Iron Hill Lambic

Brewed by Iron Hill North Wales
Style: Lambic - Unblended
North Wales, Pennsylvania USA

GABF 2007. Pours a transparent gold with a small head of filmy off-white. Acetic, vinegary nose with some cheesy funk and fermented lemons. Plenty of funk, but it has this heavy, plodding feel to it rather than being light and bright. Tart flavors of barnyard and sweaty hay up front, before retreating to a cereal grainy finish that’s left a little "blah" on the palate. A little too heavy on the vinegar acidity, and not light or crisp enough with it’s tartness. Not bad, but it kind of falls off a bit in the finish.

(Draught) Pours a clear yellow body with a small white off-white head. Aroma of earthiness, sweaty, light citric sourness, and barnyard. Flavor of grapefruit, almonds, earthiness, brett funkiness, cheese, and light pineapple.

GABF ’07. Pours clear yellow with a small, frothy, white head, lasting with good lacing. Aroma is average malt (hay, straw), average hops (herbs, citrus), average yeast (horse blanket) with notes of apple. Medium bodied, creamy texture, soft carbonation, and a bitter finish. Average duration, light sweetness, moderate acidity, and heavy bitterness.

Pour is opaque golden with a thin white head...smell is overpowering with sourness and brett...taste has notes of butter, but is very sour and tart...

Bottle shared by Egajdzis and draught samples at BCTC ’06.
Lucid gold with strong brass overtones, though not too dark as American "lambics" are apt to be. Sediment has settled, but a slight haziness is present from being disturbed somewhat. Head is small, rather fleeting, white in color and provides some light patchy lacing.
Very fruity nose; estery and tinged with light pediococcus suggestions that give it a slight sour sharpness on the end. Not overly lactic, though there is a bit of a dry, cheese-rind-like note to it. Wheat adds some blandness and the fruitiness hangs on until the end, aided by a touch of very light brett tartness. No diacetyl apparent from the nose (or little of it anyways), no butter at least, maybe a dull, old popcorn sort of thing going on, but it’s hard to tell where the dry wheat notes end and the diacetyl begins. The fruitiness provides most of the complexity, with the dry, lightly sour yeastiness in the background. Not the most complex sample of lambic, but nor are there major flaws as many American samples contain.
Fruitiness translates well to the flavor, though a hard lactic buildup is quite persistent, drying out the flavor immensely and giving a hard bite on the end. A touch of apples, but mainly limes, lemons and even some melon or strawberry suggestions. Wood is quite under-represented here (is this even wood-aged?), though I’m no huge fan of heavy wood aging, so it bothers me little. Diacetyl is noticeable, though in some of the smallest levels I’ve tasted in an American version, especially one that has sat in the bottle for some time, where it seems to develop or become more pronounced. Certainly if not looking for it, you can almost completely disregard it. Mouthfeel is tired, with very low carbonation, but the beer is not watery, relatively speaking. A fine attempt and an enjoyable American version. The finish is a little problematic as the fruitiness evolves quickly in to oily pediococcus sourness, mixed with hard lactic dryness. Tannin/phenol levels are a bit too disruptive, but this is just extreme criticism and problems that are probably unavoidable when brewing outside of Payottenland.

BCTC - Hazy gold with a hint of orange, with a quickly diminishing head - wonderful, sour and barnyardy/funky nose - for a straight lambic, I sense a lot of fruit in the flavor - mostly apple, but a hint of pear also - slightly acidic, but nothing overpowering - sour, but not in the way the classic european ones are, making this very approachable and good for an introduction to lambics for the inexperienced - very earthy, more so than most other American-made belgian style ales I’ve had - quite nice.

A unclear dark orange beer with a disappearing white head. The aroma is sweet acidic with notes of grapefruit. The flavor is also acidic with notes of grapefruit - but compared to the real Belgian lambics this is very mild. The flavor also contains light notes of wood.

(Bottled 35,5 cl) Very unclear amber with a creamy, off-white head. Fruity, slightly tart nose. Medium body with a carbonation unusually high for the style. Quite fruity flavours with a touch of caramel and a light acidity. Refreshing and quite interesting, but not really close to it’s Belgian counterparts. 160206