Cascade Brewing - Vlad the Imp Aler

We still have a few weeks left in it, but I think it's safe to say that this has been a pretty great year for me, beer-wise. I've been able to try some ridiculous beers this year, courtesy of traveling and being friends with awesome people. It's also been a great year for beer distribution in that I've seen a humongous improvement in the quantity and quality of beer on beer shelves in San Diego within just one year. Luckily, one of those improvements has been that beers from one of my favorite breweries, Cascade, have become a bit easier to find. The other night, I was able to try one I've been dying to try for a while now, Vlad the Imp Aler.

With Vlad the Imp Aler, Cascade gives us aspiring homebrewers yet another easily reproducible beer. All you have to do is brew a Blond Quad (yeah, I don't know what that is either, but it's been blowing my mind ever since I saw it on the label), a Spiced Tripel and a Spiced Blond, blend them and then age them in a mix of bourbon and wine barrels for two years. No biggie. Let's see how this one turned out.

Vlad the Imp Aler (fantastic name, by the way, Cascade) pours a slightly hazed amber color with a fizzing, thin off-white head. It drops off pretty quickly, leaving just the hazed liquid topped with a fine white ring. If the looks of this one underwhelmed at all, that's soon forgotten as the smell fires on all cylinders. There's a hearty mix of white wine and bourbon, all laced with with some tart and heavy fruit notes. Red cherry and white grape are dominant here, with just a hint of oak in the background.

The taste opens with a nice hit of sourness, drenched in a fruit-laden sweetness. Meaty red cherry notes mix with some Tripel spice, white grape, raisin skins and some candi sugar. The bourbon doesn't really show up until the finish, and even then it's just a trace, coupled with some red cherry skin tartness and a pleasant dryness from the alcohol. For me, the sweetness was a bit much for me to call this my favorite offering from Cascade. Still, I am very glad I finally got my hands on this. Here's hoping next year will bring a lot more Cascade down here.

Final Grade: A-

Top 250 Beers Tasted: 129

Cascade Brewing - Cascade Apricot Ale

Cascade is a brewery that I really wish we would see more of down here in San Diego. To date, I've tried three of their offerings and I have yet to be anything less than blown away by any of them. The problem is that it's really hard to find bottles from them down here. Luckily, a few months ago, my local bottleshop got four different Cascade offerings in. I think you can probably guess how many of the varieties I bought. After trying (and loving) their Noyaux and Blueberry, it was time to give Cascade Apricot a try.

Like pretty much everything else that Cascade bottles, Cascade Apricot Ale isn't as simple as the name may make it sound. According to the bottle, it's a blond/tripel blend that's aged in oak for a year and then aged on apricots for 10 more months. Craziness. Let's give this one a try. At #162- Cascade Apricot Ale.

Cascade Apricot Ale pours an intensely hazed apricot (surprise!) color with a thin off-white head that recedes pretty quickly. The smell is intensely sour and I found my mouth watering the second I took the first sniff of it. Upfront, the smell doesn't carry much apricot, but instead shows loads of tart green apple, underripe raspberry, apricot pits and lemon mixed with a spicy oak barrel note. As the beer warmed, I started to get more of the apricots, and they came through with a rich, jam-like sweetness.

The taste hits you right away with a big sour kick in the teeth. A sharp lemon bite leads off, followed by some sour green apple and a ton of lactic sourness. There's a big hit of dryness near the finish that seems to suck all of the moisture straight from your mouth. Once that fades, you get the actual finish, which is smoother and sweeter, bringing apricot preserves, underripe red cherry and some oak. This beer is insane. It's absolutely fantastic and one of the best sours I've ever come across. Luckily, Cascade now sells their beer online, so you don't have to wait as long as I did for the chance to try this one.

