Beer – #221 – Eugene City – Tracktown Triple Jump Pale Ale

Eugene City Brewery – Tracktown Triple Jump Pale Ale. Brewed by Eugene City Brewery & Rogue Ales in the style of an American Pale Ale in, of course, Eugene, Oregon USA.

Triple Jump Pale Ale is a classic pale ale. Light copper in color this refreshing Ale focuses on hop flavor with a slight malt presence in the background. Triple Jump is brewed with 8 ingredients: Horizon, Amarillo and Crystal Hops and Pale, Munich and Crystal malts, Free Range Coastal Water and Top Fermenting Pacman Yeast. 13.5 degrees Plato, 55 IBU, 75 AA, 8 degrees Lovibond.

I Pint, 6Fl Oz, 5.4% ABV which would be 2.8 standard drinks. At 55 IBU this is on the high side for a pale ale, and the low side for an IPA.

Slightly vinegar on the opening, Of course it pours with no head, I’m a professional at that point of the game. The sour note still there, can’t put a finger on what it is.

A pleasing deep burnt orange in colour, it’s easy on the eye, but This is fairly lifeless and almost flat in the glass. The promise of high hops doesn’t eventuate either. It’s not flat though as the carbonation plays on your tongue. The underlying caramel is a sort of on/off switch, now you see me – now you don’t . It’s not a good thing.

It is on the whole a fairly bland and average beer, no real taste that leads a charge, decent and tidy as it is I’m not sure I’d be happy to have another, but it wouldn’t be a bad beer if you ‘just had to’ drink it in a session.

The pdubyah-o-meter winces to a 5, reluctantly, as this might be past it’s best, and it should be better than it is. I can’t see a best before date on the bottle, so it’s a guess.

It does not get better as it sits in the glass and almost becomes one of the few beers that I just couldn’t finish.

But……. I’m prepared to concede that it might be past best, and it has promise.

The oldest and largest Eugene brewery was built in 1866 at Ninth and Olive by Lewis Burns. He ran his Eugene City Brewery for seven years, then sold it to August Werner and Henry Hagerman in 1873, who in turn sold to Michael and Joseph Vogl. The final owner of the original Lewis Burns brewery was Henry Weinhard, the Portland brew king, who purchased it in 1890. Not long after he bought the Ninth Avenue brewery, Henry shut down its beermaking operation. Thereafter the big barn with the twin smokestacks was known as Weinhard’s Beer and Ice Depot. In 1914 the old brewery building was sold and torn down.