Flight Path Brown Ale
Red Bison Brewery

 

 

650ml bottle - so named because the brewery is apparently situated under the flight path of airplanes arriving and departing from YYC.

This beer pours a murky, dark orange-brick brown colour, with four fingers of puffy, loosely foamy, and bubbly tan head, which leaves some stellar Swiss cheese pattern lace around the glass as it lazily sinks out of sight.

It smells of lightly roasted, bready and doughy caramel malt, some creamy nuttiness, medium cocoa powder, faint cafe-au-lait, some mixed black fruitiness, and ethereal earthy, musty. and floral hop bitters. The taste is gritty and grainy caramel malt, a bit of biscuity toffee, bittersweet chocolate wafers, a touch of estery yeastiness, oily bar-top nuts, cold cream, and more well-understated earthy, herbal, and floral noble hoppiness.

The carbonation is quite reserved in its bored-seeming frothiness, the body a decent middleweight, and mostly smooth, but for a wee clamminess that arises as things warm up a tad around here. It finishes off-dry, the caramel, cocoa, and dark frooty essences presiding.

Overall - yeah, I'm just not really feeling this one. It's a bit too sweet, with not enough hop offset, or maybe I've become spoiled by all those American versions. At any rate, well-made, but just not my cup of tea, as it were.

First time drinking from Red Bison. Received two Flight Paths in this month's CraftTapp subscription. It pours a deep brown, nearly black body with an off white head. Smells like a super toasty brown ale, verging on stout. Dark chocolate, dates, raisin, slightly nutty flavours. The mouth feel's a little lighter than I'd prefer, but still has a nice creaminess to it. Really good brown ale. Excited to try more beers from them this weekend!