Imperial Steel Rail
Berkshire Brewing Company in South Deerfield, Massachusetts, United States 🇺🇸
Strong Ale - American Rotating|
Score
6.28
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Brewed to celebrate our 25th anniversary, using the “twice as much is twice as good” theory, we doubled all of the ingredients. The finished product is remarkably smooth, with honey and light caramel over tones and a soft, viscous mouthfeel. There is enough Willamette hop presence to make the beer exceptionally balanced.
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6.5/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 6
Flavor 6
Texture 8
Overall 6
Pours deep gold into a tulip. Bright white head with good retention recedes leaving scant sheets. Hot caramel and sour summer fruit aromas. Hot caramel and butterscotch upfront turning to sugared overripe fruit before the medium length earthy hop finish. The original is solid on draft, but this version did not need to happen.
Tried
from Can
on 02 Jan 2016
at 17:43
5.2/10
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Appearance 4
Aroma 6
Flavor 6
Texture 4
Overall 5
Pours from the tap a cloudy golden with a thick white head. Aroma is straight-up citrus hops with a malty booziness. Flavor is almost cloyingly sweet, like corn syrup, along with the strong hops. Okay bitterness comes in at the very end, but not enough to balance the overpowering sweetness. Good but not great.
Tried
from Draft
on 23 Dec 2014
at 22:26
5.9/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 6
Flavor 6
Texture 6
Overall 5.5
Draught at EBF on 2/10/07
Syrupy-looking golden-bronze beer with large bubbles in the liquid and a thick white head that recedes to cover but provides very sticking lacing. Medium clarity, quite a bit of haziness.
Lots of sweet dough and very juicy, thick fruitiness is somewhat offset by heady, floral hoppiness. Bitterness collects on the end of the nose, but is joined by the peachy-mango-pear fruitiness. Very sweet, it seems, with lots of strong honey, bordering caramel. Mostly clean, however, and I don’t find any real metallic or dirty notes. Just a bit of alcohol sharpness and maybe a slight, slight touch of spicy phenols.
The sweet, sticky malts seem rather underattenuated, giving a sluggish sweetness that is not really balanced by the moderate bitterness. Acids and breadiness linger, while an attempt is made to form some pleasant hoppy flavors, but it’s too dry, floral and just not in large enough abundance to really pull much attention from these malts. Rather doughy on the end, with light acidity and some vanilla and honey flavors. Low carbonation. Alcohol warmth is apparent as are some toasted malts. Eh, don’t really see the draw here. Berkshire is just not an "Imperial" style brewer. I respect their beers for always being very reserved and quite balanced/low-key. This seems very forced and unrefined/unfocused.
Syrupy-looking golden-bronze beer with large bubbles in the liquid and a thick white head that recedes to cover but provides very sticking lacing. Medium clarity, quite a bit of haziness.
Lots of sweet dough and very juicy, thick fruitiness is somewhat offset by heady, floral hoppiness. Bitterness collects on the end of the nose, but is joined by the peachy-mango-pear fruitiness. Very sweet, it seems, with lots of strong honey, bordering caramel. Mostly clean, however, and I don’t find any real metallic or dirty notes. Just a bit of alcohol sharpness and maybe a slight, slight touch of spicy phenols.
The sweet, sticky malts seem rather underattenuated, giving a sluggish sweetness that is not really balanced by the moderate bitterness. Acids and breadiness linger, while an attempt is made to form some pleasant hoppy flavors, but it’s too dry, floral and just not in large enough abundance to really pull much attention from these malts. Rather doughy on the end, with light acidity and some vanilla and honey flavors. Low carbonation. Alcohol warmth is apparent as are some toasted malts. Eh, don’t really see the draw here. Berkshire is just not an "Imperial" style brewer. I respect their beers for always being very reserved and quite balanced/low-key. This seems very forced and unrefined/unfocused.
Tried
on 27 Feb 2007
at 11:23