Roll Out the Barrel

Beer #216 Sang Noir / Cascade Brewing Barrel House, Portland, OR

Travel day today (more on that later), so I'm keeping it short and sweet and getting right down to business.  Second to last update from vacation, and it was another outstanding find.  Today's brewery is Cascade Brewing Barrel House, and the official beer is the Sang Noir, although I did put down a sampler.  This spot was recommended to us by the bartender at Rogue, when we mentioned we were in the market for some sour beers.  Cascade has a huge list of sours, with plenty of IPAs and saisons thrown in for good measure.  Great cheese plate, while we're handing out compliments.

We both started with a sample, so here's my rundown:
1. Saison de la Maison - a very summery saison with some light hops and a nice peppery bite.  Reminded me of a slightly more fruity Saison Dupont, which is high praise considering my fondness for Dupont.  Fantastic beer!
2. The Vine - this is a blonde that was barrel aged and then aged again on fresh pressed white grapes.  The grape flavor comes through clear, which is a little unusual for a blonde, but not in a bad way.  It's tart and sweet, with a smooth and silky feel.
3. Orange Sorbet - this one was poured out of a cask, and had a pleasant orange aroma, with flavors of orange, apricot and a light sweetness.  Very nice sour; natural, nothing artificial (although that can be said about all of the Cascade beers).
4. Sang Noir - aged in Pinot Noir barrels, this had a tart sourness and is on par with any other great sour beer I've sampled this year.  Beautiful flavors of cherry and dark fruits abound.  Reminds me of Supplication from Russian River (more on that tomorrow), in the sense that it has a rich, delicious mix of flavors and a perfect level of tart sourness.  Sang Noir is just fantastically well done.

Looks wonderful. Is wonderful.

All of the beers were outstanding, and I'm officially putting Sang Noir on the Top 25 list.  Saison de la Maison would be on the Top 25 list as well, but we're sticking with one entry per brewery.  Rules are rules, people.


Thing to Think About Today:
Cascade has elevated barrel aging to an art form, so let's do some barrel celebration, shall we?  That means it's Beer Barrel Polka time, because there just aren't that many songs about barrels.  Keeping it real for my NEPA people...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mD-JeYjozc

Beer 202: Cascade Brewing...A Sour Lover's Paradise

This picture originally included 4 butts on barstools.
Thank god for photo editing!

Isn't that a beautiful sight?  They're from Cascade Brewing in Portland, Oregon.  After visiting Rogue (reviewed yesterday), we stopped by Cascade Brewing at the recommendation of Rogue's bartender.  Kudos to him!

Cascade specializes in sour beers.  SOUR BEERS!  There were so many...I wish I took a photo of the menu.  I was in heaven and am honestly a bit surprised that I actually left.  Sour beer = happy Marci.

I started off with the sampler (from left to right):

Raspberry wheat.  It smelled like beer -- I wasn't picking up any raspberry in the nose.  It definitely had a light raspberry flavor and was also wheat-y. It was very smooth and looked like a rosé wine.

Next up was the strawberry sour. This one was very tart with a light strawberry flavor. There was a nice sweetness that went along with it for balance but it was predominantly tart.  The flavor was green and viney - does that make sense?  Delicious!

#3 was the Sang Noir. I can honestly write that I believe it rivals Russian River's Supplication.  You can taste the oak barrel.  It's rich and earthy and very tart.  If you like tart cherries and just a bit of earthiness, this beer is for you.

Finally there was the barrel aged bruin.  It tastes darkly alcoholic like a cross between whisky and rum (the description says sherry...).  It is intense.  Not as tart as I would expect, but full of red fruit and smoothness.

I followed up the sampler with a full-sized Sang Noir and some snacks.

In conclusion, if you like sour beer, you need to go to Cascade.  It is a can't miss stop on an Oregon beer tour!  Seriously...check out this list.

Cheers!