CulturAle Press

Cellaring Beers:  Sly Fox Saison Vos, Royersford   At Thirteen Years From our “Vault”

Date:  February 22, 2018

The Story—  We met Brian O’Reilly when he was “the” brewer at Sly Fox, a small brewpub in Phoenixville, Pa.  The brewpub grew and grew more and opened a production facility in Royersford, not far from its origins.   This beer is from Royersford – a big enough plant to be able to distribute, but still small enough for Brian to be the guiding hand behind the beer.  Sly Fox went on to open a larger production brewery in Pottsville.  Brian left for a new project in Philadelphia.   Sly Fox has some savvy business people — they’re opening a tasting room in the brewery centered Wyomissing area of Reading with more to come.   We’ll hold judgement to see if their beers soar to the heights they did under O’Reilly.

Our point in highlighting this beer that you can’t get is that often the best choices for cellaring beers are beers from brewers that you absolutely trust from breweries that have the financial backing to set up a sophisticated system.   The 20 barrel system at Royersford probably looked huge when Brian opened it compared to his original small kit at Phoenixville, but it in turn is dwarfed by the 40 barrel system at Pottsville.   We’ll probably grab a few beers from the new brewery to lay down, but we won’t leave them for the decade plus of this winner.

The Beer— Designed as a lay down beer, it’s held up well for something between 6 and 13 years.   Remarkable carbonation.   Metallic and fruity and surprisingly biologically stable.  Decent bitter at the end.  Stone and apple fruit and all of it is kinda understated.  The years have done no harm and maybe added a few new and interesting dimensions.   Ellie’s notes – a peppery tart and not unreasonable for a saison.  Zingy with a bit of vanilla sugar under it. A little bit funky but within specs —

Value — Very good.   This was a good enough value for us to have bought a case of it when it was fresh, hoping it would age as well as advertised.   It has.

Values:  “fair” is a good beer at an above market price, “good” is worth the money, “very good” is a bargain, and “excellent” is a steal.

 In February, we’re digging into our legendary “vault” where we’ve been storing hundreds of bottles of beer waiting for the right time to taste them (or sell them for charity).   The charity market has slowed, so we’re working through them in front of a fire and finding some disappointments, but more very surprising delights.   You can find the full list –eventually– here on this “index post.”

 We’re often asked to share our tasting notes on over 33,000 beers; this blog is in answer to those requests.   Not all our notes, though.  The great beer writer Michael Jackson admirably followed the Thumper Rule, and we’ll try to do the same.  (“If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nuthin’ at all.”)   All the beers we post are from the top half of our ratings and most are from the top quarter.   Of greater value, we think, are the stories behind the beers,   and we try to give you enough about the brewery, the style and the places to find great beer to help you on your own beer journeys.   At CulturAle Press we try to write books and publish posts that will help you “Drink Well and Travel Safely.”