Iron Hill FE10 Anniversary Ale

Brewed by Iron Hill Newark
Style: Abt/Quadrupel
Newark, Delaware USA

Serve in Trappist glass

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At the Iron Hill Belgium Comes to West Chester event. Quite sweet with a bit of fruit in the background. Didn’t really get any Belgian character out of this.

9th April 2011
Light haze on this dark red - brown beer. No real head. Slightly booze laden fruit nose with a little marmite. Semi dry palate. Low carbonation. Red berry fruits, strawberry jam and a trace of cherry. Licorice spice. Mild marmite streak. Dry finish. Some nice flavours here but they don’t join up that well, too disparate.

Copper pour with off white head and lace. Aroma is brown sugar, cardboard and Belgian yeast. Cough syrup and cardboard flavor. Thin watery and no carbonation.

This was an awesome beer, but it had its flaws. The Quad that Iron Hill usually puts on draft once in a while is better than this one. I tried the Fe 10 on draft at the West Chester restaurant. It poured a very dark brown color with a fairly thick tan head. The nose was full of fruits, candi sugar, yeast, chocolate and earth. The body was very full and thick, but drinkable. The only thing I really didn’t care for in this quad was the syrupy flavor. It was just a little too heavy for my liking. A lot of the same quailities that were in the aroma were found in the flavors, too. I got quite a bit of malt, fruit, earth, chocolate, candi sugar and a rye bready flavor.

Clear brown body with a thin white head. Sweet malt aroma. The flavor is sweet but there’s not much else going on here. Needs complexity.

A dark reddish amber ale with a thin off white head. In aroma, pleasant perfumey malt with orange peels, herbal notes, light solvents. In mouth, a sweet candy sugar with light curacao, light roasted notes, alcohol warmth, rich and nutty, a bit cloying. On tap at Lancaster location, April 8 2011.

In short: A lifeless, sweet, very fruity and boozy Belgian dark age. Meh.
How: Bottle 750ml. Consumed about 2 year after it was bottled.
The look: Partly cloudy dark burgundy body. The small beige head dissipates into nothingness after only a few seconds
In long: Nose is sweetened fresh dark fruits. Taste has lots of raisins, fresh prunes, candi sugar, kids barley candies. All quads are sweet but some hide their sweetness more than others. Here the sweetness was very apparent and alcohol wasn’t too well hidden either. Carbonation was sparse and the mouthfeel was far from lively. I took this bottle with me to a bring-your-own-wine restaurant. I drank the whole thing because it was a long dinner and I didn’t bring another bottle. So it is not totally undrinkable. But have I been at home I would not have finished this bottle and I would have opened something else. And I paid $20 for this stuff?!?!? Ok, so they screwed me up. But I won’t forget, and certain not forgive them. Revenge is a dish best served with hot peppers (NOT cold), it hides the taste of the cyanide.

Pours a bit crimson with not a lot of head. Aroma has some cherry notes. Nice hints of spice and sugar on the tongue. Mellow and warming. Lingers nicely on the tongue.

Red-brown, off white cover. Aroma is cherry, caramel, metallic. Taste is metal, cherry, caramel, very sweet.

Not very carbonated, so not much head. Odd aroma - cinnamon and coffee, I guess. First sip indicates it may be a bit past it’s prime - some stale, cardboardy notes. Some smokey notes, some winey notes. Slightly boozy finish.