Sly Fox IPA Project Day
We went to our first IPA Project Day at Sly Fox last night. The “IPA Project” is to brew a series of IPAs each based on a single hop variety. It started in 2004 with eight varieties and this year there were something like twelve. All this brewing culminates on Project Day when all the varietals are available along with Odyssey, an Imperial IPA that packs all the hop varieties into one brew.
We arrived around 6:00 to a packed house. They had no idea how long the wait for a table would be (“could be 20 minutes, could be 2 hours”), but we put our name in anyway. Turns out the wait was less than 15 minutes, and we were seated upstairs at a cozy table for two. Our waiter attempted to convince us to order the Hop Head Dream Package, which included all the varietals and a case of Odyssey, but it was just too much.
We ordered Flights One and Three, each of which included four varietals and a glass of either 2007 or 2008 Odyssey. This was a fantastic opportunity to sample the different hop flavors, and I was surprised how different they all tasted. Cascade was one of the bitterest and was my favorite, followed by Styrian, one of the milder ones. The others in our flights were Cluster, Amarillo, Perle, Galena, Sterling and Mt. Rainier. Made me want to try brewing my own IPA.