Beer – #218 – Townshend – Toppa’s Hadd’n Full On Pale Ale
The strangely named : Toppa’s Hadd’n Full On Pale Ale – Brewed by the Townshend Brewery in the style of an English Pale Ale and they hail from Upper Moutere, New Zealand. This is a collaboration with those magicians at the Brewaucracy
Classic English Pale Ales are not pale but rather are golden to copper colored and display English 
variety hop character. Distinguishing characteristics are dryness and defined hop taste, but more malt balance than what youll typically find in an American Pale Ale. Great to drink with all sorts of meats including roast beef, lamb, burgers, duck, goose, etc. Note that the term pale ale is used in England to signify a bottled bitter, and in that way there is no such thing as English Pale Ale to the English. The style is a North American construct, borne of the multitude of pale ales that pay homage to these bottled bitters – Bass in particular – and therefore the majority of true examples of the style are found outside Britain.
It’s a lesson in beer every time.
A 500ml (pint) of a 5.2% ABV beer, which is then two standard drink units.
Just the trick before the BBQ goes on for the Lamb, and a lead up to the F1 race from Korea.
Bittery hoppy nose on opening, very inviting, Pours a hazy orange yellow with a head that is then suddenly isn’t, reasonable carbonation. the really nice aroma on opening has gone missing too.
Shame that.
But then you get a wonderful mellow bitter taste, with a mix of sweeter fruits, and a reasonable length.
The pdubyah-o-meter likes this as a 8, arbitrarily making it “very good” on the arbitrary scale. A beer to be pleasantly surprised and rewarded by,
You’re not going to give virtual high-five to anyone after drinking this, nor are you going to regret buying it.
Related articles
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- Australian Pale Ale # 1- Review (wemakehomebrew.com)
- Anderson Valley: Poleeko Pale Ale (tobysbeerreviews.com)
A life just as ordinary 
Do you ever wonder if you’ll run out of beers to review? I’m thinking not given the explosion in craft brewing that’s going on. Not just with more and more new breweries cropping up, but with the expansion in styles and flavors. There is definitely something to be said for a traditional English pale every now and then.
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I got to thinking about this, and in NZ I think it would be possible to get close to doing so, however.. the seasonal or special beers would keep you on your toes. I think it’d be possible to have one of every type of beer, a much smaler task.
I was also thinking that it’d be like reading genre’s of books in a way, Agatha Christie or Sherlock Holmes for the beginner and working you way up the more complex, bit of a side hourney for bit of Hobbit. Youll always be partial to bit of something.
As to types of beers, who can tell what they’ll throw into the things next, all manner of fruits and yeasts from hither and yon. Some of them are getting good at it, some of them have made mistakes and called therir beer a “brewers delight” or some such.
And when I look at the “top 100” or “top 50” beers there are still many that I havn’t even heard of, let alone been able to buy.
I have a few years left, I’m going to give it a crack though.
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I’m not sure what it’s like in NZ, but the biggest problem with craft brewers in the US these days is the need to maximize the hop load. To me, that’s even worse than the peanut butter banana ale, or whatever it was. I’m all for enhancing the flavors of beer. The right balance of malt and hop and having some variety there, but at the end of the day, beer still needs to be refreshing. When there is so much hop in it that you can’t help but pucker and pucker again (maybe even at both ends) it’s no longer beer.
I enjoy checking out your reviews. I hope you never stop finding new beer to write about.
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You’re right about “bitterness” of course, and an IPA appears to be the easiest to make.
Enjoying better beer is a challenge in itself, what I’m wary about it trying more and more bitter beer, in a self-reasoning bitter is better thing. I’m sure that foodie, or coffee types are a bit the same, with the aim to have the ‘strongest’ of something.
Thank you for your comments and words, that you take the time out to write them makes me smile, and I’ll try to find a beer from near you so that you can tell me how wrong I’ve been.
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What I’d love to be able to do is round up a few bottles from the local microbreweries and ship them to. Just not sure how to do that. Whether it is legal and would make it through customs. Sacramento, California, where I live, has seen an explosion of small brewers in the last year or two. Track 7, New Helvetia, and a handful of others, trying to reclaim the local heritage when there were breweries all over the place 100 years ago and Sacramento was actually a place where hops were grown. Not just in somebody’s back yard, but farms grew hops by the acre.
I think the desire to hop to the max is directly related to the foodie craze. I’m not against the foodies, but there comes a point where it gets to be too much.
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Are Heretic and Knee Deep Brewing beers that would be local ?
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Knee Deep is in Auburn, about 45 minutes from Sacramento. Heretic Brewing is in Fairfield, about 45 minutes in the opposite direction. So, not quite in Sacramento, but local enough. Are there beers from them you liked? Can I arrange to have something sent to you?
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