ABV: 4%

The best part about sitting in the bleachers of a minor league ballpark in the rain, watching the grounds crew mess with the giant tarp is the fact that the delay makes more time for beer drinking. Luckily, as messed up as a lot of Utah’s beer distribution laws are, the Salt Lake Bees serve good craft beer in addition to the 3.2% Bud Lite piss-water that is more appropriate for sprinkling the outfield grass than it is for human consumption. I’m really glad that the Bees serve Evolution Amber Ale from Wasatch Brewery, giving me the opportunity to try it for the first time.

This roasty and malty amber ale is an ideal beer for a rainy day at the ballpark, even though its 4% ABV content fits into the 3.2% alcohol by weight category. It’s the kind of beer that I definitely plan to try out of a real pint glass at a pub or at the brewery on a chilly fall evening. Fall comes early in the mountains, and my day job writing ski descriptions for an online gear retailer just makes me want to get into fall and winter even faster. I hope that the ski resorts, like the triple A Bees, serve the good stuff.

The rain doesn’t look like it’s going to let up, but the kids out dancing on the grassy hill past the left field fence and falling down in the wet grass are entertaining enough to watch. My girlfriend is drinking Amber Bock out of a plastic cup, filled by a machine through a magnetized hole at the cup’s bottom, that makes me wonder just when normal plastic cups stopped working. I think I’ll just keep drinking this craft brewed amber. Play ball.