Iron Hill Blackberry Saison

I ordered a glass of Iron Hill Blackberry Saison while at Belgium Comes to West Chester. The beer pours an amber color with a spotty and filmy white head. The aroma consists of blackberry, lemon, pepper, and hay. The taste is sweet on the front end with lots of blackberry before some lemon, grass, hay, and barnyard funk bitter and dry out the flavor. The alcohol content is 5.5% ABV. This was a dry and delicious beer with a nice fruity accent. It wasn’t quite what I was hoping for, but enjoyable nonetheless.

Devil's Backbone Brett Fermented Eight Point IPA

At Belgium Comes to West Chester at Iron Hill, they had Devil’s Backbone Brett Fermented Eight Point IPA on draft. The beer pours a golden color with a faint filmy white head. The aroma consists of brett, a funk, hay, and barnyard. The taste is dry and funky with hay and grass. Hints of lemon shine through, but mostly the beer has some earthy properties. There is a faint hint of caramel and a peppery finish with cloves. The alcohol content is 6.0% ABV. This beer was like saison meets IPA, a clash occurring in the old west. My buddy Matt was not a fan of this concoction, but I enjoyed the variety of styles that this beer represented.

Iron Hill Bourbon Vanilla Tripel

I got to try a glass of Iron Hill Bourbon Vanilla Tripel at Belgium Comes to West Chester. The beer pours a golden color with a frothy white head that leaves a lacing on the glass. The aroma is grassy with a hint of vanilla, but it is a very faint aroma. The taste is dry up front with grass but has a lot of banana. A big vanilla sweetness takes over the beer, and sadly is taste like extract rather than vanilla beans. Some bourbon comes out in the finish and warms the back of the throat with pepper bites, but it is not significant. The alcohol content is 9.0% ABV. I set my expectations high with this beer, and was somewhat let down, as the vanilla tasted like extract and the bourbon wasn’t as pronounced as I would have liked.

New Holland Blue Sunday

At Belgium Comes to West Chester, Iron Hill had on tap New Holland Blue Sunday. The beer pours a reddish amber color with a thin bubbly white head. The aroma consists of sour raspberry, cherry, tartness, and vinegar. The taste is tart and sour with raspberry and cherry with a surprising light smoked malt background. Vanilla comes out on the finish. The alcohol content is  9.0% ABV. Blue Sunday had a great overall flavor and couldn’t be described as just sour and done. The smoked malt background really added another dimension to this beer, making more than just another sour. It was quite memorable, and unlike any other sour that I have had to date.

Mikkeller From Via To Barrel Aged Bourbon

I picked up a bottle of Mikkeller From Via To Barrel Aged Bourbon from Al’s of Hampden. The beer pours a black color with an extremely lofty and frothy tan head that takes a while to fade. The aroma consists of bourbon, vanilla, chocolate, toasted malts, and caramel. The taste is smooth and chocolaty with a nice bourbon accent that isn’t too biting and adds a good vanilla flavor to it. Some caramel and toasted malts come out in the finish with a nice dryness. The alcohol content is 8.0% ABV. This was quite a well done bourbon barrel aged beer that wasn’t too overdone. The baltic porter base still has a large presence in this glass, and was not impaired by the bourbon flavors.

Saint Somewhere Cynthiana

I received a bottle of Saint Somewhere Cynthiana from the Michael Jackson Rare Beer of the Month Club. The beer pours an orange-amber color with a frothy off-white colored head that leaves speckles of lacing on the glass. The aroma consists of orange, coriander, grapes, biscuits, yeast, banana, and grass. The taste is biting and dry from a grape flavor with lots of pepper up front, orange, lemon, yeast, and grass. The mouth feel is bubbly and carbonated, but not too much, and has lots of biscuit properties.The alcohol content is 8.0% ABV. This beer had a great mouth feel and very complimentary flavors, balancing peppery spices with sweet yeast and citrus notes.

Bell's Cherry Stout

While out at dinner at the Black Gryphon in Elizabethtown, I ordered a glass of Bell’s Cherry Stout. The beer pours a black color with red hues and a thin filmy brown head. The aroma consists of chocolate, cherry pie, vanilla, and molasses. The taste is sweet with lightly sour cherries up front, dark chocolate to balance, and a dry powdery cocoa finish. Vanilla and molasses linger in the after taste. The alcohol content is 7.0% ABV. While not as good as the Cerise, the cherry flavors in this beer do provide a nice accent to the dark and powdery chocolate flavors.

Brouwerij Van Steenberge Biere Du Boucanier Dark

Another beer I ordered at the Abbey Bar on $2 off Belgians night was Brouwerij Van Steenberge Biere Du Boucanier Dark. The beer pours a dark amber color with a thin frothy off-white colored head. The aroma consists of caramel, alcohol, raisin, fig, prune, and date. The taste is sweet and malty with caramel, raisin, fig, date and prune flavors coming out, just as in the aroma. There is a dry grassy hop finish with light alcohol bite. The alcohol content is 9.0% ABV. If you are a fan of Belgian Quads, this is an excellent example of one and I recommend that you try it. It covers all of the dark fruit flavors without being too sweet.