Unita Brewing Company Wyld Extra Pale Ale

After being sidelined for about a week with a cold, I am excited to be reviewing Unita Brewing Company’s Wyld Extra Pale Ale. Unita is located in Salt Lake City, Utah and is named after the Unita mountain range which is the highest range in the contiguous United States running east to west (Thanks Wikipedia!). I will be the first to admit I have a soft spot for environmental issues, so I was excited to read about Unita’s commitment to sustainability and their green business practices. The Unita brewery became 100% wind powered in 2001 and recently installed solar panels making them 15% solar and 85% wind. Additionally they have created their own brown glass recycling center and donate grain to local farmers to feed their livestock. All these efforts in line with other great breweries such as Sierra Nevada and Maui Brewing who get the job done with great beers while respecting old mother earth. Now, I dismount that high horse and explain the beer to be consumed. Wyld Extra Pale Ale is part of the Organic Series available year round. An Extra Pale Ale is generally a light bodied pale ale which still contains a decent amount of hops as seen in a regular Pale Ale. This particular beer is dry hopped to get the hop taste and aromas of pale ale; however, weighing in at only 4% ABV.

I purchased this beer for about $2 for a 12 ounce bottle, so it should run around $8 for a six pack. I pour the beer into my favorite tasting glass (tulip) to see a cloudy orange beer with an inch of white fluffy head. The head slowly recedes leaving a moderate amount of lacing on the glass. The aromas are very nice. I smell the floral hops, citrus, pine and something very earthy; all of which come together quite well. My first taste presents me with a glimpse of those floral hops, but the flavors are far from what I expected based on the aromas. It has a sweet taste with a bitter finish, though not a whole lot of anything which makes it slightly boring. The mouth feel is light and quite crisp with a little carbonation. Giving a minor bump for the appearance and aromas which had me intrigued my overall rating for this will be 2.75 mugs out of 5 on the Draft Notes Scale. So much potential up front, but an unimpressive beer from the most important stand point, taste. I look forward to trying other Unita beers, this one is just not for me.

Learn more about Unita Brewing Company here: http://www.uintabrewing.com/ and more information on their green business practices here: http://www.uintabrewing.com/business_practices.php.