Sly Fox!

Jo and I went to the Sly Fox brewpub Saturday evening.  We had been to the Pheonixville location before so we decided to check out the one in Royersford.  The brew pub was in a strip mall and was nondescript from the outside.  Still I'm always excited to go to a new brewpub and this wasn't an exception.

I started with the Oatmeal Stout which can't be that surprising to people who know my beer preferences.  (For those that don't, if a stout is available, I'll start with it.  If more than one is available, I'll just drink them all before trying something else.)

It smelled of oats and roasted malts.  Nice thick mouth feel on it.  Some roastiness, tiny bit of bitterness, some nuttiness.  I got a nice oatmeal aftertaste as well.  As I drank it, the bitterness disappeared once I got used to it.  Pleasant oatmeal stout, basically what I'd expect from the style.  Sly Fox makes beers that represent a style well which is great since you know exactly what to expect when ordering one of their beers.  The only downside of brewing to style is you know exactly what to expect from their beers.  Sounds odd but sometimes I like to be surprised with new flavors from a familiar style.

After that I got their Saison Vos, a farmhouse style ale.

It smelled so inviting that I forgot to take a picture of it until halfway through.  (That's totally true, I swear.  Stop looking at me like that.  I didn't just forget.)  It had a slight Belgian smell (the description implied it used a Belgian style yeast) and I thought it had a slightly musty smell as well.  It had a nice sweetness to it with some base spices, things like all-spice, pepper, other things like that.  The flavors blended a bit as I drank more of it and it warmed up.  All in all it was quite good.  Very similar to Ommegang Hennepin, another farmhouse ale.

I finished with their Route 113, an IPA.

Smelled pretty hoppy as expected.  Surprisingly thick mouth feel for an IPA which was nice.  Some hoppiness obviously but after that it had pretty smooth flavors.  There wasn't a lot of bitterness at all even with the hoppy notes.  No lingering bitterness in the after taste either.  All in all, I really liked this IPA.  Enough hoppiness to be pleasant, but no overwhelming bitterness.  Just really well balanced.

Very nice visit to the Sly Fox brewpub.  The food here was decent (although nothing spectacular) and the beer was pretty good.  I do enjoy Victory more but I enjoy their beer more so I kind of expected that result.  I want to check out the Pheonixville one again as I've read they moved to a new building since Jo and I visited (plus it's been years), but I'll probably wait until their Bockfest in May.  They have a goat race plus a whole bunch of great sounding beers.  Seriously, a goat race.  How can you not go to that!