Eugene city brewery, Track Town Pale Ale

Tasted three new beers in the bar with Graham yesterday. I managed to get an 'action' shot of the master taster (with the master moustache). Notice the pen in hand for making tasting notes... we do take this very seriously.

The new beers where all American. The one i am writing about is this one pictured the ' Track Town' Triple Jump, pale ale from Eugene City Brewery in Oregon.

My first experience with American Pale ale comes from drinking Little Creatures pale ale. Now an iconic Australian beer, Little Creatures uses American hops which gives it a taste i can now recognise as American Pale. Unlike India Pale Ales, which are malty and less bitter, these American ones are clean and really hop driven.

So the Triple Jump is a beautiful colour, yellow straw and has a ripper creamy head with a fine beed. The nose is astringent and herbaceous, you can really smell the hops (if your not sure what hops smell like, stick your nose into a Little Creatures). From the nose i thought this would be more sour to taste but there is an ever so slight sweetness and then a dry, bitter finish. Bitter to the point of being a bit green, but it is all pretty well balanced and enjoyable to drink. There was no Alc. reading on the bottle?

American pale is really interesting and for me, an agreeable style of beer. The only problem with this one is that it is not coming to Australia...... yet.

Dan