United Nations of Beer

Tracks Brewing

by utahsteve
(ogden, utah)

Great Beer Shirts!

Tracks Brewing
Tooele, Utah

I finally had the opportunity to visit Tracks on 2/2/2009 for lunch. The restaurant was not entirely deserted; there were 4-5 other lunch guests. My neighbors at the bar seemed like they came for the cocktails rather than the beer.

The building itself is very nice and has a sports bar theme and there appears to be a beer garden for summer weather. There is a large bar area with a dance floor, stage and a balcony bar and gaming room. The brewery is glassed-in behind the bar and is also visible to passers-by on the highway through large windows. There is a small secluded dining area.

After seating myself it took a while for the single server/bartender to greet me. I asked for the sampler set and it was poured and unceremoniously placed in front of me in random order and with no explanation. I had to ask to get the beers named and put in proper order. (Printed sampler sheet?)

The beers available that day were Incinerator Pale Ale, Agent Amber Ale, Tooele Tar, Light Rail Ale and a Belgian Wit seasonal.

Tooele is a remote bedroom community west of Salt Lake though it does have its own industrial base in the form of the Tooele Army Depot and the new Larry Miller Motor Sports Park. The menu is in transition and for some reason has been extremely limited during this phase.

There are daily all-you-can-eat dinner specials which appear to be a great bargain and the fish and chips that I ordered were very good.

The same can't be said for the beers. After chatting quickly with the brewer I found that he brews his beers for the community rather than trying to stay true to the beers.

After visiting brewpubs and talking to brewers all over North America, I feel that this is sort of a cop out. If the bar patrons drink "mega" light beers then you brew a flavorful light lager to appease them. There is some adventure out there and if you sell some "mega" wit style beers then you brew a nice flavorful wit that would compete with that "mega" wit.

Unfortunately Tracks Brewing does not do this, as all but the Tooele Tar are almost entirely flavorless.

I dislike being this harsh but the beers brewed here are mediocre at best. Even the fact that this brewery produces beer for on-premise consumption only and can brew to a higher gravity does not help.

Most other Utah breweries brew to an extremely high level and unless I lived and worked in Tooele and Tracks was my only brewery choice, I would not go out of my way to drive 30 miles west from Salt Lake City to visit; though I would be sorely tempted to drive from Tooele to 30 miles east to Salt Lake to find better beer.