Cold Nights on an Iron HIll

Greetings, Readers!

This week I am back in the frigid northeast city of Philadelphia. Not even 24 hours after I arrived, I was subjected to eight inches of snow, and 48 hours after that I was again subjected to about 6 more inches.

Your humble author is not built for these conditions anymore. Luckily though ,there are plenty of great sandwiches and beer to keep me motoring through the winter months here.

Only a few hours removed from my cross-country flight, I headed to one of the Iron Hill Brewery locations in Maple Shade, NJ. Their beer selection from in-house brews is impressive, but in the end I started with the Bourbon barrel-aged Old Quadfather. It's a thick, creamy dark Belgian beer with a strong bourbon flavor up front and great malt flavors on the back end. Definitely enjoyable, and at nearly 12%, you really only need one.

I went back and forth with the selection on food here since there were so many great options on the table. In the end though, I settled on the Blue Burger: an all-beef patty topped with gorgonzola cheese, bacon, cracked black pepper, lettuce and tomato. I had the patty cooked medium-rare so there was a warm pink center 

The burger was cooked well enough and had some good flavor, the problem was that it was too thin. Not Burger King or McDonald's thin, but when I head into a brewpub, I usually expect to have a hand-crafted patty of some thickness. It wasn't a bad base patty, but could have been better.

The gorgonzola added a bit of tangy, smooth flavor on top of the burger, and the bacon was strong in flavor and crispy, but not too crispy either. A delicious middle ground of bacon.

The black pepper crust added some bite to the burger and the lettuce and tomato rounded out the flavors with contrasting lightness and crispness. The bun though was nothing special really. It did its job of holding the sandwich together, but that was about it.

Overall, the visit to Iron Hill Brewery was a good one. the beer was excellent (I even bought a full bottle of their Russian Imperial Stout for later) and their food was great, even with the burger being a bit of a let down. I wouldn't let that keep me from coming back again though and trying something else on their extensive menu, I'm sure there are many things of note there.

Until next week, Readers...



Blue Burger
*** 1/2 Stars
Iron Hill Brewery
Multiple Locations
www.ironhillbrewery.com