It was my first day back at the office after the four day holiday weekend, and we had a bad wind and ice storm. Oh, and it delivered about 3″ of rain. There were a lot of power outages, leaks, and trees down everywhere. Needless to say, I’d been craving a beer to relax for the evening. You might remember my friend Kevin brought several beers from Indianapolis a month or so ago. He’s a big fan of this brewery, and also brought me a growler of their O’Rye-n-Galaxy IPA and Professor Nutty’s Brown Ale. This is their flagship beer, so I’m looking forward to trying it. The bottle says it was bottled on 10/8/15 and, “Our flagship beer, and a true example of the style, the Railsplitter India Pale Ale (IPA) is a fresh golden brew with noticeable citrus and floral aromas balanced on a nice malty backbone with a dry finish.”

Location: Poured into a Sam Adams Perfect pint glass at my home in Bloomington, IL

Numbers: 7% ABV, 70 IBUs, 8.5 SRM, ~220 Calories

Appearance & Aroma: It’s dark burnt-orange in color and fairly hazy from the sediment in the bottom of the bottle. The head is off-white and fluffy and had incredible retention (even after 10 minutes) and lacing. It has a pronounced citrusy-earthy hop aroma.

Taste & Feel: The body is solid and the mouthfeel is smooth and somewhat creamy from the big head on it. The flavor up front is malty sweet with some citrusy sweet hop juiciness. The bitterness smoothly enters the picture in the middle, and the hoppy and malty sweetness grows. The finish is a mix of citrusy hop juiciness with some dry earthy and slightly spicy bitterness. The bitterness seems to coat the mouth and last for a couple minutes in the aftertaste.

Food Pairing: This beer has a great balance of juicy hop sweetness and bitterness and would be perfect with a thick, juicy burger like this one.

Overall Impression: This was a very solid IPA with a good range of hop flavors and a good mix of sweet maltiness and hop juiciness and bitterness. The bitterness coats the mouth and leaves you with a hop bitterness that lasts for a bit. Overall, it’s a good beer, and I’m looking forward to trying their other beers. Thank you Kevin for bringing me this (and many other beers)!

My Rating: