Cranky Reviews

Riding the Night Train

Hazy IPA

Beer Type

15 to 20

15 to 20

Super Suds

Rating

Riding the Night Train

Phantom Express

Railway City Brewing Co.

5.5% Alcohol

A busted Axl.

Seger was making some night moves on the Silver Bullet Express, while Johnny wanted to move that train a little further down the line.*  But when it comes to the night train, Guns N’ Roses rode it so hard their Axl got busted. “I’ll be loaded like a freight train, Flyin’ like an aeroplane, I’m on the night train, ready to crash and burn, I never learn.”**

As for myself, I caught a ride at Railway City on the Phantom Express, let’s see if it ends up off the rails at the dregs depot or highballs it all the way to the super suds station. ***

A hazy peachy pour, it’s not at all heady, no hat required.  A just juicy aroma, tropical that is. The first taste is a full-bore juicer, a little bit of everything in here for a tropical fruit salad. There’s a malt backbone there for a bit of funk in the trunk. It has a middlin’ crisp finish. Easy drinking not at all hoppy. It’s the juice funk express, all aboard. The finish flattened and the rest of the ride was the juice. I’m one and done these days, although at our COMDB AGM you may see a few fully loaded freight trains in the yard.

This Phantom Express makes for a smooth station to station ride in the bar car, an easy drinking fruitful IPA.

*Editor’s Comment: Bob Seger had the Silver Bullet Band long before Coors started the Silver Bullet Express in 2005. The ad campaign ended in 2012 but has just been revived as the “Chill Train”. 1955’s “Folsom Prison Blues” was Johnny Cash’s first Grammy winner and he told us “If that railroad train was mine, I bet I'd move it on a little farther down the line, Far from Folsom prison.”

** Editor’s Comment: “Nightrain” is a song from Guns N’ Roses 1989 album Appetite for Destruction. The name of the song is actually in reference to a brand of fortified wine, “Night Train Express”. Night Train Express has been condemned by some civic leaders who think inexpensive high-alcohol content drinks contribute to vagrancy and public drunkenness. A full bottle was consumed by Joliet Jake in The Blues Brothers, after which he holds his head and refers to it as a "mean wine". As for Axl Rose (aka William Bruce Ross Jr.) Rose was a juvenile delinquent, and “busted” more than 20 times on a variety of charges including public intoxication, and served jail terms of up to 3 months.

***Editor’s Comment: The term “highball” has come to mean work fast in the mining industry, but its origins are in the railroad. When an express train was passing a town, if there was mail or a passenger to pick up the big ball would be down. If the ball was high, meaning the tracks were clear, it meant they could speed past that stop without slowing down, they could “highball” past.

Final Rating: An Express-ively Smooth Ride to a 15 out of 20

Hazy IPA

Beer Type

15 to 20

15 to 20

Super Suds

Rating

Other Info

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