A can of SlyFox Phoenix Pale Ale and the beer poured into a pint glass. The beer is dark amber in color.

Phoenix Pale Ale

March 29, 2013 · by · in recommendations, reviews

Phoenix Pale Ale

Recommended!

  • Pine sap and honey
  • Hoppy spice and light sweetness
  • Bitter with hints of malt

I’ve been saving this for a year. Not because the can of SlyFox Phoenix Pale Ale does better with age, as the memory of having one last year seems little different than the can I’ve opened today. But rather it’s because I wanted to showcase this beer. I wanted to write about it. It’s not the taste, although it tastes good. It’s not the color or the company. It’s vanity incarnate—I love the name.

A can of SlyFox Phoenix Pale Ale and the beer poured into a pint glass. The beer is dark amber in color.

A can of **SlyFox** *Phoenix Pale Ale* poured into a competitor’s glass. Tsk.

So I will tell you that Phoenix is a rich, reddish amber, despite being called a pale ale. I will tell you that the nose is heady, smelling of pine and honey and flowers. It’s got a nice bitter bite and the hint of malt, which gives it a leg up on many IPAs. It’s in a can! Convenient! It can keep a year or more in the fridge and not lose it’s bite or subtle sweet malt notes. Yes, it’s a fine beer from that fine Pennsylvania brewery, SlyFox.

But all of that really means nothing, because I was going to buy it, and I was going to write about it in any case, because it’s called phoenix. I’m happy to say that it is worthy of it’s name.

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