Location: 1460 Bethlehem Pike
North Wales, PA 19454

Web Address: http://www.ironhillbrewery.com/northwales/

Time of arrival: 6PM EST

Atmosphere:
Upscale restaurant feel
Not your traditional brew pub without a doubt.
Mixed crowd, families, couples young and old and your traditional bar flies.

As I walk thru the restaurant, it is evident that not everyone is here just for the beer (I know.. sounds crazy) BUT everyone is eating! Not a single table here, including what I could see at the bar, didn’t have food! (tummy grumbles..)

I would typically lace up my reviews with lots of photos but my poor little point and shoot camera couldn’t really handle the lighting situation here..

Okay so let’s get down business..

Beer Sampler line up:
Out of 14 beers, I selected 7 of their beers to sample. I figured that I would be coming back later in the week so I didn’t want go crazy the first night that im here. Here’s my line up of brews:

Vienna Red Lager:
European amber lager, OG 1046, ABV 4.4%, IBU = 22
Awards: 1999 GABF Bronze, 2008 WBC Silver Medal, 2008 GABF Gold Medal
Subtle straw aromas and highly filtered. Fantastic clean flavors and good lacing – If you’re not a fan of the lager beer style, this is a MUST have!

Ironbound Ale
Beer Style: American Pale Ale
OG: 1050, ABV:4.7%, IBU = 30
Awards: 2005 GABF Bronze
Sweet floral aromas, beautiful amber hues, filtered. Good carbonation. Wonderfully balanced brew, light, refreshing with a nice clean finish.

1492 (seasonal)
OG: N/A ABV: 4% IBU = N/A
Named after Christopher Columbus, this Belgian seasonal is made exclusively with Columbus hops. Beautiful golden hues and delightful citrus aromas. As a hop head myself, I can feel my mouth watering as got a nice sniff of the hops! Subtle Belgian spices thru out, this brew has good hop flavors with a nice clean finish. Medium carbonation, light bodied but packs a flavorful punch!

I’ve never been a fan of flavored fruity beers but recently I tried my first.. Dogfish Head’s Punkin Ale and POW! it was an instant hit. Since then, I’ve been curious to continue to explore pumpkin ales, and when I saw that Ironhill has 3 on the menu, I decided to try them all!

Ichabod
Beer Style: Imperial Belgian Pumpkin!
ABV: 9%
Similar to the Pumpkin Ale recipe but Ironhill kick its up a notch by aging this delightful brew in burbon barrels with whole vanilla beans, and pecans.. a roboust pumpkin pie! Dark amber hues, unfilted with strong bourbon and vanilla aromas. Wow, a slight warming from the ABV balanced out nicely by the vanilla flavors and a kiss of nuttiness. This is a sipping beer, medium to heavy body with a wonderful lingering flavor of vanilla. The oakiness flavor is present but not overly assertive.

PURE EVIL Pumkin Porter!
Beer Style: Specialty porter
ABV: 8.5%
I couldn’t resist this brew on name sake alone.. Those who knows me, know that I got a bit of the evilness in me too  heheheh. This is an imperial porter with an evil twist! Pumpkin! Beautiful dark porter. At first, I was hesitant at the thought of sipping on a pumpkin porter because traditionally the porters I’ve tried are roasty with coffee or chocolate flavors… but pumkin? YOU BET! What a fantastic knock your socks off combination. Medium body, outstanding balance with high drinkability.. a rich finish that leaves a delightful lingering flavor of pumpkin behind. Ironhill Brewmasters, you hit this one on the head! POW!

Imperial Porter:
Beer Style: Imperial Porter
ABV: 8.5%
A doubled pig iron porter, dominated by strong chocolate and caramel flavors. A bad follow up to the pumpkin porter, this brew almost seemed like it was ‘lacking’ after trying the pumpkin porter. Out of the bunch, this maybe my least favorite brew.

The Food!

Appetizer

Hand-cut sweet potatoe fries

As you can see, these fries are your typical run of the mill sweet potatoe fries, they are rustic cut fries with garnished with tomatoes, green onion and dusted with paprika.

With most sweet potatoe fries I’ve tried, they are typically fried to a crisp where sweet potatoe fries taste identical to a regular French fries. The sweetness of the sweet potatoes really shine thru in these thick cut fries.

Served up with Dlish dipping sauces:

The sauces:

Bourbon vanilla cream:

By itself its just about sweet enough to be laced over a sundae icecream. Not as thick as I anticipated but very flavorful. Dipped with a sweet potatoe fry, sweetness of the potatoe and the vanilla cream dip play well together.

Paprika Ailoi

– smokey, garlic goodness comes thru with the initial taste. The paprika isn’t quite as pronounced as I would expect. I love the contrast between of the sweetness from the sweet potatoe fries and the smokey spiciness from the paprika aioli.

Habanero Lime

– oh ya, just a hint of the habanero’s heat to let you know that its present. This sauce is wonderfully flavorful but the consistency doesn’t quite pair as well as I thought I would w/ the fries. I am used to a thick ketchup coating my fries but in this case, the fries kinda soak up the dipping sauce and the kick comes thru.

My favorite? The Paprika Ailoi – my pallete screams for the constrasting flavors of the sweet potatoe fries and aioli combo. Wow!

The Entrée’ :Steak and Fries..

Ya, I know, sounds simple but the name doesn’t do it justice! It really doesn’t sound like much but this is a gourmet twist on your typical steak and potatoes pub fare. A dlish brown sauce accompanies a beautifully cooked thick cut sirloin. Surprisingly tender and well seasoned! The prom frit accompanies the steak perfectly for great texture contrast. The brown sauce I believe is a demy-glaze with mushrooms. Not necessary for the steak but undoubtedly a great pair for the Prom Frit.

Dessert!
Okay now I don’t do dessert all that often in a restaurant but Zach was insistent that I need to try a taste of their specialty chocolate mouse pie. Chocolate cake crust, sily smooth chocolate mouse, shaved white chocolate and a drizzles of their homemade chocolate sauce. You see the picture, I don’t think I need to tell you that this is SINFULLY dlish!!!!

If you have read any of my reviews you know that I look for good service to accompany the food and beer. Its too easy to find a brew pub with great brews.. a little harder to find a good brew pub with great brews and great food.. but almost a rarity to find a gem like Iron Hill that packages it all together!

When I think about all the brew pubs I have visited so far, a few come to mind that fell off my ‘top’ list because of poor service.. in particular *cough* Seattle WA (famous brew pub off the “PIKE”) – Ya im calling you guys out – step up the service, I don’t care how busy you are! Lame excuse.

This evening I was greeted by a very knowledgeable server, Zach who I asked to put together my dinner – Zach was not only knowledgeable about the brews but also the food he served. Great recommendations Zach! I also was greeted by the very friendly Ms. Nicole Ruggieri. She’s the manager of Iron hill and ensures that this brewery/restraint is running smoothly!

Thank you for a very enjoyable evening. See you Thursday when I go back for an indepth dinner and beer pairing!

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