The Gate’s “Winter” Ale Celebration continued last night with a good selection of beers from Sly Fox in Pennsylvania. The card proclaimed “Meet the beers. Drink the brewer” and I ended up doing only one of those. Oh well. I showed up a few minutes too late to this event, because in the 2 hours that I missed, the entire supply of the Cascade “IPA Project” IPA was entirely killed. I got a small sip of bartender Pat’s glass, which was exactly what I wanted, so it didn’t make me feel much better. I had intended on reviewing both of these single varietal hops IPAs, but instead I chose two very different beers to drink and enjoyed both immensely. The Sterling IPA is hopped only with Sterling Hops, which is a lesser known US varietal. Sly Fox did a great job of of creating a very solid and drinkable base for this heavily bitter beer, and holding it up to the light and taking a sip confirmed that it was going to be balanced and drinkable. A beautiful amber color, the Sterling smelled great as soon as it was poured and the nose developed into a more complex than average mixture of spices, pine, and citrus. A really enjoyable, drinkable IPA that I would be very excited to have regular access to.
Next I went for the Ichor Quad, which I had tried once before at the Kelso Cask Festival a few months back. My mouth was overwhelmed that day by the unholy amount of Green Flash Imperial IPA I was drinking, so I didn’t really get it. This time, I really did. Ichor is a thick black mass of delicious, lightly carbonated brew. It has fruit, vanilla, and some spice going on and the carbonation is light and tasteful. This beer is really immense at 10% ABV and it definitely catches up with you as you drink it. A nice pint glass full of this really set me straight. Sly Fox shows their strength here in making beers that are balanced yet opinionated, and it was cool to see a Hop forward beer and a Malt forward beer back to back. I sat on the Ichor for a while and talked a whole bunch of shit while it just got smoother and mellower, and the heavier aspects crept up as time went on, some caramel appeared, and then fruit took over. Two great beers from Sly Fox.
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