Final Grade: A+

Top 250 Beers Tasted: 130

Cascade Brewing - Cascade Noyaux

Finding Cascade beers in San Diego is usually about as easy as getting Lance Armstrong to tell the truth (sorry, I had to). Before I found Sang Noir down here a few months ago, I had seen Cascade bottles a total of one time. When I found Sang Noir, I bought it immediately and drank it knowing it could be the last bottle of Cascade I saw for years. Then something crazy happened: Cascade started shipping more beer down here. A few weeks ago, I walked into Texas Liquor and saw not one, not two, but four different bottles of Cascade beers on the shelf. I almost passed out at the sight. The one I was most excited about was a beer that I had never even heard about until fairly recently-Noyaux.

Similar to Sang Noir, Noyaux is one of Cacade's beers that goes through an aging system unlike any other brewery I've heard of. Cascade starts by blending Belgian blond and triple ales together and aging them in oak barrels for between 18-24 months. Then the beer is aged for an additional year on fresh raspberries and apricot noyaux (toasted meat from apricot nuts). So, in case you're doing the math, that's three years this beer spends in various barrels. Three years! Let's give this a try.

Noyaux pours a dark apricot color with a thin white head that drops pretty quickly. Oak is the first smell I picked up, along with a pleasant but not overwhelming sourness that had notes of raspberry skin, apricot skin, a bit of a lactic sourness, and some faint almond paste (which I'm assuming came from the noyaux).

The taste opens rich and fruity with a lush note of raspberry jam. As the flavor progresses, apricot flesh and tart green mango emerge, followed by a nice lactic sourness. Similar to the smell, this beer never becomes mouth-puckeringly sour. It's beyond the point of being tart, but the sourness is nicely subdued. The finish brings some unripe plum and oak notes. I wouldn't say that this beer is on the level of Sang Noir, but this is another fantastic beer from Cascade. I really enjoyed getting the chance to try this beer and I can't wait for my next Cascade encounter.

Final Grade: A

Top 100 Beers Tasted: 51
(beeradvocate.com just made yet another change to their Top 100 List, which somehow booted a ton of beers I've tasted into the Top 100. It feels kind of cheap to reach the halfway point in this way, but... we're halfway there!!!)

Cascade Brewing - Sang Noir

It's been a while since I ticked another Top 100 Beer off the list, so I figured it was time to delve into the cellar and pull one out. The beer I chose is a beer that I picked up a few months ago- Sang Noir.

If you live outside of Oregon, you probably have never heard of Cascade Brewing, yet alone tried any of their beers. That said, among sour beer fans, Cascade beers are some of the most coveted in the country. I'm a huge fan of sour beers, but coming across any of Cascade's beers proved pretty difficult for me for a while. Finally, I got an email from Bottlecraft saying that they had just received a shipment of Cascade. I hurried down the next day and was lucky enough to scoop up a bottle of the highly coveted Sang Noir.

To say the brewing process of Sang Noir is extensive is a bit of an understatement. Simply throwing a beer in bourbon barrels and then bottling it isn't enough for them. Sang Noir, for example, is "a blend of red and double red beers that were aged in bourbon and Pinot Noir barrels for 12- 24 months then blended with barrel aged Bing and Sour Pie cherries." Off the top of my head, I can't think of any other brewery that throws their beer through a process like that. Let's review this puppy. At number 69 on the Top 100 List: Sang Noir.

Sang Noir pours a deep chestnut color with some ruby tinges when held to light. The head, a dense and foamy mass of khaki colored bubbles, forms quickly and takes a while to settle, leaving thick streaks of lacing down the glass. The smell was absolutely amazing. A touch of bourbon upfront quickly gave way to huge aromas of ripe red cherries, caramel and vanilla. Some pinot noir barrel was apparent in the background. I could have spent hours just smelling this beer, but it smelled way too good to not taste right away.

The taste opens with a nice lactic sourness, full of sour cherries, cherry skin and pit and vanilla. A touch of bourbon came through in the middle before a long and ever changing finish. On the finish, I picked up pinot noir barrel, red delicious apple and some nice tannins. I'm not sure what to compare this beer to, but it's awesome. The closest beer out there that I've tried might be Supplication, but this just may be better. This is a first class sour and one of the better beers I've ever tried.

Final Grade: A+

Top 100 Beers Tasted: 40