3rd Rail IPA - Wedge Brewing Company

paultierney1

Ohio

4.83/5  rDev +19.6%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 5

Just an exceptional double IPA. And Wedge is in about the coolest (and a hard to find) place in a very interesting town -- Asheville, NC. Heard about it as I was traveling on vacation. After you climb down the stairs and look at all the metal "art" work surrounding the place, you'll be met by a no-nonsense pourer who will give you peanuts and a low price with the tulip. Deal! Delicious DIPA. Bitter and complex enough. Too drinkable! Be careful.

Serving type: on-tap

03-11-2010 05:09:39 | More by paultierney1

G_Rod

North Carolina

4/5  rDev -1%

05-17-2013 11:20:35 | More by G_Rod

DrunkinYogi

Connecticut

4.25/5  rDev +5.2%

03-19-2013 22:22:03 | More by DrunkinYogi

ThickNStout

Georgia

4.44/5  rDev +9.9%
look: 4.25 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 5 | overall: 4.75

10oz pour at the brewery. 4.00. Served in a goblet.

Pours hazy orange with a wisp of pale "head" that does actually leave traces of lace despite the high gravity.

The aromas are pretty soft. Orange, mango, a little pine and some sweet dough.

What a nice flavor profile! There is no denying that hops play 1st fiddle but it's in good balance. Big tropical orange and mango hops with biscuit, lemon zest, flower petals, white pepper, pine, bread and a bite of booze. Quite good.

Nice full, oily, coating feel with a near perfect subtle carbonation. Long, dry, tropical aftertaste.

I think I'd had this before but forgotten how good it is. It's so well balanced with excellent thick tropical hops on a great sweet malt base. This may or might not be polarizing to hop heads but I strongly recommend at least giving it a try.

Serving type: on-tap

01-20-2013 20:43:15 | More by ThickNStout

starrdogg

District of Columbia

3.5/5  rDev -13.4%

01-10-2013 14:41:22 | More by starrdogg

MCDub

North Carolina

4.5/5  rDev +11.4%

01-04-2013 20:25:48 | More by MCDub

JohnBender

Texas

4.5/5  rDev +11.4%

12-26-2012 23:27:57 | More by JohnBender

SFTBLMOSS2

3.75/5  rDev -7.2%

11-21-2012 14:59:55 | More by SFTBLMOSS2

gshoes3

South Carolina

4/5  rDev -1%

11-10-2012 03:05:57 | More by gshoes3

nickfl

Florida

4.5/5  rDev +11.4%

09-29-2012 22:57:25 | More by nickfl

Mappies

Arizona

4.5/5  rDev +11.4%

04-10-2012 04:45:42 | More by Mappies

greencovesteve

North Carolina

4.5/5  rDev +11.4%

02-20-2012 07:39:54 | More by greencovesteve

Mantooth

North Carolina

3.5/5  rDev -13.4%

01-27-2012 15:30:27 | More by Mantooth

tclapper

North Carolina

4/5  rDev -1%

12-03-2011 23:42:51 | More by tclapper

babaracas

Florida

3.5/5  rDev -13.4%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5

On-tap at the brewery tasting room in a tulip. Cloudy brownish red with thin cream colored head and fine sheeting. Smell: caramel, date, bready, apple skin, earthy, leafy and a little citrus note. Taste: bready, sweet, date, red delicious apple. Hopping is earthy and leafy with some grapefruit peel. Some house yeast character gives it a slight sour/tart note. Alcohol is hidden. Yes, a DIPA but only in that appley and earthy doubled-NC-IPA way. Fits better as an ASA or even barleywine territory. Decent beer either way.

Serving type: on-tap

03-19-2011 03:48:06 | More by babaracas

mikesgroove

South Carolina

3.68/5  rDev -8.9%
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Glad to have a chance to finally try a bunch of new brews from Wedge. Pretty much cleaned the taps out over the last week there.

