Saturday, January 12, 2008

A Breath of Fresh Air at Sly Fox

My first visit of 2008 to Sly Fox in Phoenixville, PA last night brought a pleasant surprise. I had forgotten that they planned to go smoke-free on January 1st. Within the first five minutes at the bar chatting with Wanderin' Joe and other beer buddies, I had to interrupt when I realized what was different. No clouds of carcinogens were wafting my way and the only thing drifting up my olfactory were the components of the beer that I was meant to taste and smell. Too bad this trip to Sly Fox was only due to last about 30 minutes. And, we actually stuck to it! The main objective was to sample the 5-year-old Ichor (quadrupel). This big beer was put away back in 2003 and made its way out to the bar yesterday at noon time. It seemed to have held up pretty well. It was starting to show its age a bit with some vegetal flavors, but they were not very noticeable in amongst the other things going on in this dark beer...nice malty profile and dried out dark fruit sweetness to it and roughly 10% ABV help to mask and minimize any deterioration. Overall, it was a nice drink. I topped it off with a small glass of the Burns Scottish Ale (nicely roasted malt and dry, faint smoke flavors). Patty enjoyed the always perfect Oatmeal Stout. Good times, as usual, at Sly Fox. And now, not so hazy and less laundry to do when we get home.

2 comments:

Adam said...

Ok...so I don't know how we missed you there :-)

The Ichor was wonderful. Served a bit cold, but, I just had to wait for it warm up a bit. I didn't notice the vegetal taste, but, maybe that's because I was eating coleslaw when I took my first sip.

The best thing about that beer is the wonderful chocolaty after taste that hits you just as you think its over.

Also had the English Porter. Not bad. Kinda bitter and clean with some dry roastiness.

Anonymous said...

Glad to hear they are now smoke free. That makes such a different to the beer and food I think.

Just curious, was there only 1 keg of the Ichor on? I am sure that would have been nice to try.