Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Cascade Brewing - Strawberry 2012

Cascade says: "This NW style sour ale is a blend of wheat ales aged in oak barrels for up to 12 months, then aged on strawberries for an additional three months." Cascade doesn't distribute through established channels as far as I know, but they do ship to several US states via online orders. Of course for in-house only beer, you'll need to have a friend in Portland, OR -- what a handy thing to have! The Strawberry is available online, so this one was just ordered through their website shop.cascadebrewingbarrelhouse.com.


Appearance: This looks like a strawberry beer! It's an inviting pink-red color, with a foamy, effervescent head. It may seem obvious to say that carbonation is effervescent, but lambics and sours do, in my opinion, offer a distinctive type of head on the top of the glass that appears so immediately refreshing.

Smell: There is a strong breadiness as well as an oaky presence. The strawberry is there as well, and a lactic sourness that isn't overwhelming but definitely apparent.

Taste: Here, I was expecting a lot more sour. And don't get me wrong -- it is sour, but I was expecting more. There is only a slight funkiness with the tart, and the sweetness from the strawberry even seems a little subdued compared to the bready body from the wheat and yeast. Others who I tried it with did get a more strong sour character, so maybe my palate was a little off, but it was just less than I expected.

Mouthfeel: This beer comes across as fairly light-bodied, which is interesting, since it's being pulled in a few different directions. In the first place, it's dry and effervescent, which makes for a light body, but since as I mentioned the taste comes across as very bready and full, that gives the illusion of thickness to the mouthfeel. Still, overall, it's more refreshing than not.

Overall: I really like Cascade sours, but this may be my least favorite of the ones I've tried. I wanted more strawberry and more sour, but I think a lot of sweetness that the strawberries may have contributed got lost in the wheat base. It's still a really tasty, drinkable beer, but Cascade makes such knockout beers that this one fell a little short.

3/5

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