So, this is another one of those semi-cheat reviews. I’ve consumed a fair few bottles of Railway City Dead Elephant Ale, I’ve even had it on tap at C’est What?. So I’m familiar with the brewer. Iron Spike, though, I’ve never had. I know Dead Elephant is a pretty generously hopped ale, I have no idea what to expect from Iron Spike.
Iron Spike Blonde Ale - Railway City Brewing Company
From a 500ml bottle with a brewed on date (yes! I love “brewed on” instead of “best before”. Let me decide that, thanks), the beer is yellow, with hints of brown in the centre. A small sudsy head is gone pretty quickly, though a little film remains. Aroma is bready, with a good dose of yeast, like a loaf that is proofing. There is a hint of caramel and maybe some apples, and no hops to spreak of. There is more caramel in the taste, which is very sweet and grainy, but actually a bit of a let-down after the aroma. There is a nice hop presence, not so much a taste, but a nice bitterness at the end. The beer is pretty smooth in my mouth, nicely dry at the end. There is almost no carbonation, and the body is on the thin side of medium. It’s a pretty easy-going beverage, one that I could drink a lot of in one sitting. This is an interesting beer, and not what I was expecting. Most ales these days are very hop-forward, with malt more as a balancing element. Iron Spike seems to be focused on sweet malts, and has a bit of hop at the end to clean things up. This strikes me as an “old-fashioned” style ale. It’s actually getting sweeter as it warms up a bit, and I think I want to finish it before it gets much sweeter, I fear I taste corn in that sweetness. I don’t love this beer, but it’s pretty good. I think, perhaps, I like hops more then I realized. Still, definitely worth buying and trying. Who knows, it could be your new favourite. Also, this would be a good beer to give a non-craft drinker to bridge the gap a bit. The bottle and label are pretty “out there” relatively speaking, but the beer itself is pretty tame.
