Thursday, December 7, 2017

Iron Hill Brewery

I've always liked Iron Hill; they have good, nice food and good fun beer. Whenever I tell them I have a nut allergy, they're responsive and comforting about it. But today I went with my parents and the waiter was like "OK but is it a serious allergy? Because we have nuts all over the place!!" and I was like "?????!!!!". But I didn't die and they also have an allergy menu and I think that guy might just be new or something. Anyway, don't let that deter you, me. I like the margarita pizza with mushroom and spinach. I tried the ribs but they were weirdly sweet (but very tender). I got a Belgian Blonde beer and it was a solid IPA, and a Witbeer is a good standby in general. Today, since my parents were paying, I got the Flat Iron, which came with fajita veggies and a chipotle sauce. I really like flat irons, and the sauce was pretty strong mexican flavor, but it was good. It came with smoked mac 'n cheese with breadcrumbs, which was obviously good, it's mac and cheese. Mmm. I ate all of it and was pleasantly full! A solid meal.

More foods:

Pulled Pork Sandwich (Carolina style sauce): I should have gotten the St.Louis style sauce! Anyway, I got this with green salad, which is a tasty heap of spinach and carrots and light dressing. The sandwich is big, comes with sauce on the side and a lil cup of cole slaw. The cole slaw is more creamy than zingy, sadly, but it passes here since there's sauce anyway. Overall this was good, but the sauce wasn't amazing. Too mustardy, maybe, not sweet enough? (I know that's what carolina style is, but I've had better!!) Last time I ordered they gave me both sauces, which was sweet. I used the St. Louis one and it was nice like a regular BBQ sauce. The pork is good and moist. 7/10

Reindeer's Revenge beer: This beer was a cool 9+%, so I don't remember much about it, but I got two so it must have been decent. Update: I still like it, one of their better beers. Goes down v easy. 7/10

Happy hour nachos: This is a ton of nachos! I got it with my idol Janey but I ate like all of them. Chips, cheese, guac (weird pasty guac but whatever), lots of sour cream, pico, lettuce. We got it without beans. It was good. However, not good to take home. Should get perhaps soup next time. 6/10

Happy hour pretzel sticks: Only 5 pretzel sticks! They were good. I love the cheese dip and eat it with a spoon. Didn't try the mustard. Good though. Second time we got them they had a ton of seeds, that I scraped off. Didn't die though. Eventually I tried the mustard, it's OK but really strong/spicy! Also they gave me like 7 sticks that time, with fewer seeds. Huh.

Tangaroa beer: Really good and fruity, like tangerine! Wasn't sure if the alc level is 5% or 2%, since I saw mixed info. But it was good. I think it's 5% based on my drunk level, but I'm not positive.

Pumpkin ale: This was really nice, normal ABV and a vanilla and pumpkin flavor. Dessert-y! 7/10

Castroville pizza:  I wanted to try something new, but I shouldn't have - the marg pizza is already flawless. OK, so this is lots of veg (spinach, artichoke, pepper?) and no red sauce, which I didn't realise. It's quite tasty, the crust and cheese is good, and I like the veg, but it also gave me crazy heartburn. Not worth it! Tasty but other pizza is even tastier. 6/10

Fole's Gold beer: This was fine, but not a super standout. I couldn't necessarily sense the plum flavor. I do like beer, however. 6/10

Santa's Little Helper beer: This was a nice yellow color, but surprisingly I didn't love it. It had a very strong type of flavor, kind of like the Iron Hill Witbeer (I think??) has. Not an IPA but like a malty IPA, or something. I definitely drank it still, but it wasn't my favorite. 5/10

Cherry Vanilla Porter beer: This is for valentine's day, which I resent. But it was OK. Definitely a dark beer, malty, which I guess is what porters are? 5/10

Chewie IPA beer: Got this as a pint, and it was nice and yellow, tasty and mildish. 6/10

Double Doink IPA beer: The name is pretty embarrassing, but it was good and solid. 6/10

Rising Sun beer: I got this by accident. It has coconut and dill, which is weird. I do not like coconut flavor in beer. No thank you. 3/10

