Ron Burgundy
Iron Hill Brewery & Restaurant

 

 

 

Thanks to fosterjm for the bottle at a recent tasting. 750 ml c&c bottle served in a Southern Tier tulip.

A: Pours a hazy grapefruit color with a white head forming on the pour. It recedes quickly to a thin ring.

S: Tart cherries, some wine and a sweet bread malt profile. Base shines through a little bit.

T: Definitely tart berries with some wine-like aspects to it. A little cheesy with some bready malts.

M: Light bodied with a medium high carbonation level.

O: An interested beer as it had both tart and sweet facets. Thanks for the share James!

 

 

 

 

10/27/2012

750ml into a snifter. Described as a Belgian Tripel aged in a red wine barrel with blackberries and wild yeast for 18 months.

A: Reddish pink with a finger of pinkish white froth.

S: Bready sweetness with some sugar and vinegar. Strong Belgian yeast character. A little blackberry and leather. Smells like a blend of tripel and a simple sour.

T: Vinegar in the flavor with just a hint of blackberry. Low level of acetic acidity. The base tripel really shows, with sugary bread notes and oak. Pretty bland.

M: Lower medium body with medium carbonation. Dry and sticky mouthfeel.

Overall: Not bad, but mediocre at best. Not really worth trying, to be honest. A waste of $25.

Thanks to Alan and company for opening this up. Always glad to sample some IH beers that I have missed.

Ron Burgundy looks just like that, a red burgundy shaded color pours out the 750ML C&C bottle. Some bubbles pop up looking tannish but eventually dwindle, leaving the liquid looking like juice. The aroma is mainly blackberry but some other berries pop up. The Chadds Ford barrels impart a nice red wine scent. Some underlining bugs and a hint of acetone. It's very fruity smelling. Taste is exquisite, blackberry, blueberry, berry. Some oak and vanilla, some red wine, some bugs. I don't really pick up on the base golden ale at all, this is a old ass bottle after all. Bottom line is I like it and the 11% is not a huge intrusion. Feel is medium with a small tartness imparted with a small acetone hit at the end, which aint all that big. A great beer, Ron Burgundy delivers, yet I think 8oz of this stuff would be plenty for anyone.

 

A: pours a bright cherry red, clear appearance, pinkish head, no retention, little particulates present

S: first thing that I smell is a dash of spicy Belgian yeast, notes of cloves, this mingles with some candied cherry, minor bubblegum comes through as well

T: spicy and yeasty, a flash of tartness followed by a bit of syrupy sweetness

MF: medium body with relatively low carbonation for a tripel

O: this tripel is unlike any other that I've tried, the addition of fruit makes things a bit funky and overall sweet

I'm sending out the old year with a nice bottle from the reserves, Ron Burgundy, a wine-barrel aged tripel. Seeya 2011…

A: The tripel has a bright red tint, due to a combination of the red wine barrels and the blackberries. The red verges on opacity but falls just short. A thin head, including reddish remnants, wisps around the lip of the beer.

S: The tripel has done nicely, aging out the funkiness to a greater degree than the fresh version. Here, lemony citrus emerges through the sweet blackberry and tannic barrels. The blackberry is far more pronounced, a juicy aspect that lifts the ale. The tannins are drying, trying to suck everything else out of the tripel. Complex and quite nice.

T: Ohhh. This is now officially nice. Blackberry up front, funky sourness in the middle and dry red wine in the finish. That sentence sums things up but doesn't do the ale justice. The blackberries are juicy sweet, possibly my favorite berry when served outside of beer. The sweetness sets up the tartness, lemony, mid-sip. As with step 1 to 2, the funk leads right into the tannic dryness of the red wine barrels. Oak and strength come through, sweet but rich. The wood is softer with vanilla notes; the barrel is vinous and dry. The ale, initially unfocused (but still good) has really come together nicely, complex and full. And it is just spritzy enough to seem appropriate for NYE.

M: The mouthfeel is clean, nicely transitioning between flavors. Funny, the tripel never really came up in my review. So perhaps a brief mention is warranted. The tripel seems to add the strength and fullness; booze over Belgian spicing. That's okay though, the rest of the flavor profile more than makes up for it.

A: A brownish pink liquid covered with a dirty pink head. Leaves a moderate bit of lacing.

S: Smells of cherry and fruits with a little vanilla.

T: Rather fruity. Lightly sweet caramel malts, cherry, apple, and red grapes. Mildly dry. Tartness pops as it warms.

M: Medium bodied with an easy carbonation and absolutely no bitterness.

O: Overall, a nice beer.

 

Served in a flared pokal.

Thanks to the Central PA group of the Gang Bang BIF for this bottle!

