I went into Track Town Pizza in Eugene, Oregon the other night. It was my first time, as I was passing through on my way home to Grants Pass. My first impression is that this is THE PLACE to be for any and all University of Oregon sporting events. Pics of the late track legend Steve Prefontaine dot the walls. I ordered a Watershed IPA that appears to always be on tap. I lucked out as all brews are $3 a pint on Tuesdays. Anyway, this is an IPA that is balanced, yet doesn’t sacrifice the obligatory bitterness that seems to be the curse of some other commercial IPAs that I’ve had lately, like Blind Pig. Denny is right. This is a fine IPA. (Maybe someone here knows what hops are used in this IPA??)
While I’m at it, I’ll put in a plug for Hodgson’s IPA that was served at the Fish Tale Brew Pub in Olympia, Wa. This is not to be confused with their Organic IPA, which I also had. The waitress with the European accent recommended it as being “more bitter” than the Organic IPA, so, I ordered a pint. She knows her stuff! She also told me the ABV was 6.8%. This was a well balanced pint, too, with a smooth, lingering bitterness.
Around here, Watershed has overtaken Ninkasi’s Total Domination as the IPA of choice among beer geeks. To me it seems better crafted and more consistent. That’s not a slam against Ninkasi! Matt Van Wyk, the head brewer at Oakshire, is very forthcoming about his recipes if you email him.
Did they call it a smash? I don’t think it’s reasonable when they are using a blend. Why not blend some malt and then make a smash with that and some Falconer’s Flight?
I can’t remember if they actually called it a smash, but I do know that they called it a Single Hop, and I remember them saying it was all 2-row. At the time, I hadn’t heard of it, and didn’t know it was a blend until I saw it at the LHBS.
With the blended pellets, it kind of blurs the lines regarding single hops. Given that you can’t create that blend on your own, it is kind of similar to using a single hop.
Yeah, it blurs the line I guess. But it’s kind of the same as using a kit with the malt mixed together and calling it a smash. Just because you don’t know what’s in it and can’t recreate it doesn’t make it a smash to me.
You could make smash beers - use one brand of malt extract, no steeping grains, and one kind of hops. ;) I used to make that kind of beer all of the time when I was starting out ;D
