Cascade Brewing / Raccoon Lodge & Brewpub
Portland, OR
Available: CA, FL, IN, MA, NY, PA, SC, OR, WA
Located in Portland, OR, Cascade Brewing is an award-winning brewer of Northwest-Style sour ales. The brewery has more than 400 oak barrels that once held wine, port, sherry or whiskey, now filled with sour base beers aging in the dim, dry, oaky cloister of its barrel-aging room.
ABV: 7.11
ABW: 5.54
Color: 37.9
Bitterness: 5.4
Original gravity: 1067
If you're looking for a cherry beer that's syrupy-sweet, move along. But if you're seeking a pucker-y, complex kriek, look no further. Cascade's creation is not for the faint of heart or weak of palate, and that's a good thing. Pouring a murky red with a frothy head that quickly dissipates, bursts of sour pie cherries and a pinch of cinnamon (although none of the spice is added) race out of the bottle after uncorking. The flavors are very similar to the aromas, with a touch of oak woodiness and a bone-dry finish that leaves you yearning for more. Good thing Cascade Kriek comes to us in a 750 ml bottle!
Ignore the playfully-colorful label: the nose of this beer confirms that it is a very serious kriek that panders not one bit to commercialism – it’s tart, acetic, earthy and cidery, with a distinct farmyard character that pushes creamy cherry aromas firmly into the background. When tasted, acidity attacks the palate. Subtle cherry flavours and funky farmyard notes sit bone-dry on the tongue while wood ageing ensures some tannin and mild oak presence. The finish continues to be acidic and challenging, with cherry notes becoming more prominent the more you sip. A truly uncompromising drink for lovers of sour ales.
Lisa Morrison, aka The Beer Goddess, writes about beer whenever she can and also gets to talk about it on a weekly radio show in her hometown of Portland, OR.
Author of the Good Bottled Beer Guide and The Book of Beer Knowledge, Jeff Evans is an eight-time editor of the CAMRA Good Beer Guide and one of Britain's best-known beer writers.