I'm Ron Burgundy? This stuff pours a hazy...well, burgundy, topped by a half-finger of dirty off-white foam. The nose comprises sweet caramel, sweet toffee, tart raspberry, and banana peel. An odd-sounding combination, indeed, but one that definitely comes out smelling rather nice. The taste holds notes of orange peel, tart red grape (both flesh and skin, separately), and then more of the same from the smell. Not bad at all. The body is a light-ish medium, with a light moderate carbonation and a dry-ish finish. Overall, a pretty solid brew, one that shows what a wine barrel can do when coupled with the right style. You stay classy, San Diego...

Appearance:

Well If i was going to judge the label and bottle appearance I would have to say that its pretty dull. Its just a plain Belgian cork and caged bottle with a piece of string around the neck and a brief description card hanging from the neck. But, who honestly judges a beer by its label? I know I don’t and it’s all about the content inside what matters most. I wrangled the cork out which slid our fairly easily after I got it started and a initial burst of berries poured out from the bottle neck. The glass I decided to use tonight is my new favorite in the collection, my Lost Abbey goblet which is a piece of artwork all on its own. As I started to pour I tiled the tall glass hard to make sure of not having a foam over but the head seems to be pretty tame. Only a one finger thick prickly off pink / salmon colored head lingered on top and broke away quite quickly. When I hold the glass up to the light I am getting a deep plum and purple color almost like it was blended with a Merlot wine and blueberries. On the final viscosity check I gave a generous swirl and was left with a tiny amount of lacing which slid down the walls and dissipated quickly.

Smell:

Right out of the gate, brett is taking over the aroma with the berry essence right behind it. Huge amounts of esters from the Belgian triple base beer and some green apples sneak in there too. Let there be no mistake that the oak and red wine are playing a huge part here too, just such a nice melange of sweet, funky, and booze notes. In the finish and as my glass warms up I am starting to notice the heat alcohol much more.

Taste:

I feel like I’m playing jazz flute with Ron Burgundy now! This is huge on the flavor scale, providing so many sensations like sweet, oaky, dry wine, tart, and of course fruity. Again, the first level of complexity is in the brett which seems to put a taming on all the fruit flavors here. Next, the oak is just so prominent with earthy notes and some slight vanilla that just roll around your mouth with every sip. Of course I can’t forget the fruit, this is just loaded with blackberries and a sort of cherry flavor which throws me off but is still a great component in the overall package. The finish is long an dry with more oak and yeasty phenolic funk right behind it which makes you keep coming back for more.

Drinkability:

I don’t think I can find anything bad to say about this beer, honestly it was probably one of my favorites that I have had in a long time. I really need to get back over to their pub to grab another one of these. If you are in the southeastern part of Pennsylvania or northern Delaware you need to get over to Iron Hill and try their beers. Now this bottle was a limited edition and there still might be a few floating around the pub if you ask but don’t forget about their other reserve bottles they keep on hand. Overall, I would say that this was a winner and I would highly recommend this to any sour beer fiend or to someone who thinks fruit beers are for sissies becuase this one is bad ass. If you can find it..get it or if you can trade for it..by all means go for it because who knows if it will be made again. Well until next time…

Bottle, pours turbid raspberry with a slight ring of head. Nose is heavy on wet sock brett, red berries, mineral. Mouth is oppressively heavy with brett, loose sugars, sweet red berries, wine oak. Loose and flabby, overly sweet as I feared. Soapy, pasty texture. "Banana esters." A bit of chemical, acetone. Without much finesse or balance, too much of everything.

I'm Ron Burgundy? Perhaps not but this beer is! I had to pick this up when I was in Lancaster over the weekend. Big fan of Anchorman so this caught my eye right away.

The beer poured out as a very nice looking red color. The head was thin while it poured out but as it sat the white head started to form after the pour. Very interesting, I've never seen something like that happen before. The smell of the beer was a little tart on the nose but has a fruity kick to it also. The taste of the beer at first had some form of acidic flavors to it. The flavors also consisted of some tart berries and yeast along with some oaky vanilla. The mouthfeel was great then. Overall I found this beer to be becoming more and more smooth. The tartness fades away after a bit. Found this to be quite a good sour ale.

Tripel aged in a red wine barrel with blackberries and wild yeast for 18 months.

A-Brilliant, ruby red color with a thin, bright white head that vanishes quickly.

S-Mildly musty with the sharp twang of blackberries and oak astringency. Light notes of malt sweetness.

T-A battle royal between the sweet/sour blackberry profile and the dryness of red wine barrel. Tart, then sweet, then dry....a very nice play on the palate.

M-Medium-light bodied with nice lingering flavours with a building dryness.

D-A very solid and deceptively easy drinking 11% brew. I love the sweet/dry flavour play and the mild tartness. You stay classy, Lancaster!