Utah Brewery Map

Monday, February 20, 2012

Ready to Fly - Review

I had a chance to try Shades of Pale's Ready to Fly Amber Ale over the weekend and I have to say, it's one of the best Ambers I had a chance to sample in quite some time. Matt Davis, SOP's brewer has come up with a brilliantly done, solid ale.

Hopped with Warrior and Cascades hops, this beer pours a brilliant earthy-red hue with a foamy eggshell head. The nose is of grapefruit, pine and bit of light caramel malt. Still, Hop-forward though.The taste starts more malty than on the nose. It's fairly sweet with toast and caramel up front. Next comes grapefruit hops with a hint of pine. The finish has a pleasant, slightly dry-herbal/earthy hoppiness. A very good beer, well balanced and tasty.

This beer is only available for a short time and at a handful of places, your next chance will be today and tomorrow (Feb 20 and 21) at the Egyptian Theater in Park City.

The Park City debut of "Ready to Fly". Show starts at 7pm. Get your Amber on and support US Woman's Ski Jumping. Beer sold at the door. Proceeds support the team.

Also. If you like what we're doing here at Utah Beer, please vote us "Best Local Blog" in City Weekly's Best of 2012. Thanks for sticking with us!

Cheers!

6 comments:

pawnbroker Mark said...

Simple,hearty,smooth,hoppy and malty.. a red one to say the least. Is this about the hops or the grain? I do not know. but I like you valemtime.

Anonymous said...

We had this last week at the Gateway..The film was very good but we wanted more Fly amber ale.

Anonymous said...

I didn't try it yet but I don't get it.
It's a Amber right?? They can be boring, then again I like sours.
more options are always good,though.

Mikey said...

I guess I understand lack of appreciation tword Utah session beers. After all, for the longest time that all there was. But this newest level of snobbery on the part of "beer snobs" is really sad.

A beer made to style that's technically perfect is a beautiful thing. Just because a beer wasn't aged in Nova Scotian Pickle Barrels and have the alcohol content Ozark shine, doesn't mean it can't be interesting or relevant.

Not all 4.0% beers can be made to style, they can be full of flavor and character...if you give them a shot.

Gretel said...

Well done Matt! I sure do miss Utah session beers.

Cheers

kent said...

I appreciate cracking open a big Imperial stout or DIPA as much as the next person, but I also love a good 4.0 session beer that I can drink several of and still function afterward. I'll support anyone that's willing to step up and make a good session beer, and it sounds like SoP has done it here.

Now who's ready to start putting out a Berliner Weiss for me, perfect session beer in my book!