The pour was a nice ark amber in color with a two finger head of white foam that stayed on top for a good long time before finally fading off into just a solitary ring of lacing around the sides that left some nice touches of foam dripping. Aroma in piney hops at first, but warming lets them fade into the backround and leaves behind a nice malty nose with some hints of booziness in the air. This carries over almost exactly into the flavor. Oily piney hops are biting at the tongue on the first few sips only to be replaced by a buttery malty flavor and a bit of a hot alcohol booziness which fades away with the last sips and leaves that taste on the tongue throughout.

Overall a solid DIPA. There are not alot of them brewed up here, so it can hold its own in a regional lineup.

Serving type: on-tap

06-06-2010 23:23:23 | More by mikesgroove

johnmichaelsen

Oregon

3.2/5  rDev -20.8%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 2

On tap at the brewery tap room.

The beer pours a copper amber color with OK head retention and decent lacing. On the nose, this beer is very sweet and malty, with very prominent/noticeable alcohol. There is also a hint of citrus, but really no more then a hint. Flavors replicate the nose in this sweet, boozy, alcoholic beer. This is another beer that defines the term heavy and tiring on the palate. This beer is not drinkable at all, with sweet, boozy, malt and alcohol making me look for the dump bucket.

This is really more like a hoppy style barleywine, but even there, the alcoholic heat, coupled with the sweetness, is just too much. Mehhhh.

Serving type: on-tap

05-31-2010 12:23:23 | More by johnmichaelsen

blackie

Virginia

4.38/5  rDev +8.4%
look: 4 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4

first beer after a 4 night stint in Joyce Kilmer-Slickrock Wilderness through the Great Snow of '09

a: served at the brewpub in a small chalice, the beer is a deep amber with heavy hues of orange and red, a khaki head tops things off, showing average retention

s: thick with caramel malt and big oily pine hops, loads of juicy tropical citrus and sugary orange rind, alcohol present only as a mild sweetness

m: carbonation light-medium on a heavy, almost syrupy-thick body, carries the weighty flavors well

t: much like the aroma, big caramel malt structure holds condensed flavors of piney hops, candied orange peel, and a fully bitter finish, very well-rounded with a lot of play between the malt and hops

d: just too rich for a huge score, but well-suited for savoring over half an hour

gotta ask, what was everybody else drinking?

Serving type: on-tap

12-21-2009 22:55:02 | More by blackie

ffejherb

Pennsylvania

3.5/5  rDev -13.4%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5

On tap at Wedge on 11/28/09.

A - Hazy deep amber/orange body with a wispy alabaster/beige head that diminished to a bubbly patch and deposited a bit of decorative lace around the glass.

S - Opens with spicy and perfumy hop notes paired with a sweet malt character. A waft of alcohol enters the mix midway through, followed by a hint of tea-like, herbal hops and oily orange rind in the backend.

T - Sweet and caramely with a tingle of warm alcohol and plenty of floral and perfomy hop bitterness. Some fruity notes also emerge as the liquid warms up a bit.

M - Medium bodied and softly carbonated with an oily texture, although kind of thin and watery overall. Moderate hop bitterness lingers for a bit on the palate.

D - Pretty solid, well-balanced DIPA overall, though the hop profile isn't one of my favorite combinations. Still, this was well done and enjoyable nonetheless.

Serving type: on-tap

12-17-2009 22:56:05 | More by ffejherb

Deuane

Pennsylvania

3.75/5  rDev -7.2%
look: 3.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

A fresh, on-tap, at the brewery offering of Wedge's new DIPA.

A-Slightly hazed, deep copper with a wispy light tan head that left spotty lace.

S-Spicy, bitter orange rind, some perfume like floral notes all riding on top of a sweet, caramel malt base.

T-Spicy, bitter orange rind chewiness up front with balancing sweet caramel malt and a touch of alcohol burn. Nice but, it takes a bit too much searching to really find the hop pop.

M-Medium bodied sharp and crisp with long lingering spicy bitterness.

D-Good, gets better with a bit of warming. Nice spicy up front bitterness. A tasty first time attempt but could use some tweaking for it to become truly solid.

Serving type: on-tap

12-02-2009 19:25:32 | More by Deuane