Thirsty Boots IPA beer: My favorite IPA, nice and hoppy, goes down easy. 7/10

Sweet Leaf IPA beer: JK, this is my favorite IPA. It's sweet and tastes a little like a leaf, no joke. Not super duper hoppy, but a little bit. Very drinkable, I love it. 7/10

Mushroom soup: This is really good, just a small snack though. Tasty, warm, creamy, bits of mushroom in it. Nice. 7/10

Cherry Kalas beer: Sweet Leaf is gone, so this is my new pick. It's fairly low alc, and it's a nice red color. Strong cherry flavor. Super drinkable. 7/10

Brewski burger: This was good! I got it with the lil salad greens, which had good dressing but lots of bitter arugula. Still tasty. I added ketchup to the burger which really elevated it. Got American cheese, but it was white and almost tasted like swiss, so I might try the other cheesers next to compare. It was filling but not overly so. 7/10 edit: cheddar is good, swiss is less good

Clock Out Lager beer: I got this because it's new and Jane likes it, but it wasn't bad. Mild and a little malty. 6/10

Pub Burger (special): This had "pub sauce", which is mayo+lea+perrins which means it had fish but I still ate it. Oh yeah! It was good, juicy and had onions. 7/10

LeBruce beer: This beer is sad because it's an "In Memorium" namesake beer. I guess that's a legacy I'd want, though. It's a very high alc beer, and really tastes...peppery? I guess it's fine, but it got me too durunk. 6/10

Ribs (half rack): This sauce also had fish but I didn't die. But these were weird. Spicy and fruity. Like the sauce was fruity. WTF is that! The meat was tender but the sauce was too novel, I didn't like it even though it wasn't BAD, but not BBQ that I wanted. Also the Newark + Hershey Iron Hills don't have pizza anymore. What's the point of going there!!! :( 6/10

White Walker IPA: Yo, Lancaster got rid of pizza too! WTF. Just when I became a member, Iron Hill! It's like they are pivoting to steaks. Anyway, this was high alc, so in the mug it got me pretty loopy. Tasted like a standard mild IPA. 6/10

Chicken sandwich: Ardmore also got rid of the pizzas, RIP joy. Anyway this sandwich was good. Not burger style like I expected, but 2-halfs of a regular bread sandwich. The sandwich was good, I like bacon and the vibe was fairly moist, even if the chicken was a little dry/boring/tall for my tastes. The mayo didn't really taste like anything, and there was randomly yellow cheese but not bad. 7/10

Demeter IPA: I thought this was the Pink Boots one but I think I mixed them up. Anyway, this is something about women. It was fine, mild enough, but made me feel itchy, so I probably won't repeat it. 6/10

Margarita Flatbread: This was fine (it's an app), but not the same thing as their regular pizzas were at all. There's less "stuff" on it overall, and a little parmesan cheese?? Plus the crust is less crispy. Eh. 6/10

Voodoo Chicken Flatbread: This one was better! Reminded me of Kildy's BBQ Chicken Pizza. For some reason, the crust on this one tasted like sour cream & onion ritz thins. Odd. But I liked it, it was good and fatty and cheesy. 7/10

Jaeger Schnitzel: This was good! Now I know what Spätzle is (kind of?). The pork was good, the Spätzle was good. It was overall oily and meaty. I did not eat the green beaners. 6/10

Azacca Matata beer:  Good, smells nice and fruity and basically tastes like an IPA. 7/10

Philly Special beer:  Good, hoppy and citrusy and basically tastes like an IPA. 8/10

Lunchbox Ale beer:  This was bright orange like Sunny D! It was good and sweet, not really that sour either. 7/10

Oktoberfest beer:  I only had a sample of this (which I appreciate that they give), but that was enough. It really does taste like bread, bread and malt. Bleh. 5/10

Bramble On beer:  This was good! I could really taste the blackberry (which is rare in a beer) and indeed, the lactose, too! It made me super red faced but not allergic I don't think. Lol. 7/10

Maracuja IPA beer:  This was good! I had to look up what maracuja is, and it's supposedly passionfruit, a brazilian word (so the "j" is a voiced palatal fricative). Didn't taste much fruitiness, although it was a canonical IPA that I liked so I guess it must have been fruity. Super frothy. Very good, solid, filling, beer-y beer. 7/10

