Railway City Iron Spike Amber Ale

Brewed by Railway City Brewing Company
Style: Amber Ale
St. Thomas, Canada

Serve in English pint, Shaker

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Just tried this for the first time and I am really impressed. It smells wonderful and it has a fantastic nutty flavour. The colour is also warm. Overall, a great beer to enjoy on a cold winter night.

UPDATED: MAY 4, 2009 Decants from the growler, a very dark mahogany liquid with deep ruby around the edges. Billowing, off white, fluffy cap appears and lasts. The nose is dark fruit and cookie dough, with burnt sugars and caramel with a nice spice contingent. Tastes of sweet doughy malts, floral spices, bubblegum, and banana. Creamy, medium bodied. This beats all of the other "amber" beers available in this area, hands down. An amber with flavour, body and character. Well done.

On tap @ C’est What Spring Fest. Aroma is pitfruit, malt, with some nuttiness, chestnut, small tan head. Taste is a subtle toasted malt, again some pitfruit. Light bodied, pleasantly sweet. Very good.

Growler sample at 2008 Golden Tap Awards. Dark ruby-amber with a small off-white head. Aroma and flavour hold caramelly malt notes with some fruitiness, a bit grainy, and a subtly hopped finish. Simple, balanced, drinkable - not the most exciting beer, but a good session ale.

Growler from the brewery: Pours a clear dark amber-red with a modest white cap. Aroma: plumb-apricot with some toastiness and grassy tones. Medium body, light sweet toasy caramel malt profile, fruity esters and some hop resins in a light drying finish. Uncomplicated straight forward session amber.

Homebrewesque bottle given to me by MrManning, thanks Len! Pours a nice dark amber colour with virtually no head and a red tint to it. Aroma is plasticy malts (probably better out of a growler), but nothing too offensive or weird. The malts are really nice actually, very toffee like and a touch maple syrupy, but in a good way. Very sweet, and nice barley flavours define it. The only thing weird about this one is the sourness to it, which seems to be taking the place of the hops which are absent. There’s also that weird "tea that’s been sitting around for a while" aspect to it that seems to be apparent in small batch brews sometimes, but I don’t personally get put off by it all that much. Decent, despite some glitches that I’m sure will be worked out in future batches. Reminds me of the Plowman’s Ale from Grand River actually. I’ll revisit this later to see if they’ve tweaked some things.

[1626-20080823] Bottle. Toasted grains aroma has a hint of sweat and weird plastic notes. Clear, dark red brown body with quick white bubbles. Grainy bready toast flavour. Medium body. Interesting grainy characteristics.
(2008 GTA’s @ beerbistro; Toronto, ON)

2008-08-23. Very nice pour with a very dark ruby brown body and a very small tan head. (3+) Milt malty aroma has a tang to it. (6+) Flavour is similarly sweet malt, light roast malt touches almost like a brown ale, light tang. Smooth average to medium palate is on the flat side, presumably from the growler being opened repeatedly. Decent, but lacks depth, the tangy note to the malt is a bit off-putting. Growler, Golden Tap Awards, Toronto

Deep amber pour. The aroma is quite sweet and malty. Lots of medium crystal malt and a little bit of toasted grain. A light kiss of berryish fruit. It’s a pretty simple brew, but it’s pretty decent. The beer is a bit sweet for my tastes, but it’s okay.

473 ml bottle from a trade with mrmanning. pours amber with almost no head. very little carbonation. nice amber ale aromas. flavours are a bit muddled and this brew is just screaming for more hops. not bad from the bottle but i need to try a groler to get the full effect. thanks len!