of time. This is not surprising given the mashing of both being an IPA and a Belgian beer.

There is a massive amount of lacing on the glass from this beer. Like what was said above about the head and retention, lacing is a prominent characteristic of both IPAs and Belgian beers, and this one stays true to style.

Rundown

While this may not present itself in the aroma as the most complex beer, that is not the case. Don’t judge a book by its cover. This beer truly shines in what you taste. A subdued phenolic profile and a sweet ester profile come together to make this beer truly shine.

Want to see a beer featured in B.C. Beer Reviews? Comment below with your suggestion.

And if you want to see all of the photos featured in these articles , and other awesome beer pictures, you can do so by following me on Instagram: nhendy5. You can also see much more concise versions of these reviews by adding me on Untappd: RedArmyNic.

Main photo by Nic Hendrickson, Lastword Inc., all rights reserved

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.