Char-Grilled Ribeye Steak:  I'm not a huge steak girl, but this was excellent! I think it's like 1500 calories but shhh. It was so, so tender, juicy, a little fatty but didn't feel gross. Big meat but not absurdly so -- I ate it all and didn't feel mad ill. Came with a few asparagus (standard/good) and some very buttery mashed potatoes (also good). Was nice to eat the whole plate. A good, huge meal, but it's 30$ so a real splurger. 8/10

Guacamole and Warm Tortilla Chips: This is a really big portion for one person! The guac is plentiful, which is nice. Good solid guac, some chunky bits of tomato and onion which I like. Not super spicy, mostly avo flavor, but that's OK. Chips are just "eh", they must be home made because my batch had a bunch of soft wet with oil chips, which is not great. But I didn't finish it all anyway so that's fine! 6/10

Dad's Favorite Blonde beer:  This was good! Super foamy. A nice yellow color. Very low flavor, just like a mild lager. Dad must be boring AF. But it's alright, it's beer! And 0 allergy fears. 6/10

Little Red Wagon beer:  This was really good! Very strong strawberry scent and presumably taste, but I was sick so it seemed just like juice. Might even be too much strawberry but I couldn't get a good read on it. I enjoyed this a lot, and it's low alc (3.7% or so) so you don't get schwasted. 8/10

Char-Grilled N.Y. Strip Steak: This was a solid steak, not too fatty or anything. The BBQ side sauce was good for the fries which were themselves just eh, kinda cold and tasteless. I loved the spinach side, nice and moist. Overall very filling and I would have guessed not too fatty, but apparently it was like 1500 calories? Um, OK, I should have eaten an entire pie instead lol. 7/10

Hipster IPA beer:  This was great! I had two special mugs of it. It was a nice hoppy IPA, no weird lemongrass or coconut flavors or anything, just notes of citrus and hops. Solid. I guess I'm a hipster at heart! 8/10

Brambleberry beer:  Is this the same as the former "Bramble on"? It seems like it is! I enjoyed it but it did indeed make me super duper red faced, honestly not worth the post-drinking anxiety even though it's otherwise a mild fruity wheat beer. 6/10
 
Saturday Morningz beer:  The bartender at Ardmore IH told me about this one because I like sours, and I do like it! It's a pretty red color, and it's a nice tart pear/cranberry sour, more tart and less lactose than the Lil Red Wagon. A good way to change it up in my sour lane. 7/10
 
Voodoo Chicken Pizza:  A very solid pizza! I think there's no red sauce, just cheese and BBQ, which I do like. It could use more of the BBQ though, since the saucelessness does seem evident. There's plenty of bacon on here, which is wild, but tasty! A fatty and delicious food, ideal to eat just half of it. 7/10
 
Homestead beer:  This was a really nice wheat beer, mild orange flavors and no weird flavors or me-redness or anything. Cool and refreshing and enjoyable. I got this on a bad first date and didn't even get to finish the whole thing, which I am unduly mad about (especially since I paid the check). D'oh, I should have just stayed there solo to drink more! More! 7/10
 
Chicken Tinga-Dilla:  Heck yeah. I was waiting to get this for months, and the payoff was good! It's 4 solid dilla wedges, nothing amazing, just chicken (a lil spiced) and cheesers, but comes with guac, pico, and sour cream, all are great, and the size is just right to be satisfying but not distressing. Plus 6$ at Happy Hour is an amazing deal. 8/10
 
Bedotter beer:  This was awkward to order because IDK how to pronounce it! Apparently it's Flemish for "Trickster" because of the 9% alc but smooth and light finish. Worked on me, it was delicious (tasted like banana and a tiiiny hint of bubblegum aftertaste) and definitely got me happy-drunk. 1 mug is more than enough. 7/10
 
Bumblebee Hefeweizen beer:  This was supposed to be a fruity honey-y beer, but to me it mostly tasted like a tire. Oh well, I still drank it (but didn't enjoy it). 5/10
 

Overall
Cost: 4/10 (about 15-20 a meal)
Taste: 7/10

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